The Pope comments on Eucharistic Adoration, from Vatican Information Services:
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PROMOTING AUTHENTIC EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

VATICAN CITY, 13 MAR 2009 (VIS) – At midday today, the Holy Father received participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who have been meeting to consider the question of Eucharistic adoration.

The Pope expressed the hope that collegial reflection upon this theme “may help to clarify, within the limits of the dicastery’s remit, the liturgical and pastoral means by which the Church of our time can promote faith in the real presence of the Lord in the Blessed Eucharist, and to ensure that the celebration of Mass fully incorporates the aspect of adoration”.

“The doctrine of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine, and of the real presence, are a truth of faith, already evident in Holy Scripture and later confirmed by the Fathers of the Church”, said Benedict XVI.

After then explaining that, “in the Eucharist, adoration must become union: union with the living Lord and with His mystical Body”, the Pope recalled words he had pronounced at World Youth Day 2005 in the German city of Cologne : “God no longer simply stands before us as the One who is totally Other. He is within us, and we are in Him. His dynamic enters into us and then seeks to spread outwards to others until it fills the world, so that His love can truly become the dominant measure of the world.

“On that occasion”, he added, “I also reminded young people that in the Eucharist we experience the fundamental transformation of violence into love, of death into life. This brings other changes in its wake”.

The Pope highlighted the importance of a renewal of Eucharistic adoration. This, he said, “will only be possible through a greater awareness of the mystery in complete faithfulness to Sacred Tradition, and by enhancing liturgical life within our communities”. In this context, he also expressed his appreciation at the fact that the plenary had examined the question of “the formation of all the People of God in the faith, with particular concern for seminarians, favouring their development in a spirit of authentic Eucharistic adoration”.

“Recalling three penitential practices particularly dear to biblical and Christian tradition (prayer, almsgiving and fasting)”, he concluded, “let us encourage one another to rediscover and practice fasting with renewed fervour, not only as a form of asceticism but also as a preparation for the Eucharist and as a spiritual weapon to fight against any disordered attachment to ourselves”.

AC/EUCHARISTIC ADORATION/… VIS 090313 (420)

I am currently filtering all my privacy settings, to further refine my Facebook profile.

I learned about these filters at:

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

This blog tells you how to prevent unwanted tagged photos from showing up in others’ feeds, creating “friend lists” for professional and personal contacts, and hiding certain information.

Off to continue the filtering!

Greg Costikyan makes an interesting distinction between reviews and criticism:

A review is a buyer’s guide. It exists to tell you about some new product that you can buy, and whether you should or should not buy it. A good review goes beyond that, and suggests who should buy it, since not everyone enjoys everything. (E.g., A romance novel may be very fine of its kind, but is quite unlikely to appeal to me, since it is not a genre I enjoy.) …

Criticism is an informed discussion, by an intelligent and knowledgeable observer of a medium, of the merits and importance (or lack thereof) of a particular work. Criticism isn’t intended to help the reader decide whether or not to plunk down money on something; some readers’ purchase decisions may be influenced, but guiding their decisions is not the purpose of the critical work…

Reviews are the inevitable epiphenomenon of our consumer society, writing to help consumers navigate the innumerable options available to them. They can be well or poorly done, but they are nothing more than ephemera.

Full post at: Game Criticism, Why We Need It, and Why Reviews Aren’t It

The New York Times recently offered a different perspective on the holiday classic  It’s a Wonderful Life:

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.

Read full article here: Wonderful? Sorry, George, It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life

I found this article via Metafilter, where users started snarking against the movie.  In the Metafilter comments, a user named Miko writes a great summary of the movie’s message:

Anyone who thinks of “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a one-level, heartwarming Christmas feelgood movie has the wrong expectations – or just isn’t thinking about it. The author’s observations are obvious in the film; they’re the setup. George is a young man with dreams, but his sense of responsibility – overdeveloped, probably – and the needs of others make him sacrifice his dreams. There’s no smarmy sense that obviously one needs to sacrifice one’s dreams for the well-being of others; portraying that shallowly is what Hallmark Christmas Specials do. Instead, the sacrifice is slow, anguished, an excruciating death by a thousand cuts. Capra meant the viewers to notice, and be pained, every time George receives another disappointment… Capra wasn’t hiding this from the viewer.

…The heartwarming part is that George is able to make a conscious decision to accept the price. Can you say the same? When George decides not to die, he realizes the life he’s been despairing at – with the loud annoying kids, the dilapidated house, the “broken-down old building and loan,” the deferred dreams – is actually a pretty good, in fact damned lucky life. People love him; he has resources he never bothered to assess; his life has meaning. If you have never felt that way, suddenly profoundly appreciative of the basic goodnesses in your own life, I’d wager you’ve never yet nearly lost your life. Because that is exactly how a person feels when you realize that your day-to-day stresses and strains and disappointments and bothersome entanglements are not in the way of you living your life; they are your life. The fact that you never got to become and engineer and see the oilfields of Venezuelas, or whatever it is for you, tends to fall dramatically in relative importance.

The movie is dark and depressing for a reason. This is a challenging message, one a lot of people really don’t want to hear, and yet it turns out to be pretty true in most lives.

Miko’s last sentence sums up the reason why It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie of all time.  There are challenges and difficulties, failed dreams and changed plans, but after all that, it is a wonderful life.

Just upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.7.  Looks the same from the outside (good), looks TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the admin screen.

A good ending to a productive weekend.  I’ll need to experiement with this blog when I have more time; maybe in the New Year.