Spring Break! WHOOO!

OK kids. I'm going away for a while.

Read up on the other sites on the internets that are on my sidebar.

i guess www.zenit.com is a good site too?

I will be back on Sunday the 5th.

Here is my Itinerary to let you know where I am at:

Sunday, February 26 – Going South!
7:00am Load vans in front of Rectory
7:30 MASS at St. Thomas
8:45 Drive to Cincinnati
1:00pm Lunch Break at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati
2:30 Drive to Nashville (time change)
6:45 Visit Cathedral of the Incarnation & last part of Young Adult Mass 7:30 Dinner & “Theology on Tap” at Logan’s Roadhouse Place
9:30 Head to accommodations in Old Hickory

Monday, February 27 – Pilgrimage Day
7:30am Load vans
8:00 Drive to Hanceville, AL
12:00pm MASS at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament
1:00 Drive to Irondale
2:00 Lunch to go at Hamburger Heaven
2:30 Studio Tour of EWTN
3:30 Drive to New Orleans
9:00 Arrive in New Orleans and head to accommodations in Jefferson

Tuesday, February 28 – Fun day in New Orleans
7:45am Depart for Morning Parades
8:00 Zulu Parade
10:00 Rex Parade
12:00 MASS at the St. Louis Cathedral
Afternoon Tour of historic New Orleans thanks to our local guru Alice Snee
7:00 Dinner Celebration before the beginning of Lent

Wednesday, March 1 – Workday 1 with Catholic Charities
Morning MASS for Ash Wednesday & Brunch
Rest of day Clean-up work

Thursday, March 2 – Workday 2 with Catholic Charities
8:00 to 4:00 Clean-up work
Evening MASS & Dinner

Friday, March 3 – Workday 3 & Get a head start back North
6:45am Load vans
8:00 to 4:00 Clean-up work
4:30pm Drive to Jackson, MS
7:45 Arrive in Jackson
8:15 MASS at St. Richard Parish
9:00 Dinner at St. Richard Parish
10:30 Head to respective accommodations

Saturday, March 4 – Back to the Midwest
6:30am Load vans
7:00am Drive to South Bend, IN (time change)
10:00pm Arrive in South Bend and head to accommodations

Sunday, March 5 – Mass at America’s Notre Dame!
9:00am Load vans
10:00am Mass at Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart
1:00pm Drive back to Ann Arbor
4:00pm Arrive at St. Thomas the Apostle after an incredible spring break!

(Awesome stuff in bold, but not exhaustive)

Please keep us (7 gals, 6 guys, and 1 Fr. Chas (left) ) in your prayers.

Too soon?

I took my brother Jordan to his bowling league today. While waiting in line at the food counter, I noticed this drink placard. I can't help but think: "Too soon?" I will be there in just a few days. Crazy huh?






























And then there is this picture of me in Kindergarten. I am patiently raising my hand and holding Mr. M (who likes to Munch Munch Munch).


I will probably have at least one more post before I go, offering some other places to get fascinating coverage of all the world events that are important.

South Dakota Rules!

Good news via the WaPo via the SOTHW.

South Dakota has a law pending the governors signature that outlaws abortion in nearly every case! Go SoDak! This of course will be ruled unconstitutionalin lower courts by Stare Decisis and super-duper-precedent and may make it's way to the SCOTUS. This means that Alito and Roberts may be able to show their mettle to the Pro-Life movement.

Let's keep our rosaries on their ovaries, eh?

Paschal Algorithm

Do you want to know when Easter will be in the year 3047?
If you have matlab, maple or other coding abilities look no further than your computer.
I guess you could do it by hand, but why?

Here is what you need to know:

Computing the Date of Easter

The rule is that Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after March 21. The lunar cycles used by the ecclesiastical system are simple to program. The following algorithm will compute the date of Easter in the Gregorian Calendar system.

The algorithm uses the year, y, to give the month, m, and day, d, of Easter. The symbol * means multiply.

