20 + C + M + B + 14?

And now begin, and bless the house of thy servant, that it may endure for ever before thee: because thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it, and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever. 2 Samuel 7:29

Blessed Epiphany! Meaning the day on the Christian calendar commemoration the visit of the Three Wise Men and not the large scary nurse on General Hospital.

The time immediately after Epiphany can be a time of mystery. Mainly, the mystery of why the Catholic neighbors have 20 + C + M + B + 14 written on their door.

Turns out, there is a Catholic custom of blessing the house on Epiphany. I'd actually never heard of it before this morning when I watched the Mass on EWTN and the priest mentioned it. (I'm a Catholic convert.)

You don't need to have a priest come to your house to do this blessing. It's traditional for the head of household, usually the father/husband, to do it. (Since I'm the only household member that isn't a cat, it was up to me.

Chalk is used mark the doors of the household. For Catholics, blessed chalk may be provided by your parish priest. The ceremony he will use to bless the chalk can be found here. The Magnificat, which is a part of the prayers, can be found in your Bible at: Luke 1:46-55.

The prayers can be found here.  The prayers mention the use of holy water, which any Catholic can keep in the home (you can get it from the holy water container in your church, in my church it's a big thing in the back that they refill the holy water fonts from.) It also mentions the use of incense, which I think is mainly for if you have a priest come bless your home. It's not really customary for lay Catholics to do the incense thing at home.

The chalk inscription for this year is: 20 + C + M + B + 14. The numbers are those of the year. The letters are the initials of the traditional names for the Three Wise Men: Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar. It's also the initials for the Latin blessing Christius Mansionem Benedicat which means “May Christ Bless this House”.

The blessing of the house, that is, praying for God to bless your house/home, is a tradition that dates back to Old Testament days. Jews traditionally fastened scrolls with Scripture passages to their doorways as a blessing on their home.

Why do a house blessing at Epiphany? Epiphany is the wind-up to the Advent/Christmas season when we are preparing our hearts for the arrival of the Christ-child. Also, the coming of the Wise Men to the home of the Holy Family bearing gifts might be seen as a sort of blessing on the home by the Wise Men. And certainly they blessed the baby Jesus by not telling Herod where He lived!

If you have a nativity scene in your home, another way to mark Epiphany is to not put out your Wise Men figures until Epiphany. (If you have a full Nativity village, you can let them spend the time until Epiphany in other places in the village.) In my own case I just started collecting Nativity scene figures this year and so I don't have Wise Men yet. Or shepherds, or angels, or even a stable. Just the Holy Family and a too-small goat who is wondering who put the Baby in his hay supply.

There are a lot of 'high church' Protestants who won't have any problem using the Catholic blessing I've linked to pretty much 'as-is'. But for Evangelicals and 'low-church' Protestants you can just as well do your own informal blessing with words from the Bible, omitting any problematic elements such as holy water or blessed chalk or cryptic chalk inscriptions.

Have you ever heard of the Epiphany house blessing tradition? Have you ever blessed your house? How did you do it?

Here are some more posts on the Epiphany house blessing:
Catholic Icing: Epiphany House Blessing
Fish Eaters: Feast of the Epiphany
Blessing Your House on Epiphany 2014

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Are Nuns Allowed to Drop Pianos on Zombies?

One of the many serious questions raised by the movie 'Zombieland'. Are nuns--- and women religious in general--- allowed to drop pianos on zombies?

 Now, the Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker depicted in the clip is clearly not a nun--- a cloistered woman religious--- because she's out of uniform. A cloistered nun has to remain within the enclosure unless she has her superior's permission to leave. Though not intended for zombie protection, I'd imagine those enclosures are pretty zombie-proof. So for the cloistered nun the issue would be this: would she have any zombies to kill within the convent?

