Pazdziernik II

Ungrateful Daughters

As we were beginning to celebrate America’s Birthday this year I came across Michael Barone’s article Our First Revolution (N.Y. Sun July 3, 2007). It was basically a summary of the thesis of his new book Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers in which he argues that America owes her Liberties not "directly" to our Founding Fathers but rather to William of Orange (1650-1702) during the period of English history known as the "Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689".

As the historian, J. H. Elliott, has noted, one reason the Spanish colonies in the Americas had difficulty winning independence and establishing self-government is that they had no legislative assemblies, no experience with self-government. The British colonies of North America, thanks to this successful revolution, had such assemblies and the colonists — the founders — had such experience. "Without 1688," as Christopher Hitchens has written, "there would have been no 1776."

The American founders consciously imitated the makers of the First Revolution. They set up a government where power would be shared by executive and legislative branches. Provisions of the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments were copies or expansions of provisions in the Declaration of Right.

Alexander Hamilton persuaded the First Congress to establish a funded national debt and a Bank of the United States. And in the 20th century, American presidents followed the foreign policy followed by Britain for most of the time since 1689 in opposing expansionist tyrannical regimes in Europe and around the world.

We owe much to the founders. But we owe something as well to the men and women who made, what I call, Our First Revolution nearly a century before.

Before approaching Barone’s tome I decided to read a "primer" on this period since I did not know too much about these events other than England’s last Catholic King, James II (1633-1701), was deposed by the Dutch Calvinist William of Orange. I chose Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller (St. Martin’s Griffin 2002).

Before commenting on Waller's book, Ungrateful Daughters, here’s a quick primer on this period…

James II became King in 1685 when his brother Charles II died. (Their father Charles I was beheaded in 1649 when the monarchy was overthrown by Oliver Cromwell's Parliament. Charles II was restored King in 1660.) James had two daughters with his wife Anne Hyde, a commoner: Princess Mary and Princess Anne. When Anne Hyde died, he married an Italian Princess, Mary Beatrice of Modena. James II and Queen Mary Beatrice had a son in 1688, James Francis Edward, and a daughter Louise Marie in 1692. (James also had four legally illegitimate children with his mistresses, Arabella Churchill. Anne Hyde and Queen Mary Beatrice also had many children who were stillborn or did not survive childhood.)

Princess Mary, the older sister, married her first cousin, William of Orange of Holland. (William’s mother, Mary (1631-1660), was Charles and James' sister.) They had no children. Princess Anne, the younger sister, married George, the Prince of Denmark. They had no children who survived childhood despite Anne's seventeen pregnancies.

In 1688, the Dutch prince, William of Orange came for the crown and ousted King James II. James II, Queen Mary Beatrice, and the infant Prince of Wales, James Francis Edward, fled to France and protection of Louis XIV. In 1689 William was crowned King William III and Mary was crowned Queen Mary II. They were co-monarchs of England, Scotland, Ireland, etc.

The second part of Ungrateful Daughers can be found here.

Image: (L to R) King James II, Princess Mary, Princess Anne, and William of Orange (Nicholas de Largillière, National Maritime Museum; Sir Peter Lely, National Portrait Gallery; William Wissing, The Royal Collection; Godfried Schalcken, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam respectively)
Tags: Glorious Revolution, Ungrateful Daughters, King James II, William of Orange, King William III, Stuart Monarchy, Maureen Waller, Michael Barone

New Archive Link

I'm beginning to move stuff off of Blogger. I have not found an easy way to do this since Blogger's export format is not compatible with Typepad's import format at the moment from what I have read. You can check my progress at Pazdziernik Archive or select the link on the right side bar under "LINKS".

Red-tailed Hawk

We’ve been finally able to identify the hawk that we’ve seen in South Nashua (New Hampshire) in the past weeks. It is a Red-tailed hawk . I’ve personally encountered this raptor “up close and personal” on one occasion! Several times I've seen it happy enjoying some "dinner." This bird flies silently and is very handsome. It tends to give a Parthinian shriek after a “personal” encounter.

From what I’ve read its native range is most of the United States but retreats south of Vermont and New Hampshire in the colder months.

Photo: South Nashua's Red-tailed hawk by Jennie C hick

“Is Your Generosity Grown Cold?”

This week Time Magazine features Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910 -1997), foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, with an article by David Van Biema (Her Agony, September 3, 2007) on a new book by Brian Kolodiejchuk in which he publishes Mother’s letters to her confessors and spiritual directors: Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday, 2007).