Please note the following: This is an integer calculation. All variables are integers and all remainders from division are dropped.

    c = y / 100
   n = y - 19 * ( y / 19 )
   k = ( c - 17 ) / 25
   i = c - c / 4 - ( c - k ) / 3 + 19 * n + 15
   i = i - 30 * ( i / 30 )
   i = i - ( i / 28 ) * ( 1 - ( i / 28 ) * ( 29 / ( i + 1 ) )
       * ( ( 21 - n ) / 11 ) )
   j = y + y / 4 + i + 2 - c + c / 4
   j = j - 7 * ( j / 7 )
   l = i - j
   m = 3 + ( l + 40 ) / 44
   d = l + 28 - 31 * ( m / 4 )

Borrowed from the USNO here.

In other news Lent begins a week from today. We all need to reflect and think of how we can get closer to God this Lent. (Easter is April 16th this year.)

It's never too early...

to reflect on the job that Granholm is doing and realize we need change in Michigan.

I, on my humble blog, am at this point endorsing Dick DeVos.
Among his other great takes on the issues there is the trump card:

Dick DeVos is pro-Life.

Dick is the only pro-Life candidate for Governor. He supports efforts to protect and promote a culture of life, from conception to natural death. Dick is the only candidate for Governor who supports a ban on the late term procedure known as "partial-birth abortion."

And other good stuff:

Dick DeVos believes that marriage is defined as between one man and one woman and will stand up to any future attempts to redefine marriage in the state of Michigan.

Dick DeVos will protect your second amendment rights. He is the only candidate for Governor that will stand up for all law-abiding Michigan gun owners.

Here is his take on Jobs. Muy Importante.

Spread the word, both of you.

Chocolate City

I think this quote here defines M&Ms as a brain food.

"Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250"
- Harper's Index

That's a lot of glucose. From Chocolate to the Chocolate city...

Ever since I graduated, I've been going to St. Thomas the Apostle for mass. Sunday nights Generation Christ has adoration with gospel and homily followed by fellowship. I've gone a few times. They are going to NOLA next week, and I have decided to join them. We will be helping to clean up the aftermath of Katrina. We will also be in NOLA for Mardi Gras and be able to experience that. We will be at a less immoral parade. The Rex parade is the oldest and most traditional. All the parades and such are about 1/2 the normal length as well. No one in our group is going to "earn" any beads. I doubt Fr. Chas would approve.

We are also going to Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament and EWTN, both in Hanceville, Alabama.
On the way back we'll stop at Notre Dame and have a short retreat.

This will be a great way to break up the monotony of unemployment.

Please keep us in your prayers, both of you.

-Andrew

Update:

There is a chance that I will be unable to go. I will let y'all know asap.

This is obviously Bush's fault. In all seriousness, send a prayer their way.

It sounds like the Detroit Zoo may be closing. Detroit's city council voted 7-2 to not allow a Detroit Zoological Society plan to pass. Story here.

In other local news Ed McNamara, former Wayne County Executive, passed away early today.

Bush will be in town for President's day... Auburn Hills.

See ya.

Stroh's

The last post was a bit heavy, so I will attempt to lighten the mood a bit with a salute to my favorite beer. (Ironically I am enjoying a Labatt Blue Light at the moment.)

Stroh's. It's America's Premium Brewed Beer.It's America's only Fire-brewed beer. It's delicious.

I'd like to say that Stroh's is Detroit. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Stroh's was Detroit.

This is the Stroh's brewery which was once on Gratiot.

Please allow a moment of silence.





Did you know that Stroh's is responsible for Ronald Reagan's presidency? Stroh's was a sponsor for the 1980 Republican Convention in Detroit. Here we have America's Greatest Beer supporting America's Greatest President in America's Greatest State. Amazing.












Of course now Stroh's is owned and produced by our good friends Pabst. There website has some great old-timey music. "Cheek to Cheek" to be specific. Here is their little spiel on Stroh's.

