Five Best Books to Understanding Islam

From the Wall Street Journal's "Sense of Ummah"

"Pope Urban Rules"

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel (the best sports writer out there):

"This looks like it could be the year of the Gator," Spurrier said afterward. "Everything's going right for them."

Said game-saving UF defensive end Jarvis Moss, the man who blocked the game-winning kick and one other: "We can sense something special is going on. We're going all the way. There's no doubt in my mind we're going to wind up in Arizona [playing in the national-title game]."

Spurrier -- a k a Stevie Spoiler -- beat the Gators last year and ruined Florida's chances of winning an SEC title. And Saturday, he came into his old Swamping grounds and nearly cost the Gators a chance at possibly winning a national title.

Before the game, Spurrier's wife, Jerri, whom he met at UF and married 40 years ago, sat anxiously in a luxury box with a worried look on her face. Like everybody else in the stadium, she probably felt confused and conflicted. Here was Steve Spurrier, who named The Swamp, trying to drain The Swamp. Here was Steve Spurrier, the father of Florida football, trying to burn down the family home.

"This isn't fun," Jerri said with a pained expression.

Actually, it was a blast -- one of the most uptight, unnerving, emotionally charged games I've ever witnessed. A game of mixed emotions and split allegiances, a game of duality and dichotomy. Afterward, Spurrier, the old boy from Florida, waved at a section of cheering Florida fans. And then Spurrier, the new head Gamecock, gave the thumbs-up sign to a section of disappointed South Carolina fans. Perhaps Spurrier's son-in-law, Jay Moody, a UF grad, put it best when he said afterward, "I don't know if I'm supposed to be happy or sad."

There was no question how Meyer felt afterward -- delighted, excited, fired up, jacked up and, mostly, relieved. He knew he had to win this game, not just to help keep Florida's national championship hopes alive, but to help kill UF's massive man-crush on Spurrier.

No doubt about it, the Urban Legend needed badly to beat the real legend. Even though Meyer said in the days leading up to the game that this was "about beating South Carolina," nobody believed him. And afterward, he admitted beating Spur-Dog was bigger than he let on.

"It means a lot -- more than I'll ever admit to, more than anybody will ever know," Meyer said.

Yes, there always will be a Spurrier shadow hanging over whoever is UF's coach, but the victory Saturday let a stream of light pierce through and shine onto Meyer and the program he has turned into a national-title contender in just two years. It was Meyer's offense that drove down the field when it had to Saturday. It was Spurrier's offense that mismanaged the clock at the end, wasted time and didn't even use all of its timeouts.

He might have left UF five years ago, but the Spurrier coaching era didn't really and truly end until Saturday.

King Steve has been conquered.

Pope Urban rules.

God once again is grinning on the Gators.

Pope's Angelus "Commit Yourself to Overcoming Hunger"

From the International Tribune:

"In any case, every person and every family can and must do something to alleviate hunger in the world, adopting a style of life and consumption compatible with safeguarding creation and with criteria of justice toward whose who cultivate the land in every country," Benedict said.

The U.N. agency, in a report late last month, said that 10 years after global leaders had pledged to halve the number of the world's hungry, almost no progress has been made, with some 854 million people worldwide still suffering from undernourishment.

Benedict urged the faithful to join him in "committing ourselves concretely to defeat the scourge of hunger" and promote justice and solidarity.

Village Used in "Borat" Plans to Sue Actor, Studio

Real village used in Romania...

From The Daily Mail:

But now the villagers of this tiny, close-knit community have angrily accused the comedian of exploiting them, after discovering his new blockbuster film portrays them as a backward group of rapists, abortionists and prostitutes, who happily engage in casual incest.

They claim film-makers lied to them about the true nature of the project, which they believed would be a documentary about their hardship, rather than a comedy mocking their poverty and isolation.

Villagers say they were paid just £3 each for this humiliation, for a film that took around £27million at the worldwide box office in its first week of release.

Now they are planning to scrape together whatever modest sums they can muster to sue Baron Cohen and fellow film-makers, claiming they never gave their consent to be so cruelly misrepresented.

