Jim Wallis, author of the well-received God’s Politics, recently posted the following interesting commentary on his Beliefnet blog:

I’ve been reading through the extensive comments on my blog post on abortion reduction and the Democratic Platform. As usual, the comments span the spectrum. But I found it puzzling that those who are so adamantly against the Democrats on abortion (as I have also been) seem so satisfied with the Republicans just repeating that abortion should be illegal, while the abortion rate never changes, even under Republican rule. The Republican position often feels cynical to me — privately admitting that a total ban on abortion in America will never happen, but using it every four years to get the votes of people who genuinely care about saving unborn lives (as I do).

I would encourage those critics to listen to the comments of Doug Kmiec, a Republican judicial appointee of Ronald Reagan, a Catholic intellectual, and Chair & Professor of Law at Pepperdine University, who cares deeply about abortion but now thinks the Democrats have a good chance to reduce the abortion rate. During a conference call that Sojourners hosted this week with evangelical and Catholic leaders, Doug said, “What this does is commit the Democratic Party to supply real support for the child and for the woman facing this question in terms of pre- and post-natal healthcare, in terms of income support, the kind of support like paternity leave, family leave and an improvement in the accessibility in adoption. These are tangible things and very much related to Catholic social teachings.” He also sees a positive step in the Democratic Platform language in the affirmation of abortion reduction and the practical solutions that would support that goal; rather than just repeating a symbolic ban. I agree with him.

Sojourners is on record in support of a ban on partial birth abortions and other restrictions but we don’t believe that simple bans are possible or even the most pro-life solutions. Support for women caught up in difficult situations and tragic choices is a better path than coercion for really reducing the abortion rate. Yes, I agree there is never a “need” for abortion except in the case where the health of the mother is threatened. But until we can reach out to women who “feel” the need for abortion and support them in alternative choices, we will never change the shameful abortion rate that both sides seem content to live with while they just attack each other. It is time to move from symbols to solutions.

Meanwhile, McCain and Obama both gave interviews at a pastor’s forum, which included questions about abortion as well as other social justice themes. An analysis of the interviews is also available on CNN, detailing the candidates’ different approaches to answering the same tough questions. Time magazine focuses on the candidates’ views on abortion.

The following article is by Father Clifford Stevens and appeared in the July-August 1996 issue of Catholic Heritage by Our Sunday Visitor. The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessèd Virgin Mary is August 15 and is a holy day of obligation.

he Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don’t know how it first came to be celebrated. Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as Aelia Capitolina in honor of Jupiter.

For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples.

After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centered around the “Tomb of Mary,” close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived.

On the hill itself was the “Place of Dormition,” the spot of Mary’s “falling asleep,” where she had died. The “Tomb of Mary” was where she was buried.

At this time, the “Memory of Mary” was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption.

For a time, the “Memory of Mary” was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the “Falling Asleep” (”Dormitio”) of the Mother of God.

Soon the name was changed to the “Assumption of Mary,” since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven.

That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.)

At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that “Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven.”

In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giving sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: “Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay. . . . You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth.”

All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior.

The Assumption (Aug. 15) completes God’s work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God’s crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.

The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.

The prayer for the feast reads: “All-powerful and ever-living God: You raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul, to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as our final goal and come to share her glory.”

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven.” With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God.

See also: Catholic Encyclopedia.

he Art of Manliness blog is starting a series on resurrecting the lost art of oratory.

While most men will never summon troops into battle or debate a Congressional bill, every man should strive to be a great orator. Whether it is giving the best man speech, arguing against a policy at a city council, making a proposal at work, or giving a eulogy, you will be asked to publicly speak at least a few times in your life. Don’t be a man that shakes and shudders at that thought. Be a man who welcomes, nay, relishes the opportunity to move and inspire people with the power of his words. When a speaking opportunity arises, be the guy everyone thinks of first.

This first article details the history of oratory, from the ancient Greeks through the Medieval era, as well as examples of good orators in more recent years. It then proceeds to explain some things that are crucial for effective speeches, such as having a well-rounded education and being of good moral character:

No grammatical garnish or oratorical flourish can add as much to a speech as good character. The very hint of hypocrisy will doom even the most eloquent speech. Conversely, when you are virtuous, honest, and earnestly committed to that which you speak of, this inner-commitment will tinge each word you utter with sincerity.

As Cicero famously said,

In an orator, the acuteness of the logicians, the wisdom of the philosophers, the language almost of poetry, the memory of lawyers, the voice of tragedians, the gesture almost of the best actors, is required. Nothing therefore is more rarely found among mankind than a consummate orator.

Skilled orators are rare to begin with, but they are even rarer today, when the liberal arts and humanistic studies have fallen out of favor, and when television and the internet have replaced the reading of good books. The Art of Manliness blog has taken the lead in encouraging us to reclaim and cultivate this lost art. They plan to follow-up this first article with a weekly series of tips covering all stages — from writing an eloquent speech to delivering it effectively.

