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to tell me about a drug that will cure the common cold. The reason the FDA won’t approve it is disturbing. From the Touchstone Magazine website.

Infobeat News reports that the FDA has rejected a medicine, called Picovir, that will cure the common cold. Americans, it says, suffer one billion colds each year. Why would the FDA reject a medicine that will make nearly every American feel a lot better, keep people working untold thousands of days, make social contact much less, um, sticky, and keep millions of children in school? The FDA says that “the drug’s potential side effects . . . make it unacceptable to treat what is mostly a nuisance illness rather than a serious medical condition.” Does it cause cancer, hurt the heart, ruin the kidneys, what? Reports the story: “Most notabl[e]” of the side effects is . . .
Wait for it.
You’re not going to believe this.
Really.
“cutting the effectiveness of birth control pills.”
Because some women with a cold might not pay attention to the warning label, the rest of us — all 200 million-some of us — have to sniffle and snort and ache and lay in bed feeling awful when we could be doing something useful. It is more important to the FDA to ensure that some people can have sex without having babies than to let everyone else feel a lot better and do a lot more. We live in a very strange world.

The Cathedral of St. Thomas More has a stunning architectural feature. High above the altra is a huge glass dome. Not stained glass, just your average window glass. Today during the consecration with the Bishop and five newly ordained priests at the altar the sun was shining brilliantly on all of them straight down from the dome. What kind of miracle is that that on exactly this day at this time the sun would be lined up in that manner? It was like Heaven poured out on the altar at that moment. When the bread and wine became the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord it was as much of Heaven that we can experience on this Earth.

I’ve got one of those dreaded summer colds. There is nothing wrong with me from the neck down but my nose is stuffed up, I’m coughing, and my eyes are watering as though Satan was cutting onions in front of me. I shouldn’t joke like that because I just got back from Mass – the Ordination Mass for a number of priests for our Diocese. I just couldn’t miss it so I ventured out to St. Thomas More to glorify God in my infirmity. No suffering should go to waste, right? It is truly awesome to witness the ordination of priests. If you’ve never been to an ordination Mass in your Diocese please go.

The choir sounded wonderful. They had a small brass quartet or quintet and timpani that was terrific. A Benedictine monk happened to sit next to me in the very crowded pew and when I turned to him and smiled he said, “You look familiar – are you a Dominican?” Wherever I go people ask me if I work there. Whether it’s Old Navy, the grocery store, Borders, Home Depot, or Staples people think I work there. The only place that never happens is 7-11. Maybe the monk wondering if I was a Dominican is the same phenomenon. I almost showed him my 15-decade rosary but decided against it. Anyhow, I made a new friend of this monk. He needs our prayers because he’s in the Richmond Diocese. He says they really do have a priest shortage unlike Arlington. He came up for the ordination because he was in the seminary with a couple of the ordinandi. I never knew of the word “ordinandi” until today, but now I am resolved to use it as often as possible.

At the reception I introduced myself to the Dappled One, Fr. Jim of Dappled Things. I recognized him from his picture on the website and figured I’d shake his hand since we’ve traded some email. Over email I asked him to pass along a prayer request to the Poor Clares for me. He said he told the Sacristan, Sister Jose Maria, that he met someone on the internet who used to date one of the sisters. She raised an eyebrow but he said she had nothing to worry about. It was great meeting him and I am comforted by the fact that the dear sisters are praying for me. It is a treasure to have them in this Diocese.

I’m blog on more about today later. Right now I’m going to look up the patron saint of watery eyes, stuffy noses, and persistant coughs.

Don’t mess with God’s plan, OK?

We discussed Chapter 8 of Acts this week in our ecumenical Bible study. After Philip has proclaimed the Messiah to and baptized the Samarians, Peter goes to lay hands on them to that they will receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This is clearly the one of the origins of the sacrament of Confirmation. I spoke of the importance of recognizing that Grace is conferred on individuals through a minister. In this case it’s Peter, who was ordained by Jesus. Another participant read from a study Bible that Baptism, laying on of hands, and receipt of the Holy Spirit don’t always occur in the same order in Acts. The reference was from Chapter 10, where a the Holy Spirit is poured out on a group of Gentiles:

44 While Peter was still speaking these things, the holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.
45 The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,
46 For they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded,
47 “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?”
48 He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

We can say that the Holy Spirit falling upon a group of people doesn’t mean that they have received sanctifying Grace in their souls, but what does it mean when Peter says, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?” If you have any thoughts on this please email me.