Of Angels, Sports and Money
Well, some news stories have sort-of-happy endings. A distraught father, after arguing with his wife, ‘kidnaped’ his two toddler sons, drove to a bridge, and jumped in with them in his arms, in an apparent attmpted murder-suicide. Reports on the height of the bridge vary from 15 to 30 metres, which is survivable (I have jumped from 15 metres, in my younger days). I read somewhere that the height of near-certain death is 100 feet, or just over the 30 metre mark.
Anyway, the unfortunate man died (requiescat in pace), but the police found his two sons, perhaps miraculously, alive and well, without life-threatening injuries.
Some stories do corroborate one’s belief in angels, especially those of children, whose guardians, as Christ warns us, see the face of God, and watch over each hair of their heads.
And speaking of angels, perhaps they are leading people away from the inanity that is NFL football, and professional sports in general. Viewership has dropped precipitously, by double digits, and all I can say is, I cannot see much appeal in a bloated, boring game, with oversized men in spandex wrapped in kevlar pummelling each other, with most of the plays ending within seconds. Ponder that in a regular 3 hour-plus football game (and even the name, where their feet rarely ever touch the ball), there is on average 11 minutes or so of actual play. Almost all of what you watch in the other 169 minutes or so is of cheerleaders, players dawdling around, replays and commercials. No wonder there are so many bathroom breaks during the SuperBowl, and why swilling beer seems a near-necessity to get through to the end.
I have written before on the many problems with modern sports, not least their merecenary, professional televised versions, and perhaps people are waking up.
Yes, it does seem rather odd that we pay our sports figures untold amounts of cash, while the common Canadian, and Canada itself, drowns in debt, the combined total of which, government, companies and households, even I was surprised to learn, is a whopping $4.4 trillion, and that is in U.S. dollars. Easy debt is a great evil in any society, but especially one as lacking in discipline and moral principles as Canada. Who cares about the future, when you can get the Toyota Tundra and the house in the suburbs now?
Pope Leo XIII, in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, praised the virtue of providence, by which a man plans and prepares for the future, saving his money, instead of living only for the present. Now, before you rebut, this is not what Christ meant when He taught that we should not worry about tomorrow: That was a warning against anxiety, and a lack of trust in God. Au contraire in this case: I would advocate some level of deep concern over how far we can carry this debt, especially while the out-of-control Liberals, at both levels of government, seem drunk on spending, to keep everyone happy as long as possible, especially the millions on their direct and indirect payroll.
That is, until the credit runs out, and the creditor comes-a-callin’.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→