Two videos for your enjoyment today. First, a look back at how well we here in the mid-Atlantic handle snow:

Next, a look forward at the season we are about to enter:

“Modern society, with its emphasis on material possessions and indifference to community, is making us mentally ill.”

Or, in other words:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

As always, pray first, in the middle, and last.

Also, you can fast for Haiti.

And I received an email from someone who is very knowledgeable about various charities, and he recommends the following organizations:

AmeriCares
Attn. Curtis R. Welling, President & CEO
88 Hamilton Avenue
Stamford, CT 06902
203-658-9500
800-486-HELP (4357)
99.01% Program Services, Fundraising: 2%  Administrative: .35%

Hope for Haiti, Inc.
Attn: Joanne Kuehner, President
900 Broad Ave. South, 2
Naples, FL.34102-7319
(239) 434-7183
www.hopeforhaiti.com
98.2% Program Services, 1.1% Administrative, 1.1% Fundraising 0.6%

Catholic Medical Mission Board
10 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011
(800) 678-5659
(212) 242-7757
www.cmmb.org
Program Services: 97%, Fund Raising: 2%  Administrative: 1%

Catholic Relief Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-17090
(800) 736-3467
Programs: 93%  Fund Raising: 4%  Administrative: 3%

And don’t forget to pray!

Pray, of course. Don’t think for a minute that this is not the most important thing you can do.

Secondly, give material assistance. They don’t need our second-hand clothes or leftovers from our medicine cabinet. They need money. I would recommend sending money to a legitimate organization like Catholic Relief Services.

Oh, and did I mention that we should pray?

In my household a great debate is raging: is the current year pronounced “twenty-ten” or “two-thousand-ten”?

The men in my family (that being me and my 6-year-old son) vote “twenty-ten”.

The women (my wife, three oldest daughters and probably my 6-month-old daughter too) vote “two-thousand-ten”.

They claim that “twenty-ten” sounds “weird”. I say that “two-thousand-ten” sounds like a number, not a year.

Is this a gender issue? Or perhaps my son just joined with me because I was all alone in my defense and he felt sorry for me.

Feel free to weigh in on this vital issue. If the consensus is that it should be “twenty-ten”, I’ll know my wife is crazy. If the consensus is that it should be “two-thousand-ten”, I’ll know that my readers are.

I just found out that Jennifer Jones, who played Bernadette (and won an Oscar) in the classic movie “Song of Bernadette” died this month at the age of 90.

If you have never seen “Song of Bernadette” , you really must find time to do so; it is a wonderful film which beautifully captures the events surrounding the apparition of Mary in Lourdes, France in the 19th century. I especially love its portrayal of the local parish priest: he is a no-nonsense cleric who initially (and prudently) assumes Bernadette is making the story up, but after he accepts the apparition as valid, fiercely protects her from those who wished to destroy her.

As the opening credits of “Song of Bernadette” state,

To those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary.
To those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible.

Say a prayer today for the repose of the soul of Jennifer Jones. I’m sure that St. Bernadette has been praying for her for a long time.

To say it snowed here this weekend would be like saying New Orleans got a little rain during Katrina.

Here are our unofficial counts from Saturday:

• 10am: 7 inches
• 2pm: 12.5 inches
• 5pm: 17 inches
• 9pm: 20 inches

This is the biggest snow for us since the Blizzard of 1996, when we got over 30 inches.

Of course, my homeschooled kids still have school today, but I’m sure they’ll find plenty to do during their breaks:

I remember as a boy reading the Sports page and Comics in the Cincinnati Enquirer every day. I had no interest in the world events that found a place in the Front section of the paper. However, that changed one day when at the age of nine I read the following headline: “Stampede Kills 11 Persons at Coliseum Rock Concert”. I had now entered the “real world”.

Thirty years ago today, the popular rock band The Who held a concert in Cincinnati which had “festival seating” and incompetent security and management. This combination turned deadly, as a stampede occurred before the concert, leading to 11 deaths and numerous injuries. This was an incredibly traumatic event in the history of Cincinnati and I don’t think anyone who lived in the city at that time will ever forget it. It just seemed so senseless: people died how? Getting into a rock concert?

