Churchery and Two Steins of Dark

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Or just a tad more, as Maya needed help with hers.

We made it to Liturgy yesterday and thence to McSorley's, which was full of exhausted cyclists and sleep-deprived Ukrainians -- St. George's is across the street, and as we arrived folks were streaming out of the church for an outdoor folk dance festival. Yes, they keep the Eastern calendar, and a happy Easter to all who do.

One of our parishoners with was back from the funeral and inauguration in Rome. She has met the new fellow a couple of times, and has heard a great deal about him from folks who know him much better. From our brief conversation I took away three points: he really is that short; he is a true mystic; and much of what he took the blame for was not his idea, and he had no choice about.

I won't go into the matter of mysticism -- it is a mystery to me. But I think the general idea is that Pope Benedict lives constantly in the presence of God, and people around of him catch a sense of this. The kind of feeling I got from the Dalai Lama.

As for his conduct as Prefect of the CDF, ( Read more... )

I was unable to obtain Benedict's Introduction to Christianity last week, as the shop was sold out within an hour or two of its arrival, but they still had a couple of copies of his Principles of Catholic Theology, which I read with a growing sense of wonder and alientation. Wonder, because I realized that I was in contact with a world-class intellect speaking to issues that touch me directly. Alienation, because this author had nothing whatever in common with the Fu-Manchu depicted by the mainstream media, the propaganda film aired by Bill Moyers in particular.

Maybe more on the book later.

Cheers

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