I wish this photo were taken east of where I am right now ...
... so I could caption it, "What would I do for a Klondike bar?" But the bar is actually in Anchorage, and truthfully I can't think of anywhere I would rather have been last night. Would say more, but must get sleep for tonight's talk in Wasilla. Tomorrow, it's Seattle—more details on the Appearances page of thrillofthechaste.com.
Among the many other beautiful experiences I have enjoyed on this trip was yesterday's visit to St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church. Many thanks to Radical Catholic Mom for taking me there, and for Father Hornick for the tour.
Speaking of Radical Catholic Mom, she writes on her blog about a moment of grace we shared with Ed Iwata.
AND ANOTHER THING: Father Phil Bloom of Holy Family Parish previews his Trinity Sunday homily, which includes some very kind references to my book. I will be signing copies of The Thrill of the Chaste after Holy Family's Saturday Vigil Masses and its Sunday Masses.
"From the road, where the vehicles were parked and where hundreds of people who had not dared to brave the mud were congregated, one could see the immense multitude turn toward the sun, which appeared free from clouds and in its zenith. It looked like a plaque of dull silver, and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It might have been an eclipse which was taking place. But at that moment a great shout went up, and one could hear the spectators nearest at hand shouting: 'A miracle! A miracle!'
"Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws--the sun 'danced,' according to the typical expression of the people.
"Standing at the step of an omnibus was an old man. With his face turned to the sun, he recited the Credo in a loud voice. I asked who he was and was told Señor Joao da Cunha Vasconcelos. I saw him afterwards going up to those around him who still had their hats on, and vehemently imploring them to uncover before such an extraordinary demonstration of the existence of God.
"Identical scenes were repeated elsewhere, and in one place a woman cried out: 'How terrible! There are even men who do not uncover before such a stupendous miracle!'
"People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and the dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it in its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively ..."
— Avelino de Almeida, editor in chief of O Seculo, a pro-government, anti-clerical Lisbon paper, describing the "Miracle of the Sun" at Fatima, October 13, 1917.
Kathleen, a lovely local woman who is taking me around Kenai, Alaska, where I am speaking at Theology on Tap tonight (7 p.m. at Paradiso's), brought me to Holy Assumption Orthodox Church yesterday. It is a National Historic Landmark, reportedly the only one in Alaska that is reachable by car.
The priest, Father Thomas, had finished the Pentecost liturgy when we arrived, but he graciously took the time to show us around the church. On my way out, I bought a pocket-sized fold-out set of two icons from the gift shop. It bore images like the two that bracket the altar in this photo.
I asked Father Thomas if he would bless the icon, expecting him to make the Sign of the Cross and pray for a few seconds, as a Catholic priest would do. Instead, he excused himself for a moment, took the icon back to the altar, prayed a blessing three times, and brought the icon back to me decorated with beads of holy water. Witnessing that was a sort of crash course for me in Orthodox sacramentality, and a very beautiful one at that.
Almost 6 months ago (time flies!) I sent out a prayer request email, because my father had been diagnosed with cancer and was very ill. This was right before Christmas, and I was on my way to VA, where my parents live.
When I arrived, the doctor hospitalized my dad, and the news was awful: late stage esophageal cancer, metastasized to the liver and other places. The doctor was not very hopeful, but put my dad on a very mild chemo to ease some of his symptoms.
And wouldn't you know it? He started to respond to that mild chemo as if it was an aggressive treatment. The doctor was totally puzzled by that. And he only became more puzzled as my dad regained strength while his tumors shrunk and his blood tests came back increasingly better.
As of a couple weeks ago, my dad had his last chemo treatment, and the doctor remains puzzled--they can't feel the tumors anymore, and his cancer "markers" are in the same range as someone who doesn't have cancer at all. My dad is back to volunteering at his church, working on his radio voice overs, and living a normal life. In fact, this week, he and my mom are on a road trip. Go figure. Prayer works!
I wanted to just follow up to let you all know how he is doing, and to also thank you all SO MUCH for praying for him.
