They were left nearly untouched after the war, which makes the trip much like a step back into time. Moving, to think of what was dealt with there.

From the day book on what was going on a special day…

More about that later.

I’m off to the Transport Museum near Covent Garden for the other part of the underground and overground elements.

73s!

Far from overwhelming us with an inscrutable mystery, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity invites us to rejoice in the God who reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is not to deny the hidden depths of God that no creature can ever fathom. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than ours, his thoughts beyond ours. The wonder that we celebrate in the Trinity is that this God, so far beyond us, invites us to share his innermost life. The Trinity is not a problem to be solved, but a life to be lived.

Deuteronomy is lost in wonder at the God who so graciously revealed himself to the children of Israel. “Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God, as you heard it, and live?”

The whole Book of Deuteronomy rejoices in the God who delivered his people from the enslavement of Egypt, chose them in love and brought them to a land that would be their home. Human relationships are only possible as the hidden self is revealed to the other, thereby enabling a communion between those who had previously remained apart. The experience is life-giving. Here we begin to understand the wonder and joy of Moses’s address to the people. The God of Israel is not hidden in mystery. He has revealed himself as the one who has Fathered his people and prospered their children.

In his Letter to the Romans St Paul named the Holy Spirit as God’s power creating the bond between God and man. In the earlier chapters of this same letter Paul had outlined the frustrated efforts of sinful humanity to find peace with God. We have minds that can reason their way to God and yet, because of our sinfulness, reason alone had not brought us into communion with God. The children of Israel had enjoyed the inestimable gift of God’s law and, once again because of their sin, a flawed observance of the law had not brought them into the presence of God.

In his triumphant conclusion Paul rejoiced in the Holy Spirit as the unmerited grace that alone enables our longing for a life with God. “Everyone moved by the Spirit is a Son of God. The Spirit you have received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again. It is the spirit of Sons, and it makes us cry out ‘Abba, Father’.”

We long to be embraced by God and yet every instinct of our sinful humanity seems to mock this possibility. Of ourselves we have neither the strength nor the virtue to live such a life. It is from the slavery of this fear that the Holy Spirit delivers us. “The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are the children of God.”

As the children of God our lives become one with Christ, the eternal Son of the Father. Suffering is no longer the frustration of hope, but a sharing in the death and Resurrection of the Lord.

Matthew’s account of the commissioning of the Apostles uses the words proclaimed at our baptism. “Make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And know that I am with you always, to the end of time.”

It is through the grace of baptism that we know God as Father, live our lives in communion with his Son and our selfish love is transformed by the Holy Spirit.

I will add that belief in God as One God in Three Divine Persons – though probably the hardest of all dogmas to grasp – is necessary for a Christian to believe. Christians believe in the Holy Trinity as the Church teaches about the Trinity (and therefore not in some other kind of trinity).

Each year we, a little changed by our life’s journey, come back around to these unchanging truths of our Catholic Faith. We should be able to glean more from them and about them. We should make a constant review of the tenets of our faith, not because they change (they don’t) because we are changing. Faith seeks understanding, even of those doctrines which are the hardest, either because they are in themselves difficult, or because they challenge how we are living.

You can subscribe online to The Catholic Herald HERE.

Yesterday I was able to enjoy one of my favorite cuisines: Hungarian! Love the stuff.

Hideg Megglyeves or Chilled Cherry Soup

I have got to figure out how to make this stuff.

BTW… for my acquaintance in Detroit who years ago told me about the fantastic cherry beer at De Hemms, off of Shaftsbury on the edge of Chinatown… I stopped in during the day (I avoid going anywhere near the place in the evening because it seems to be the wrong sort of bar now – blech – but during the day it is normal). Sadly, they don’t have that anymore. I asked the bartender and he said they were trying to get some. Alas. Perhaps that is why I chose the cherry soup for a starter instead of the other great things on the menu. That and the fact that it is Friday.

Then Kapros Gombas Halgaluska or Fish Dumpling with dill and mushroom cream sauce

I enjoyed the red peppers on the table as well.

It is getting harder and harder to find Hungarian food, I believe. I may have to return to this place before I leave.

Today I plan to take in the War Rooms from World War II and perhaps the Transport Museum. Both have been on the list of Things To Do for the longest time and I never get to them. Later, an evening Mass and then supper out with a priest friend.

I am very happy to receive new versions.

I would VERY much like audio files, from native speakers, of the prayers being pronounced in different languages.

Also, some of the versions posted on the page (see link above) are patchy or corrupted. I could use some help with corrections.

