Faith Filled Friday: St. Maria Goretti on Tour

Some may have seen this news that the relics of St. Maria Goretti will be on tour in the United States come this fall.  From the National Catholic Register: 

It’s been confirmed. The body — the major relics — of St. Maria Goretti, beloved by countless millions, is heading to the United States.

When she arrives from Italy, the first public appearance will be on Sept. 21 at Sacred Heart Basilica in Newark, N.J. — public because she will initially be visiting a prison before that. As of the latest scheduling she will tour through 25 Catholic dioceses spanning 18 states in parishes, schools, and prisons, including New York, Boston, Newark, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Orlando, and Oklahoma City.

But I have even bigger news that that.  One of the parishes selected for the veneration of her relics will be no other than my humble, little parish in Staten Island, St. Rita’s Church.  Other than St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, St. Rita will be the only church in New York City where the relics will be on display.  I don’t know how we were selected, but what a huge honor for us.

Here are some details.  She will be hosted at St. Rita's on Wednesday, September 30, 2015 for one day only.  Public veneration will begin at 7:00 AM.  A Solemn Mass will be celebrated by Bishop John J. O'Hara at 7:30 PM.  Public veneration will end at 11:00 PM.

Hereis a website with the information. 

At the web site there is a schedule for the travel across the country.  She may be at a parish closer.  Here's the link to the travel schedule.

 There's also a Facebook page, but I'm not on Facebook to verify it.  Here's that link.

The relics will not be her entire body.  From the Register article:

To be clear, the major relics are her remains inside a glass-sided casket. The wax statue of her in repose contains her skeletal remains which are not visible. Her body is not incorrupt. But her skeleton is complete except for some small amounts of bone that went into reliquaries and her right arm that her mother Assunta donated to the Church of St. Nicholas, known as the Sanctuary of St. Maria Goretti, in her birth town of Corinaldo.  Maria used her right arm to defend her purity in the attack.

Expected to draw huge crowds, every stop on the tour at the various churches, schools and prisons will include presentations on Maria Goretti’s life and virtues, plus other prayer and veneration opportunities. Masses will often be part of the liturgical celebrations.  

I assume the display will be like this image of her relics on display above.  i pulled that off Google Images.

I know that my son’s class (he goes to St. Rita’s school) will be led into the church for veneration.  I don’t know how the little church will hold what I expect will be huge crowds.  I would guess that if we squeezed tightly St. Rita could hold maybe 400 parishioners.  The lines could be out the door.  Still I will be there for as long as I can, and certainly for the Mass.  If you plan to be in the neighborhood to attend, let me know.  I’d love to meet you.

Music Tuesday: The Papal National Anthems

Hat tip to Kathy Schiffer at Seasons of Grace blog for making me aware of this.  

Who knew Vatican City had a National Anthem, but it is its own country, so one shouldn’t be surprised.  Well, it’s not like they win medals in the Olympics for us to hear of it.  The current National Anthem, the  Inno e Marcia Pontificale, was actually composed in 1869 by Charles Gounod, a French composer   (who also composed Ave Maria), but it did not officially become the Vatican City anthem until 1949, replacing the previous anthem of 1829, the Marche trionfale, composed by the Austrian Vicktorin Hallmayer.    

Actually let’s compare the two.  Let me first post the earlier Hallmayer composition.

Now here is the current Anthem, the Gounod.

Which do you prefer?  I think both are characteristic of the national origins of the respective composers.  Remember both are Marches, which means they are intended for a formal procession.  Hallmayer has a 19^th century Austrian military bearing.  The Gounod, with its brass flourishes, has an air of French ceremony. 

However, the Gounod music had lyrics composed by Antonio Allegra (later translated to Latin by Raffaello Lavagna) and a chorus has been added to the March.  Without any lyrics and chorus, I would say that I prefer the previous Hallmayer, Marche trionfale.  But Allegra’s chorus adds a layer to the Gounod Marche Pontificale that I can only describe as “churchy music.”  To my ear it takes the March and makes it a hymn. 

What do you think?

Both versions are not exactly brilliant compositions.  They sound rather routine as far as Marches or National Anthems go.  Most national anthems are quite boring actually.  I think we’re spoiled in the US with our Star Spangled Banner. 

It will probably be a rare day when we hear the Vatican City National Anthem again.  Unless of course the cardinals field a super basketball team—they don’t seem tall enough though—or the Holy Father is able to win the 100m backstroke.  Both unlikely. 

On Language: Swear Words across America

OK, this is a strange post for two reasons.  One it involves words people shouldn’t say and it involves recent technology.

