Archbishop Chaput's recommended reading list

. . . has 26 books. Good books. See the list here.

Quick takes - Great quotes from Bishop Fulton Sheen

Click on the post-it to head over to Conversion Diary's quick-takes gathering place.

I find that a number of great quotations from Bishop Sheen have found their way into my notebook. So I present them here for you to run deliciously through your fingers.

(1) Truth must be sought at all costs, but separate isolated truths will not do. Truth is like life; it has to be taken on its entirety or not at all. . . . We must welcome truth even if it reproaches and inconveniences us -- even if it appears in the place where we thought it could not be found.

(2) Nothing is more harmful to a man than his resistance to Grace.

(3) So much do the will and its sin become wedded together that a soul will say, "Let me alone. I made my bed and I will lie in it."

(4) Those who hate Truth and fear Goodness are not far from the kingdom of God. They are fighting against it, and yet they know theirs is a losing battle. The more violently men hate truth, the more they think about it; the more they fear the goodness that demands perfection, the more they know it is what they really seek.

(5) Once we accept him, we find we were truly deceived. It was only the skin of the heavenly fruit that seemed bitter. The meat ravishes the soul. . . At first glance, God seems to be taking away our happiness, but in the moment of surrender we discover he has deceived us. He has merely taken away the dross to give us the gold of his eternity.

(6) Sin was the act by which man refused to see created things for what they were -- stepping stones to God, a means to an end -- and began instead to clutch at them as ends in themselves. That is what sin is, still. As a man loves his sense of humor when he cannnot see the point of a pun, so he loses his humor in its entirety when he ceases to see the point of the universe, which is that all things are revelations, symbols, reminders of God who made them. To take things as ends in themselves is to overrate them, treating them with a solemnity which is not warranted.

(7) Every person carries in his heart the blueprint of the one he loves.

Committing an act of citizenship

Today I sent e-mails to my Congressional Representative and the two Senators representing Michigan. I don't expect any of them to be remotely swayed by my urgings, but one does what one can and leaves the rest to God.

Here's the text of what I wrote to my representative:

To the Honorable John Dingell:

Re: Health Care reform

It is of vital importance that the eventual legislation has:

(1) Explicit broad conscience protection provisions for health care workers and health-providing institutions in the areas of abortion provision and end-of-life issues.

(2) Clear and explicit prohibitions against any -- ANY -- federal financing of abortion services.

Therefore I urge you to support the Stupak amendment and to see to it that the bill's Rule enables a vote on this amendment.

In the absence of protections, the eventual bill should be opposed.

We're paying attention.

Thank you for your service.

Rosalind Dieterich
Ann Arbor, MI

If you would like to e-mail your public servants, the "Contact" page for members of the Senate is here, and the (bit more cumbersome) one for House members can be found here.

The truth packs a lot of clout

Abby Johnson worked for eight years at the Bryan, TX office of Planned Parenthood, the last two as its Director. She piloted the nonprofit through a tough economy, realizing that it had to change its business model from an emphasis on prevention, which wasn't going to pay the bills. "The money wasn't in family planning, the money wasn't in prevention, the money was in abortion."

Then she watched an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.

On October 8 of this year, she submitted her resignation. Johnson has been meeting with the Executive Director of Bryan's Coalition for Life and has participated in praying outside her former workplace.

Full story here.

Hat tip: Curt Jester

Friday quick takes: Blogger Colleagues Edition

Click on the post-it to head over to Conversion Diary's quick-takes gathering place.

1. Gotta love Enbrethiliel. Like me, she can't just blog one way. She's the hostess of Sancta Sanctis, a great Catholic blog, but adds the personality-filled Shredded Cheddar to boot. She may just be serious about her tag-line: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd." (My own quirky side is on display at In Dwelling.)
   
   
2. Another fun dual-personality is TSO. You must know him from his unspellable Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor, the only blog I know where the title is longer than the URL. It's also the home of "Spanning the Globe", in which every Catholic blogger worth his salt strives to earn a mention. TSO lets his ya-yas out over at Parody is Therapy. (I'm not letting cats out of bags, am I sir?
   
   
3. For a good time, go over to Karen Edmisten and do a search for posts with the label Ramona. Ramona is her 7-year-old daughter with an amazing talent for coming out with quotable nuggets that are both profound and hysterical. An example:

   Me: Hey, Ramona -- you played a lot in your room earlier today. Are we going to be able to find your bed when it's bedtime?
   
   Ramona: Ummmm ... maybe not. I can guarantee you my room is not in tip-top shape.
   
   Me: Well, let's take a look.
   
   After surveying the bountiful clothing coverage -- both dress-up and the real stuff -- in her room, Ramona observed,
   
   Ramona: All it really needs is some hamperage.

4. I very much enjoy reading whatever Mr. and Mrs. Darwin write over at Darwin Catholic, but I am especially charmed by the comments Mrs. Darwin makes on blogs here and there. I wish she'd collect and catalog them.
   
   
5. Genevieve Kineke blogs at Feminine Genius (which I absolutely must remember to get up on the sidebar blogroll). However, she is also the author of The Authentic Catholic Woman (on my Wish List) and articles, including this one entitled "Choices Last".
   
   It was good timing for me to read the article because I've just been finishing the classic Kristin Lavransdatter, a superb portrayal of one young woman's journey of finding out exactly what the long-term consequences are of some key choices. Great juxtaposition.


6. The American Papist is a good source of Catholic news and commentary. He has the ability to be witty without being "snarky", a rare talent. Here's an example from a recent post:

   Someone should tell the folks writing NARAL's petitions that marijuana isn't legal (yet). They actually have posted a petition - and almost 32,000 people have signed it - which reads in part:
   
   "Anti-choice extremists at the Family Research Council are launching an outrageous media and lobbying campaign claiming that Congress' health-care reform bills will deny seniors the medical care they need in order to pay for abortion."
   
   Yes, you read that correctly - NARAL is worried that seniors might lose their medical coverage for abortion.

   [Ed. note: Perhaps this offers evidence, at least in the case of NARAL members, the sex education of their day may well have been inadequate.]


7. Finally, you've heard me talk about "Two Ways of Renouncing the Devil" before. As I said in a comment there, she has knack for wondering about things that would never have crossed my mind. So cruise on over there if you've every wondered about the Ethics of Gift Cards. And just in time for the holiday giving season, too.