tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115279242024-03-23T10:52:02.513-07:00JonAquino2Incubating thoughts and personal ramblingsJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.comBlogger556125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-16938546126320208632010-09-26T17:57:00.002-07:002010-09-26T17:57:48.529-07:00SidneyEating by yourself is a hopeless thing<br />I like hopeful things<br />Like taking the bus to Sidney and watching the waves<br />But not when it's darkJonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-58267439487348737342010-08-15T20:09:00.002-07:002010-08-15T20:11:59.693-07:00T.S. Eliot on Dante“The poet does not aim to excite—that is not even a test of his success—but to set something down; the state of the reader is merely <b>that reader's particular mode of perceiving what the poet has caught in words</b>. Dante, more than any other poet, has succeeded in dealing with his philosophy, <b>not as a theory</b> (in the modern and not the Greek sense of that word) or as his own comment or reflection, <b>but in terms of something perceived</b>. When <b>most of our modern poets confine themselves to what they had perceived, they produce for us, usually, only odds and ends of still life and stage properties</b>; but that does not imply so much that the method of Dante is obsolete, as that our vision is perhaps comparatively restricted.”<br /><br />—T.S. Eliot, <a href="http://www1.bartleby.com/200/sw14.html">The Sacred Wood</a>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-54652661090704584142010-04-15T15:25:00.003-07:002010-04-15T15:37:00.231-07:00Finished the IliadAfter several months, I have now finished reading that great Homeric epic, The Iliad. It is a beautiful story - beautiful in that it movingly portrays human character in the extreme situation of war. In the last chapter, we see the panoply of human emotions: the frenzy of the games held after the victory of battle, the longing for sweet sleep after a long day, the insatiable grief and self-torment of a man mourning his best friend. It is good to see that humanity at its core has not changed much since Ancient Greece. In this great epic, we see a reflection of ourselves, as through an ancient mirror.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-73047046418853140432010-03-07T10:43:00.003-08:002010-03-07T10:56:50.390-08:00Two thoughtsThis morning, I had two interesting thoughts.<br /><br />The first pertains to a remark I heard by a coworker 13 years ago. “If heaven is real,” she said, “I don’t want to go there. It would be boring.” This morning, I had a thought that, given that God is omnipotent, the possibilities for heaven are limitless. Specifically, one could conceive that each <i>room</i> in the kingdom of heaven might be <i>its own universe</i>, with its own space, its own galaxies, its own planets, its own flora and fauna. Maybe not exactly like that, but that’s one possibility that shows what an amazing and interesting place it will be. No, Sarah, heaven will <i>not</i> be boring.<br /><br />The second thought was about the idea of <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/what-is-time/">multiple universes</a> that is currently fashionable. If there are other universes, can one universe visit the inhabitants of another universe? Probably not, which is sad. <i>But</i>, perhaps we will see each other in the kingdom of heaven? That is another reason why heaven will not be boring.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-80711944448688360432009-10-05T10:00:00.002-07:002009-10-06T00:37:37.298-07:00PreparationToday I take up as my life's mission the following phrase from The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter 1:<br /><br /> To prepare a worthy dwelling for Christ in my heart.<br /><br />This philosophy is applicable to any state in life. We take whatever comes our way, and use it to prepare our hearts as a dwelling for Christ. If there is trouble in the family, or at work, or in friendship, we treat it as a sharing in the suffering of Christ. When we see others better off than us, we do not envy them, having forsaken the riches of the world, to prepare our hearts for Christ. If we are ill and confined to a bed for the remainder of our years, we use the time profitably in prayer, to prepare our hearts to receive Christ. In this way we attain peace in times of prosperity and in times of affliction.