Her Agony, on the book Come Be My Light, reveals Mother Teresa’s “deep and abiding spiritual pain”, her “dryness”, “darkness”, “loneliness” and “torture” of the inner life of her soul. For many such revelations may come as a surprise since her exterior demeanor was one of joy, peace and tranquility. However, it should come as no surprise because many other saints have done through periods of dryness and times when their “spiritual spigot went dry.” Also, it should come as no surprise to those who honestly struggle to pray and sincerely accomplish God’s Will as they understand it. What is most novel for Blessed Teresa is that this period of “darkness” lasted for like 50 years.

“Please pray for me that I may not spoil His work and that Our Lord may show Himself — for there is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started ‘the work.’” (Mother Teresa, March 1953)

She did not intend these letters to her confessors and spiritual directors to become public. Nevertheless, the like St. Thomas Aquinas and others who wanted their works destroyed upon their death, the Church wisely preserved them. Fortunately for us, Mother Teresa’s writings through Come Be My Light may soon become a “spiritual classic.” We all surely need to hear that we are “normal” when God allows us to suffer interiorly and that, most especially from my perspective, those who radiate great joy, suffer greatly inside in heart, mind and soul. God gives and forms sensitive tender souls like Mother Teresa to accomplish “great things” for His “Greater Glory” and the salvation of souls.

“I accept not in my feelings — but with my will, the Will of God — I accept His will.”

Hopefully, Come Be My Light may be part of the antidote to skewed spiritualities that tend to emphasize feelings and pseudo-ecstasies; relationships, (husband and wife, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, priests/religious and so forth) that appreciate feelings of love and acceptance of preferences above all else to the near exclusion of the will as a dimension of authentic love.

“The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on,” he says. “And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn't ‘feeling’ Christ's love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, ‘Your happiness is all I want.’ That's a powerful example even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms.”(Christian apologist and 1982 convert to Catholicism Malcolm Muggeridge)

Mother Teresa writes of Jesus’ words to her:

Wilt thou refuse to do this for me? ... You have become my Spouse for my love — you have come to India for Me. The thirst you had for souls brought you so far — Are you afraid to take one more step for Your Spouse — for me — for souls? Is your generosity grown cold? Am I a second to you? (January 1947)

Mother Teresa taught us much by her active example during her life. She will surely teach us much more through her death! Of course, she would readily acknowledge that her teachings are not her own but of Our Lord: A life of actual and active response both exteriorly and interiorly to the grace of The Blessed Trinity.

Related posts: “I want or I do not want.” ; The Cult of Busyness

Tags: Mother Teresa, Catholic, spirituality

Harry Potter: A World without Grace

It's never too popular to counter the prevailing worldview with, well, an alternate worldview. LifeSite has been doing this for some time now by focusing on the realities of family, life and Faith from a Judeo-Christian perspective. They know the stakes and can surely take the backlash that follows from those who do not agree with —and actively oppose — LifeSite's common-sense and Faith-informed perspectives on these important and fundamental topics.

It's also never popular to challenge popular icons such as author J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter series. Recently, Michael D. O'Brien challenged the "wildly popular view" of the Harry Potter series with his article Harry Potter and "the Death of God" (August 20, 2007 © LifeSiteNews.com). O'Brien's commentary is surely not likely to find a resonance in too many places for what should be obvious reasons.

O'Brien writes his analysis of what he sees as the fundamental problems with Harry Potter: "devoid of any reference to a higher moral order", "death is both the ultimate threat and the ultimate solution to problems", "claustrophobic universe" and most fundamentaly, a universe without grace.

He [Harry Potter] is so very much like many young people in our times who are abandoned in one way or another, with shattered families or siblings absent through abortion, or otherwise alone because of contraception and sterilization. They have suffered from various forms of devaluation, neglect, loneliness, and some have been humiliated by bullies (other unhappy children who lack identity and have seized power over weaker children as the only available means of self-affirmation). Check out your local school yard. It's all there - the Harrys and Hermiones, the vicious Draco Malfoys and his gang of sycophants. It's the human condition and it varies little from age to age, culture to culture - wherever man rejects the saving power of grace.

O'Brien writes that "values" are no substitute for grace...