A reader sent me a version in

RUSSIAN:

Молитва перед использованием Интернета:

Всемогущий и вечный Бог,
кто создал нас в Вашем изображении
и приказал, чтобы мы искали все, что
является хорошим, верным и красивым,
особенно в божественном человеке
Вашего Единственного Сына, нашего
Лорда Иисуса Христа,
дайте, мы умоляем Вас,
результат, через заступничество
Святого Изидора, Епископа и Доктора,
в течение наших поездок через
Интернет
мы направим наши руки и глаза только к
тому, который нравится к Вам
и отнеситесь с милосердием и
терпением все те люди, которых мы
встречаем.
Через Христа наш Бог. Аминь.

Is this part of your discipline of prayer?

LCWR accuses Vatican investigation of using ‘flawed process’Friday, June 01, 2012 4:42 PMWashington D.C., Jun 1, 2012 / 09:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is arguing that the Vatican’s recent assessment of the organization was “based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency.”

Board members also said in a June 1 statement that “the sanctions imposed were disproportionate to the concerns raised” and might compromise the sisters’ “ability to fulfill their mission.”

The statement came after the LCWR’s board members held a special May 29-31 meeting in Washington, D.C. in order to review and plan a response to a report issued several weeks ago by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On April 18, the Congregation revealed the findings of its multi-year doctrinal assessment of the women’s conference, which noted “serious doctrinal problems” and significant need for reform.

The assessment document raised concerns over “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith” that were prevalent in some presentations sponsored by the conference.

One such address discussed religious sisters “moving beyond the Church” and beyond Jesus.

These positions risk distorting Church teaching and constitute “a rejection of faith” and a “serious source of scandal,” the report said.

It also pointed to a lack of adequate doctrinal formation offered by the group, as well as letters from LCWR officers suggesting “corporate dissent” from Church teaching on topics such as the sacramental male priesthood and homosexuality.

In addition, while the organization strongly promotes social justice issues, it largely ignores the topics of life, marriage and sexuality, which have played a significant role in recent public debates over abortion, euthanasia and “gay marriage,” it said.

To lead renewal efforts, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle has been mandated to work with LCWR leadership for up to five years.

He will be aided by an advisory group of clergy, experts and women religious, along with Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield and Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, who was responsible for conducting the assessment of the LCWR.

Archbishop Sartain will work with the conference to revise its statues and review its links with affiliated organizations. He will also help create a new formation program offering a deeper understanding of Church teaching and will be responsible for approving future speakers and presentations at the organization’s assemblies.

Furthermore, the archbishop will review the application of liturgical norms and texts, offering guidance to help ensure that the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours are given proper priority in LCWR events.

In its June 1 statement, the LCWR’s national board criticized “both the content of the doctrinal assessment and the process by which it was prepared.”

The board members charged that the Vatican’s report on the organization has “caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization.”

The LCWR announced that its president and executive director will travel to Rome on June 12 to discuss their concerns with Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Archbishop Sartain.

After that meeting, the organization’s members will gather in regional meetings and at an August assembly to develop a response to the Vatican’s report.

With some 1,500 members, the LCWR members make up about three percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States. However, the group says it represents 80 percent of American sisters since its members are leaders of their respective religious communities. The average age for members is 74.

The group had initially said that it was “stunned” by the assessment.

However, Ann Carey, author of the 1997 book “Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communities,” said that problems have existed between the LCWR and the Vatican since the group revised its statutes 40 years ago.

Carey told CNA that members of the LCWR have shown a clear intent to change “the nature of religious life” and abandon some of its essential elements, such as communal life and prayer, a corporate apostolate and distinctive religious garb.

She explained that the drastic changes led some women to leave the organization and form an alternative group, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, which adheres to the traditional elements of religious life and is attracting the bulk of young vocations today.

[...]

A friend of mine, Fr. Richard Jacobs, OSA, gave this sermon for Pentecost Sunday:

One of the Fathers of the Church, St. Cyril of Alexandria, wrote the following statement describing the presence of the Holy Spirit alive and at work within us:

It’s quite natural for people who have been absorbed by the things of this world to become entirely other-worldly in outlook and for cowards to become people of great courage.

On this Solemnity of Pentecost, what would it mean for those who have been absorbed the things of this world to become entirely other-worldly in outlook and for their cowardice to be transformed into great courage?

I know for sure what our nation’s Catholic bishops are saying it requires: Confronting the threats being posed today to religious liberty.

