Dominican Prayer Day 20 and 21

Busy with work to some degree but last night I had a mini-epiphany.  Since Ignitum Today Thursday is coming up tomorrow I will defer though as I'm going to write about it there.  So sorry for the delay but stayed tuned.

Special announcement

Behold:  Youtube!

For the first time I have published a video.  Is it awesome?  No!  Is it of high quality?  Not even!

But it is my first video.  And no matter how ugly it is, the first always has a place in your heart.

Enough nonsense!  Here is the video:

Interesting comment about opposition to gay "marriage"

From Mark Shea's talk about Leah Libresco's position on civil unions.

Irenist:

That’s always been my concern, too. The people storming the barricades to block same sex civil unions/”marriages” just don’t appear to be as concerned about, e.g., the rampant, un-Catholic divorce culture. Britney Spears was married to that one guy for, what, a week? The fact that such a mockery of marriage has been possible under our civil law for decades is a grave scandal in itself. Now, many of the people concerned about gay civil unions/”marriages” probably ARE doing great work against the divorce culture, too. But just like how those in the pro-life movement who are also deeply involved in social justice issues get ignored by the media, the media certainly makes it *appear* that all SSM opponents care about is “ick, teh gay,” instead of *all* the assaults on marriage embodied in our civil law. So whether we’re dealing with real hypocrisy, the media-fueled appearance of hypocrisy, or some combination, the fact remains that it makes us look anti-gay folks rather than pro-marriage to non-Catholic observers. Which has got to be hurtful in the extreme for gay observers, Catholic or not. That’s a staggeringly important problem.

Incidentally, I diagnose a lot of this problem, both in terms of our own thinking and much more in terms of the optics of Catholic opposition to SSM, as coming from the common political front in the culture wars forged (and rightly so) with our Protestant brethren as part of the politics of abortion. Because Protestants don’t generally have a problem with either divorce or contraception since the great disastrous Lambeth apostasy, their non-natural law-based, supposedly “Biblical,” fideist opposition to abortion and SSM really is rather abitrary, since it is divorced (ahem) from the necessary context of Sacred Tradition.

Catholic opposition to SSM *and* divorce is part of a “seamless garment” on marriage issues rooted in natural law; it doesn’t unduly emphasize same sex attraction issues. Protestant opposition, to the contrary, really does often seem to have an arbitrary “ick, teh gay” aspect that is open to snark about not obeying all the rules in Leviticus or whatever, because they don’t have any good grounding in Tradition for taking some parts of the Bible literally (e.g., St. Paul on sodomy) and others not (e.g., St. Paul on speaking in church)–they’re just winging it. I think there’s a lot of good voices in St. Blog’s trying to distance the Catholic, natural law arguments about SSM from the fideistic “culture war” arguments of our Protestant brethren. May such efforts flourish.

Dominican Prayer Day 18 and Day 19

So another combination as the last combo because it is more of the same.  I have tried to find ways to "help" meditation, such as lying on the floor for contemplating death.  This has produced mixed results.  But overall I feel like I'm actually praying during the first two ways (I do all three during prayer), only to lose my way and get frustrated with myself during this one.

I'll need to experiment some more.  The contemplation of one's death accompanied by some sort of self-mortification is not an accident.  And the fasting that the book recommends is too disconnected to me to suffice for that self-mortification.

I've honestly been frustrated, and this frustration seems to affect the other ways as well.  I find myself rushing through the first two to try the third again, which cheapens the whole thing.

Tonight I'm going to try the Third Way in isolation.  To really attempt to do it right.  Otherwise I will have to find some small self mortification way or give up this way entirely.  I feel like it can offer real benefits but contemplation alone is not my strong suit.  And without something for my body to do I see this as doomed to failure.

Now don't assume I'm down on the project.  I'm not.  This is the first real obstacle I've encountered.  And as it is my personality to obsess over a problem until it is solved, this kink in the works has my full attention.  But overall my prayer life has improved dramatically, and in small pieces my life and discipline are improving.  The fruits are already apparent. 

Dominican Prayer Day 16 and 17

So I'm combining these two days because I experienced the same thing both days.  That and I'm lazy and did not post about Thursday night on Friday.

I've really struggled with the Third Way.  Or at least the books recommendation.  At first I thought it was simply because it wasn't tough enough like the mortification that St. Dominic did during the Way.