 The kind of religious sisters that teach in schools or nurse in hospitals, and who these days often don't wear habits, are perfectly free to leave the convent grounds. But are they allowed to kill zombies once they get there? Catholics, in and out of convents, are required to respect human life from conception until natural death. Zombies have already been through their natural death, that's true. But Lazarus in the Bible died, was in the tomb awhile, and Jesus raised him. I don't think it would have been OK for some one to kill Lazarus based on the fact that he was already dead once.

The question is whether the apparent life of the zombie is human life. If it is not--- if the soul of the person has fully departed and the corpse is just walking around, animated by a virus, an alien entity, an evil spirit, or whatever, killing--- or re-killing--- is justified. Zombies are just a pest, like plague rats, that we can kill for the safety of others.

 The problem is, how do you prove the soul has left? How do you know that the zombified person isn't just suffering from brain damage which left him violent? And how does that research get done in the middle of a zombie apocalypse? Without that proof, Catholics, whether or not they are consecrated religious, can't just kill zombies because they are zombies. Each zombie kill has to be, individually, a self-defense situation. Of course, with zombies, most situations quickly degenerate into legit self-defense situations. But piano-dropping? That's premeditated, that's trapping a Z before you are sure he's out to kill you. Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker's probably gonna have to say three Hail Marys or something.

Starting your Novel out 'Too Catholic'

On today's episode of EWTN Bookmark, Catholic novelist Marcus Grodi suggested that the reason many Catholic novels don't have many non-Catholic readers is that they start out 'too Catholic'. That is, they throw out too many specifically Catholic things at the beginning, which can be off-putting or mystifying to the non-Catholic Christian reader.

It occurred to me that this idea has a more general writing application. I remember one time my sister-in-law, who was raised in an Assemblies of God church, told me about something they were doing that seemed a bit odd to me--- not like something I'd seen in churches I'd ever attended. I can't remember exactly what it was, so let's use the hypothetical example of speaking in tongues, which seems to be a routine part of the Assemblies of God Sunday worship service.

Imagine if a writer from an Assemblies of God background started off his novel with a typical example of someone speaking in tongues at Sunday worship. Many Christians, both Protestant/Evangelical and Catholic, would be put off by that scene. We don't do that at our Sunday service!

The same would go if an LDS writer started off a novel writing about temple ordinances, or a Catholic started off with Eucharistic adoration. It would put off readers from other faith backgrounds who don't do that sort of thing.

This doesn't mean that one has to write something bland and generic that doesn't touch anything that Christians don't agree on. Marcus Grodi's own novel, Pillar and Bulwark, is about a Congregational minister whose life is turned upside down when he begins to believe that the Catholic Church might have the truth on its side--- a story that is bound to have some Catholic content.

The idea, I think, is to start off with some common ground. If you are seeking a general Christian audience, start off your story with content that Christians in general can identify with, rather than with things that are denominationally specific. Later in the story, when the reader has gotten to know the characters involved, things specific to one denomination or Christian group can be introduced without as much risk of alienating the reader.

Of course, you can't always do that. The Left Behind series by Tim Lehaye and Jerry B. Jenkins has a plot specifically centered around a controversial doctrine--- the pre-tribulation Rapture--- that not all Christians share. Not even all Evangelical Christians share it. And since the story-action doesn't start until the Rapture hits, this non-universal doctrine has to be introduced very early in the novel. And it didn't work out all that badly for Lehaye and Jenkins. They won over a lot of readers who did not believe in the pre-tribulation Rapture. I became a loyal fan myself, even though I was a Norse Pagan at the time.

Another thing I might suggest, along the line of handling specific denominational doctrines in Christian fiction, is that the writer needs to trust in the Holy Spirit. You do not need to bore your reader with  a list of proof-texts or compelling arguments for every doctrine you mention in passing. You don't need to waste time defending against the doctrines you think are false. You can handle these things with a very light touch and let the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting in the reader's heart.

On an even broader level, the Christian writer with an ambition to evangelize non-believers would start out with things that are common to us all, whether we are religious or non-religious, Christian or pagan. And then, gently, as the story progresses, gently introduce a bit of Christian content.