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-80082029716872826262009-03-14T16:39:00.000-07:002009-03-14T16:40:48.664-07:00Find prolonged moments of silence, in order to review your own livesPope Benedict XVI: "Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you to find in this Lenten Season prolonged moments of silence, possibly in retreat, in order to review your own lives in the light of the loving plan of the heavenly Father."<br /><br /><cite>Angelus: Second Sunday of Lent, 8 March </cite>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-5252823964136375622009-03-02T23:34:00.001-08:002009-03-02T23:34:59.945-08:00Bishop Richard Gagnon's homily(1st Sunday of Lent, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Victoria BC)<p>Rainbow as announcement of God's mercy: Even if man falls into sin, God<br>will not destroy the earth. Christ fulfills this covenant.<p>Harrowing of Hell: purgatory. Another sign of mercy.<p>Baptism more than ritual: a sacrament of mercy, through which we are<br>saved. Also a gift of holiness, as it unites us to God. Also, a task to<br>live in a way befitting this gift.<p>Temptation is especially strong in times of holiness, such as the Lenten<br>season. We must persevere.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-56346343843783239042009-02-28T18:20:00.001-08:002009-02-28T18:20:05.461-08:00Father Benoit's advice in the confessionalRealize the love and forgiveness of Christ.<p>Spread the joy of Christ.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-15930259358632995782009-01-17T20:19:00.001-08:002009-01-17T20:19:10.965-08:00ConfessionWent to Confession today, and Father Benoit ended with, "God bless you,<br>and be happy." Will do!Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-32039738594130028832009-01-13T22:07:00.003-08:002009-01-13T22:11:36.451-08:00Instiki 0.10.2 Export Markup patchIf anyone is using Instiki 0.10.2 and wants the Export Markup (Textile) link to work, make the following changes to the source code:<br /><br />/app/controllers/application.rb<br />Insert "options[:stream] = false" at line 66:<br /><pre><br /> options[:type] ||= (FILE_TYPES[File.extname(file)] || 'application/octet-stream')<br /> options[:stream] = false<br /> super(file, options)<br /></pre><br /><br />/app/controllers/wiki_controller.rb<br />Insert "require 'zip/zip'" at line 4:<br /><pre><br />require 'parsedate'<br />require 'zip/zip'<br /><br />class WikiController < ApplicationController<br /></pre>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-29867692012515747872009-01-01T20:15:00.002-08:002009-01-01T20:18:36.427-08:00How does one live well?How does one live well?<br />Or what makes a day well lived?<br />Is it to eat well, drink well, and be glad?<br />To pray in a silent room?<br />To build sandcastles beneath blue skies?<br />To create?<br /><br />How does one live well if one were shut up in a cell with no food?<br />No materials, no books, no light<br />Just hunger, and thoughts, and pain,<br />philosophy, religion, contemplation,<br />emotion, meditation, and confusion?<br /><br />What makes a day well lived?<br />Or is it better to consider a week?<br />Or a month, or a year, or a lifetime?<br />Is it better not to consider it at all,<br />but to live haphazardly, from one inclination to the next,<br />going by feel, gut, recollection,<br />remonstrance, rebuke, appetite?<br /><br />On what can we ground our living?<br />On what motto, creed, or ideal?<br />Shall poetry lead us, or some ancient script,<br />a philosopher from Greece or Rome,<br />a symphony, a painting, an epitaph?<br />Shall we lose ourselves in language or in study,<br />in literature, physics, studying the cosmos?<br />Will we find our salvation in the order and reason of mathematics?<br /><br />How does one live well?<br />Or what makes a day well lived?<br />Is it to eat well, drink well, and be glad?<br />To pray in a silent room?<br />To build sandcastles beneath blue skies?<br />To create?Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-66054280798408465872008-12-21T13:20:00.003-08:002008-12-21T13:51:10.097-08:00Obedience Is FreedomThe rules of religion are, paradoxically, a source of freedom. Without rules and traditions, every day would be similar to the others. I would be working as hard and as late on Sunday as I do on the other days. Day blurs into day, and week into week.