A Deo et Rege

The Catholic Report has linked to a story about a Catholic coffee shop in Arizona that has closed shop after a year of being in business. The idea was to provide a place to hang out for Catholic young people and to provide a non-threatening witness to non-Catholics and non-Christians. Sadly, although the numbers patronizing the shop were increasing, it just couldn’t last long enough to be profitable.

I always thought it would be awesome to create a place for young Catholics and other Christians to hang out. It would be like the coffeehouses of pre-enlightenment England that were filled with highly caffeinated, highly thoughtful individuals who used them as a spot for great philosophical discussion and eventually societal change. Throw in a few statues, provide scapulars to all, devote some time to the rosary, and change the topic to theology and you have my vision. Of course, we’d be trying to undo much of the work of those men in pre-enlightenment England! But, hey the model could work.

Sadly, for young people interested in theology, especially Catholic theology, there are few venues to intelligently discuss their faith with others. I am still technically a young person and ever since I’ve been out of university, I’ve been unable to find any casual setting where people can just meet, relax, and simply have good theological discussion. These kinds of places would also be good to help people who are uninterested in Christianity or Catholicism learn more about the positives and the beauty of the Faith.

I guess the main question I’d ask: can this work? Can anything that relies on young people, many of whom are somewhat impoverished, succeed?  I’d like to think that it could. America is a revivalist nation and I think that the next revival could be Catholic. I’m serious and may blog more on this topic later. Of course it won’t be like the Great Awakenings I-whatever, but I believe it may happen. Perhaps the historians will then look back say it all started with some caffeine hyped youths with more time than money.

Photo by Jonathan Bennett, taken with morning coffee

If I weren’t already, of course. The answer would be yes. I was also a history major in undergrad.

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

An odd combination for sure, but nonetheless, reflective of my day. After I woke up, I decided to drive to Wal-Mart. <begin apology> I know Wal-Mart isn’t the best place to shop, but until I make more money, I can’t afford to pay "mom and pop" prices.</end apology>. On the way to the nearest Wal-Mart, I pass through a small "Amish Country." Maybe small isn’t the right word, because Wal-Mart had a place to park buggies, the roads were full of horse "ahem," and the store was filled with men with beards and hats and women with bonnets. It’s quite fascinating really, until I got behind some of their buggies driving home. The Amish have great cheeses, meats, and restaurants, so I may make a trip over there sometime.

Then again, maybe not…since I joined the local YMCA facility today. It’s brand new and absolutely beautiful. Plus, I got a pretty good discount because of my new insurance plan. I need to work out. I’m not unhealthy or out of shape, but at one point I was in great shape. I want to get back to that point and plus, I like to be around people. So, the YMCA fits the bill.

Finally, I’ve been listening to Christmas music. It’s 85 degrees out, the trees are green, and there is no snow in sight, yet my car echoes the strains of "Silver Bells." Why? For one, it was the only tape in the car when I couldn’t find a radio station (left over from the drive to midnight mass last year), so I popped it in. Being in a new place and with a new job, it helped me feel…well…comfortable. I won’t listen to the tape too much longer, because I want them to be special, but for now they fit the bill.

Oh yeah, I’m doing some laundry, but that isn’t terribly interesting.

Images from Clipart Heaven

Last Sunday, I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio. We started the day with a mass on festival grounds. They actually had 3 masses on Sunday morning, with one in Gaelic. The mass Carmel, David, Jennifer and I attended featured an Irish family doing the music. The flute and violin were beautiful and as my first outdoor mass I was highly impressed.

After mass we did a bit of walking around looking at the various merchants and buying mostly their foods. The highlights were cheesecake on a stick and the lemon shakeups. It was so hot that we settled down in a tent and listened to Tommy Makem play. I’ve liked him since I heard him play on the Bob Dylan Tribute album with the Clancy Brothers. He was awesome, especially his beautiful renditions of the beautiful "Red is the Rose" and "Four Green Fields." We then listened to another good band, the name of which, I can’t remember at this moment.

Finally, the heat wore us down and we on a hill where actors rehashed scenes from Ireland’s past. It would’ve been authentic if we hadn’t been drinking a lemon shakeup! We ended the day at a mall with some much needed coffee. Ireann go Brách (Ireland Forever)!