Healthy fiction, no matter how wildly it may depart from the material order, teaches us to love ourselves in a wholesome manner, by loving our neighbor. Indeed, even by loving our enemies - at least by trying to learn to love them, and by believing that it is right to do so. With grace this is possible. But selective love (coupled with selective hatred) does not lead to freedom. It is the feelings of love without the substance of love, the feelings of freedom without the foundations of freedom.

If God is the absent father - or the father who perhaps never existed - the hero and his readers are left only with such emotions, their hooked loyalties, their love of the self's insatiable appetites, which they feel cannot be denied without a killing curse of self-annihilation. That is why so many people cling fiercely to the "values" in the Potter books while ignoring the interwoven undermining of those very values. That is why the defenders of Potterworld exhibit such adamancy, frequently outrage, against critics. According to their perceptions, the critics of Potterworld are the enemies of freedom and identity.

Well, LifeSite surely heard from "the critics of Potterworld" in response to Michael D. O'Brien's article: Harry Potter Fanatics Lash Out at Pope, Michael O'Brien, LifeSiteNews Over Criticism of Novels (Commentary by John-Henry Westen Editor and Steve Jalsevac Managing Director, August 23, 2007 © LifeSiteNews.com)

LifeSiteNews receives angry and often hate-filled responses to its news reports on mainly three subjects.

The most hateful and threatening come from gay activists. Apparently, some cannot tolerate objective news reports containing information that in any way contradicts savoured personal opinion. For such, our news reports are "hate", even though hate or even anger is never intended in any LifeSiteNews report. We challenge them to point out where our reports include "hate" but the challenge is never answered because it can't. We just report alternative news that mainstream media refuse to report or distort.

Second, are the angry emails from abortion and population control activists. That has always been expected given the massive deceit and manipulation used for decades to advance their anti-human agendas which we regularly expose. Their control of the mainstream media is no longer as useful as it used to be.

Third has been the bizarre response to our Harry Potter reports, which most will have difficulty finding in the mainstream media or even in many orthodox religious publications. That is our role, to report what most media will not report.

It seems that every time LifeSiteNews publishes an article with an alternative view that is critical of the Harry Potter series we get a flurry of angry and sometimes downright hateful emails from Harry Potter devotees.

Read the full LifeSite commentary here and the original Michael D. O'Brien article here.

Disclosure: I have not read Rowling's Harry Potter series. I have read most of Michael D. O'Brien novels and many other of his works, met him, and know his son. He signed one of his books for me!

Tags: Harry Potter , Michael D. O'Brien

Maya The Husky

Apart from German Shepherds, Siberian Huskies are among my favorite dog breeds. (Go Northeastern U.!) Well, when trolling the internet today I came across a photo of Maya The Husky from Petersburg, PA (taken August 18, 2007). Isn’t she lovely!

Here’s the photographer’s description…

This is one of my favorite pictures of our dog and one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken. Our 1-year old Siberian Husky Maya at the beach at Whipples Dam State Park in July. This was her first experience with water, so she dipped her whole head in and attempted to drink it all. When she came back up, she looked like a wolf - except of course for the pink collar.

See Maya as a puppy here. Forget about Zac Efron. Maya is the new star around these parts.

Stay tuned for more posts about “Siberia” … hopefully.

Photo: Wolf With a Pink Collar (CyberVox.org, photo.accuweather.com)
Tags: Siberian Husky

Jeb Bush in Atlanta

[YFE Atlanta 2007]

Lifesite.com posted some highlights of the address that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush gave on Saturday July 28th in Atlanta during the 2007 Youth and Family Encounter. I recall that Jeb Bush, a Catholic, talked about the consistency between Christian Faith and putting it into practice in one’s life; in particular, for those who serve others in public office. He also spoke of how “gentle and kind” his father (and 41st U.S. President George H. W. Bush) was in fathering him and his siblings. The authenticity of Jeb's love, admiration and appreciation for his family, including the Church, was very much evident.

Jeb was scheduled to speak for 30 minutes. At the 40 minute mark, a woman approached the podium and took over. “I guess this means my time is up”, was his simple reply and he walked off. I don’t recall him mingling with the crowd afterwards.

ATLANTA, Georgia, August 9, 2007 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - [Former] Republican governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush, described his "faith journey" to audiences at a Catholic conference this summer, emphasizing that faith and politics should not be separated.

The devout Catholic and pro-life politician received a standing ovation from a crowd of families, children, priests and young people before he even began his speech at the 11th Youth and Family Encounter conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The event was sponsored this July by the international Catholic lay movement Regnum Christi.