<br /><br />But when authority tells me that I not only shouldn't work on Sunday but that I must not, that this day is to be devoted to study and prayer and family, that this or that day is to celebrate this saint or that doctrine, then I am free to do these things. When I am commanded to go to church on a holy day of obligation, then I am freed up to go to church even in the middle of a hectic workday. Life has so many pressing commitments that a command from authority is needed to open up spaces for prayer and celebration. In this way, obedience (to the church) is freedom (from the world).<br /><br />It is also freedom from self. Were I to be deprived of the guidance of Scripture and church teachings, deprived of the traditions of holy days and of the Mass - in short, if I were to have no guidance as to how to spend my time or choose my actions - what would life be like? Surely it would be a constant, frenetic chasing of one pleasure after another, never satisfied, always empty and exhausted. But with the constraints and wisdom of an ancient faith, and the spiritual nourishment of Holy Mass each Sunday, life becomes ordered, resilient, festive, joyful, whole.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-58802656121462060422008-12-13T19:29:00.002-08:002008-12-21T13:50:22.370-08:00PerfectionismLike most people, I have high standards for my work and, in some things, certain ways of doing things that I consider to be the Best Way. But in a team, I must accept that other people may have ideas that are equally valid, or ideas that may be deficient in some respects but good enough. But of course, if someone is veering off course, or doing shoddy work, or could benefit from a sugestion, I'll offer my advice.<br /><br />There is a balance between perfection and good enough, and between strictness and tolerance - between consistency and flexibility, dogmatism and freedom. And they are not necessarily mutually exclusive - one enhances the other, or close observance of one makes the other acceptable. Obviously if things are going too far one way or the other, one must pull back.<br /><br />So it's a matter of good judgement - making the right call at the right time. I tend toward the strict side of things, and I need to be conscious of when to let up, of when it is more appropriate to be flexible.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-29925950480521277602008-11-30T21:06:00.001-08:002008-11-30T21:08:03.805-08:00"many look forward to a genuine and total emancipation of humanity wrought solely by human effort"<blockquote>"Thinking they have found serenity in an interpretation of reality everywhere proposed these days, many look forward to a genuine and total emancipation of humanity wrought solely by human effort; they are convinced that the future rule of man over the earth will satisfy every desire of his heart. Nor are there lacking men who despair of any meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who think that human existence is devoid of any inherent significance and strive to confer a total meaning on it by their own ingenuity alone."</blockquote><br />- Pope Paul VI, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html">Gaudium et Spes</a>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-28712372965518261622008-11-11T21:38:00.000-08:002008-11-11T21:39:01.420-08:00On Western Modern Culture"Again and again we encounter the signs of an alternative civilization<br>to that built on Christ as "cornerstone" - a civilization which, even if<br>not explicitly atheist, is at least positivistic and agnostic, since it<br>is built upon the principle of thinking and acting as if God did not<br>exist. This approach can easily be recognized in the modern so-called<br>scientific, or rather scientistic, mentality, and it can be recognized<br>in literature, especially the mass media. To live as if God did not<br>exist means to live outside the parameters of good and evil, outside the<br>context of values derived from God. It is claimed that man himself can<br>decide what is good or bad. And this program is widely promoted in all<br>sorts of ways."<p>- Pope John Paul II, "Memory and Identity"Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-8294449472237561032008-11-02T19:47:00.002-08:002008-11-02T19:54:56.355-08:00HighToday, feeling in high spirits. Read some poetry. Felt inspired. Built something. There definitely seems to be a cycle between highs and lows. Curiously, both are times when poetry is read easily: during the highs, one can revel in the playfulness of the poets; during the lows, one seeks solace in the searchings of the poets. And strangely, at either end I wouldn't have it any other way: I love the confidence and creativity that accompanies the highs; I love the brutal honesty and reality and ability-to-perceive-the-world-as-it-is of the lows. <br /><br />But for today, I'm carried through the day by good feelings.