Bill Kassel's Blog

Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...

bill kassel

Ash Wednesday — Revisited

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IT’S GOOD TO REMIND OURSELVES
OF OUR FLAWS AND FAILINGS

In acknowledgment of Ash Wednesday, here are some thoughts I’ve posted several times since they first appeared back in 2014…

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I have to confess that there are certain Catholic pious practices I don’t entirely get.

It probably reflects the fact that I’m an adult convert and wasn’t raised in the Church — or that I’ve made less progress on my spiritual journey than I like to assume.

One of the things I don’t get is fasting.

As I understand it, the Church advocates self-denial as a way of detaching ourselves from fleshly preoccupations. Yet I’m never more preoccupied with concerns of the flesh (that is to say, eating) than when I deny myself food.

Now admittedly, my self-denial is of limited duration — Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and such selected occasions — so perhaps it’s a matter of not persisting long enough to build spiritual stamina.

I once knew a fellow who abstained from food entirely every Wednesday and Friday, and he was a veritable saint. Of course, the question presents itself:

Did maintaining this discipline make him virtuous, or did some fundamental saintly character give him the spiritual strength to perform such feats of devotional athleticism?

Another thing I don’t get is the remarkable appeal of Ash Wednesday.

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The Decline of Good Old Joe

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BIDEN’S FADING PROSPECTS
ARE A SIGN OF THE TIMES

Drawing conclusions from early primary elections is always risky, because states vary. A candidate who flops in one region can perform impressively in another part of the country. And in politics a couple of months is an eternity.

A lot can change.

Nevertheless, after Iowa and New Hampshire, things aren’t looking good for Joe Biden. There’s enough of a geographic spread between those two states to give the impression that “momentum” — the elusive sense people impute to a politician’s progress on the campaign trail — has abandoned him.

But, even allowing for the (increasingly remote) possibility of a recovery, the results of Biden’s sputtering effort would seem to imply more than just the winding down of his long career in public life. One recent incident is suggestive.

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Rush to Judgment

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GLEE ON THE LEFT ABOUT
RUSH LIMBAUGH’S CANCER

Tulsi Gabbard’s gracious tweet stands out in sharp contrast to a flood of invective that’s greeted Rush Limbaugh’s announcement of his lung cancer diagnosis. Indeed, social networks and news site comment pages have been buzzing with nasty tweets, memes and wisecracks.

Simple, direct and typical was…

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Free Expression

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MY NEW RADIO SHOW FOR
WRITERS AND READERS

This weekend will see the launch of my new radio series about communicating religious ideas.

Called “Free Expression with Bill Kassel,” the show is for writers, for readers, for anybody who loves books and who recognizes their importance in our faith walk.

It’s produced by Good Shepherd Catholic Radio, the south-central Michigan affiliate of EWTN Global Catholic Radio. And it’s available worldwide online at: goodshepherdcatholicradio.org (or gscr.org).

If you’re in the local broadcast area, you can listen on air:

FM-93.3 or AM-1510

The show is also downloadable as a podcast from the Good Shepherd website.

“Free Expression with Bill Kassel” is an easy-to-absorb half-hour in length. We’re starting slowly with a monthly schedule (each episode aired four times). Our plan is to increase the frequency as we refine our format, build an audience, and attract underwriters.

I’ve been working on this project for several months, speaking with interesting people involved in Catholic writing and publishing, and building a library of interviews. The first episode features talks with Doug Keck, host of EWTN’s “Bookmark” show, and author-reviewer Virginia Lieto.

Upcoming shows will feature scholar and author Anthony Esolen, Joe Wetterling, president of the Catholic Writers Guild, Joseph Pierce, editor of St. Austen Review, and many others.

What It’s About [Read more…] about Free Expression

Let Us Pray

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MY ONGOING PRAYER FOR PEACE
AMID OUR ONGOING TURMOIL

Once again I post my little variation on Franz Gruber’s Christmas classic, “Silent Night.”

I wrote these lines for the Christmas concerts presented by my 1980s music group, Company, which I’ve mentioned from time to time. Based in Colorado, Company was a forerunner of today’s Independent Catholic Music Movement. We did an annual benefit program for a regional charity called Christmas Unlimited. And the high point was always our rendition of “Silent Night” that included this insert…

Christmas prayers, warm and true
Hear us, Lord as we call to You
Hear our plea from ages past
Help the world know peace at last
Grant that love may be born
Grant that love may be born

We have hope, we believe
Hear our prayers on this Christmas Eve
Touch the hearts inside all men
Let us know Your joy again
So that love may be born
So that love may be born.*

May the peace of Christmas be a prayer in your heart — and a reality throughout the year to come.

