life, the universe, and everything in two sentences

"The difference between one and more-than-one
is all the difference in the world.

Indeed, that difference is the world."


--Ursula LeGuin, The New Atlantis, The Compass Rose, p. 17

Cindy's questions and mine

WHY are they dying?
WHEN will it end???
It's about Oil.
It's about Domination.
It's about Money
& Freedom to exploit.
It's NOT about Democracy.

Whose children will be sacrificed today?

Research and "science" in education

http://susanohanian.org/show_research.html?id=71

Cindy Sheehan

We held vigil last night with Cindy Sheehan.

We, too, believe that our government is NOT answering the following questions:

Why did we go to war?
How many have died because of this?
When will our military come home?

What's wrong with this picture?

I just got cable television. We were privileged to see the President's press conference in Crawford, Texas, where he answered questions about, among other things, Cindy Sheehan.

The staging was interesting. President Bush is standing in his blue shirt-sleeves, talking earnestly like a good-ole-boy. Mr. Cheney is wearing some kind of windbreaker jacket outfit, and Dr. Rice is wearing a pantsuit outfit and low heels.

The dirt road is in the background, and the President, at least, is made up to look as if he belongs there, unless you realize that the whole country is experiencing a heat wave and these people are all all standing out in the sun.

What good ole country boy wouldn't have the sense to stand in the shade?

All hat, no cattle.

Brings to mind the 30,000 Boy Scouts who were forced to stand in the sun and heat for many hours so that the President could console them on their losses recently.

What kind of judgment is going on here?

Dear Representative Ron Lewis,

I’m writing to express my extreme disappointment in learning that you voted for the 2005 energy bill and its billions of dollars in giveaways to coal, oil, and nuclear companies.

Nuclear power is not a safe option, although its construction will generate lots of money to big business entities. Any resulting catastrophes, which are bound to happen sooner or later, will generate cash flow as well, I suppose. Maybe that's the reasoning behind support of nuclear power?

I have spent time in Heidelberg, Germany, and have noticed that a more "green" lifestyle is not only a long-term benefit for the future of the people, but generates short-term, immediate well-being in a better lifestyle. Everyday life is much better. People enjoy themselves more, and are not caught up in the ratrace of "consume, consume, consume, work, work, work" that we are saddled with here in the US.

I hope you will go back to the drawing board before the next election and craft a truly forward-thinking national energy policy that includes the following: 1) An end, not an increase, to coal and oil subsidies; 2) A significant increase in funding for energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy programs – the quickest way to reduce our oil dependence; 3) An immediate and significant upgrade of the CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) on new cars and light trucks; 4) A comprehensive set of tax incentives for energy-efficient technologies and appliances; 5) Adoption of the Hannover Principles as guidelines for planning.

Please show that you care more about the well being of the people of our state than you do about increasing the already huge profits of coal and oil companies. Please lead the way back to the drawing board and immediately set to work on a national energy plan based on efficiency, conservation and renewable energy. We need a forward-thinking plan with real goals, real benchmarks, real dates for reaching energy sustainability.

I look forward to hearing from you on what you plan to do.

Karl Rove

Karl Rove is being quoted as saying: "Perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

This statement makes a lot of people angry, but Karl's famous for being perceptive. Let's use hindsight to look at what he said.

"War." Those who prepared for war certainly got what they prepared for. War. We don't see signs of increased national security as a result. Instead we see exponential increase in desperate people who are prone to become terrorists, increased terrorist organizations, and a highly efficient training ground (Iraq urban battlefields).

"Understanding." One of the clearest bits of hindsight for all of us is the fact that our understanding of the Middle East was lacking. Our leadership's understanding, especally of Iraq, has proved to have been tragically, disastrously wrong. Can anyone argue against the need for more understanding?

"Prepare indictments." According to news reports, indictments and legal proceedings by world police and governments have brought many terrorists and their organizations to justice, far more than those apprehended by military means.

And "therapy." Therapy. Interesting concept. In Iraq, pouring money into military strength, though it has cost over $170,000,000,000 and used many, many thousands of people (including 1734 Americans who gave their lives), has not been able to prevail.

Suppose we had used "therapy?" Suppose our response to 9/11 had been to spend $170,000,000,000 dollars and set many thousands of people to use our knowledge of healing, peacemaking, community improvement, education, economics, global interaction to eliminate or reduce the indignities that have produced the last 30 years of tragedy and suffering on both sides?

Nothing like that has ever been attempted in the history of the world. But we, in the USA, do have the power.

When will we humans learn to put our strength behind our true strengths?

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Originally uploaded by hettingr.

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Originally uploaded by hettingr.

filibuster for life

And at least one opponent of the measure [to extend federal funding for stem-cell research], Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, has indicated that if Dr. Frist puts the bill on the agenda, he may try to block it by filibuster.

"I have conveyed to Senate leadership that we must do everything we can procedurally to stop unethical embryonic stem cell research in the Senate, and I will work to do just that," Mr. Brownback said in a statement released Tuesday night. "We simply should not go down the road of using taxpayer dollars to kill young humans."

Well, I'll drink to that! YES!
Do you suppose Senator Brownback will filibuster anything that doesn't meet these inspiring criteria?

Knife cleaning 101

Thank you, Michael!

Chant at St. Joe

Pentecost 7 am
Entrance: Come Holy Ghost (with organ)
Responsorial Psalm from missalette
Sequence: Holy Spirit, Lord Divine alternating lines: cantor/ choir
Gospel Acclamation: Easter Alleluia
Prep. of Gifts: Spiritus Domini
Sanctus Mass XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Christ Has Died, Alleluia (Wise)
Great Amen
Agnus Dei Mass XVIII
Communion Psalm: Psalm 63 O God, You Are My God. English verses.
Sending: organ voluntary

Evolution, Creationism, Randomness

"Can you tell us, sir, how old you believe the Earth is?" the lawyer, Pedro Irigonegaray, asked William S. Harris, a chemist, who helped write the proposed changes to the state standards.

"I don't know," Dr. Harris replied. "I think it's probably really old."

If the state board adopts the new standards, as expected, Kansas will join Ohio, which took a similar step in 2002, in requiring that students be taught that there is controversy about evolution. Legislators in Alabama and Georgia have introduced bills this season to allow teachers to challenge Darwin in class.

Do these people who "challenge Darwin" actually know Darwin? What are they really trying to challenge? I think it's their own perception of Darwin that contains the evil they are trying to eliminate, not Darwin.

When I was little, one of the questions in the little blue book was, "Where is God?"

The answer, as I remember it, is: "God is everywhere."

"God is everywhere." and "Where your heart is, there your treasure is."

We find God in that which we know, love, and pursue our greatest interest. People who embrace family and responsibility find God in that pursuit, and will probably define God with words from their personal experience. People who embrace Church, in its depth and fullness of potential, will certainly own a rich vocabulary to speak of God. People who find God, as Kepler did, in the harmony of the heavenly bodies, define God's goodness in the vocabulary of their love: science. People who find God in reason can speak of God in reasonable ways.

The problem only becomes a problem when someone of one branch of God-experience looks at the other's words and says, "They must be wrong. They have faith in empty words, or empty deeds, or meaningless images," mistakenly ascribing their own emptiness of that particular God-experience to the other person.

From their own point of view, the Creationists are correct to say that Science is wrong to teach that randomness drives the universe, with no love, no personal direction, no caring, no afterlife.

They are "correct" because they equate "randomness" with "meaninglessness." They don't understand that randomness is the key point at which all life and all value is generated. Randomness is that cherished point at which love functions most fully.

Science & reason are not opposed to creation. They are merely a bigger vocabulary. A different image.

Where is God? God is everywhere.

If you truly believe in God, you should be able to stop fighting about things you don't understand, and go about your own life, walking with God wherever God is found.

Baghdad

Faiza writes:

Now I began to understand why some Iraqis objected to the elections, considering it illegal, with the presence of an occupying force… I used to see them as silly extremists, while I supported the theory of "try, work, and push towards achieving your national goals", and by your intelligence, you could achieve the demands of your people, bringing honest, nationalist men to rule, men who want to achieve much for the welfare of Iraqis, and push the occupation outside Iraq…
But I discovered that these were naïve dreams, and an un-achievable equation within the present circumstances of Iraq.
As long as there is an occupation… it means you are weak, and do not posses enough pressure cards to win against the occupation force…and push it out of the country.
And day after day, they confirm the theory that they didn't come for the eyes of the Iraqis, and that they wouldn't pull out, not even if some 20 million Iraqis walk in a demonstration demanding they leave Iraq, ( that is, assuming some 5 millions are supporting them).
"We are here to stay"… it looks like this is their undeclared slogan, which is slapping all our faces, and that is something that the whole world will know, after the Iraqis.
Time is the only wager…
And we shall see…

Why are we all so helpless to stop this carnage that we started?

Chant at St. Joe

Holy Hour and Benediction
Sunday, May 1, 3:00 PM
13th Anniversary of Eucharistic Adoration at St. Joseph

Opening Song: O Salutaris Hostia
Praying of the Rosary
Silent Prayer and Adoration
Liturgy of the Word
Tantum Ergo
Divine Praises
Blessing, Benediction
Holy God We Praise Thy Name
Thank you to volunteers
Reception

Father Bill Medley, Presider
Eucharistic Adorers
Gregorian Choir

Chant at St. Joe

In honor of Pope John Paul II
Maggie Hettinger
will sing
Vespers in Latin
for
Eucharistic Adoration
on
Tuesday, April 12th
and
Thursday, April 14th
in the
West Sacristy Chapel
at 5:00 PM

--Flaget Nalley, organizer

The Blessing and Recital of the Pilcher Pipe Organ--St. Catherine Church, New Haven, KY

The Blessing and Recital of the Pilcher Pipe Organ
St. Catherine Church, New Haven, KY
Sunday, April 10, 2005

BRIEF HISTORY OF ST. CATHERINE PARISH

St. Catherine's rich heritage goes back to 1844 wenn this parish was first established.

