Here we go, from my email box and my blogivanting around…please read to the end and give some input on the reader’s question.

Barbara Nicolosi is in Israel, with an exceptionally passionate post on Jerusalem.

A deeply moving piece from the NCR(egister) by John Burger on death, Advent. Calvary and light.

Go here to watch video of the installation of Bishop Murry of Youngstown. The reader who passed it on says:

Unfortunately, the "talking heads," while they have much good to say, say it over the processional music and other music during the mass, obscuring the fine work of the Cathedral Choir and director Dr. Dan Laginya, organist and music director.

St. Columba Cathedral, though "modern" in architecture (it replaced the former cathedral building, which burned in 1954), is a very impressive structure. Hard to see in the video, the images on the wall behind the main altar are part of an enormous mosaic that shows the patron saints of the main immigrant groups to the city, as well as the Blessed Mother and the "Hand of God."

Rich Leonardi reports that a Jay Anderson post was noticed by the Washington Times!

Jimmy Mac passes on an article on Orthodox Christianity in Ethiopia from Der Spiegel:

The full glory of the Orthodox Eucharist is tangible in the churches of Lalibela, above all during the Timkat Festival which commemorates Christ’s baptism in the Jordan. On the eve of the event, underground processions wend their way to and through the churches, accompanied by the sound of bells and horns. Priests and deacons cloaked in beaded, darkhued velvet lead the way. On their heads they bear tabots, wooden tablets symbolizing the Ark of the Covenant.

These are then placed in a large tent, outside which the faithful congregate, waiting the entire night to embrace the holy powers they believe invested in the tabots.

The ritual is no less solemn or impressive than the anointing of a cardinal in the Vatican. The priest raps out a cadence on the ground with his mighty staff and sings out: "Kyrie eleison." The faithful cast themselves to the ground 30, 40 or even 50 times.

However, these time-honored traditions and their enforced observance by the church are partly to blame for Ethiopia’s plunge into bitter poverty over the past 50 years. How can a country possibly be self-sustaining if its people are prevented from tilling their fields every other day?

Adopted numerous Jewish customs

The Orthodox calendar lists more than 150 holidays and 180 days of fasting, on which Christians are banned from working and limited to one meal. Holidays for Muslims – some 45 percent of Ethiopians – eat even further into the working week. And the Sabbath is still celebrated in rural areas – a relic of the Salomonic dynasty which ruled Ethiopia from the 13th century and adopted numerous Jewish customs.

The clergy in Addis Ababa, the country’s capital since the end of the 19th century, may be slowly losing its authority, but the priests in the highlands enforce the holidays with an iron fist. Punishment inexorably follows any failure to comply. Not to mention the prospect of ending up in hell.

Moreover, the church still defines the calendar. The Ethiopian year has 12 months lasting 30 days, each plus five or six additional days. The patriarchy refuses to countenance change. The government has sought to adopt the modern Western calendar on several occasions, only to be stymied by the clergy. In practice, the separation of church and state has yet to be implemented.

Christianity is also responsible for another phenomenon in Ethiopia: racial arrogance. Viewing their faith as superior to Africa’s natural religions, Orthodox Christians regard themselves as a chosen people. In their minds, the portrayal – in the illustrations of the sacred books – of lighter-skinned people as the rulers of the Promised Land and the blacks as their servants is evidence of God’s will.

Dawn Eden meditates on the topic of "Last Kiss"

The video from the Philly blog event is up at Busted Halo

Check out the new blog "The Yeoman Farmer" –

In recent months, I have started a blog which explores in more depth the connection between faith, family, sustainable farming, and community

A Catholic Church in Qatar (link is to Al Jazeera, btw)

Although the country’s native inhabitants are entirely Muslim – and are prohibited by law from converting to another faith – the new Catholic church will cater to the large number of Christian migrants who have come to the Arabia Gulf state in search of work.

FINALLY:

A reader bleg:

I have a question that I wondered if you would consider putting out for comments by your blog readers.  My daughter just received a full tuition + stipend scholarship from Washington University in St. Louis.  She has also received a very nice scholarship from Benedictine College in Kansas, but it will leave us about $6,000/year poorer than the Wash. U. scholarship–and we unfortunately are not a family that can easily afford to give up that kind of money.  We are feeling very torn–it seems difficult to pass up the Wash. U. scholarship given our current finances, yet we are concerned about sending our daughter into the kind of environment that typically exists at secular (and even many religious) colleges these days.

I wondered whether any of your blog readers have any thoughts about making this sort of decision between a Catholic college faithful to the magisterium (at least in the Theology Dept.) and a secular one, and if anyone knows anything about the Newman Center or its staff at Wash. U.  If this is a topic of recent discussion, please feel free to simply point me the