Can you believe there is a blog dedicated to swear and otherwise naughty words?  In this world where the virtual is more current than the real there is a blog titled, Strong Language: A Sweary Blog AboutSwearing,  The “About” dedicates the blog to “Linguists, lexicographers, and word nerds who like vulgarities.”  It goes on to say:

If vulgar language offends you, then thank you. You’re one of the people who help maintain the effectiveness of vulgarities. You will very likely be offended by the articles in this blog.

If vulgar language interests or entertains you, or is a constant source of solace or release, and if you like language in general, then come on in.

This blog gives a place for professional language geeks to talk about things they can’t talk about in more polite contexts. It’s a sweary blog about swearing.

LOL, now being that I grew up in the gutters of Brooklyn, NY, and have been well trained in the artful use of cussing words, I rather enjoyed the blog.  It might not be your thing, but feel free to peruse it if it interests you.

Now the reason I came to that blog was from a link that highlighted a recent post on the swear trends across the UnitedStates. 

Swearing varies a lot from place to place, even within the same country, in the same language. But how do we know who swears what, where, in the big picture? We turn to data – damn big data. With great computing power comes great cartography.

Jack Grieve, lecturer in forensic linguistics at Aston University in Birmingham, UK, has created a detailed set of maps of the US showing strong regional patterns of swearing preferences. The maps are based on an 8.9-billion-word corpus of geo-coded tweets collected by Diansheng Guo in 2013–14 and funded by Digging into Data.

So basically what the researcher did was tabulate the frequency of certain swear words by location using Twitter tweets. 

Interestingly enough, the ubiquitous four letter word that starts with “f”—you know what word I mean—seems to be more widely used on the two coasts of the country and less so in the middle.  That actually doesn’t surprise me.  I have not found it as frequent in the Midwest, but I am surprised that Californians use it as much as New Yorkers. 

Interestingly the “A-H” word—that word that is used inside cars for other drivers—is not in frequent use in the South, but as typical here in the Northeast, we love it.

But the South does use the “B” word way more than everywhere else in the country.  And not surprising they also use “damn” more frequently.  The Midwest did register high on the scale for “darn” and “gosh.”  You guys are such goody-too-shoes. 

There’s more and it’s a fascinating read, especially if you have traveled about the country and listened to linguistic diction.  Now I don’t know if the tweets are representative of oral speech trends, but it is an approach to mapping speech patterns.  

Notable Quote: The Psalms as the Blues

Certainly there are great quotes out of the Psalms, but as I’m reading through them, I was wondering if there were any great quotes about the Psalms.  I found this one

 What's so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as they're being gospel and songs of praise, they are also the blues.

-Bono

That’s Bono from U2!  And he’s correct.  One third of the psalms are classified as lamentations.

Music Tuesday: Miss You by The Rolling Stones

As some may remember, I’m a big Rolling Stones fan.  This past Sunday was Mick Jagger’s 72^nd birthday.  What a life this man has lived.  And they’ve still been touring now. So much Stones news lately.  In addition to the tour, which seems to be doing fabulously, especially when you consider they age, Keith Richards has a new solo album coming out in September.  A single has been released and you hear it here.     But the really big news is that once the Richards solo album is out, the Stones will gather and record a new album!  Oh yeah!!  Their last one was A Bigger Bang in 2005.  That was ten years ago.  Goodness how time flies. 

For Mick’s birthday, I wanted to post a very Jagger-esk song, the wonderful “Miss You.”  This song and the summer of 1978 will forever be linked together for me.  This is the only song all summer on my mind and lips. 

I’m going to embed video with the lyrics because I think they are so great.  Most pop songs are three verses divided by a chorus.  "Miss You" just takes you on a journey into central character’s dejection.  Notice the emotional range, from melancholy, dejection, acceptance.  There’s a contrasting voice of the friend who calls him, there’s a drunken induced walk, and there’s that wonderful melody that pulls the whole song together.  The song starts with anticipation—waiting on that call—and ends with the realization that she’s “been fooling with [his] time.”  And let’s not forget the funky, interweaving guitars, the sax that carries so much emotion two thirds of the way into the song, and that layer of the high pitched harmonica.  And special kudos must go to the rhythm section, Bill Wyman (bass) and Charlie Watts (drums); they were at their best. 

There are also extended versions of this song, which add lyrics and instrumental solos.  They are as good as the final studio.  You can find them on youtube.  The Stones have had so many great songs, but I think “Miss You” was their greatest composition.

Matthew Monday: Fingers Where They Don’t Belong

 For some reason this last year Matthew has started putting his fingers in his mouth.  He was never a finger sucker, and he’s not sucking on his fingers, but he’s either playing with his teeth or chewing his nails or something.