But now I realize that there really is something more to my struggles.  I've come to realize that the reason why that I've struggled with this wWay is because of the book’s recommend Way to do it.  Basically the book’s version is purely contemplation.

This is problematic for me.  The first two ways involve the body in a very real way.  The bowing in the First Way and the prostration in the Second Way get the body involved.  With those two ways I feel I am involved in mind, body and spirit.

Contemplation has always been difficult for me.  It is quite ironic that I am in charge of my social groups’ Rosary.  I'm terrible at meditation.  If I can concentrate for five seconds that is a major victory.

I'm going to have to find a way to deal with this.  I need to find some way to involve my body in this Way or else this will fall on my “optional” to-do list.  Where all tasks go to die.

Biometrics and guns

Mark Shea has a post about his reactions to reactions about a proposed solution to add biometrics as a safety to guns.  I find this proposal problematic for a number of reasons but will confine myself to technical issues as I have some experience with them.

I respect Mark Shea a lot.  He's been instrumental in my thinking about the Bush administrations torture policies and the Iraq War.  And major props to him for being virtually alone on our side of the political aisle in calling out Catholics who ignored or attempted to justify such evils (me being one of them).  I owe him a huge debt.

So when I say he's wrong on this issue I say it with the understanding that I've been on the wrong side of an issue before with him.  Having said that I have some background in tech stuff so I think I'm on more solid ground this time around.  :-).

So here are my concerns:

The current state of biometrics - When I say current I mean as of the moment I'm writing this post.  High end biometric readers are fine, but expensive.  But the mass market manufacture still has a long way to go before I would trust my life to them.  Which brings us to the second point.

Life or death software -  Software is in two states right now I would say and will be for the foreseeable future.  There is your general business software such as Google that if it fails you lose something "trivial."  Search results, your last order, etc.

Life or death software is a whole different ballgame.  If it breaks, people die.  Therefore it cannot break. Or if it does, have some kind of backup. Biometrics on guns falls into this category.  Which leads me to....

What happens when it fails? - Notice the bold.  "When."  Software/hardware is guaranteed to fail.  Period.  It is simply a question of time.  What happens when the biometrics encounter an error?  Does the gun lock up?  Or does it release?  In either case, the biometrics would have to be checked at regular intervals.  The same is true for a gun, but the number of times increases quite a bit.

These are the concerns off the top of my head.  There are plenty more that have to do with actual design issues relating to the mechanics of the gun and failure conditions.  But just this list alone has me concerned about a digital anything that interferes with the mechanics of the firing of a gun.

Dominican Prayer Day 15

Finally I get back on track with this experiment.  For the record I did not mean to skip any days.  But there has been some difficulty in attempting this next method of prayer.

Recall in my last entry that fasting is involved in the Third Way.  That is somewhat true.  At least that is what the book recommends.  St. Dominic would beat himself with a chain in the Third Way while meditating on his death.  The book assumes that moderns are doughy and soft and therefore our skin starts to bleed at the thought of self-mortification.  And so recommends fasting.

Unfortunately my mind would not cooperate and I kept forgetting to fast this week.  A good day of light intake of food ended in a reckless and gluttonous consumption for dinner.  Or breakfast would be light only to have a smashingly huge lunch.  Time and again I would forget that I was attempting to fast.

So finally decided last night to do the prayer anyway.  I was kinda hungry, so I figured that it counted.

Anyway, the main point of the Third Way is to meditate on the fact that we are going to die.  Far from being morbid however it is actually an attempt to get one to focus on preparing one's soul in this life.  The book offers several questions like

"Imagine yourself on your deathbed."
"Who is with you?"
"What are they saying?"

Some interesting thoughts about that.  My other research says that the mortification was the main means of the Third Way.  But this should only be done under the direction of a spiritual director or confessor due to concerns of the sin of pride.

I have mixed feelings about this.  One the one hand, the book has so far not deviated from what other research I've found on the subject.  This is the first time that we have taken a real sharp turn.

On the other, I know all too well that mortification of the flesh without guidance is quite dangerous both physically and spiritually.  So if I can't even remember to fast I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be whipping myself until I get better control over my senses.

Enough meta.  I'll post my thoughts about the actual way I'm practicing next time.