That is what Carmel and I like to say. This time it’s up to immigration. I think my old post Sad Goodbyes sums up my feelings best. Your prayers for her travel and swift approval by immigration are appreciated.

After visiting the winery and signing the lease for the new place, we went into downtown Cleveland to see the city. Getting into downtown Cleveland was surprisingly easy, but navigating it was frustratingly difficult. It seems that few streets in Cleveland run in a straight line and making left turns is almost always forbidden. Needless to say I spent more than a few minutes trying to find a way to come upon the Hyatt from the left. When we finally arrived, I was grateful to be in Cleveland, but somewhat annoyed by the city design.

Each of our hotel rooms was beautiful, situated in the historic arcade of the Hyatt Regency. It’s fascinating to open your room onto a balcony and see the plethora of shops and restaurants. We just sat down and cracked open a bottle of Ferrante chardonnay and watched the news. After my Cleveland driving frustration, I needed to just relax.

After awhile we decided to go out and look for a place to eat as well as see downtown Cleveland. I was a bit shocked to be honest. Downtown Cleveland was full of people, many of them doing little more than loitering. I was a little shocked that this kind of thing is allowed. There were large numbers of homeless and beggars as well, quite a sad and unfortunate sight. We didn’t feel terribly safe walking downtown Cleveland at night, so we went into another arcade and found the local Hard Rock Cafe and ate there. After that we went back to our hotel rooms and collapsed.

The next day, we got up early to see Cleveland during the day when we hoped we could feel safer walking around. We started the morning with Starbucks and then took a walk downtown. We saw the beautiful fountain, the park area, the Cleveland Browns stadium and the lake. Then we walked around a bit more and visited the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. It was beautiful and we did our morning prayer within its walls. Then we returned to the Hyatt and checked out.

After that we went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, which was under construction and only had a handful of items on display. That was incredibly annoying and we also had to pay double the parking rate because an attendant was not on hand at the garage. That ticked me off. We left Cleveland and ate at one of my favorites, Buca Di Beppo. After that we drove home saying goodbye to Cleveland…for now anyway.

I’ve always been fascinated by wine making and wines. I don’t really drink alcohol on a regular basis, yet I’ve always enjoyed learning about wines and winemaking. I also think that wineries are fascinating places to be, probably because I associate them and their products with culture and refinement.

Carmel and I wanted to find some places to visit in Northeastern Ohio and decided to see if there was a local vineyard/winery. Surprisingly, there are lots of them in the areas east and west of Cleveland. We looked at various places on the internet and found a cool looking place called Ferrante Winery located near Geneva, Ohio.

We were first stuck by how beautiful the place was. They had acres of vines as well as a beautiful restaurant and wine tasting area. We were very hungry so first we went into the restaurant. They actually had gnocchi, which is incredibly hard to find at most Italian restaurants in the Midwest. The dish was called Gnocchi Brue and was prepared with onions, beef, and blue cheese. It was great, as was the homemade bread.

After that we moved to the tasting area and sampled a tray of wines. The best were the dryer wines (this winery helps people by posting the different levels of dryness and sweetness for each wines). Then, we had a walk around the grounds enjoying the cool day and looking at the vines. We finally settled down and sat for awhile beside a lovely fountain outdoors with a perfect view of the verdant fields.

We then moved back indoors where I had my cup of afternoon coffee in the wine tasting area. That section was lovely and had a large fireplace, which I’m sure would make it perfect for cool autumn afternoons. My only complaint was that this section allowed smoking, which in my opinion ruins the taste of both food and drink. After I had my coffee, we left the winery and went to sign the lease on my near future home (once Carmel is allowed in the USA and we marry it will be our home). All in all it was a wonderful afternoon and quite carefree. We would experience a headache once we entered Cleveland, but that is another blog entry.

Photos on left of Gift shop and vines. Photo on right of restaurant fountain.

Photos by Jonathan Bennett and Carmel B.

My brother has made some major updates to our website, ChurchYear.Net. Although many are "out of season" you should find them informative:

All About Epiphany
All About the Annunciation
All About the Immaculate Conception

Not a new composition, but liturgically near:

All About the Assumption

Here are the accompanying prayer pages:

Epiphany Prayers and Collects
Annunciation Prayers and Collects
Immaculate Conception Prayers and Collects
Prayers for the Feast of the Assumption