Thanks for reading my blog. God bless you and your family.

Bill Kassel

 

*“Christmas Prayers” Copyright © 1979 by Bill Kassel

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Reconsidering Charity

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BE A CHEERFUL GIVER WITH BOTH
DISCERNMENT AND GENEROSITY

(The current, stupid, controversy about the Salvation Army’s alleged rejection of “diversity” doesn’t dull the luster of an organization that has done heroic human service over the years. I refer to the SA in this post which appeared on American Thinker and than on my blog back in 2016. I believe these reflections are still relevant.)

Christmas has become a complete religious / commercial mash-up. From post-Thanksgiving “Black Friday,” it seems we’re in a virtual orgy of materialism.

But the Salvation Army bell ringers I’ve seen in front of Kroger over the last few weeks remind me that Yuletide highlights the spirit of generosity and a specific kind of gift giving that flows from it — namely, charitable sharing.

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Who’s Being Dumb?

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ANTI-TRUMPERS PUSH NONSENSE
INSTEAD OF REAL CRITICISM

A video circulating on Facebook shows Donald Trump crowing about a new coin that commemorates the hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage. In typical self-congratulatory mode he wonders why such a token wasn’t issued “a long time ago,” and boasts of being someone who can “get a lot of things done,” and so accomplished it.

The circulators of the video aren’t criticizing him for his tendency to claim credit — a trait he exhibits frequently — but for a silly slip of the tongue. Naturally, a coin commemorating an anniversary wouldn’t be issued “a long time” before the anniversary occurs. What Trump insists we should have commemorated earlier is women voting.

It’s the kind of common malapropism everyone makes from time to time. But as far as the circulators are concerned, for The Donald it’s proof positive that the “stable genius” really is “that dumb.”

Petty, petty, petty.

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Rome on Its Own Terms – II

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AN ABUNDANCE OF CREATIVITY
WHICH MUST BE EXPERIENCED

In the early 16th Century an obscure Augustinian monk from Germany visited Rome. He was quite put off by the extravagance (not to mention the moral turpitude) he observed in this seat of the Church and center of Christian Tradition.

That experience was formative in Martin Luther’s thinking about the relationship between religious institutions and individual souls. We all know what came of his negative impressions.

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Rome on Its Own Terms – I

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WHEN YOU GO, EXPECT A
MASS OF CONTRADICTIONS

The standard cliché about travel is that it’s “broadening.”

I’m not sure this is altogether true. It may suggest too much about the impact of mere tourism on one’s character or one’s view of the world.

But going to new places definitely provides glimpses of how life is experienced in different settings. And those impressions, no matter how shallow and fleeting, at the very least raise questions worth pondering.

My wife, Kathy, and I have just returned from Rome.

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Columbus Day 2019

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AGAIN WE NOTE AND DEBATE
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Anti-Columbus fever is becoming virulent here in Michigan. State Senator Jeff Irwin has introduced legislation (Senate Bill 568) to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

No surprise he would take the lead in such an effort. Irwin is a Democrat from Ann Arbor, which adopted the awkwardly named celebration in 2016. Home of Irwin’s alma mater, the University of Michigan (and referred to frequently as “Berkeley on the Huron”), Ann Arbor is one of eight Michigan cities that have tossed Christopher Columbus overboard.

I recently read historian Hugh Thomas’ trilogy on the Spanish conquest of what would become Latin America: Rivers of Gold (2003), The Golden Age (2010), and World Without End (2014).

It’s a fascinating book series that offers a comprehensive, balanced assessment of the goods and the bads of this world-changing historical event (a process, really, carried on over more than two centuries).

Thomas’ work makes especially evident the contrast between the U.S. experience — rooted mostly in decentralized, entrepreneurial colonialism — and what unfolded to the south, which was an importation of royalist medievalism which Latin America has never fully transcended.

At this particular moment, when slavery is much discussed, these books also make clear how limited a portion of this vast human tragedy unfolded on the soil of what would be the United States. Indeed, most — an overwhelming majority — of captured Africans were taken to Mexico, Central and South America, and the islands of the Caribbean.

I mention all this in anticipation of Columbus Day, which this year will be observed on Monday, October 14. Likewise, I offer the thoughts below, first posted on this blog back in 2017…

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[Read more…] about Columbus Day 2019

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