He underlined the fact that leaders should not separate their faith from their political careers. "I don't know how one can do that," he said. "As governor I didn't do that. I tried not to."

"I don't think you can separate your personal faith from your public actions, and I don't think you need to. I think transparent, openly expressing your faith is a good thing."

He also stated, "Jesus was my best political advisor."

Describing the narrow Republican win for the State of Florida in the 2000 Presidential Elections, Bush said that he prayed while the voting was taking place. "I prayed in the governor's mansion at 2 o'clock in the morning when it was total chaos," he said as the crowds broke into applause.

"For a public servant, you are constantly tested, and if I did not have my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I would have been exhausted in the first year of service," he said.

Bush spoke about the fact that the government provides millions of dollars towards abstinence programs and crisis pregnancy centers. In addition, he encouraged partnership between the government and faith-groups, stating, "One of the first lessons I learned as governor was partnership- where you can tear down barriers that allow people to act on their faith is important," he said. He also emphasized the importance of respecting the rights and dignity of immigrants, the disabled and people of all ages.

Jeb Bush was closely involved in the case of Terri Schiavo in 2004 as governor of Florida. Putting his own words into practice, Bush signed Terri's law - a move approved by the State legislature - that would remove her from her husband's authority and thereby protect her life. Bush also appealed the Supreme Court to change its mind when it struck down the law. (Leaders Shouldn't Separate Faith and Politics, Catholic Governor Jeb Bush States By Elizabeth O'Brien, ©Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com )

Jeb 2012 ?

Photo: Jeb Bush ( jeb.org )
Tags: Jeb Bush, Regnum Christi, Atlanta

House of Lies (Miami Herald)

I love stories like this. Thorough a seven month investigation Debbie Cenziper (SEN-Zipper) and others from the Miami Herald investigated the Miami-Dade Housing Agency in Florida and found that “the agency [Miami-Dade Housing Agency] became an unchecked cash machine for developers and consultants and its own leaders and failed the families it was meant to serve.”

The result of their effort was a multi-part series earlier this year: House of Lies. I believe it covered the period 2001-2006. It is a continuing series.

House of Lies is a most edifying story two-fold:

First, Debbie Cenziper was a “senior” reporter for the Miami Herald who covered national issues. Ms. Cenziper had the humility to take a “step back” career wise and cover county government for House of Lies.

Second, through investigative reporting corruption was exposed and some —unfortunately not all— grievances were remitted. It shows that our legal system works. It enacts justice for criminals and those cheated and positive changes are made for the good.

In an “ideal world” (a fantasy one that does not exist) an investigative team should not be needed to expose the gross injustice of the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. Federal, state or county government oversight should have been in place from the start. Moreover the cost of the legal process in prosecuting criminals takes away monies from the common good . I suppose one could argue that the common good is also served through these prosecutions!

House of Lies, a really good read, presents Miami as one of the least affordable cities in America. It is an area of great material wealth that has a service-oriented workforce for the most part. So where do these workers live? This was the question that “inspired” the investigation by the Miami Herald. The Miami-Dade Housing Agency was supposed to oversee construction of affordable housing for these workers and their families and to help form livable communities.

(When many people think about “affordable housing” images of deadbeats, welfare cheats, drugs and petty crime readily come to mind. Unfortunately, the “working –class poor” — honest workers seeking the “American dream” — are often not distinguished from the deadbeats. House of Lies clearly makes this distinction through many personal testimonies. A specific goal of the Miami-Dade Housing Agency was to get people out of public housing and into their own homes. For a $5000 down payment many can be on their way to owning their own home and be out of public housing. It was a goal that was not met to say the least.)

Ms. Cenziper used Freedom of Information laws to obtain records from the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. The records she received were in shambles. For information she had to tediously make her own database and re-construct where the Housing Agency’s money came from and where it went. Surely, this was not a glamorous task.

In the past five years, the Miami-Dade Housing Agency squandered millions of dollars on failed projects, pet programs and insider deals even as thousands of families languished in rotting and unsafe homes.

Aided by the agency's longtime director, a cadre of developers made out, raking in millions of dollars for homes that have never been built. From Little Havana to Liberty City, they took the money but left only empty lots, with broken baby cribs and bags of trash where houses had been promised.