A member of the family’s brewing tradition that started in 1775, Bernhard Stroh put Detroit Brewing on the map in 1850 with his rich, flavorful premium-brewed beer. Today, Bernhard’s legacy carries on with Stroh’s and Stroh’s Light, both traditionally brewed with the finest hops, pure water and barley malt.

Stroh's is available at Meijer and served wherever quality counts.

So crack open a refreshing Stroh, give a salute to Bernhard Stroh, and Stroh a party!

On Artificial Contraception

People want to drop dense items and watch them float into the air.

Bishop Francis Deniau told the Catholic magazine Le Pelerin this week that Benedict's first encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" (God is Love), which was widely praised for the positive way it spoke about sexual love, was a hopeful sign for possible change [regarding teaching on contraception.]

Sociologist Catherine Gremion noted the encyclical -- the highest form of papal writing -- did not condemn Catholic couples "who do not manage to live out their love in strict respect for Church teachings"

Well, I haven’t finished DCE, but the vibe I get is not one of the Pope getting ready to hand out condoms at his audiences.

Yet it is neither the spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves. Only when both dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only thus is love —eros—able to mature and attain its authentic grandeur.

When contraception is used, it is the body alone that loves. Body and soul cannot be united and become one flesh with the partner if there is a barrier.

This sounds a bit like paragraph 2363 of the CCC:
2363 The spouses' union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple's spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.

The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.

Paragraph 2370 offers this (from Familia Consortio 32)

Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.

All of this seems to be in accord with my brief look at DCE. I am not sure what these people hope to accomplish. Do we not remember what happened with Humanae Vitae?

Basically PPVI called some dudes together. They were all like, “Contraception is great!” PPVI was like, “No way, Jose! This is why!” Then a lot of people were like “Yeah whatever,” and chose to ignore it, much to PPVI’s and my chagrin.

Now Jesus never specifically said, “Don’t wear a Jimmy hat,” but he didn’t exactly say a lot of things to which Christians adhere. He did address divorce, and I find his discourse relevant to this discussion/pontification.

Let’s have a look at Matthew 19: 3-11, shall we?
Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?"

He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate."

They said to him, "Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss (her)?"

He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery."

[His] disciples said to him, "If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." He answered, "Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted. …”

Here Moses changed the rules to suit the hardness of man’s heart. Jesus came around and said that that was bunk and that divorce was not allowed. I see a great similarity in Protestant churches. All the mainline protestant churches felt contraception was sinful years ago. It was not until 1930 and the Lambeth Conference that the Anglican church allowed contraception. (source) It was by the hardness of man’s heart that they accepted this. Man’s hard-heartedness continues as some protestant churches begin to accept homosexual intercourse and abortion. They are also pretty fluid about divorce.
Jesus said this to Peter (not to the Anglican Communion or even Calvin or Wesley) :

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Mt 16:15-19)

That promise was made to the first Pope, Peter. Paul VI upheld the truth nearly 38 years ago, John Paul II fought to promulgate it, and you can rest assured that Benedict XVI will do the same. These pro-contraception folks can pray to Newton to reverse gravity and get the same results.

The article itself is rife with ignorance. See these two paragraphs:

Benedict made clear last November he was not considering any change in the contraception ban and that family planning was only allowed by the "rhythm method" of abstinence from sex during a woman's fertile period.

Pope Paul VI banned contraception in the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, arguing that sexual intercourse was meant for procreation and any artificial method to block a pregnancy went against the nature of the act.

The Church also sanctions the sympto-thermal method (STM). Natural Family Planning (NFP) courses in this method are offered through many parishes. Humanae Vitae kind of had bad timing. It was at this same time that the STM was being developed. At the time of the promulgation of the encyclical, the only approved method of NFP was the “calendar rhythm method” based solely on previous reproductive cycles of the women. STM works just as it sounds. Basal body temperature and the woman’s symptoms are monitored to determine the best time for intercourse. This can be used to make pregnancy more likely or less likely. (i.e. the couple hoping to get pregnant has sex during the most fertile period. Editor’s note: I think I would just have sex all the time to be sure.) The most common use of NFP I imagine is to regulate and space the birth of children. (sources: Vocations class with Mr. Walters, church papers)

The second paragraph there implies that contraception wasn’t banned until 1968. Contraception was never approved by The Church. This is just the first modern condemnation of the more modern methods of artificial contraception. Paul VI did not himself ban contraception, he simply restated and updated what the Church already taught.

