Deus Caritas Est

It's here: Benedict XVI's first encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

Check it out at the Vatican website.

As many of us know, Sunday was the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I have studied abortion in depth this past year, and as I continue to do so, I return again and again to the paramount problem that the secular position presents. Abortion is evidence of a deep-rooted selfishness, where the child is viewed as a thing, an object, which may be eliminated or manipulated. The human race cannot survive with this attitude, because we were made to give and to love selflessly. Abortion is the total rejection of life and of love, because a husband and wife are supposed to be open to life. When they reject life, they reject love, and destroy themselves in the process. And that is the loss of the respect for human life. They are saying that the unborn child is just a thing that can be thrown away if it presents an inconvenience. This is the fundamental problem with abortion: it is the willful and conscious murder of a human person, a person that has been denied recognition of their humanity.

But coming back to BXVI's encyclical, we are reminded, from just the title, that God is love and that He loves everyone; the parents, the unborn child, everyone. And maybe through this encyclical we will be able to see again more clearly and understand this Love. Then perhaps the love of parents for all children will flourish, and fill the earth.

In the news there is talk that Roe v. Wade will be overturned within the next ten, even five, years. But a law isn't going to put love in people's hearts; each person has to choose love for himself, for God, and for others.


“Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 5:5)


God Bless

Giorgione & Bellini

"La Tempesta" by Giorgione da Castelfranco (a student of Bellini). As many of you know, this painting from the Venetian Renaissance figures prominently in the novel "A Soldier of the Great War." For an enlarged reproduction, go here.



"Madonna and Child with St. Catherine and St. Mary Magdalen" by Giovanni Bellini. The figure of Mary Magdalen is on the cover of the newest edition of the above-mentioned novel.


Anyone care to speculate on the correlation?

A Poem

Nuptial
by Mary Fabyan Windeatt

There was a bride (the Gospel goes),
But whom she married no one knows;
Or if indeed she ever had
A likely lad.

Yet does it matter if she be
A shadow in antiquity?
That no man knows her height and weight
Or what she ate?

For of all brides who are, and were,
No one has ever equalled her-
That misty maid from the East
Who gave a feast.

Who was so gracious that the Lord
Came down to grace her wedding board;
To wrest the wine from the water
And woo a daughter.

Alas, that modern brides are girls
In satins and synthetic curls-
That no man dreams on Cana's child,
Who sipped...and smiled.


I thought that this was an interesting poem that goes with the Gospel from this past Saturday (and the Second Luminous Mystery). I was actually working on a short story about the wedding feast at Cana when I first read this.

God Bless

La Familia Brungardt

This picture was taken at our mini-family reunion on December 26th.



Kids in the front (l-r): Paul, Maggie, Luke, Grace, Luke, Anne, Therese, Andrew (in red), Gerard, Petra (in yellow), Jennifer, Mary Ann, Kaitlyn.

Middle row: Uncle Bruce, Fr. John, Aunt Elaine, Mom, Dad, Bryce, Frank, Aunt Sandi, Uncle Tom, Uncle Tony, Aunt Kathy.

Back row: Megan, Shantel, Catherine, Mike, Joe, Jen, John, Aubrey, Me.