he last Sunday of June will end the Holy Year of Saint Paul, commemorating the 2000th anniversary of his birth. The end, of course, should be the beginning of a new reverence for his teachings. In the liturgies of these weeks, an emphasis is on his two letters to the Corinthians. They have never been more timely.

Corinth was a Greek city, located south of Athens in the area connecting the Peloponnesus to the mainland. In the arts and sciences it excelled and it produced some engineering marvels. It was full of energy, much of it uncontrolled, and money was the real god, although everything sensual was extolled. The temple of Aphrodite at one point housed one thousand cultic prostitutes and every sort of fantastic superstition was tolerated. In very many ways it was like New York City, and just as we say “If you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere,” the Romans who took over the city said “Not for everyone is the journey to Corinth.”

Saint Paul was a brave man to preach the Gospel there and it is no surprise that he had severe difficulties. Unlike the Galatians, whose caution about doing the wrong thing bordered on scrupulosity, the Corinthians were tempted to think “anything goes.” Their lush cosmopolitan environment, symbolized by the third architectural order which was the most elaborate in contrast to the Doric and Ionic, tolerated any kind of behavior and philosophy so long as it was aesthetically satisfying. They were heavily influenced by the Gnostic notion that the spiritual world had nothing to do with the material world. They compartmentalized their existence, thinking that they could engage in high abstract thoughts while living dissolute lives. A sacramental sense of creation was alien to the Corinthians, like some New Yorkers who prefer to speak of “spirituality” rather than Christianity, and who think they can be Catholic without confession, and “do what they want with their own bodies” while ignoring the sacredness of life, fornicating and cohabiting outside the marriage bond, and sanctioning perversions as “alternate lifestyles.”

After Saint Paul established the Church in Corinth in about 51, he wrote to them from Ephesus in Turkey, reminding them, sometimes with tears, that the human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He knew how hard it was for the Corinthians to be counter-cultural, as a Christian must be in a pagan environment. He was never discouraged, nor did he “lower the bar” by watering down doctrine like a false evangelist who would attract crowds by preaching a non-threatening generic Gospel. So he blesses the raucous Corinthian flock with a highly developed Trinitarian theology: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).

From Father Rutler regarding the new movie, Angels & Demons:

n the fiftieth day after the Resurrection, God filled his Church with the Holy Spirit. Jesus kept his promise: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Pentecost is the start of Christian life rather than the end of the story, rather as Churchill said after the battle of El Alamein: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

The power the Holy Spirit gives the Church is the truth. Truth is the ultimate power because it is reality. “Men may all lie, but God is always true” (Romans 3:4). Truth always wins, in the long run. In the short run it may seem that lies win. But truth sustains life while falsehood destroys it. Jesus said that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Lies do have power, but it is a fatal power and eventually self-destructs. In our society there are lies that an unborn baby is not human, and that marriage is not naturally the union of male and female, and that truth is only opinion. When a society accepts these lies, it eventually clashes with inescapable reality and crumbles. Even Satan is forced to tell the truth in the presence of Christ: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24).

A recent film, Angels and Demons, is the latest embarrassing attempt to lie about Christ and his Church. It is filled with amateurish technical mistakes, not to mention the historical and archeological ones. The script says the Church opposes scientific truth, when in fact, as the recently deceased Benedictine priest Stanley Jaki explained in dozens of books, the Church provides the philosophical matrix for the motive and method of physical science. The Church attends to the truths of Heaven, but she does not neglect physical science, because God made the world as a blessing. Galileo, whom the film mentions as a member of an esoteric secularist sect known as the “Illuminati” (which in fact was founded two centuries after Galileo), became the leading member of the original Pontifical Academy of Sciences founded under the patronage of Pope Clement VIII. Major discoveries in mathe¬matics, astronomy, physics, genetics, botany, zoology, and medicine have taken place in universities established by the Church and they continue to be the work of Catholics from John XXI and Sylvester II, through Hermann of Reichenau, Robert Grosseteste, Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Buridan, Descartes, Copernicus, Schyrleus, Pascal, Lobkowitz, Secchi, Pasteur, Carrel, Marconi, Fleming, up to Father Georges Lemaître who proposed the Big Bang theory.