Related: The 35 greatest speeches in history.

In Dappled Things — a Catholic literary magazine that delights in the speckled things that are all the lovelier for being irregular and surprising — Stefan McDaniel writes one of the best pieces I’ve read about chastity and sexuality. Here’s an excerpt:

Lewis says that there are three main modes of love: Need-Love (like that of a child for his mother), Gift-Love (like that of a mother for her child, or, in the extreme case, God for his creatures), and Appreciative Love (the love of aesthetic appreciation). Most friendships and erotic relationships in the real world contain elements of all three, but it seems, at least at first blush, that eros is primarily a Need-Love, while friendship is primarily an Appreciative Love.

Eros, as Genesis shows, is an expression of our radical incompleteness as human beings in need of community and, more specifically, as sexed human beings, who are only complete (and certainly only fecund) when conjoined. Eros is tyrannical and insistent in its demands. Its substratum, pure sexual desire (what Lewis calls “Venus”) serving as it does the fundamental biological imperative to reproduce, is in an especially crude sense a mere needy craving, and in itself lacks anything that a Christian would call love. Indeed its obvious selfishness…

In the bulk of his article, Mr. McDaniel describes how he thinks society doesn’t understand Chastity because it has confused friendship and erotic love.

You can read the full piece at Dappled Things. Also keep an eye out for future essays in First Things, where Mr. McDaniel now serves as a junior fellow.

This week, we have the pleasure of hosting the Manival, a weekly “blog carnival” that rounds up contributions from the four corners of the cyberglobe to present you with stimulating reading about marriage, relationships, chivalry, courage, character, and all things manly. The Manival was started by the Art of Manliness blog. To submit an article for next week, click here.

• Cory from A Good Husband presents The Tipping Point in Marriage — What sent your marriage over the edge? What turned your marriage around? At what point did your marriage change?
• At the Harrowed Parent, John presents 20 Reasons for Husbands to do Housework.
• Corey discusses some lighthearted (and some risqué) ways to Add Some Spice to a Ho-Hum Marriage at The Simple Marriage Project.

• Miserere.org’s own contribution this week is a Fr. John Fullerton’s three-part series on protecting your children from the perils of an ever-more-dangerous world: Part 1: Child-Rearing in the Culture of Death; Part 2: Discipline and Responsibility; and Part 3: Character Training.
• Jeremy at the Discovering Dad blog shares some reasons why Family Time is the Best Time.
• For working dads everywhere, Joe from Silly Daddy discusses How to Balance Being a Parent with Being an Artist.

• Dustin of dBlogIt issues a call to action — Go Man Camping Like Noah John Rondeau (But Not as Long). But at Man Tripping (which you might say specializes in “guy weekends” and “mancations”), James argues instead for Taos Ski Valley Summer Mancation.
• After presenting the basics of a “Man Cave”, Derek presents Chris Gray’s Man Cave, in what will hopefully be the first of a long series of Man Cave Mondays.

• Babbo presents The Fear of Losing My Wife, posted at Daddy Brain.
• Israel candidly presents his struggles with weight loss and dieting in Weight Loss Confession, posted at Fat Man Unleashed.
• John ponders the value of Life Shepherds at The Night Writer.

• Kevin of the Return to Manliness blog chooses to focus on physical combat in his article, How To Protect Yourself In A Bar Fight. If you’d rather not break bones, then you might prefer to break-in (and care for) your baseball cap.
• Dad of Divas presents the Best Way to Mow A Lawn.

An excellent blog post by Notre Dame professor Ralph McInerny at The Catholic Thing:

W

hen I was in Italy recently, Premier Berlusconi rather dramatically begged his bishop to allow him and other divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion. Since the request was public, it drew a public response, from Pope Benedict XVI, no less. The Pope reminded the Premier of the requirements for receiving the Eucharist and then added a consoling pastoral suggestion. One unworthy to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist because of serious sin should make what used to be called a spiritual communion, expressing a longing for the sacrament, which longing, the Pope added, can itself be salvific.

I returned to find that Sally Quinn had caused a flap by writing of her own defiant reception of the Eucharist at the funeral of Tim Russert, an act she seemed to view as a means of getting in touch with her departed colleague.

Who has not felt unease at such discussions? Some demands that priests slam the ciborium shut on politicians who are in public and flagrant opposition to the teachings of the Church sound a bit pharisaical, as if the demanders were pronouncing themselves unlike the rest of men. As the Pope pointed out, the conditions for reception of Communion are what they are and cannot be waived for sentimental reasons. For all that, his addendum supplies what is often the missing ingredient in such discussions, namely the attitude of anyone who can in conscience receive: O Lord, I am not worthy.