Of course, there are some writers that do the exact opposite. They throw out the very specific parts of their denomination, religion, or world-view from page one. While this alienates many readers, it may be a way to gain an intense following among readers who share your views. If you, as a writer, realize that you are sacrificing readers by taking an intense Catholic/Baptist/Lutheran/Marxist-atheist approach from day one, and you are OK with that, go ahead and write for the audience you want to write for.

Question: when you read an author whose faith differs from your own, have you ever been put off by too much 'difference' too soon in the story? 

The Obama Mandate that Jewish Families buy Pork

Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, there was a wise king named Barack Obama. He was a very fair minded man who thought all of his humble subjects should be treated exactly the same.

One year when the kingdom's pork industry had fallen on hard times, King Barack agreed to help them out. He decreed that every family in the kingdom be required to buy a supply of pork every month.

In other years when such a decree was made, there had been a provision that Jewish families be exempt. Their religion required that they keep kosher, and pork was forbidden, non-kosher food. Trafe.

But King Barack thought that being fair meant treating every subject exactly the same. He wouldn't let women get maternity leaves unless men got them too. So he wouldn't let Jewish families be any exception to his rule.

The heads of the kingdom's Jewish families came to King Barack. They pleaded that their faith forbade that they should eat such a thing as pork.

Wise King Barack told them that this was not so. They personally did not have to eat the pork. They just had to buy it, make their wives cook it, and feed it to their children. It wouldn't be fair for Jewish children to be denied access to pork dinners, would it?

The Jewish fathers objected. Their children did have access to pork dinners. Sometimes the Jewish children bought the pork dinners for themselves from a restaurant. And if the children were poor, there were charitable organizations that provided free pork dinners for all. There were even government organizations that did the same.

King Barack shook his head. Children must not be treated differently just because they happened to reside in a Jewish home. They must have access to pork dinners at home, lest some child somewhere not have a pork dinner at all.

The Jewish fathers went home angry, and spread their tale all over the kingdom. Most people agreed that the Jewish religion might be permitted to survive. But pork dinners?

“I don't see anything wrong with eating pork dinners,” said a woman. “Except during Lent of course, and on Fridays.”

“Yes,” said a man. “Pork dinners are not evil, they are a wonderful thing. Where would our sad old world be without pork dinners?”
And many people began to agree with this and decided not to petition the king to reverse his decree where the Jewish families were concerned.

But one old man spoke out. “I don't keep kosher myself,” he said. “I don't see the use of it, being a Christian. But if the Jewish families are ordered to violate their faith--- silly as that faith might be--- what about us? What if some future king decided that we need to violate our faith? Or that those of us who don't have a faith be required to acquire one?”

But the people scoffed. “Just because they come for the Jews doesn't mean they will ever come for us,” said a man. And all over the kingdom, people decided the same way. The king's decree stood, and life went on as normal. Unless you were Jewish.

Twenty years later a new king arose and passed a degree that every church, synagogue and temple in the kingdom hire a man specially trained in scientific atheism and sexual versatility as their new head clergyman.

People went to the courts for relief, but the judges looked to precedent and found the decree of King Barack. “There is nothing to be done,” they said.

Most religious groups refused to comply with the new king's decree. The new king burned down every church, synagogue and temple that did not follow the new law. And somewhere up in heaven, an old man said, “I told you so.”

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between characters in the story and real Barack Obamas is a coincidence. Really.

If my little tale has pleased you enough that you want to share it on your blog, you may do so, provided that you don't alter/rewrite it and that you provide a link back to this blog post.

Read the Bible in a year--- and the Catechism

There are a lot of plans out there for reading the Bible in a year, and now that I am a Bible Christian instead of an Odin-worshipping Neopagan, I see the value of them. It's harder to get in the discipline of Bible-reading if you always are wondering which part of the Bible to be reading on any given day.

