Papa Z's Views and Comments

Name:
Location: Wisconsin, United States

I am a convert to the Catholic Church after serving in ordained ministry for more than nine years in another denomination. I hold a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in historical theology, and another in systematic theology, and am currently working (very slowly) on my doctorate. I work in Christian Education and Formation and teach at the University level. I am blessed with a wonderful wife and eight great kids! When I'm not studying, reading, or blogging, I enjoy eating and drinking! Like Bilbo Baggins, I have been specializing in food for many years, and my table has a high reputation!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

SUBJECT: CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Traditional Proclamation of the Birth of Christ

The twenty-fifth day of December.

In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth;

the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood;
the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham;
the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses
and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt;

the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king;

in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;

in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome;

the forty second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;

the whole world being at peace, 
in the sixth age of the world,

Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,

desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,

being conceived by the Holy Spirit,

and nine months having passed since his conception,

was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary, being made flesh. 

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

Labels:

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

SUBJECT: LIFE!!!!!!!

Really, Zynga?!?!?!?

Farmville. Cityville.  Coasterville.  Chefville.  Castleville.  All of these -- and many more -- are games produced by the company Zynga.

I will freely confess that I'm not a huge internet gamer by any stretch of the imagination!  There have been a few that I have tried over the years -- but for the most part, it's just not been my thing.  I've played "Castleville" for a couple of years, just as mindless entertainment.

Now, Zynga has decided that a Castleville character needed to "come out of the closet"!

It's a GAME!  It's PRETEND!

Come ON people!

Blessings,

Papa Z.


Monday, December 08, 2014

SUBJECT: RELIGION!!!!!!!

Ineffabilis Deus

Apostolic Constitution issued by Blessed Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854.

Accordingly, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the furtherance of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own: "We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

Have a Blessed Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary!


Blessings,

Papa Z.

Labels:

Saturday, November 22, 2014

SUBJECT: FAITH & LITERATURE!!!!!!!

O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give thee thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lighteth fires of faith in young and old alike.  Surprise us also with thy joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

SUBJECT: CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Traditional Proclamation of the Birth of Christ

The twenty-fifth day of December.

In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world
from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth;

the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood;

the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham;

the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses
and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt;

the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king;
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;

in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome;

the forty second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;

the whole world being at peace,
in the sixth age of the world,
Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since his conception,
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary,
being made flesh.

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

Labels:

Friday, November 22, 2013

SUBJECT: RELIGION AND LITERATURE!!!!!!!

Fifty years ago today, Clive Staples Lewis departed these Shadowlands for his eternal home.  A memorial plaque is being dedicated today in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey in London.


O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old alike. Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Clive Staples (Jack) Lewis, pray for us! (November 29th 1898 - November 22nd, 1963)

Blessings,

Papa Z.

Labels: , , ,

Friday, September 06, 2013

SUBJECT: LIFE, DEATH, THEOLOGY, FOOD, etc . . .

My friends, it is with an incredible sense of grief -- and loss -- that I must report that the Rev. Fr. Robert Farrar Capon died yesterday at the age of 88.

I never met Fr. Capon, although I corresponded with family members 2 or 3 times over the last 5 years (although, not with him, as he had retired from public correspondence, and was not the "e-mailer" of the family.)

Those more erudite than I can parse bits and pieces of his theological perspectives . . . and I have no doubt that he, like all of us, was a sinner in need of Christ's redemption.  I make no claim to embrace all nuances. 

But . . . 

But . . . 

In spite of all . . . 

His 1968 "The Supper of the Lamb:  A Culinary Reflection" has meant the world to me.


A brief quote.  More will be forthcoming.

To raise a glass, however, is to raise a question.

One honest look at any real thing—one minute’s contemplation of any process on earth—leads straight into the conundrum of the relationship of God to the world. The solution is hardly obvious. For something that could not be at all without God, creation seems to do rather well without Him. Only miracles are simple; nature is a mystery. Autumn by autumn, He makes wine upon a thousand hills, but He does it without tipping His hand. Glucose, fructose, and Saccharomyces ellipsoideus apparently manage very nicely on their own. 

So much so, that the resolving of the conflict between the sacred and the secular (or, better said, the repairing of the damage done by divorcing them) has been billed as the major problem of modern theology. 

Permit me, therefore, glass in hand and cooking Sherry within easy reach, the world’s most interrupted discourse on the subject. In vino veritas.   Take the largest part of that truth first. God makes wine. For all its difficulties, there is no way around the doctrine of creation. But notice the tense: He makes; not made. He did not create once upon a time, only to find himself saddled now with the unavoidable and embarrassing result of that first rash decision. That is only to welsh on the idea of an unnecessary world, to make creation a self-perpetuating pool game which is contingent only at the start -- which needs only the first push on the cue ball to keep it going forever. It will not do: The world is more unnecessary than that. It is unnecessary now; it cries in this moment for a cause to hold it in being. 

It was St. Thomas, I think, who pointed out long ago that if God wanted to get rid of the universe, He would not have to do anything; He would have to stop doing something. Wine is --the fruit of the vine stands in act, outside of nothing -- because it is His very present pleasure to have it so. The creative act is contemporary, intimate, and immediate to each part, parcel and period of the world.   

Do you see what that means? In a general way we concede that God made the world out of joy: He didn’t need it; He just thought it was a good thing. But if you confine His activity in creation to the beginning only, you lose most of the joy in the subsequent shuffle of history. Sure, it was good back then, you say, but since then, we’ve been eating leftovers. How much better a world it becomes when you see Him creating at all times and at every time; when you see that the preserving of the old in being is just as much creation as the bringing of the new out of nothing. Each thing, at every moment, becomes the delight of His hand, the apple of His eye. 

The bloom of yeast lies upon the grape skins year after year because He likes it; C6H12O6=2C2H5OH+2CO2 is a de­pendable process because, every September, He says, That was nice; do it again.   Let us pause and drink to that. 

Labels: , , , ,