Here is something to read...

I never read Daniel Mitsui's blog until today, when Amy Welborn mentioned it, and I went off to take a look. On it I found this essay, which is quite interesting. Definitely worth a read.

If his background weren't all black, I would give points for the visuals on his blog, too. He has a good eye for art and architecture, if only the text weren't on that eye-straining black background.

You know, there is an art magazine that does a great job of using a black ground for almost everything, though. FMR, out of Italy, is probably the most beautiful art magazine out there. It also comes with good articles, which is something totally absent from the mainstream "watch the fads of the 'avant-garde'" magazines that clutter up the American art scene (the worst being ArtWeek, a monthly (!) rag out of that center of culture, San Jose, that somehow still survives, even though it neither interesting nor good).

Praying for the Dead, Purgatory, and Praying for Death

Obviously today is the day that we pray for the Church Suffering, the souls who will eventually attain the Beatific Vision, yet must undergo the torments necessary to preserve justice and to free them from attachment to sins.

If you have ever watched a cooking pot be made kosher, you will get some idea of what these souls are going through. The pot is thoroughly gone over with a blowtorch so that any trace amounts of traif are incinerated.

So, yes, you repented of whatever sin you did, but there is still a part of you that remembers with fondness how fun it was. Get ready for a scorcher...

Until...

Someone prays for you.

The worst pain on Earth is easier than the lightest pain in Purgatory (which Fr. Zak reminded us of yesterday - did I mention what a great priest Fr. Zak is? How often do you hear of such things at St. Spaceships?), so it is entirely fit to pray for people to die repented of their sins and cleansed of their attachment to those sins. Ultimately we are praying for the people to be what they were created to be, which is, quite frankly, awesome almost to the point of being beyond our fallen comprehension or even imagination.

So, we pray for people to have a happy death. We never want to be like Hamlet, who refrained from killing his uncle after his uncle went to confession, because he wanted to send him to Hell. We may have enemies. If we are doing something right, we will certainly have enemies. We must pray for them to have a happy death.

If our enemies are also enemies of the common good, we may even ask for God to grant them a happy death a little sooner, as well. In fact, I can think of no better thing for a person than to have a good confession, receive a plenary indulgence, and then to die before having a chance to muck it all up again.

So, if you want to do a good turn, pray for the dear departed. Pray for the not-so-dear departed. And pray that R.D. repents of his sins, embraces the Catholic Church, receives absolution and a plenary indulgence, and returns to the embrace of Our Lord post haste. Amen.

My Solution....

Reading this makes me think that the obvious solution is just to not translate it. Why cause all of this worry over translations into a liturgically ugly language anyway? I am not entirely convinced that He came to save the Saxons anyway, so why bother with their language in liturgy?

Yes, I am kidding. As much as I find Anlgo culture reprehensible, the Angloes are people in need of salvation, and capable of being saved. Shucks, I don't even think that they should be kept as slaves. At least not forever.