On Pentecost, we rejoice that “God cannot lie” (Titus 1:1-2). The same cannot be said of Hollywood.

entecost [<Gr. πεντηκοστή, 'fiftieth day'] is a feast of the universal Church celebrated 7 weeks after Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles that occurred during the harvest festival of firstfruits, or Shavout, described in the Book of Acts:

And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost… (Acts 2:1-4)

In his book on meditations, Divine Intimacy, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen explains,

Pentecost is the plenitude of God’s gift to men. On Christmas Day, God gives us His only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus, the Mediator, the Bridge connecting humanity and divinity. During Holy Week, Jesus, by His Passion, gives Himself entirely for us, even to death on the Cross. He bathes us, purifying and sanctifying us in His Blood. At Easter, Christ rises, an His Resurrection, as well as His Ascension, is the pledge of our own glorification. He goes before us to His Father’s house to prepare a place for us, for in Him and with Him, we have become a part of the divine Family; we have become children of God, destined for eternal beatitude.

But the gift of God to men does not end there; having ascended into heaven, Jesus, in union with the Father, sends us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. … By His descent upon the Apostles under the form of tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit shows us how He, the Spirit of love, is given to us in order to transform us by His charity, and having transformed us, to lead us back to God. (Meditation 189)

Pentecost is also called Whitsunday [<M.E. whitsonday <O.E. hwīta sunnandæg, 'white Sunday'], in reference to the white garments of those baptized during its vigil. It has been celebrated by many different customs in different cultures:

In Italy it was customary to scatter rose leaves from the ceiling of the churches to recall the miracle of the fiery tongues; hence in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy Whitsunday is called Pascha rosatum. The Italian name Pascha [Pasqua] rossa comes from the red colours of the vestments used on Whitsunday. In France it was customary to blow trumpets during Divine service, to recall the sound of the mighty wind which accompanied the Descent of the Holy Ghost. In England the gentry amused themselves with horse races. The Whitsun Ales or merrymakings are almost wholly obsolete in England. At these ales the Whitsun plays were performed. At Vespers of Pentecost in the Oriental Churches the extraordinary service of genuflexion, accompanied by long poetical prayers and psalms, takes place. … On Pentecost the Russians carry flowers and green branches in their hands. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Pentecost is also the occasion for one of my favorite hymns, Veni Creátor Spíritus:

Veni Creátor Spíritus, Mentes tuórum vísita: Imple supérna grátia, Quæ tu creásti pécora.

Come, O Creator, Spirit blest, And in our souls take up Thy rest; come with Thy grace and heavenly aid, To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

It calls to mind not only the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, but also the donations of the Holy Ghost in our own lives — initiated during Baptism and renewed during Confirmation.

May this Feast of Pentecost inspire us to new works of charity, and may we be blessed with a new outporing of the Holy Ghost in our souls.

See also:

• Pentecost (Wikipedia)
• Pentecost (Catholic Encyclopedia)

ellow bibliophiles! Lend me your ears… In 2006, I wrote about the Sony Reader, the first generation of electronic book readers featuring e-paper technology (as opposed to eye-straining LCD screens). Amazon was quick to follow suit with its widely praised Kindle device — which was all the more successful because of its affiliation with the online book superstore, which has made over 230,000 book titles available for wireless download.

This past year, Amazon announced the availability of the second-generation device, the Kindle 2. More recently, it has released the Kindle DX — a magazine-size device that promises to make reading large-format e-publications (e.g., newspapers and journals) easier and more pleasurable. The DX also has many additional features, such as native PDF support.

It’s really a bookworm’s dream come true… Although true bibliophiles may yearn nostalgically for the smell and feel of real books, the Kindle 2, Kindle Dx and similar devices will surely revolutionize the way we read.

