Be Still

“To believe as a Christian means in fact entrusting oneself to the meaning that upholds me and the world, taking it as the firm ground on which I can stand fearlessly… to believe as a Christian means understanding our existence as a response to the word, the logos, that upholds and maintains all things.”

--Introduction to Christianity, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), 1968

We're All Austrians Now?!

Oh, Valentine's Day, how I love thee! It is one of the few non-federal holidays which consistently pumps more than 8 billion dollars back into the economy. Yay free market!

Here is a great widget from the Washington Post, collecting fabulous D.C. themed one-liners. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Independence from you would be bad for my Constitution."
"Without you, my heart is like a metro esclator... broken."
"I want to take the red line to your heart."
"I promise to stick by you like that red intern badge."

Also, my friend Maggie works for Sears in Chicago and is in this hilarious video ad called, "Grin and Bear It-- Valentine's Day, The Expert Way": 





(She's the one getting proposed to in the second shot.)

But even more than the entertaining parts of today, it is important to remember St. Valentine, a Roman Bishop martyred in 269 AD outside the Flaminian Gate. He was arrested by Emperor Claudius II for marrying Christian couples and then tried to convert the Emperor, who had him beaten with clubs, stoned, and beheaded for his faith.

My weekend in Georgia was amazing. I love the South and Vivy and Vivy's whole family. If she wasn't going to culinary school in a month, I would probably fly back in two. I'll be writing more on our adventures later. This picture is of us and the back of Flannery O'Connor's house.

Happy St. Valentine's Day! The first reading today was from Genesis, when Cain killed Abel; it is a good reminder that, even when we act unworthy of God's love, he will still bless and protect us.

Born This Way

I heard through the grapevine that Lady Gaga's new album is out today, so I thought we'd start with some John Cusack: "People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"

Also, today is my 11th Quick Takes on February 11th! Yeah! Totally happened.

one

First exciting piece of business: a raffle contest! Truth and Life made an unabridged and dramatized version of the New Testament (RSV) with a stellar cast.

Here's their blurb:

The Truth & Life Dramatized audio Bible™ New Testament is endorsed with an Imprimatur from the Vatican and includes a foreword by Pope Benedict XVI. Voiced by internationally-renowned actors including: Neal McDonough, Kristen Bell, Sean Astin, Michael York, Blair Underwood, Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach, Brian Cox, Julia Ormond, John Rhys-Davies and many more. The Truth & Life audio New Testament is a first of its kind dramatized audio Bible from the RSV-CE translation and distributed by Zondervan.

From Chicago to Hollywood to New York and beyond... over 70 actors, 20 audio engineers in 10 studios over 3 continents contributed to the creation of this unique audio New Testament.

More than 100 media development experts and 10,000 production hours were needed to complete this ambitious project.

The complete audio New Testament is 22 hours shipped on 18 CDs.

Here's a peek into production:



Yeah, doesn't it sound amazing?! It is. I own it and have enjoyed listening to it so much that I bought it for my adviser's family for Christmas. They love it too. I've also lent it to B + Z, goodly Protestant friends of mine, who also love it. Hearing the Bible is so reminiscent of oral tradition and really touches another part of the intellect and senses.

So here's the raffle: comment on this post or e-mail me at julie (dot) cornerview (at) gmail (dot) com to enter your name to win your own dramatized NT.

That's it! Next week, I'll put all the names in a bowl and one lucky reader will get a free copy from Truth and Life!! I'll announce the winner next week and post a video of one of my siblings picking the name. I promise we'll make it entertaining.

For and on the record, I really do encourage support for this company and the work they do. This product is especially good for people on the go, who perhaps wish they had more time to read the Bible. Listening to it in the car or in the my room has really been powerful, and I am beyond grateful for this recording. Fingers crossed that they produce an Old Testament version next!!

Oh, sNOw!

Here's to hoping Phil was right about an early Spring...

"Winter Remembered" by John Crowe Ransom

Two evils, monstrous either one apart,

Possessed me, and were long and loath at going:

A cry of Absence, Absence, in the heart,

And in the wood the furious winter blowing.

Think not, when fire was bright upon my bricks,
And past the tight boards hardly a wind could enter,
I glowed like them, the simple burning sticks,
Far from my cause, my proper heat and center.

Better to walk forth in the frozen air
And wash my wound in the snows; that would be healing;

Because my heart would throb less painful there,

Being caked with cold, and past the smart of feeling.

And where I walked, the murderous winter blast

Would have this body bowed, these eyeballs streaming,

And though I think this heart’s blood froze not fast

It ran too small to spare one drop for dreaming.

Dear love, these fingers that had known your touch,

And tied our separate forces first together,

Were ten poor idiot fingers not worth much,

Ten frozen parsnips hanging in the weather.

Be Still, My Sacred Heart

I'm starting to pray a novena. It's my first one, and like many first things, I'm excited about it. I'm a Type A, competitive and over-performing personality, which means I prefer to do everything myself.

But what's the point of being an overachiever if I underachieve for God, who gave me my drive, talents and abilities in the first place? Talk about ingraditude! So, now that I've graduated, and my priorities are sensibly shifting, I've decided to focus 2011 specifically on trusting God in all things. At present, I mostly do, but I still worry.

I was struck this past Sunday, during the Nicene Creed, when I said I believe in the resurrection of the body.

Here I was, participating in the Mass, not worrying whether or not people might come kill us because we publicly proclaim our belief in Jesus (which is happening currently in the Middle East; "No group right now may be suffering more in the Middle East than Christians," says The New Republic.). Jesus Christ, who bodily ascended to Heaven, who will come again to judge the living and the dead, present at the Mass, and there I was in the pew, filling my thoughts with smaller, more trivial worries. How silly of me!

And, I pondered further, if I can trust God, in his great mercy, to give us everlasting life, how can I do anything except "pray, hope and [not] worry"? (to quoth St. Padre Pio.)