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-86432513738729104602008-07-13T23:44:00.001-07:002008-07-13T23:44:26.448-07:00Promise to myself: endeavour to get enough sleep each night. It is a<br>simple practice that yields great benefits; failure to do so results in<br>unneeded misery.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-38796029344831036942008-05-12T09:30:00.001-07:002008-05-12T09:30:58.742-07:00The Four Last Things"He who meditates on the Four Last Things, namely, death, judgment, and<br>the eternity of hell and paradise, will not fall into sin."<p>- St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Rule of Life, I.2, circa 1767Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-32090165986840022282008-05-04T12:15:00.001-07:002008-05-04T12:17:55.197-07:00"Worldly people call illnesses misfortunes, but the saints call them visitations of God and favors."<blockquote>Worldly people call illnesses misfortunes, but the saints call them visitations of God and favors. When we are ill we ought certainly to take remedies in order to be cured, but we should always be resigned to whatever God disposes.</blockquote><cite>– St. Alphonsus De Liguori</cite>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-90439658450859999132008-04-13T22:02:00.002-07:002008-04-13T22:12:35.345-07:00Question of EmphasisSunday 10:07pm. It's often a question of emphasis, shading. Weight this aspect of life slightly more, or that. And choosing which wisdom to consume. Eventually it all settles down, an equilibrium of judgement, homeostatic philosophy. Stage lights on, and you act.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-76061463628584215072008-02-24T14:05:00.002-08:002008-02-24T16:32:20.916-08:00Lift, lightLift, light, rise, spring, burst<br />I am nothing, I die. <br /><br />Lift, glow, arise, renew, reveal<br />I am nothing, I die. <br /><br />Sky, fir, cone, phase, flight<br />I am nothing, I die. <br /><br />Wheat, wist, leaf, tone, meal<br />I am nothing, I die. <br /><br />May the Lord grant us a restful night,<br />and a peaceful death.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-21627468461298896432008-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:002008-02-03T16:22:28.093-08:00Today I took a break from workToday I took a break from work, after an intense week. Today is the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time on the Church calendar. I want to treat Sunday differently from the other days, focused on God. This is his day, and ours as well – a day to rest.<br /><br />I went to mass this morning at St. Andrew's Cathedral. Afterwards, I took my mother out to lunch at Subway, where we enjoyed foot-long toasted Subway Clubs. Back at home, I listened to some talks given by the Pope. Took a half-hour nap. Sang a hymn, and prayed part of the Liturgy of the Hours for the Fourth Sunday. And now it's 4:20pm.<br /><br />So far, the day has been a rejuvenating change from the norm.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-24788159854295264252008-01-31T23:28:00.000-08:002008-01-31T23:29:24.503-08:00"From this follows the obligation of the cessation from work and labor on Sundays<blockquote>"From this follows the obligation of the cessation from work and labor on Sundays and certain holy days. The rest from labor is not to be understood as mere giving way to idleness; much less must it be an occasion for spending money and for vicious indulgence, as many would have it to be; but it should be rest from labor, hallowed by religion."</blockquote><br /><cite>– Leo XIII, <em>Rerum Novarum</em>, 41</cite>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-64245372464369164242008-01-23T22:08:00.000-08:002008-01-23T22:10:19.987-08:00"We look to you for our stable hope"<blockquote>"We look to you for our stable hope in a constantly changing world."</blockquote><br /><cite>– Psalm-Prayer, Wednesday, Week II, Liturgy of the Hours</cite>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11527924.post-33097756167291940182008-01-21T21:52:00.001-08:002008-01-23T22:10:54.956-08:00The truth is to be found not withinThe truth is to be found not within. Nor in the past, nor in literature, nor in art. Not in childhood, not in knowledge, not in dreams. Nor the body, the mind, the heart. The time is short. The truth is found where it has always been found in every age.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759347756359490466noreply@blogger.com0