 

Earlier this week I got tired of warning him, so I swatted his hand.  It made a loud smack sound.  He gave me a shocked look and then a pouting lip.

 

“Don’t put your fingers in your mouth,” I scolded.  “From now on when I see your fingers in your mouth, I’m going to slap your hand.”  He quietly turned away.

 

We’ve been also warning him we’re going to put hot sauce on his fingers if he doesn’t stop.  Now Matthew is very sensitive to spices.  He hates them, but especially spicy hot.  “No, no,” he cried after the warning.  “Don’t do that.  Please.”

 

“OK, but you better stop putting them in your mouth.”

 

“I promise, I promise.”

 

Saturday afternoon I walked in the door after running chores all morning and Matthew came right up to me.  “Daddy, I never want to taste hot sauce again.” 

 

I was a little confused.  “What’s this all about?”

 

“Mommy put hot sauce on my fingers and it was yucky.”

 

“He kept putting his fingers in his mouth,” my wife said, walking into the room, “and finally I did it.”

 

“A-ha!”  I said.  “We finally did it.  We finally put hot sauce on your fingers.” 

 

“I’m gonna learn my lesson,” he said contritely. 

 

Next day, Sunday, we were driving to Philadelphia to see some family and I was doing the driving.  It’s a little over an hour drive from where we live.  About a half hour into the drive, my wife catches me chewing my nails.

 

“Will you stop that!” my wife who’s in the passenger seat said.  “Fine example you are.  That’s where Matthew gets it from.  He sees you chewing your nails all the time.”

 

I gave a shrug.  It’s true I chew my nails all the time.

 

“It’s not sanitary,” she continued.  “Maybe we ought to put hot sauce on your fingers.”

 

That got Matthew’s attention.  He was in the back and not fully hearing the conversation.

 

“What did Daddy do?” he asked.

 

“Daddy was chewing his fingernails.  Maybe we should put hot sauce on his fingers to get him to stop.  What-a you think?”

 

I glanced in the rearview mirror to see Matthew’s reaction.  He wasn’t smiling or playing along with the banter like I expected.  His face wasn’t jolly but most serious, as if some injustice had been overturned and proven him innocent. 

 

“And,” he said sternly, “and I’ve even seen him stick his fingers in his nose.”

 

Ba-dum.  That got everyone laughing.

Literature in the News: Discovery Identifies Victorian Authors

Wow, this is a big discovery in the literary world.  The authors of previously anonymously authored works published in Charles Dickens’s magazine, All the Year Round, have been identified through the found annotations written by Dickens himself.  From the UK’s The Independent:

It is a discovery that could solve some of the biggest mysteries of Victorian literature.

The authors of thousands of articles, short stories and poems, printed anonymously in a literary magazine edited by Charles Dickens, have finally been revealed after an antiquarian book dealer discovered a bound collection of the periodicals annotated by Dickens himself.

Among the biggest revelations are works by Elizabeth Gaskell, Lewis Carroll and Dickens’ close friend Wilkie Collins, as well as two articles co-written by Dickens.

This is big.  The find stemmed from a purchase by a book collector.

Last September Jeremy Parrott, an academic and book dealer, ordered a 20-volume bound collection of All the Year Round from an online bookseller in Wrexham.

Dr Parrott didn’t open the box of books until December, when he arrived in London from his home in Hungary.

“When I saw the listing of 20 volumes in red cloth with gilt edges for sale I was excited. There was no mention of annotation but when I opened the box and saw the notes it was all my Christmases at once.

“To realise it was Dickens’ own set and his own handwriting revealing who wrote everything was incredible. That has never been public information because the pieces were deliberately published without attribution as Dickens’ name appeared on the top of every page.”

Now that had to be some thrill for Dr. Parrott.  That has to be a scholar’s and book collector’s biggest dream.  It hardly ever happens.  I don’t think we comprehend how rich a find this was.  There are some 400 pieces of literature identified.

The discovery solves the mystery of which Victorian writers were commissioned by Dickens and identifies new works by many leading authors of the time. Dickens’ notes mean that between 300 and 400 authors have been identified as responsible for some 2,500 contributions.

And the literary world is in shock.

The BBC financial broadcaster Paul Lewis, who is also a renowned expert on Wilkie Collins and secretary of the Wilkie Collins Society, was at the conference. He said there were “audible gasps” when the scale of the revelation dawned on the audience of about 50 academics. “Everyone was completely blown away by it. This is the Rosetta Stone of Victorian studies because it gives you the key to what hundreds of people wrote. When this list emerges it will change Victorian scholarship.”

Wonderful!  I can’t wait to see what comes out of this.  There’s so much more at the Independent article, including a initial list of some identified finds.  You should read it.