A New Psychological Condition?

Dearest Reader,

Pop quiz: Is this a psychological condition?

I missed a movie because I spent the last two hours reading and alternating between reading: German articles about the Dominican observant movement in the 14th century, the reforms advocated by various groups for Franciscan Spirituals (and looking for an online Latin copy of the Constitutiones Narbonenses; they’re all in Europe…mostly), the complete text of the Pali Canon according to the 1960s Burmese redaction (mostly the second “basket”), commentaries on the concept of anatta in Buddhism (compared to Hindu thought), the life of the Orthodox hieromonk Seraphim Rose (and listening to a lecture of his), the history of Jainism, and various frontpage links on Reddit. All while listening to Vietnamese music.

The music just switched to Carly Rae Jepsen.

So it’s OK now, right?

 

Yours in Christ,

Br. JD, OP

Summer Movie Outlook 2012

Dear Reader,

I just finished a look ahead at some summer movies over at PreachingFriars.Org as part of my Cinema Divinite series. Go have a look!

http://www.preachingfriars.org/summer-2012-movie-outlook

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

Feast of the Swiss Guards

Dear Reader,

Just a very interesting shot of the celebrations today for the Swiss Guard – this is the anniversary of a death of a large number of them during a famous sack of Rome in 1527. Watch more here:

The story of the Sack of Rome is harrowing, and the Swiss Guards performed valiantly. Many sacrificed their lives in withstanding Imperial attacks so that the Pope could escape St. Peter’s Basilica and make it to Castel San Angelo. Read the wikipedia article here for a little bit more context.

 

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

Feria Quarta

Dear Reader,

I laughed a bit when I read this first sentence from the Vatican Insider, a famous “inside scoop” on things happening in Rome by Andrea Torinelli. This was the first sentence of a piece on the, God-willing, immanent reconciliation of the SSPX to full communion with the Catholic Church:

The response sent to the Vatican on 17 April by Bishop Bernard Fellay will be examined in the next few days by the cardinal and bishop members in Ordinary Session of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, commonly known as Feria Quarta….

The bit at the end might just be a bad translation, but is rather funny if you understand what the bold “Feria Quarta” means. A “feria” is Latin for “weekday,” with “Sabbato” for Saturday and “Dominica” for Sunday in ecclesiastical Latin.  Feria quarta is, as the number attached to it indicates, the “fourth” weekday – namely, Wednesday (as the fourth from Sunday).

So, in other words, the piece is claiming that the official title for an ordinary meeting of the CDF is “Wednesday.” That’s just silly.

The moral of the story: a little Latin knowledge can stop you from making yourself look like a fool in the media.

What they mean is that the CDF ordinarily meets on Wednesdays for their general sessions. Ah, Roman efficiency to work one day during the week. Now we know why it takes the CDF so long to get around to things like censoring renegade theologians – they’re just out for gellato on Feria Quinta thru Feria Tertia!

 

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

New Cinema Divinite – Carnage by Polanski

Dear Reader,

I just got done with another movie review – this time for Roman Polanski’s Carnage. Take a look!

http://www.preachingfriars.org/cinema-divinite-carnage

The next review might be of the Descendants or Cabin in the Woods - we’ll just have to see.

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

Donations Now Accepted for Preachingfriars.org

Dearest Reader,

My Order of Dominican friars is what is called a “mendicant” order – we rely on donations for all our work and our daily needs. The reason we do so is so that we can spend our whole time devoted to study and preaching, rather than being concerned about where our next meal or our books are coming from. I post links to good causes every once in a while, such as Catholic Relief Services or the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, and I have some “sponsored” monasteries in the sidebar to the right, but I wanted to specifically mention my own Order’s needs today.

I have just added a link to a PayPal donation option in the right navbar, and I would encourage those who would be interested in sponsoring our website preaching outreach over at www.preachingfriars.org to consider making a donation. The money goes directly toward our preaching efforts over the Internet.

Thank you for your generosity toward the poor and toward those of us involved in preaching the Gospel of peace and truth.