As you may know, this past week the nation’s Catholic bishops filed 12 lawsuits on behalf of 43 different Catholic institutions and groups to defend religious liberty. The focus of the lawsuits is the Department of Health and Human Services’ healthcare mandate. While many in the media have called the bishops’ lawsuits part of the Vatican’s larger “war against women” and a dispute that’s of concern “only to a tiny minority of Catholics who hold rather peculiar views about human sexuality,” that kind of vitriol is purposely intended to deflect attention away from the merit of the substantive argument, which is the slow but steady erosion of conscience protections for religious institutions and individuals in what’s for the most part a secular society…one having no religious roots.

The substantive issue being contested can be stated in the form of a question: Does the federal government possess the right to mandate Church-sponsored institutions and individuals to promote what its moral teachings forbid?

More practically, should an organization—like Catholic Charities—be compelled by the federal government to provide its employees access to contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortafacients? Or, should Catholic Relief Services—one of the world’s premiere disaster assistance organizations—be compelled by the federal government to provide “the full range of reproductive services,” including abortion, when attempting to aid people who have been afflicted by natural disasters?

The bishops’ lawsuits are not contesting those practicalities, but something that’s much more fundamental, the constitutional principle guaranteeing free expression of religion. The bishops believe this principle has been gradually eroding in such ways that the federal government and its agents now believe they possess the authority to make those practicalities the issue.

HHS Secretary Sebelius has maintained that the goal of her mandate is to protect women’s health. That may be, depending upon what it means “to protect women’s health.” But, Ms. Sebelius’ mandate has the intentional effect of compelling religious institutions and individuals to facilitate and to fund services that violate their beliefs and, worse yet, within their own institutions. The irony is that, in fact, those services are already widely and for the most part cheaply available, and most employers provide coverage for them.

What the mandate is, is bad enough. It’s nothing other than an unprecedented assault by agents of the federal government to compel religious institutions and individuals to violate their deepest moral convictions. But, there’s something even more insidious about Ms. Sebelius’ mandate. If government policy can close down or force religious providers of healthcare, social services, and education to serve as agents of the government’s policy, then the federal government will have consolidated its monopoly over those services, making the government all-powerful in those areas.

The President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said: “Never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith.”

But it’s not just the nation’s Catholic bishops who are concerned. Baptist, Orthodox Jew, Orthodox Christian, Mormon, and other religious leaders gathered this past week for a daylong summit in Washington, DC, at the Ethics and Public Policy’s American Religious Freedom Program. There they discussed the eroding state of religious freedom in the United States and formulated a plan to confront this moral malignancy.

Then, too, in what would have been impossible to envision even just six decades ago, the largely evangelical Protestant group sponsoring the summit awarded Archbishop Lori of Baltimore the “American Religious Freedom Award” for his “vigorous but gracious defense of religious liberty in the face of increasing hostility and legal and policy challenges.” Then, too, in response to the bishops’ defense of religious freedom, the one-time Baptist minister, former Arkansas Governor, and Fox News host, Mike Huckabee, flatly declared, “We’re all Catholics now.”

Today’s scripture reminds us that when the Holy Spirit is alive and at work within us, people who don’t comprehend what they are saying to one another as well as what they are debating or arguing with one another about, miraculously understand one another.

Today’s scripture also reminds us that when the Holy Spirit is alive and at work within us, differences in race, nationality, and creed—externals that would otherwise divide people—suddenly disappear.

Today scripture also reminds us that when the Holy Spirit is alive and at work within us, people who possess different talents and capabilities don’t use them exclusively for their personal aggrandizement or benefit, but offer those talents and capabilities for the good of all.

In sum, the presence of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in us makes all of this possible since the source of all these differences is God. And, when people realize the divine source of these differences and root themselves in God, it’s possible for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control to overcome all of the immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like that are rooted in all of those differences, not in the divine source of those differences.

Why?

Because, as we heard in the Sequence, the presence of the Holy Spirit “heals wounds,” “bends stubborn hearts and wills,” and “guides the steps that go astray.”

Allow me to suggest that what we may be witnessing on this Solemnity of Pentecost are religious leaders who for all too long have been absorbed in the things of this world suddenly becoming entirely other-worldly in outlook, as their cowardice is being transformed into great courage. As Cardinal Dolan said to Bob Scheifer on “Face the Nation” back on April 8: “We didn’t ask for this fight, but we won’t back away from it.”