(An aside: if you read the linked article, you’ll see this line: “Kim and a group of guy friends she had met while campaigning for then-city councilman Jerry Springer had general admission tickets and arrived at about 4:30 p.m“. Yes, that is referring to THE Jerry Springer, who was a city councilman, news anchor and even Mayor of the fine town of Cincinnati before his foray into talk shows).

Pray for those who died in that tragedy and their family and friends on this day. And you might as well throw in a prayer for Jerry Spring while you are at it.

Since I grew up in Cincinnati in the 1970’s and 1980’s, it should go without saying that I was a fan of the show “WKRP in Cincinnati” (and before you ask, there is NOT a real radio station WKRP in Cincinnati). My favorite episode was the famous Thanksgiving “Turkey Drop” episode. For your post-thanksgiving enjoyment, the classic scene – possibly the best scene in TV sitcom history – follows (apologies for the ad at the beginning of the clip):

I have been on this earth for almost 40 years now and I admit I still don’t know how to describe my personal music tastes.

On the one hand, on a long drive this weekend I enjoyed listening to Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

On the other hand, I can’t help but smile and sing along when listening to the following song (which Francis Beckwith suggests might be the “worst Christian pop song ever” ):

Fr. Michael Sinnott, the Irish Columban priest stationed in the Philippines who was abducted a month ago, has been released!

Praise God!

Looks like 14:

I have always been a big fan of science fiction. Growing up I religiously followed all the latest science fiction shows, from Star Trek to Star Wars to V. I loved to consider the possibility of extra-terrestrial life and humanity’s interaction with it.

However, now that I am an adult, I don’t really think intelligent life exists outside this planet. I obviously don’t hold to this belief dogmatically, as I cannot prove it one way or another. I just think that man is unique in all of creation: a physical species with the ability to think and choose.

But what if I’m wrong? What if on another planet there is intelligent life? This is now being debated at the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Before debating what it would mean if intelligent life exists outside our planet, I think we have to first take a step back. We first have to define “intelligent life” itself. I would define it in the classical Catholic sense: a being with a mind and a will; i.e. someone with the power to think and to choose. The only intelligent life on this planet is humanity (aside from angels), so finding animal or plant life on another planet does not constitute “intelligent life”. If we found animal or plant life on another planet, it could easily be considered part of creation which has been placed under the dominion of man.

But how would we determine if extra-terrestrial life is “intelligent”? How would we know if a species could in fact think and choose?

It could be obvious: if an alien species had developed a culture in which people engaged in art, music, philosophy and other such activities, we would know that they could think. If the species showed an understanding of love between them, we would know that they could choose. And more ominously, if the species had a history of violence and injustice, we would know that it had fallen, which would also show that it was “intelligent”.

Personally, I do not think it will be difficult to ascertain if a life is “intelligent” as I do not think such life would be very dissimilar to human life. Mankind is made in the image and likeness of God, and it is that very image and likeness which makes us “intelligent”. It follows then that any intelligent species would also be in God’s image and likeness and therefore would in some way be similar to us. So it seems to me that it would be obvious. If we encounter intelligent life on other planets, we’ll know it.

But what would that mean to our theology? I think that the big question revolves around the Fall and God’s response to the Fall. In our world, God became man to save us from ourselves. This was His solution to our Fall. Could He also incarnate Himself as another species? Someone in the article I linked above stated that “multiple incarnations is a heresy in Catholicism”. I don’t think that is true; at no time has the Church definitively ruled on such a doctrine. But it is a troubling thought nonetheless. Does it diminish the power of The Incarnation if it was instead just one incarnation among many? Or does it show God’s power even more clearly?

Many of my devoted readers might not realize that there are other Catholic blogs out there on this interweb thingy. Yes, it’s true! Not only that, but they are really, really good! So, as a public service to my readers, I give you some of my favorite posts from the past few days:

Judas Maccabeus vs. Gaudium et Spes: With a title like that, it must be interesting. Br. Charles looks at the strange juxtaposition of readings in the Office of Readings recently.

A Very Common Confusion: Mark Shea adroitly answers a common question from a Protestant minister regarding the practice of Catholics praying to Mary.

Justification and the Analogy with Inscripturation: Francis Beckwith makes an interesting, if novel, comparison between Justification and the Inscripturation of Scripture.

Bryan Planned Parenthood Director has a “Change of Heart”!: Marcel at Aggie’s Catholics gives the inside story about the PP Director who became pro-life.