P.S. — If anyone would like to purchase me one (Thanks Mom!), click on the picture below:

irst Things contributor professor Eleanor Bourg Donlon recently wrote an excellent article entitled “Hard Times for Great Books,” in which she describes the appalling decline in reading rates among children, teenagers and young adults. She writes,

In November 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts published a report titled To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence. Building on its earlier research, in Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America (2004), the 2007 report provided, in the words of NEA chairman Dana Gioia, “a reliable and comprehensive overview of American reading today.” Its findings are devastating. Teenagers are increasingly tossing aside books for other activities and a startling percentage of young adults (nearly 60 percent) don’t bother to pick the books up in the first place.

The National Endowments for the Arts (NEA) study cited above is is available here for your perusal. (And if you prefer not to read it — pun intended — you may also watch a video of the press conference.) The report concludes,

Ultimately, reading skills and early habits of leisure reading may come to occupy the same relationship to artistic, cultural, and civic progress as “basic science” skills have had to technological breakthroughs. Just as fundamental knowledge of math and science has enabled practical innovations in everyday life, so might young readers of today yield unforeseen benefits for health policy, business, law, the social sciences, arts and culture, journalism, and civic planning. But why limit their accomplishments to the humanities? In an era of specialization, the imaginative and analytical skills unlocked by reading can fuel a brisker dialogue between the arts and sciences. As this report has attempted to show, reading often and reading well are prerequisites for achievement in areas far beyond literature and literacy alone.

More recently, The New Atlantis contributor Christine Rosen published a tantalizing essay entitled “People of the Screen,” which references the NEA study. She asks,

now that the rustle of the book’s turning page competes with the flicker of the screen’s twitching pixel, we must consider the possibility that the book may not be around much longer. If it isn’t—if we choose to replace the book—what will become of reading and the print culture it fostered? And what does it tell us about ourselves that we may soon retire this most remarkable, five-hundred-year-old technology?

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit. …

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.

General John A. Logan
National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic
5 May 1868

uno Alvares Pereira, born in 1360, was a descendant of Charlemagne and, by the marriage of his daughter to a son of the King of Portugal, became ancestor to many shapers of history, including Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor. One of his descendants was Catherine of Bragança who became Queen Consort of England by her marriage to Charles II and in whose honor our city’s Borough of Queens was named. She also popularized tea-drinking in England. With his friend Henry the Navigator, Nuno began the “Age of Exploration” and took the Gospel to Africa. Columbus might never have sailed without the patronage of Nuno’s descendant Queen Isabella. The assassination of another descendant, Archduke Ferdinand, triggered World War I and changed the world again.

On April 26, Pope Benedict XVI, having recognized the miraculous cure of a blind woman by Nuno’s intercession, declared him a saint, 578 years after his death in the same year that Joan of Arc was burned. Saint Nuno consecrated his life to the Blessed Virgin, whom we crown with flowers in the month of May because she was granted to us as our mother by her Son when he was crowned with thorns. Nuno engraved the name of Mary on the sword he wielded to protect the people of his land. He secured Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of Castile in battles against tremendous odds: Atoleiros, Aljubarrota, and Valverde. Under a banner emblazoned with Our Lady and St. George, he would stop in the middle of the fighting to fall on his knees in prayer, as once when his 6,000 troops were being attacked by a force of more than 30,000.

Like Wellington and all true soldiers, he knew that “save for a battle lost, nothing is so tragic as a battle won.” Called “the Peacemaker,” he nursed his wounded enemies and refused the spoils of battle. When his wife died, he distributed his wealth to his comrades in arms and orphans, and became a Carmelite monk. When former foes came to see “Fra Nuno of St. Mary” in his monastery, he showed them his armor beneath his religious habit and warned them he was ready to mount his steed again if anyone harmed the innocent. Sir Galahad was of legend; Nuno was the perfect knight in fact. He died on Easter Day as a priest was reading Our Lord’s words from the Cross: “Behold your Mother.” His epitaph said:

Here lies that famous Nuno, the Constable, founder of the House of Bragança, excellent general, blessed monk, who during his life on earth so ardently desired the Kingdom of Heaven that after his death, he merited the eternal company of the Saints. His worldly honors were countless, but he turned his back on them. He was a great Prince, but he made himself a humble monk. He founded, built and endowed this church in which his body rests.

Read more about Chivalry! Check out the new edition of Brad Miner’s The Compleat Gentleman.