The Eucharist is the sacrament of sacraments, one in which faith requires a suspension of disbelief in the very senses, as Thomas Aquinas wrote in his magnificent Eucharistic hymn.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas;
At hic latet simul et humanitas.

Contemporaries of the Incarnate God, saw and heard a man and believed that He was divine, but in the Eucharist the very humanity of Jesus is hidden under the appearance of bread and wine. “On the cross only His divinity was hidden, but here His humanity too is invisible.”

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur;
Sed audito sola tuto creditur.

Here all the senses save hearing fail us and faith clings to the promissory words: This is my Body, this is my Blood. No wonder the Eucharist is called the mysterium fidei, the mystery of faith par excellence.

The Eucharist is the greatest stumbling block to faith. When Jesus announced that only by eating His body and drinking His blood could one be saved, many who had hitherto followed Him found the saying too hard, and went away. In the Mass of old, now coming back, the priest prior to consuming the Host, prayed that his reception of the body of the Lord would not be a judgment and condemnation of him. It is a solemn, awful thing to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist. It should be done in fear and trembling. All venial sins are removed by the reception of Communion, but who goes forward without a load of sin and imperfection on his soul? Saint Teresa of Avila had a vision of a priest saying Mass in a state of mortal sin; she saw frightful demons squirming around the priest and altar. Such a priest can say a valid Mass, of course, it is the deed done not the personal doer that is efficacious; ex opere operato, as we used to say, dropping into Latin for the occasion.

In recent years, the distribution of Communion has lost its reverence. Extraordinary ministers, as they are called – and are, in several senses – insist on eye contact with the recipient and fix him with a manic smile. One might uncharitably describe this as the Sally Quinn smile. The merriment of the occasion may of course be spiritual joy but one does wish that the minister acted a little less like someone out of Mother Goose serving up a sugar plum. Doubtless I am being pharisaical.

Some years ago the gifted philosopher Anthony Kenny wrote of his loss of faith and consequent leaving of the priesthood. The great stumbling block was the Eucharist. He could no longer believe that the bread he held became the body and blood of Jesus when he said the words of consecration. It was a tragic moment. The reader feels the profound pathos of his realization. Coming to disbelieve what one has believed is as solemn as faith itself. And that is as it should be.

By contrast, Padre Pio went into ecstasy while saying Mass. He became for many a necessary reminder of what is going on when, in the theological phrase, the priests confects the Eucharist.

I knew a woman who, throughout her life, attended Mass faithfully yet never received Communion. She held back because she was in a condition like Premier Berlusconi’s. She was my mother-in-law. It is easy for me to believe that her attitude when staying in her pew was, as the Pope suggests, salvific.

Well, at least Berlusconi asked permission — unlike other politicians (like Giuliani) who defiantly refuse to accept the Church teachings on the matter. They would do well to learn what the Eucharist actually is (not what it “represents”), in which case they would realize that the only way to receive Communion is after Confession and in genuflection (see The Right and Duty to Kneel, Part I and Part II).

or you Windows users out there, Microsoft recently released a free add-on for Windows XP and Vista called SteadyState. Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet cafe, a library, or even in your home, Windows SteadyState helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them.

Briefly, SteadyState allows you to set up your computer as a shared workstation with multiple accounts so that others can use it. “But Windows already lets us do that!,” you say? True. But SteadyState is designed to allow you to easily specify what is allowed and forbidden for certain users, protecting those prying eyes from the dangers that lurk. And if you have a little hacker in the family (or perhaps a well-intentioned but computer-challenged and accident-prone friend or relative), you can protect your computer from system-wide changes.

Here is a sampling of the available features:

• Lock the profile down so that no settings are saved after use. This is good for a temporary “rubber room” to let kids explore, without worrying about the consequences.
• Limit the amount of time that a certain account has access to the internet or before logging-out altogether. Great for setting time limits for kids.
• Set Windows restrictions, such as blocking access to the Registry editor, Task Manager, Control Panel, etc.; preventing users from changing their passwords or locking the computer; and prevent access to certain drives and devices. You can even force all hard-disk writes to be saved to a cache file (serving as a pseudo disk and effectively protecting your real hard drive from being altered). You can later select whether to retain some of these changes or to dump the cache file altogether.
• Set feature restrictions: Lock-down the Internet, prevent downloading and installation of applications, etc. You can block certain programs from running (no chat clients? no games?). Sure, SteadyState lets you specify blacklisted web sites that are banned (and in combination with the aforementioned ScrubIT, you can sleep soundly knowing your kids are protected from the majority of internet threats) — but it also lets you limit Internet browsing to a selection of safe sites specified in a whitelist. Finally, to monitor what those shrewd kids have been up to, you can block access to Internet Explorer’s settings and prevent clearing of the system cache and browser history. (This feature does not work on other browsers, such as Firefox.)

Lifehacker has a screenshot tour of SteadyState, and there’s an interactive video on the SteadyState web site. You may download SteadyState for free here.