In honor of the story, I’d like to point you to a post that I did a couple of years ago that explains the origins of the feast – the Battle of Lepanto.

Ash Wednesday cartoon from catholiccartoonblog.blogspot.com

I took this image from a great website that produces funny Catholic cartoons: the appropriately named Catholic Carton Blog. 

Bookmark the site for a daily laugh.

The Vacation

I had a great time.  My family took 9 days and drove to the Grand Canyon and back.  Along the way, we visited:

• Tombstone
• Saguaro National Park
• Montezuma Castle
• the Grand Canyon National Park (of course)
• Wupatki National Mounument (and Sunset Crater Volcano)
• several portions of Route 66, like Winslow, Arizona (yes, I stood on the corner)
• the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks
• Old Santa Fe
• The Jemez Mountain Trail — including the Los Alamos museum
• the Ft. Worth Stockyards
• Dealey Plaza, Dallas — where JFK was assassinated
• Natchitoches, LA

The drive was LONG  — plus/minus 3,400 miles.  However, we made such frequent stops that it wasn’t bad at all.  Sure, it took us longer than if we had simply flown to the Grand Canyon; but, we’d have missed all the other stuff along the way.

My only regret is that I didn’t stretch out the vacation two more days, so that I could have gone up from the Canyon to visit the Glen Canyon Dam and National Recreation Area; Monument Valley; and Four Corners.   I guess there’s always next time.

About the Blog

I’m not going to be updating the blog as often as I had been doing.  This is because – technically speaking – there won’t be a Ville Platte Catholic Youth Group anymore. 

I’m still not clear what’s going to replace the group (such as it was), but whatever will exist will center around either Challenge (for girls) or Conquest (for guys).

So, check back maybe twice a week for updates and new posts.

Meanwhile, have a great school year.

When the blog comes back on-line, there will be some changes.  There will be an emphasis on Challenge and Conquest. 

Check back for more information.

You need to vote for the movie we’ll watch.  Here are your choices:

Knowing - A strange sci-fi story starring Nicholas Cage with some twists and turns.  I can’t say more about it without giving away plot points.  It got 3 stars at Christianity Today; the US Conference of Catholic Bishops calls it “ambitious” and “spectacular”.

The Pink Panther 2 – Slapstick comedy from Steve Martin that’s funnier than the first one three years ago.  Christianity Today gave it 2 stars; while the USCCB give it a mild endorsement.

New In Town – Lighthearted romantic comedy about a Florida gal (Renee Zellwegger) who heads up to cold Minnesota for a temporary job, but falls in love with a local guy.  Christianity Today gave it 2.5 stars; while the USCCB calls it “endearing” and “refreshing”.

Valkyrie – World War II action thriller  starring Tom Cruise about the true story of the assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler by German officers.  Christianity Today gave it 3 stars; and the Catholic Bishops calls it “well-made” and “suspenseful”.

If you’d like to suggest another movie, you can write it in the poll box.

Now, vote:

Take Our Poll

Today, July 2, is actually the day that the American colonies declared independence.

What?  You thought it was July 4?

Well, check out the Banner Art page and read the interesting history of the Birth of America. The article on the Banner Art page has been updated (July 4).

While you’re there, find out about the artist, John Trumbell, who painted the artwork from which I “stole” my banner.

I’ve got some bad news:  I’m cancelling the Chicot Canoe Trip scheduled for next Wednesday, July 8.

It is simply too hot.  It’s not just that it will be hot for us in the canoes; we could probably handle that.

More importantly, it will be too hot for the wildlife we expect to see.  None of the turtles, alligators, snakes, birds, frogs, etc., will be out and about.  We’ll simply be paddling for exercise.

So, we’ll just have to reschedule it for later this year – either late September or early October.

Meanwhile, you can check out the Calendar of Events for up-coming activities.  On Saturday, July 11, we’ll have Movie Night.  I’ll put up the movie poll next week.

Activities in July are light because I’m on vacation the last two weeks of the month.  When I get back, we’ll look at some stuff for August and September.