The first church erected on this site in 1844 was destroyed by fire in 1928. This church was described as being the finest church in the United States for a small town. Lost in this devastating fire was the Van Dinter organ, made in Mishawaka, Indiana. This organ was possibly the first instrument made in the state designed so the organist would sit with his/her back to the instrument while playing it.

The present church of Romanesque architecture, designed by Carl J. Epping, was dedicated on Sunday, March 30, 1930.

These words were taken from the dedication brochure:
"Today, all obstacles surmounted, this new church stands, a monument to the zeal and energy of this parish..." (This same zeal and energy still exists in our parish today.)

The main altar and two side altars are of the finest statuary and Poanazzo marble, inlaid with Venetian Mosaics. The Stations of the Cross, by Feuerstein, were imported from Munich, Germany, a gift from the Rt. Rev. Obrecht, at that time, Abbot of the Abbey of Gethsemani.

The stained glass windows in St. Catherine's Church were researched in 1993 by Father Fred W. Klotter, who was then a seminarian assigned to St. Catherine. Father Klotter found a name on one of the windows "signed" Emil Frei, Inc. of St. Louis and Munich, a company still in operation, but their company experienced a fire and lost all the records of their work done during 1930.

The pipe organ was installed in this church in Many 1931 at a cost of $1,350. This modest jewel of an organ was built in the 1890's by the firm of Henry Pilcher's Sons of Louisville, their Opus 83. Mr. John Gunther and Mr. Roy Heimerdinger, employees of the Pilcher Co., installed this organ. The organ was played for the first time on Sunday, May 17, 1931.

This historic organ is one of the last few remaining unaltered organs built by the prestigious firm of Henry Pilcher's Sons, Louisville, Kentucky. Where this instrument was originally installed is a mystery.

---

ORGAN RESTORATION

This fine example of late 19th century organ building has two manual deyboards and a pedal keyboard which access 10 ranks (or sets) of pipes totaling 514 pipes in all. This is a "tracker" organ. It has mechanical action where the organist, through a series of verious levers, trackers, squares, rollers, backfalls and pulldowns, actually opens the valves which let air into the pipes. The organ was in very good original condition. Prior to 2002, this organ was not played for about 10 years, but with periodic repairs, it has been in regular use since January 2002.

Major renovation of the organ began in February 2004. Work was carried out following guidelines set up by the Organ Historical Society which is dedicated to preserving these fine old instruments.

The renovation included replacing all leather parts, a thorough cleaning, replacing some missing and damaged pipes and a final regulation of voicing and turning to maintain the original tonal levels and balances of the organ.

Te single largest part of the project was releathering the four by seven foot reservoir including the feeder pumping bellows. Also, another significant part of the project was turning the organ 90 degrees out of the balcony alcove where it had been installed so that it now speaks directly out into the church.

New case sides were also added.

With the renovation of this instrument completed, we expect another 110 year of organ music for St. Cathering and the community.

We would like to thank everyone in St. Catherine Parish and the New Haven community for the courtesy shown to us during our time here at St. Catherine.

Pete Webber,
Webber and Borne Organ Builders
Louisville, KY

---

SPECIFICATIONS OF THE ORGAN

Great Swell Pedal

8' Open Diapason
8' Violin Diapason
16' Bourdon
8' Melodia
8' Stopped Diapason
8' Common Bass
8' Common Bass Couplers
8' Dulciana
4' Harmonic Flute Swell to Great
4' Octave
8' Oboe
2' Super Octave
(Reed pipes t.c.) Swell to Great Octaves
Tremolo Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal

---

BLESSING OF THE ORGAN

Opening Hymn Gather and Remember (Finlandia)
...accompanist, Roberta Tannahill

Greeting and Welcome
...Father Clarence Howard, pastor

Psalm 98: All the Ends of the Earth (David Haas, Marty Haugen)
...Cantor: Randy Stephens
...Accompanist: Roberta Tannahill

Blessing Prayer
"We dedicate this organ for your glory and your praise!"