Man can try all he wants to determine what he thinks is sinful, but in the end God’s Law preserved through the Church founded by Christ, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, will prevail.

Mundane post

The media and science doing what they do best: overhyping things.
Speaking of which, why the heck are we still yammering on about Dick Cheney and his hunting buddy. It is funny, but there has to be something else the media can report on... Oh wait, some new Abu Ghraib photos. Let's trump that up and fan the flames of fatwa.

And look out! There are dairy and wheat products in your McDonald's French Fries. I've heard about Gluten sensitivity. It is no fun.

Go look at other internet sites now.

What's the Latin Word for Spam?

As you probably know, I recently graduated from the University of Michigan.  I wasn’t the best student ever, but I came out with a 3.300 which is Cum Laude.

In my e-mail signatures I had BS Cum Laude in Mechanical Engineering.

As a result my father no longer received my e-mails.  A fellow from a contracting house also didn’t get an e-mail that I sent.

You see, Cum is Latin for “with.”  “Cum” is also slang for, well psst… the male ejaculate.
As a result most e-mails written in Latin would be blocked as Spam.  This still happened despite my being in my father’s address book.

Today I started my new job.  I also ended my new job.  I worked as a Temp flower delivery man.  I delivered 19 bouquets around Ann Arbor and some adjacent towns.  I’m not exactly rolling in dough from it, but it broke up the monotony of waking up at noon and playing video games until I go to sleep too late.

Stuff is happening all over the world, but I don’t feel like talking about it.

Later dudes,

Andrew

There has been record snowfall in New York City.









New York City hasn't been under this much white stuff since 1984.

St. Valentine's Day

Other blogs are giving Valentine's Day advice, so I thought I would share some with my 3 readers.

Nothing says "I love you" like a cleverly photoshopped image from Star Wars.

Example:











In case you want the history of St. Valentine, you should probably look here or here.

From Oil to Abortion

Look out for counterfeit extra virgin olive oil!

Speaking of virgins: Madonna continues to disgust decent people everywhere.

Speaking of decent people, the decent lot of episcopalians at a Livonia church are forced into the catacombs of a Holiday Inn Conference room. When your own church persecutes you for trying to hold onto the true faith (or as close as it was to begin with) that's just lame. Dude was on Ave Maria Radio today. I didn't hear it though. St. Andrew's is where I did Boy Scouts at.

I remember being in their library and we found a book about Rock and Roll being the Devil's music. I guess things have changed; now they profess that homosexuality is like the best thing ever. The episcopalian church is also officially pro-choice. Saddens me. Not to mention the actively homosexual bishop.

I'm done for now.

This is NOT Mohamet, despite what Danish Imams wanted the middle east muslims to think.
This is a French guy at a pig-squealing contest.












This however is Jack Chick's depiction of Muhammad in "Allah had no Son." As you can see he is burning in Hell and admitting that Jesus Christ is Lord. Of course this is also the guy that claims that Islam was invented by the Catholic Church. Consider the source.

I'd like to see Muslims burning Chick tracts. I would burn some, but I keep them around for entertainment and counter-apologetic purposes.

How the heck do you spell the dude's name anyway?


Oh by the way innocent lives such as this one were taken as a result of the faked (and real) comics. That's what happens when Imams lie.

Also I guess that I lied in my last post. I'm sure both of you will forgive me.

Non Sequitur

For the unwashed, non sequitur is Latin for "does not follow."

So if I say, "I would never say something mean about anyone. Now, those (insert racial epithet) are stupid bastards and they will." That is a non sequitur. It also a really jerk-like think to say.