Surveying all of these events, I’m wondering whether this series of events may be one of those “signs of the times” the Second Vatican Council said we should be alert to and, in particular, what may be a sign of the Holy Spirit making possible the first concrete step in authentic ecumenism. For once, religious leaders are rooted in upholding God’s law rather than defending who was right and who was wrong in religious battles that took place centuries ago. If that doesn’t demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in those religious leaders, then I don’t know what possibly could. And, if it is, then it’s time for all of us to get to work confronting the threats being posed to religious liberty.

On this Solemnity of Pentecost, let’s those of us who have been absorbed in the things of this world to become entirely other-worldly in outlook, as St. Cyril of Alexandria reminds us, by allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our cowardice into great courage.

You might, for example, hear that the Trinity is like three burning candles twisted together to have one flame, or like a three-stranded rope.  But then they would all have the same role.  Perhaps Its like the Sun, having heat, light, and motion?  An egg, which has shell, white and yolk?  (Tritheism?)  Water can be ice, liquid, or steam.  (Modalism?)  A tree has branches, leaves, and roots.  Can we chop God up like that?  How about the three dimensions of space (length, width, height)?  They coincide but are distinct. Et cetera.

The Trinity is, after all, the hardest, most mysterious of all dogmas.

There is a logic to the timing of this feast.  We focus on the Son’s Ascension to the Father, then the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and then the Triune God the Sunday after. God the Father created us through the Son who redeemed us and revealed us more fully to ourselves (GS 22). God the Holy Ghost sanctifies us in Christ’s Holy Church so we can enjoy communion in the Trinity in the life to come.

Here is Sunday’s Collect:

Deus Pater, qui, Verbum veritatis et Spiritum sanctificationis mittens in mundum, admirabile mysterium tuum hominibus declarasti, da nobis, in confessione verae fidei, aeternae gloriam Trinitatis agnoscere, et Unitatem adorare in potentia maiestatis.

This is glued together from new material and part of the 1962 Collect.  The phrase admirabile mysterium is used to describe the Trinity in the minutes of the summit of June 411 in Carthage between Catholic and Donatist bishops. St Augustine of Hippo (d 430), whose work On the Trinity was the first great work of systematic theology in Latin, was a major player at that meeting.

SUPER LITERAL VERSION:

O God the Father, who, sending the Word of Truth and the Spirit of sanctification into the world, declared Your astonishing mystery to men, grant us, in the confession of true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and to adore the Unity in the might of majesty.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

God our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery, grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith, we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.

Someone may have been on autopilot in adding that “we pray”.  Our Latin prayers often have some phrase like “tribue, quaesumus“.  This prayer doesn’t.

In this prayer I hear echoes of manifestations (epiphanies) of the Trinity in Scripture: at Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan when the Holy Spirit was seen as a dove and the voice of the Father was heard (cf Luke 3) and when Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, John and James (cf Matthew 17). God “made known, manifested, showed, proclaimed publicly” (declarasti, a shortening of declaravisti, from declaro) the wondrous mystery (admirabile mysterium) that He is Three in One, a Trinity of divine Persons, God the Father, God the Word of Truth, God the Spirit of sanctification, One God.  It is necessary for true Christian Faith (vera fides) that we recognize (agnoscere – “announce, allow, or admit a thing to be one’s own, to acknowledge, own”) that God is Triune, One God having one divine nature in a perfect unity of three distinct Divine Persons. Man can reason toward this truth on his own, as ancient Greek Neoplatonic philosophers did.  They almost got there, too.  Only by the gift of Faith can we profess (confiteor) this mystery in an authentically Christian way.  What reason and intellect straive after, revelation and the grace of faith must complete.

In our Collect we adore the gloria Trinitatis, the maiestas Unitatis. They have “power” (potentia). “Glory” and “majesty” in our liturgical prayers boom with the Last Things.

Maiestas is conceptually related in the writings of the Latin Fathers to gloria, Greek doxa and Hebrew kabod. Maiestas and gloria are more than simple splendor. They express our recognition of God as God.  They also indicate the mighty divine characteristic which God will share with us and by which we will be transformed. The transforming glory we will receive in heaven was foreshadowed in Moses’ meetings with God, when He descended like a cloud upon the tent.  After these meetings Moses’ face shone so brightly that he had to wear a veil.

Declare God’s glory in all you say and do.  Marvel, friends, at the gift that awaits us, when we die in God’s friendship.  We will no longer have to grope for God as if through some dark glass.  Face to face we shall meet MYSTERY.

Poor Green Lantern.  Poor poor Carol Ferris.

In my first post on this, there was a poll.   Here are the results from that poll.

How disappointing that they did this to a character with a back story.