The deacon sprinkles and incenses the instrument.
Psalm 47: Ascendit Deus,
"God mounts his throne to shouts of joy, a blare of trumpets for the Lord."
...Amy Hettinger, vocalist
...Gregorian Choir, Director, Maggie Hettinger

Song of Mary (Magnificat) Schola and assembly
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, organist
...Gregorian Choir, Director, Maggie Hettinger
...Carmel Bowman, cantor

The Lord's Prayer

Final Prayer

Hymn: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Beethoven)
...Choir made up of members of many, many, local choirs.

---

RECITAL
Fubue in C Major ("the Great") Johann Sebastian Bach
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Canon in D Pachelbel
...Maggie Hettinger, Flutist
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Voluntary VI, Set II, Opus 6 John Stanley (1713-1786)
...John Marcum, organist

Meditation Richard Lloyd
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Finale (Organ Sonata, Six, Opus 65) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
...John Marcum, organist

Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock Johann Sebastian Bach
...Maggie Hettinger, Flutist
...Bro. Luke Armour, OCSO, Organist

Two Hymns:
Chorale Prelude on Praise to the Lord, the Almighty Johann Gottfried Walter (1684-1748)
Lobe den Herren
Exaltation on Christ the Lord is Risen Today Alice Jordan (b. 1916)
Easter Hymn
...John Marcum, Organist

After the recital, you are invited to the balcony to greet Mrs. Maggie Hettinger, Ms. Amy Hettinger, Bro Luke Armour, OCSO, and Mr. John Marcum.

Mr Pete Webber, of Webber & Borne Organ Builders, will also be in the balcony to greet you and answer any questions about the organ restoration.

---

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their invaluable assistance, we wish to express our thanks and gratitude to Bro Luke Armour, OCSO, Mrs. Thelma Ford, Mrs. Carol Ann Haynes, Ms. Amy Hettinger, Mrs. Maggie Hettinger, Mr. Philip Hines, Mr. John Marcum, Mrs Joan O'Bryan and Pete Webber and staff.

We would like also to thank those in news media, expecailly, Mr. Mike Grosso, Mr. Barry Bernson, The LaRue County Herald News, The Kentucky Standard, PLG TV-13, and WAVE-TV News.

A special note of appreciation to all our benefactors, the Sa. Catherine parishioners and our pastor , Father Clarence J. Howard. Without your generosity, support and encouragement, this organ restoration would not have been possible.

Organ Restoration Committee:
Billie J. Alvey
Fred Boone
Totsie Boone
Sissie Clark
Julia Sims
Randy Stephens
Betty Vittitow
Martha Vittitow
Leigh Ann Wimsett

Notes:
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. Attendance was good, the church was full. An exceptional meal was served by the parish, and a great time was had by all.
Prelude music by a flutist and violinist is not listed on the program.
Thanks Martha!!!

Air in tires would = ANWR oil

excerpts from an Earth Day observation by syndicated columnist Edward Flattau:

By simply pumping up their tires to the proper pressure, Americans would free up as much oil as is expected to be derived from the unique ANWR wilderness.

Benedict XVI on war

"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war.'"

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, May 2, 2003.

I wasn't paying a bit of attention to politics until our country's horribly misguided, mistaken, WRONG, response to 9/11. I agree wholeheartedly with this positon of our new pope. If the new "young priests" were to take some active attention to THIS bit of the Holy Father's wisdom, I would buy them all the fancy dishes and frilly clothes they want.

But, I suspect they only want to follow him in as much as he appears to give them power & control.

My wonderful pastor was treating us Sunday with his insight that the last 40 years in the Catholic Church have been a "wasteland" from which he and our newly Confirmed are going to rescue all of us. He says "that's why we got the Pope we got." He crowed about that a little, then did some name-dropping about his connection with "Uncle Joe" Ratzinger.

All this from a newly-ordained convert to the Catholic Church who never lived through the last 40 years with us. What an ass. Every Sunday, from the ambo and the altar, we get put-downs--who we are, what we've learned, the people who taught us (priests, sisters, laypeople in the church, Archdiocese, the American Bishops, liberals), the things we do. And there is almost always a good statement about how educated or how ordained he is, or just plain name-dropping. He is "instructing" us now, from the ambo and in our Sunday bulletin.

It's a unique experience. Certainly not a performance I've ever seen from a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

I will say one thing. Sunday, he mentioned the word "Christ" 4 or 5 times. That's a record. I think that's more often than he's said the word during the whole 10 months of Sunday sermons.

Abu Ghraib

As the courts-martial and the Armed Services Committee hearings over Abu Ghraib clear senior Army officers (except Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. prison facilities in Iraq) and find low-level soldiers guilty, we Americans can observe a government administration that barges confidently and controllingly into all situations, but takes no responsibility for its actions.

I suspect that, when we look back at the ongoing grief, death, and humiliation in Iraq, we will realize that the Iraqi "insurgents" won the last battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people when they launched their concerted attack on Abu Ghraib last month.