Hearing the readings at the Vigil Mass made me think how much the Church's cycle of readings adds to my understanding of the Bible. I had never before thought of the Tower of Babel in connection with Pentecost. It was interesting to realize the parallels. In Babel, God introduced confusion of languages to prevent people from understanding one another. On Pentecost, He used a variety of languages to enable people to understand one another. In Babel, man tried to ascend to God; on Pentecost, God descended to man. In Babel, God foils man's attempt to build an earthly city; on Pentecost, God enables man to take an active role in building up the New Jerusalem.
"Death, Iwata reflected over his coffee, must be like falling into the greatest unconditional love you can imagine.
"'Think about a time when you felt love, or in love. The feeling consumes you and you’re floating on a cloud. Then double that and you’re bursting. Multiply it by 10 times and you can’t contain it. Multiply it infinitely – that’s God,' he said."
— From Effie Caldarola's interview with Ed Iwata, an Anchorage, Alaska, volunteer for No One Dies Alone who visits dying hospital patients who have no friends and family. I had the great pleasure of meeting him this afternoon.
Tour of the Chaste coming to Alaska, Washington State
If you're in the neighborhood, come hear me speak next week in Alaska or Washington State. At every talk, I will be signing copies of The Thrill of the Chaste—and Holy Family Parish will even have copies of La aventura de la castidad.
About to board first leg of flight to Alaska—please pray for traveling mercies for me. Many thanks! (Update, 5/10/08, 1:35 a.m. Alaskan time: Just got in and want to say THANKS to those who prayed. There was a tense situation on my second flight of the day, from Seattle to Anchorage; an unruly passenger was removed from the plane before we left the tarmac. Never seen that happen before. So relieved they got him off the plane before it took off. Please keep those prayers coming while I do this tour.)
May 12
Talk: "The Thrill of the Chaste," Theology on Tap, Kenai, Alaska—details TBA.
May 13
Talk: "The Thrill of the Chaste," Theology on Tap, Anchorage—details TBA.
May 14
Talk: "The Thrill of the Chaste," Theology on Tap, Mat-Su, Alaska—details TBA.
May 15
Talk: “The Girl Who Was Thirsty: How G. K. Chesterton Led Me to Faith," Seattle Chesterton Society, Falcon Lounge, Seattle Pacific University, 7:30 p.m., free.
May 16
Talk: "The Thrill of the Chaste," Seattle University, Bannan 200 (Wyckoff Auditorium), 7 p.m., free. Note: Event is advertised for adults 18 and older.
May 17
Book signing, Holy Family Parish, West Seattle, after 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Masses.
May 18
Book signing, Holy Family Parish, West Seattle, after 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Masses.
Talk: "The Thrill of the Chaste," St. Stephen the Martyr Parish, Renton, Wash., 6:45 p.m. (after 5:30 p.m. Life Teen Mass), free. Note: Event is advertised for young adults 16 and older.
Todd Seavey, who long ago outed himself as atheist "Tom" of The Thrill of the Chaste, has reached the point in his blog's autobiographical "Retro-Journal" series where he is about to chronicle the beginning of our friendship, when we were dating.
He recalls our first meeting and includes a charming detail I had forgotten:
[We spoke briefly] at a Fabiani Society gathering after we both approached speaker Jonah Goldberg to ask questions — with Goldberg, perhaps more presciently than Dawn or me, mock-concealing himself behind a curtain to “get out of our way” as we began talking to each other.
Publishing this e-mail with the permission of the couple who sent it:
Hello All,
I'm sorry for such a mass email, but my family is in serious need of prayers.
Bobby and I received news on Monday that our unborn baby has a tumor. As of now it is stable in size. If it begins to grow however, the baby has a 25% chance of survival.
We are begging all of you to say a prayer right now for our baby and to activate any prayer chains you may be part of that we may be blessed with a safe delivery the first week of August and a healthy baby.
Thank you so very much in advance and we will keep you all informed as much as possible.
CosmoGirl columnist Josh Shipp's supercharged schtick may seem ADD, but his pro-life answer to the first reader's question in this video is pure RCC.
UPDATE: A couple of commenters have said this is the wrong video, but I believe that problem is only for those using RSS-type readers; the right video, "Knocked Up," shows up below on my blog.
