Buddhists Gone Wild

Instead of finding ways to lure people to their temples, Buddhist monks in Japan are luring them into bars with rap music. I guess Modernism has gone ecumenical.

Kwai Chang Caine wouldn't go for that! Even if everyone would otherwise have been Kung Fu fighting.

Medjuskeptical

I'm not a theologian, nor do I have any pretentions to be one; however, I'm trying to serve God to the best of my ability. When I read about Medjugorje, particularly when I become aware of those who buy in to the bullshit of the alleged seers, I get angry.

A few months ago, I read a biography and the letters of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. While you may not be a devotee of hers, the Church has spoken and she has lived an exemplary life. Meaning that one is required to believe so, now that she has been Beatified. Don't get me wrong, you have no obligation to have any sort of devotion to her whatsoever, just the common everyday obligation to believe Church teaching and not question the validity of her Beatification.

What struck me about Blessed Teresa, is that while she lived out holiness every day, she had waited for a couple of years to start her order. She was told not to speak of it but to wait. And she waited without speaking in obedience to her Bishop. She isn't the only one to have been directed to wait or not to speak of something. St. Bernadette was in a similar situation. When Our Lady requested her to do something that was contraindicated by the Bishop, Our Lady counseled her to be obedient.

While public revelations ended with the death of the last Apostle, private revelations are still with us. Even when church-approved, nobody has any obligation to believe in private revelations.

Medjugorje is an entirely different situation; in my opinion, approval or disapproval by the Church is a moot point. The alleged seers claim that Our Lady tells them that the Bishop is wrong. If you remember today's reading, about the Wedding Feast at Cana, the Mother of Jesus told the servants "do whatever he tells you." We are the servants to whom she speaks. We are to do whatever he tells us. This is her continuing message. "He" is our Pastor, our Bishop, our Pope; these men stand In Persona Christi and we are to do what they tell us.

The seers and their advisors are disobedient to their local ordinary and claim that Our Lady advocates against the Bishop's decisions. That's all I need to know to determine that these apparitions are bullshit. I don't need to consider the number of seers, apparitions, dissident moments, nor the celebrity and wealth involved in this situation to understand that Our Lady is not appearing in Medjugorje.

People talk about "the fruits" of Medjugorje being all the conversions there; the real fruits of Medjugorje are in the disobedience to the Church.

Ukrainian Restaurant: Even the menus are political

I love that the NYTimes featured an article about a Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village, and that there's controversy over the use of the Polish term 'Pirogi' on the menu. This is typical of Slavs; no, that's not a slur, merely an explanation, as I'm Slavic.

St Lucian of Antioch, January 7

Saint Lucian of Antioch, Priest and Martyr
+ Nicodemia, January 7, 312

A learned and eloquent Priest, he was Martyred at Nicomedia January 7, 312 during the persecution of Maximin. Explicit throughout the East, with focus in Antioch, his exegetical work revealing what an extreme need for accuracy and tormented for the texts of the tradition. His "review luciani" of the Old and New Testament had become by the late fourth century on, the usual tests of a large number of churches. In 330 the Emperor Constantine, to pay his respects to his mother Helen, founded Elenopoli. Here is honored and continue to pay over time the body of the martyr St. Lucian. Fantasia wants to transfer the relics of Luciano from Nicomedia to Elenopoli, providence has been served, by sea, a dolphin miraculous. What is more certain is that Constantine, just before his death, was baptized in 337 by Bishop Eusebius near the tomb of Luciano. This saint, witness the suffering in the search for God, attested by the presence of memory "conversion" of an empire only in earthly life almost ended, the emperor Constantine sealed the faith venerating his mother, St. Helen, and taking witness to St. Lucian.

Roman Martyrology: At Nicomedia in Bithynia, in modern Turkey, the passion of St. Lucian, a priest of the Church of Antioch and martyr, who, renowned for his learning and eloquence, brought before the court, interrogation accompanied by torture, confessing to be answered intrepid Christian.

Source: Santi e Beati

St. Peter Thomas, January 6

Saint Peter Thomas, Latin Patriarch of Constantinople
Périgod southern France, about 1305 - Famagusta, Cyprus, 1366

Roman Martyrology: At Famagusta in Cyprus, transit of St Peter Thomas, bishop of Constantinople, the Order of Carmelites, who played the mission linked the Roman Pontiff in the East.

He was born in Southern Périgod (France) in 1305 or so. At twenty he entered the Order of Caramel. He exercised the office of Attorney General of the Order at the Papal Curia in Avignon and in the apostolic preaching, in 1354 he was appointed bishop of Patti and Lipari. He carried out the duties of the papal legate at kings and emperors of the time to consolidate peace and promote unity with the Eastern Churches. He was transferred to other sites: Crowns (Peloponnese) is also in charge of the papal legate in the East (1363) and finally Constantinople (1364) as the Latin Patriarch. His efforts for the unity of the Church make this saint in the fourteenth century a pioneer of ecumenism. He died in Famagusta (Cyprus) in 1366.

Source: Santi e Beati

George Orwell's Animal Farm was translated into Ukrainian

I had no idea until I read this guy's obituary.

And, of course, the Chinese Bishop who was ill-treated for his loyalty to the Pope. That's really all I know, though I would assume that there will be a Cause for Canonization opened; my presumption is that when maltreated by the government and standing by one's beliefs, there's a possibility of being raised to the altars.

Social Networking and Theocracies

This is from TechCrunch, and I know, it's astonishing that someone as low-tech as I reads it. They cover all types of technological wonders, whether websites or new technology. Most if it's over my head so I just read headlines in most cases; however, they report that Iran has suppressed Badoo, a social network.

As we know, there's no fun in Islam, and that means no flirting; after all, men and women who are not related are to have no contact.