Cardinal Arinze on Mass in Latin

From Saint Louis Today:

In his address on Saturday, titled, "Language in the Latin Rite Liturgy: Latin and Vernacular," Arinze said the Roman church used Greek in its early years, but was "Latinized" in the fourth century. "The Roman rite has Latin as its official language," he said. The great religions of the world all "hold on" to their founding languages — Judaism to Hebrew and Aramaic, Islam to Arabic, Hindu to Sanskrit and Buddhism to Pali.

"Is it a small matter," he asked, for priests or bishops from around the world to be able to speak to each other in universal language of the church? Or for "a million students" who gather for World Youth Day every few years "to be able to say parts of the Mass in Latin?"

In an hourlong, often humorous, address that received several standing ovations, Arinze suggested that, in order to give Catholics options, large parishes offer the Mass in Latin at least once a week, and in smaller, rural parishes, at least once a month. (Homilies, he said, should always be in the faithful's native language.) Latin "suits a church that is universal. It has a stability modern languages don't have," he said.

Last month Vatican officials said Pope Benedict XVI would soon loosen restrictions on the Latin, or Tridentine, Mass. In the 1960s the Second Vatican Council approved the use of vernacular translations of the Tridentine Mass, and today most Catholics are familiar with the celebration of Mass in their own languages.

Why the Republicans Lost Congress

And why a third vible party is needed right now!

From Chuck Baldwin Online:

As the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, said, "If the Republican Party truly wants to know why they lost, they need only look in the mirror. The most vulnerable seats in both houses were those held by politicians who had abandoned the pro-life and the pro-marriage principles that first brought them to power."

As an example of the GOP's neglect to fight for conservative principles, Euteneuer noted the loss of pro-life legislation in South Dakota. He correctly said, "While South Dakotans fought valiantly to defend their babies, we once again witnessed an almost total lack of support from the national [Republican] leadership."

Euteneuer is right. George Bush's neocons have all but decimated whatever genuine conservatism remained in the GOP, and they did it on the backs of the faithful conservatives still in the party.

There is also no question that the American people are fed up with Bush's war in Iraq. They are tired of being lied to about why our young men and women were sent to war, and they are tired about being lied to about why they are still there.

Feast of St. Leo the Great

I attended an early mass at St. Leo the Great's tomb one morning while in Rome and as I read the office of readings for today by him, I thought how death makes this even more apparent.

St. Leo, pray for us!

From the Office of Readings:

Although the universal Church of God is constituted of distinct orders of
members, still, in spite of the many parts of its holy body, the Church subsists
as an integral whole, just as the Apostle says: We are all one in Christ. No
difference in office is so great that anyone can be separated, through
lowliness, from the head. In the unity of faith and baptism, therefore, our
community is undivided. There is a common dignity, as the apostle Peter says in
these words: And you are built up as living stones into spiritual houses, a holy
priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ. And again: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people set apart. For all, regenerated in Christ, are made kings by
the sign of the cross; they are consecrated priests by the oil of the Holy
Spirit, so that beyond the special service of our ministry as priests, all
spiritual and mature Christians know that they are a royal race and are sharers
in the office of the priesthood. For what is more king-like than to find
yourself ruler over your body after having surrendered your soul to God? And
what is more priestly than to promise the Lord a pure conscience and to offer
him in love unblemished victims on the altar of one’s heart? Because, through
the grace of God, it is a deed accomplished universally on behalf of all, it is
altogether praiseworthy and in keeping with a religious attitude for you to
rejoice in this our day of consecration, to consider it a day when we are
especially honoured. For indeed one sacramental priesthood is celebrated
throughout the entire body of the Church. The oil which consecrates us has
richer effects in the higher grades, yet it is not sparingly given in the lower.
Sharing in this office, my dear brethren, we have solid ground for a common
rejoicing; yet there will be more genuine and excellent reason for joy if you do
not dwell on the thought of our unworthiness. It is more helpful and more
suitable to turn your thoughts to study the glory of the blessed apostle Peter.
We should celebrate this day above all in honour of him. He overflowed with
abundant riches from the very source of all graces, yet though he alone received
much, nothing was given over to him without his sharing it. The Word made flesh
lived among us, and in redeeming the whole human race, Christ gave himself
entirely

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