 

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

Seeing yourself in print

Dearest Reader,

It is really quite interesting to stumble across my own name in print. I hope to write more and do more publishing as I move more into academia, working toward a PhD (God-willing, of course, with my superiors’ blessing), which means that I will probably come across it more often in the future. But…it’s still a shock now.

Looking at it online makes me want to say:

You can buy my article for the LOW-LOW price of just $20!

http://www.secure.pdcnet.org/acpaproc/content/acpaproc_2009_0083_0227_0240

Buy one for your mother, sister, brother-in-law, best friends’ high school roommate, and significant other today!

 

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

[PS - if you seriously want a copy, I'm happy to give them out for free - even to your best friend's high school roommate]

Getting out of speeding tickets with physics :)

Dear Reader,

Dmitri Krioukov, a senior research scientist at UCSD, got out of a speeding ticket of $400 by giving a four page article to the judge, explaining why the officer would have thought Dmitri did not stop fully at the stop sign, claiming a sort of “optical illusion” as an excuse. He describes his paper, on his faculty website, as a prize-winning publication:  ”The paper was awarded a special prize of $400 that the author did not have to pay to the state of California.”

The conclusion of the paper:

In summary, police officer O made a mistake, confusing the real spacetime trajectory of car C1|which moved at approximately constant linear deceleration, came to a complete stop at the stop sign, and then started moving again with the same acceleration, the blue solid line in Fig. 5|for a trajectory of a hypothetical object moving at approximately constant linear speed without stopping at the stop sign, the red solid line in the same figure. However, this mistake is fully justified, and it was made possible by a combination of the following three factors:

1. O was not measuring the linear speed of C1 by any
special devices; instead, he was estimating the vi-
sual angular speed of C1;

2. the linear deceleration and acceleration of C1 were
relatively high; and

3. the O’s view of C1 was brie y obstructed by an-
other car C2 around time t = 0.

As a result of this unfortunate coincidence, the O’s perception of reality did not properly reflect reality.

Just because it’s so funny, you can read the full article here.

I love scientists with a sense of humor. It’s like XKCD in real life.

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

Patrick Stewart, OP

Dear Reader,

It might come as a surprise, but Star Trek: The Next Generation was a significant formative influence on my life, when I was growing up. I loved Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise and everything he stood for. He was moral, philosophical, scientific, and an all-around great guy. His commitment to truth and justice was something I strove to be. It was probably a great part of the reason I entered the Dominican Order and pursued philosophy – both really about pursuit of the truth.

Here’s a famous monologue from TNG when Jean-Luc confronts Wesley Crusher for having lied at Starfleet Academy:

[Oh, and PS - it's just slightly modified]

“The first duty of every Dominican friar is to the Truth. It is the guiding principle on which the Order is based. If you can’t find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth…you don’t deserve to wear that habit….”

Fiat.

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP

Divine Merciful Dinner

Dear Reader,

Despite my lack of posting recently, I have been cooking away for Easter dinner and for tonight’s “Divine Mercy” Sunday vigil. Or, better, Dominica in Albis Depositis’ vigil. Today, the Sunday in the Octave of Easter gets the latter name, “The Sunday on which the White Garments are Laid Aside,” because the newly baptized wore their baptismal garments (white) for the whole octave, only putting them aside today.

Anyway, despite my liturgical circuitousness, I wanted to post tonight’s dinner menu:

I made a Cucumber-Shrimp Gazpacho,

a “French” Potato Salad,

Turkey-Chicken Burgers with Basil Mayonnaise (the latter is not pictured),

and Chocolate Panna Cotta with Raspberry-Port-Balsamic Sauce on top (and a sprig of mint).

 

 

The mint sprig was the bright idea of Br. Joe Trout, who was one of my two co-chefs in the creation of this lovely dinner (the other being Br. Jude McPeak).

Simply, it went very nicely.

I can post the recipes for those interested; no item was very difficult to make and did not require very exotic ingredients. Any amateur chef could easily replicate a dinner like this.

 

Yours in Christ,

Br. James Dominic, OP