David Ancell / Wednesday, March 01, 2006 / Comments(0)
Before I start in on this one, it may be good to mention my 2004 article on penance. As I said in the article, there are people who advocate that giving up something for Lent is outmoded, and we should really “do something” for Lent. There are other variations on this as well.
I have sometimes thought that I wish that I could just eat whatever I want and not have to observe this discipline. I wanted to be “free” of it. However, not being able to control my appetite is not freedom. If I truly have Christian freedom, I will be able to give up things of this world, even good things, that I do not need.
I heard it said that if someone gives up, for example, chocolate, they get used to it in a couple weeks. Supposedly, it’s not as meaningful by then. I’ve had this experience, but I know that this really represents a kind of growth in freedom and detachment. I may like what I gave up, but I am free to give it up. It doesn’t own me.
Giving up something for Lent is spiritual exercise. We exercise the freedom we have in Christ so that it grows stronger. It is this freedom that allows us to remove anything that becomes an obstacle to our life in Christ.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, March 01, 2006 / Comments(0)
I guess you could say I got an Ash Wednesday present. Just minutes ago, I got an e-mail telling me about the new Francis Cardinal Arinze podcast. Well, it’s actually a blog and podcast, and it even has video on it. I’m sure that His Emminence isn’t blogging on his own, but someone is collecting news about him and his talks and making them available. Given that Cardinal Arinze is one of my heroes, I’m glad to see that there is a place where I can find out what he is saying.
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David Ancell / Saturday, February 25, 2006 / Comments(0)
After a long time of hard work and procrastination, mostly procrastination, I have finally finished my newly renovated web page. Please note that you need to enter just the domain to get to this site. At present, the old pages are still there, and if you reference “index.php,” it will take you to the old page.
For the easiest results, just use this link.
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David Ancell / Thursday, February 23, 2006 / Comments(0)
I took today and tomorrow off work because I maxed out my vacation time and can’t accrue any more. This is what I get for not taking days off. I guess since I’m not the most creative at finding vacation things to do, I just haven’t used my time. Then again, I have some ideas for July. I want to go on retreat with the Sister Servants, and, of course, go back to Steubenville. The J.C. Williams Center was under renovation last time I was there, so I want to see how it looks now.
Anyway, I’m working to revise my main page to make it look better. Sometimes the CSS that I’m using isn’t as cooperative as I’d like, but I managed to put something together that is much better than what is there now. I hope to have it ready by this weekend. I’m also reviewing the links, adding new ones, and getting rid of some that really shouldn’t be there any more.
I also found this debut album by a Catholic band named GSP. It’s available on MP3, so I downloaded several songs. So far, the Prayer of St. Augustine and True Presence songs are my favorites.
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David Ancell / Monday, February 20, 2006 / Comments(0)
I’ve heard plenty of people say that the human population is growing to an extent that the planet may not be able to support it. It all started in my freshman biology class at Ole Miss (aka University of Mississippi). Well, here’s a perspective on what is really going on. This time bomb has been predicted for years, and it has never gone off. It probably won’t. I know this doesn’t contain a full argument, but it’s a good starting point.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, February 14, 2006 / Comments(0)
I looked at this bill of rights from DigitalConsumer.org. I must say that I agree with it. A lot of the stuff that I buy is not available in the format that I want to use it from. I never steal anything and never casually copy anything either.
I do wish that I could just buy the format I wanted. I once sent a message to St. Joseph Communications about making downloadable audio available, but they did not respond at all. Then again, I’m starting to like Ascension Press a bit better anyway. They have fewer resources, but the quality is a bit better. Maybe I should contact them.
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David Ancell / Sunday, February 05, 2006 / Comments(0)
I’ve been a bit lazy with my prayer life lately. Trying to find something to use as a kneeler in my apartment just wasn’t working, and I could only hold my lazy self up for so long. So, I saw an ad in the West Tennessee Catholic for a solid oak prayer kneeler by someone whom I knew was local. He happened to have one left that was already made, and I managed to get there to buy it. It is a very solid, attractive kneeler. It’s a better design that some things that I’ve seen that are more expensive. If you are in the area and get the West Tennessee Catholic, the ad for the Nazareth Shoppe is in this week’s edition.
While I was at it, I was reminded that the Catholic Church in Memphis was really a small world. It turns out that this man and his family had seen me in church before a number of times, but we had never introduced ourselves to each other. It goes to show that if you hang around the church and adoration chapels in this city, people will know your face.
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David Ancell / Saturday, February 04, 2006 / Comments(0)
I just got a message about an article that a man has filed a class-action suit against Apple Computers because of hearing loss caused by an iPod. Could someone please tell this man that the iPod has a volume control? Granted, maybe he’s having trouble finding it because it isn’t a dedicated control, but the darn thing does come with an instruction manual. Mine did.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, January 31, 2006 / Comments(0)
I haven’t read the Pope’s new encyclical, but I hope to soon. I just heard word of this article saying that he “Shuns Strictures of Orthodoxy”, brought to you by the same newspaper who said that John Paul II’s smile “belied his doctrinaire stance.” It’s like those who have been set free by the truth, as Jesus said we would be, are walking around with the look of severe constipation on our faces all the time.
I can’t help but wonder if Pope Benedict’s approach may slowly ease a few of them into finding out what the Church really stands for. Maybe some will even begin to understand the Church’s supposedly “repressive” teachings. It’s like I told a the RCIA to whom I told my conversion story. If you don’t see a particular teaching of the Church as a positive good, then please keep searching.
Then again, maybe I am dreaming here. Take a look at the quote from “We are Church [despite the fact that the things we believe put us out of communion with the Church]”:
Loving your neighbors also means loving critical theologians, he said. “He also has to apply these ideas within the church itself.”
Does loving someone mean letting them persist in their error and spread it to others? No, it does not. If God’s love existed apart from his truth, then it couldn’t be true love. Love wills the good of the beloved; therefore, it wills that the beloved know the truth.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, January 31, 2006 / Comments(0)
I just got a news report that Creighton University is using text messaging to let students know that they have been accepted. That’s kinda cool.
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