Whatsoever Things Are True: 2006.12

The Acceptable Year Proclaimed

Father, you loved the world so much that in the fullness of
time you sent your only Son to be our Savior. Incarnate by
the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of
us, yet without sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news
of salvation; to prisoners, freedom; to the sorrowful, joy. To
fulfill your purpose he gave himself up to death; and, rising
from the grave, destroyed death, and made the whole
creation new.

And, that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for him
who died and rose for us, he sent the Holy Spirit, his own
first gift for those who believe, to complete his work in
the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.

Christian Renaissance on Horizon, Says Academie Inductee

ROME, DEC. 17, 2006 (Zenit.org).- French anthropologist René Girard, one of the most influential intellectuals of contemporary culture, thinks that a Christian Renaissance lies ahead.

Girard, recently elected to be one of the 40 "immortals" of the French Academy, said: "I believe we are on the eve of a revolution in our culture that will go beyond any expectation, and that the world is heading toward a change in respect of which the Renaissance will seem like nothing." The text published by Transeuropa, is the result of 10 years of meetings between the French thinker and Italian professor Gianni Vattimo, theorist of so-called weak thought, on topics such as faith, secularism, Christian roots, the role of the Gospel message in the history of humanity, relativism, the problem of violence, and the challenge of reason.

The book presents specifically to the general public the transcription of three unpublished conferences in which the two authors challenge each other on the most radical points of their thought.

"Y'all Come Back, Sometime"--Marshall Marchl

"I Am Spartacus!"

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- My name is Kirk Douglas. You may know me. If you don't ... Google me. I was a movie star and I'm Michael Douglas' dad, Catherine Zeta-Jones' father-in-law, and the grandparents of their two children. Today I celebrate my 90th birthday.

I have a message to convey to America's young people. A 90th birthday is special. In my case, this birthday is not only special but miraculous. I survived World War II, a helicopter crash, a stroke, and two new knees.

It's a tradition that when a "birthday boy" stands over his cake he makes a silent wish for his life and then blows out the candles. I have followed that tradition for 89 years but on my 90th birthday, I have decided to rebel. Instead of making a silent wish for myself, I want to make a LOUD wish for THE WORLD.

Let's face it: THE WORLD IS IN A MESS and you are inheriting it. Generation Y, you are on the cusp. You are the group facing many problems: abject poverty, global warming, genocide, AIDS, and suicide bombers to name a few. These problems exist, and the world is silent. We have done very little to solve these problems. Now, we leave it to you. You have to fix it because the situation is intolerable.

You need to rebel, to speak up, write, vote, and care about people and the world you live in. We live in the best country in the world. I know. My parents were Russian immigrants. America is a country where EVERYONE, regardless of race, creed, or age has a chance. I had that chance. You are the generation that is most impacted and the generation that can make a difference.

I love this country because I came from a life of poverty. I was able to work my way through college and go into acting, the field that I love. There is no guarantee in this country that you will be successful. But you always have a chance. Nothing should interfere with it. You have to make sure that nothing stands in the way.

When I blow out my candles -- 90! ... it will take a long time ... but I'll be thinking of you.

'On Fairy Stories'

Philology has been dethroned from the high place it once had in this court of inquiry. Max
Müller's view of mythology as a “disease of language” can be abandoned without regret.
Mythology is not a disease at all, though it may like all human things become diseased. You
might as well say that thinking is a disease of the mind. It would be more near the truth to
say that languages, especially modern European languages, are a disease of mythology. But
Language cannot, all the same, be dismissed. The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale are in our world coeval. The human mind, endowed with the powers of generalization andabstraction, sees not only green-grass, discriminating it from other things (and finding it fair to look upon), but sees that it is green as well as being grass. But how powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty that produced it, was the invention of the adjective: no spell or incantation in Faerie is more potent. And that is not surprising: such incantations might indeed be said to be only another view of adjectives, a part of speech in a mythical grammar. The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both.When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power—upon one plane; and the desire to wield that power in the world
external to our minds awakes. It does not follow that we shall use that power well upon any
plane. We may put a deadly green upon a man's face and produce a horror; we may make the
rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and
rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm. But in such
“fantasy,” as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.
--JRR Tolkien
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