So when Reuters says something like this: Lebanese Protest Against Prophet Cartoons
and links to images like this:

















It is a non sequitur. Or perhaps it is a deliberate lie to avoid fatwas by falsely giving legitimacy to the actions of these "protesters" who are really nothing more than rioters and fanatics.

The "blogosphere" is already consumed by this story, so I won't talk about it anymore.

brokeback to the future

This is just about the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.
  

February 2nd, 2006

Something goofed up on blogger. This entry appeared on the rss feed, but did not appear on the normal front page of the blog. So I am reposting it in its entirety.

Groundhog day.

I got up before the groundhog on Thursday. There was no way to see my shadow as the sun was a couple hours from rising.

I got very little sleep and woke up around 5:30 am. Showered, grabbed some McD breakfast, and drove to Detroit.I arrived at Sacred Heart Major Seminary at 7 am. It was of course still dark. I banter with the guard for a bit and then am admitted. Jeremy picks me up and we head to the main Chapel.

The chapel is beautiful. Old school, lots of stained glass, nice woodwork. Next time I go I will take pictures. There is a virtual tour here.

Mass began at 7:15 am. It was Candlemas aka the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. (40 days after Christmas) Latin was held in a place of respect in the mass (as it should be universally) in the Gloria, Agnus Dei, and Sanctus. There was post-missal chant of morning prayer a la the Liturgy of the Hours. I see familiar faces among the seminarians. One turned out to be a former neighbor. Another was a Catholic Central grad, class of '99.

After mass Jeremy and I head to the cafeteria and I get a large vessel and fill it with coffee. I then begin consuming the coffee and meeting some of the seminarians. Lots of names are learned and forgotten.

9:30 we arrive at the first class of the day. Scripture. Professor was talking about the ark of the covenant. 1st thing I notice about the sketch was that it was a bad design (mechanically speaking.) 1st thing I noticed about the class is that %wise there are more females here than in some of my engineering classes. Besides the young men studying to become priests there are many lay people learning here. BA in philosophy, MA in theology, etc. I of course wouldn't suggest attending seminary to meet girls. These are mostly older women, presumably married.

Midway through class I meet with Fr. Spezia for some spiritual direction. So we talked about the Lord and me for 40 minutes or so. After we spoke I went to Dr. Echeverria's Epistemology class. That was interesting and entertaining.

Then came lunch time. Lunch was delicious. I had a Philly cheese steak and oreo cream pie... mmmm. It is quite similar to your typical small dorm cafeteria. Met more people, learned and forgot more names.

After lunch was a rector's conference. This was a very interesting hour-long talk on formation.

Jeremy showed me around the place. I got to see what the stained glass looks like when the sun is out. We went through the Cardinal Szoka library. Met people. Walked around.

Some more LOTH and hanging out. We ate some dinner. Chicken marsala, pasta w/ meat sauce. I played Chess with a fellow from the Chaldean Eparchy. I am terrible at chess.

The evening continued with a Holy Hour. Spent time reading Imitation of Christ.

After Holy Hour, we hung out for a bit and had some beer and nachos.
I left around 10:45 pm. I went to bed...I woke up, and exactly the same stuff happened all over again!

ok that's made up.

Things to take from this.
-Seminarians are normal people like you and me.
-if by normal you mean a little nuts...
-Seminarians know how to have fun.
-Celibacy can be a fun and rewarding lifestyle.
-support young men discerning the Priesthood.
-God is in charge.

I am considering the priesthood insofar as I have certainly not ruled it out. I still have no real idea what the Lord wants me to do. I do see the joys both in marriage and the priesthood, but what I think is less important than the will of the Lord.

As for right now, I am still seeking employment as I have debts to pay.

lack of posting

well i've been busy.

i've been killing demons...
and... uhh
reading stuff on the internet about crazy conspiracy theories involving Jesuits.

Thursday I spent at SHMS.
Don't worry ladies... I didn't sign anything. I'm still making up my mind on this whole thing.
Who am i kidding? ladies don't read this.

though i am on at least 3 blogrolls.
i guess that means i have to add to mine...

this was sloppy but i am really tired

good night,
Andrew