Today I found a Bible reading plan with something extra--- it's based on the complete Bible, not one that omits the books tossed out of the Bible by most Protestants after the Reformation. And it ALSO includes daily readings of the Catholic Catechism, so that you will also read THAT in a year (if you so choose.) Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year

The daily reading includes a chapter from 3 different books of the Bible each day. It's in PDF format and if you print out the 2 pages onto the same sheet of paper and fold it in quarters, you have a little leaflet you can keep in your Bible.

Some people might assume that only those Bible Christians who are Catholic would like this scripture reading plan. But nowadays Protestants and Evangelicals are often less than fully convinced that Martin Luther was inerrantly inspired by the Holy Spirit when he treated the Deuterocanonical books (the 'Apocrypha') as not really Biblical, since Luther also wanted to kick the epistle of James out of the Bible altogether (the Deuterocanonicals were included in the Luther translation of the Bible, but grouped together between the Old and New Testaments).

Even Pastor Arnold Murray of the Shepherd's Chapel TV Bible study program is not against reading the Deuterocanonicals and says good things about them, though he doesn't preach on them as he does with other books of the Bible. So this Bible reading plan meets the needs of many Bible Christians who are Protestant/Evangelical as well as the Catholics.

I'm starting with the Bible reading plan today. Another nice thing about it is that it doesn't have the months and days listed so you can start any time, and if you skip a week, you can just keep going with where you left off--- and you can read ahead when you are energetic. I challenge anyone out there to do likewise.



Kindle Bible (KJV with Apocrypha) (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump)
Kindle Catholic Bible (D-R) (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump)

Register Now for Catholic Writers Conference Online

Catholic Writers Conference Online Provides Practical Help


World Wide Web--This year's Catholic Writers’ Conference Online, which will be held February 26-March 5, 2010, will focus on the practical things the writer needs to succeed.

The conference is held via chats and forums at http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild, the online conference is free of charge and open to writers of all levels who register between October 1, 2009 and February 15, 2010.

"We've always concentrated on workshops and chats that teach the writer skills or provide information in the areas of crafting, publishing and marketing their works, but this year, we're adding critique workshops and some incredible opportunities to pitch to leading publishers," said organizer Karina Fabian.

This year, publishers hearing pitches include well known Catholic publishers like Pauline, large Christian publishers like Thomas Nelson, and smaller presses like White Rose. Thus far, eleven pitch sessions are scheduled, running the gamut from Christian romance to Catholic theology.

In a new program, at least fifty attendees will have the opportunity to have pieces of their work critiqued by successful editors and writers. In addition, there will be forum-based workshops and chat room presentations covering topics from dialogue to freelancing to how Catholic fiction differs from Christian fiction.

"Even in good economic times, it's hard for writers to attend live conferences," said Fabian, "but this year, we think it's even more important to help careers by utilizing an online format. We're so grateful that our presenters are willing to share their time and talent."

Early registration is recommended. Although the conference is offered free of charge, donations are accepted; proceeds will go toward future conferences. Non-Catholics may attend, as long as they respect Catholic beliefs and the conference's Catholic focus.

To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/.

Confession, Sci Fi Catholic style

"Me: Twice this last week, I sneaked into my dragon's room and read some of his shoujo manga.

Priest: You did what?

Me: I know, it's awful--

Priest: No, I mean, what did you do?

Me: What? I sneaked into my dragon's--

Priest: Your what?

Me: Dragon. I live with a dragon. That's okay, isn't it?

Priest: I guess...just, ah, tell me what you did, please."

Well, I must make a confession--- the 'me' in the confession above isn't the me me, it's D. G. D. Davidson of Sci Fi Catholic. I actually never sneak into my dragon's room to read his shoujo manga, I have my own shoujo manga.

And, to confess again, I'm not really sure what 'shoujo manga' is, I've just heard tell that some of my comic books are called 'shoujo manga'. Who knew? D. G. D. Davidson, evidently.

Anyway, Sci Fi Catholic has a great post on selecting a Sci Fi Priest to deal with your more Sci Fi related sins, guaranteed to make you run out and go to confession (unless you're Protestant....)