The article, “The New Catholic Manliness“, can be found at a wonderful blog, Sancte Pater.

The article explores the idea that not too long ago, the Church became dominated by the feminine sense of spirituality.  Now, however, there is a return a more masculine spirituality.

I, for one, welcome this return.  There is a dearth of vocations to the priesthood, and I believe this is related to the decline of a true masculine spirituality.  More than that, I believe that in the last half of the 1900s, there was subversive emphasis on the feminine.  If a return to a more masculine spirituality helps increase vocations to the priesthood, I welcome it.

Here’s a taste of the article.  I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Not all these effects, as we shall see, have been bad. But one of the worst has been a subjugation of traditional masculine virtue: the concept of distinctly and properly manly Catholicism repressed, stigmatized, covered up, or otherwise forgotten for lack of practice. And the more “feminized” Catholicism thus became — the more its pews became recognized as the province of wives, children, and the effete — the more likely were men and their post-pubescent sons to stay away. All of this is making today’s Church, according to Leon Podles, author of The Church Impotent, “essentially a women’s club with some male officers.”

…

In many instances, Monsignor Swetland and Bolster both insist, there was a genuine correction in order, a worthy contribution from the “feminine” perspective to be made. But it all went too far, and quickly. (Consider as a parallel how the revolutionary affirmation-based child-rearing philosophy of Dr. Spock morphed into the coddling excesses of the baby boomers.) Suddenly a generation of men — both lay and clergy — that not long before had finally been able to admit that it was “okay to cry” became the Phil Donahue Generation: limp caricatures of sensitivity. Fathers — of families and of souls — lost their authoritative voice, or abandoned their responsibilities to seek self-fulfillment. Meanwhile, catechists, newly unchained from dry and rote formulas, soon reduced the content of the Faith, as Bolster puts it, to “Jesus loves you, now let’s make a collage.”

…

Bollman sees his ministry as part of a larger wave. “There’s definitely something going on here,” he says. Throughout the Church, “God is awakening in more men the desire to be real men.” This means making sacrifices, being “willing to pay the price to do the right thing.” In order to make such a sacrifice a man must “draw on all his masculine strength,” Bollman says, and in so doing he steers clear of the two extremes of false manhood that are “deadly to male participation in the Church”: the “wimpish Christianity” that presents neither challenge nor reward, and the machismo that keeps proud men off their knees.

…

Perhaps above all else, this new breed of seminarian has a fundamentally different orientation toward the Church, a posture that is decidedly husbandly. “The priests we’re forming now,” says Monsignor Swetland, “their mission is to love, cherish, and protect their Bride the Church. Whereas so many priests and seminarians of my generation, they wanted to change the Church.” This doesn’t mean that these men are blind to the Church’s faults and failings; however, they view those troubles in the larger context of a “battle to fight on her behalf.” This spirit of spousal fidelity, combined with a healthy accent on God’s transcendence (whereas the feminine approach, Monsignor Rohlfs muses, “tends to accentuate His immanence”), has the added effect of sealing these young priests with a deep and trustworthy orthodoxy.

…

In practice, this means a return to teaching hard or “crunchy” doctrine, a return to transcendence, a return to the fullness of Christian mysteries. Not, Bolster stresses, a return to the days of rote catechesis, but rather a new approach that “corrects current imbalances” without being merely reactionary. Thus, for example, in teaching Christology Jesus will still be “our friend” — as CCD children drew on their felt banners in the Seventies — but He will also be presented “as our God and Creator and Judge of the universe,” with fully divine and human natures united in the Second Person of the Trinity. A lesson on the four marks of the Church will include the translation of “catholic” as “universal,” and therefore welcoming of all, but now to be followed by emphasis on evangelization and penance rather than on cheery inclusivism.

 These excerpts demand a closer reading of the whole article, and I encourage you to do so.  The blog, Sancte Pater, by the way, is great, too.

The Dioscese of Alexandria has created a live webcast of the conference.

Go to the Steubenville South website to watch it live.  Just click the “Play” symbol on the player.

Here’s the schedule: