Category: Uncategorized

In his homily the padre talked about good-byes. He said he was dating a girl in high school and they broke up over the telephone. With tearful eyes he wished her well and told her he hoped she would eventually go to Heaven. “She thought I was a freak,” he said. That is the the funniest thing I have ever heard in a homily. His point was a Christian lives his life longing for Heaven and wishes for others to get there. So he wished us well and told us it was his hope that we would all eventually go to Heaven. And of course we must participate worthily in the sacraments and pray in order to get there.

I spent about an hour practicing this reading from the Book of Kings so I didn’t mangle the Old Testament names when I spoke. When I got to the ambo Father asked me to do the reading for the memorial of Aloysius Gonzaga instead. I had a good laugh at myself for getting worked up over the names in Kings.

Dr. Jacobson, the famed musicologist, chanted the Introit, the Gradual, and the Communion song. He was incredible. At the party afterwards I spoke with him for a while. He mentioned that he is looking for singers for his group, the Washington Capella Antigua, so I will be auditioning for him on Wedesday. I would be overjoyed if he accepts me – there wouldn’t be a better way to learn early sacred music unless I had a time machine. My friend Linda, a fine soprano and choral conductor, will be joining the group for sure. She’s doing doctoral studies in the field of early music so it’s right up her alley.

I was doing some research on Church reform groups for our list and happened upon this.

In a system that cared more for its clerical image than it did for the people it purported to serve, theologians, canonists, scholars and women all went unattended with their questions, ignored in their concerns. The balance of hierarchy, laity and scholars, which Thomas Aquinas defined as the fullness of the church, seemed lost forever. The clerical culture of silence, exclusion and sacred domination simply stopped the church cold, struck questioners dumb, drew up the drawbridge on discussion after discussion: birth control, homosexuality, celibacy, married clergy, divorce, the role of women in the church. Those questions, we were told, had been answered once for all, were determined in heaven, were answered in male clerical synods, were not to be broached by the likes of the barbarians at the gates.

It was St. Teresa of Avila who said “God preserve us from stupid nuns.”

3:00 pm yesterday – my home computer becomes unbootable, looks like a hard drive problem
3:01 pm I reboot. I reboot a couple more times. I fiddle with the startup options a bit. Nothing.
3:30 pm I leave to meet a friend for a visit before Latin Mass. I try not to worry about the data I don’t have backed up.
11:00 pm I get home after the Latin Mass and party for Father Chris. I turn on my computer and for no good reason I yell “Sursum corda!” Nothing. I begin to fret and pace around the house.
1:34 am The fretting and pacing ceases as I fall into a restless sleep.
6:54 am today. I resume trouble shooting. I buy and download data recovery software from winternals.com for 300 bones. I monkey with that for a long time. It don’t work.
3:18 pm I investigate the return policy for the above company. “If not totally satisfied contact us for a refund within 30 days of purchase.” Yippie. Make a note to contact them on Monday.
3:20 pm I download the trial version of more expensive data recovery program and determine that, yes, I can recover most of the data.
3:54 pm I fork over 500 bones for the software that will do the trick.
4:08 pm I am copying about 15 GB of files from the dead drive which hopefully contains all my documents, digital photos, email, my resume, etc. That will be done in about an hour.
If you are anywhere near by please come see me – I need a hug.

I think some of our friends in blogland are wondering if Nihil Obstat is a sour-puss. A blog created to point out typos and grammatical errors on Catholic blogs certainly sounds sour. Add that to the fact that “Nihil” is anonymously published and there’s plenty of room for conjecture.
Here’s a possible profile for Mr/Ms/Mrs/Dr Obstat, created by drawing on my recollection of several X-Files episodes.
N. Obstat is middle-aged with a small paunch developing around the mid-section because of time spent reading this book.
N. Obstat has a very old cat likes to curl up in inconvenient places like the kitchen counter, the bathroom sink and N. Obstat’s mousepad.
N. Obstat’s medicine cabinet contains 7 different kinds of analgesics.
In spite of post-graduate degrees at prestigious New England universities, N. Obstat pronounces the word “idea” as “idear” and the word “pudding” as “puddin”
N. Obstat rejected an invitation to join “Mensa” because the group is too hebetudinous.
N. Obstate raises his/her pinky when drinking a beverage.
N. Obstat does not listen to music because it would be too relaxing and enjoyable.
N. Obstat has been known to kick small dogs with his/her sensible shoes when no one is looking.
N. Obstat once slapped a student who defined irony as “a place where it’s real hot and men make fences that are real costly”
N. Obstat decided to make the blog because it would be too complicated to keep up on the theological aspects of Catholic blogs with one called “Imprimatur”
That’s all for now. Except – I’ll be happy to withdraw this information once the cloak of anonymity is removed.