Overall, the Housing Agency pledged more than $87 million to put up 72 developments for the poor, including apartments, houses and complexes for the elderly. The expected payoff: more than 8,300 new homes.
…
But about 40 percent of the projects funded between 2003 and 2005 have been canceled. Others are delayed for months, even years.

Only 14 projects less than one-fifth of what was pledged have actually been completed.

Worse: Even when houses were built, some developers under the watch of the Housing Agency bypassed the poor and sold to real estate investors who turned quick profits. (House of Lies, Part I)

Here are the “key findings” of the Miami Herald’s report House of Lies:

The Housing Agency doled out more than $12 million to developers who pledged to build homes for the poor, but never delivered.

The agency diverted $5 million earmarked for affordable housing to build a new headquarters - complete with a $287,000 bronze sculpture of stacked teacups shipped from Italy. The $5 million has still not been recovered.

Top county officials received explicit warnings for years of mismanagement in the Housing Agency, yet continued to approve questionable proposals while failing to track the flow of cash to troubled projects.

Some developers who put up affordable homes sold them to investors or wealthy buyers instead of the poor.

Many surely have a negative view of so-called “main stream media” reporting. Nevertheless, reporters like Debbie Cenziper and the Miami Herald “keep hope alive” for this medium.

Photo: Debbie Cenziper ( miamiherald.com )
Tags: Debbie Cenziper, Miami, Miami Herald, Miami-Dade Housing Agency

Immaculée Ilibagiza in Atlanta

[YFE Atlanta 2007]

Last Friday Immaculée Ilibagiza was a featured guest speaker at the 2007 Regnum Christi Youth and Family Encounter in Atlanta, GA. Immaculee’s talk was most powerful. She, an ethnic Tutsi, was a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide which began in April of 1994. The events of the Rwandan genocide, but not her story in particular, were presented in HBO’s Sometimes in April (2005).

How could intelligent people do this? How could her friends, schoolmates, and neighbors turn against her and want to kill her? Her testimony through her talk had great insight to an answer.

Personal stories and conversion stories are always powerful. They make the abstract concrete and offer us — hopefully if we are conscious — inspiration and hope. Well, the story Immaculée told certainly fit the bill.

Immaculée, a Catholic, told us that a protestant minister kept her and others in hiding for 3 months beginning in April. She spent her time in a 6x3 bathroom with 7 others at times. The Hutus searched for her and other Tutsis continuously. She had many close calls but avoided detection. (For example, they only flushed the toilet when others did as well to avoid detection.) At one point the “soldiers” were at her bathroom door but for some reason did not open it. Eventually she wasted away to a mere 65 pounds in weight! He whole family was killed and she was the only survivor.

She told us that she struggled with God through her trials. Yet these same trials strengthened her Faith and trust in Providence. If Divine Providence was present her why did she live and others die? She concluded that others were ready for death — they were ready to meet Our Lord for judgment — but she was not. Her Faith was not strong enough at this time.

She told us that she prayed all day: seven full rosaries a day, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and so forth. Her greatest struggle was dealing with her anger. Eventually she her anger left her when she learned to forgive and see others as truly God’s children as well, regardless of the fact that some were trying to machete her. In her bathroom hiding place she found peace and serenity like never before!

Immaculée provided us with a great insight into the nature of evil. It is one that we should already know. However, an extreme trial and personal triumph can provide an occasion for the lesson to be re-taught.

Her friends and neighbors that she went to school with and whom she knew well turned against her and wanted to kill her. They were intelligent people. They sought her out to machete her to death. Why? She concluded that their evil intentions toward her and others were a blindness to the truth. They refused to see and respond to the truth of things. Evil is blindness. She told us that the same “blindness” phenomena could be applied to those who support the absolute horror of abortion. I paraphrase: “Intelligent people can see the baby is alive and growing. The baby has a head and arms and heart. They can see all of this yet they have blindness to the truth of the good. They want to kill. This is evil. The problem is not in the intellect. The problem is in the heart. It is a blindness of heart.”

Immaculée is a humble and joyful woman who readily admits that she is far from perfect and that — like all of us should — continues to struggle each day to become better and please God as she should.

We all surely noticed how beautiful Immaculée is. She could surely have been a fashion model. We also noticed how joyful and full of life she was. Most of all we noticed the beauty in her that responded to truth and her inner beauty that helps lead other to truth.

Immaculée wrote an autobiography of her trial: Left to tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust .

Photo: Immaculée Ilibagiza ( lefttotell.com )
Tags: Rwanda, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Regnum Christi