Things Contemporary: Homer Simpson ponders the mysterium fidei

Since this blog is also "a place for me to muse about things contemporary", I direct you to Dawn Eden's wonderful blog, The Dawn Patrol. Dawn, along with Rocco Palmo over at Whispers in the Loggia, muses about things contemporary more and better than I do. This is probably because they're both younger and more hip than I am- no surprise there! Rocco writes about his contemporary musings a bit on Whispers, he does so mostly in his column, Almost Holy, over at Busted Halo, a great Catholic website run by the Paulists, who I revere every bit as much as I do the children of Sts. Francesco and Chiara. If I were looking for a religious order to join, it would be difficult to decide between the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle.

Among the many things I enjoy about reading Dawn, a recent convert to the Catholic faith, apart from her ability to write compelling, is her on-going and very personal engagement with the work of G.K. Chesterton, for whose beatification I urge everybody to pray. As an example, in a posting yesterday, Dawn quotes Chesterton on virtue in general and on the virtue of chastity in particular, from Chesterton's essay A Piece of Chalk. With all due credit to Dawn for retrieving this precious gem, read away!

"Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Mercy does not mean not being cruel, or sparing people revenge or punishment; it means a plain and positive thing like the sun, which one has either seen or not seen.

"Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc."


Since this posting is entirely a Saturday morning digression, I urge you over to Dawn's excerpt from an episode of The Simpons, featuring Liam Neeson as Father Sean, in which Homer goes to bawl Fr. Sean out for making Bart want to become Catholic and winds up being convinced himself. So, link over to Homer to Rome, read the dialogue and enjoy!