Sunday, March 24, 2019

"The Mass isn't boring; you're boring!"

"The Mass isn't boring; you're boring! Guess what? If you're not paying attention and have no interest in anything that's going on, you're going to be bored. What a surprise! Think about your own boredom. Yes, you're boring."
-Tom Wilson (aka "Biff Tannen" from Back to the Future)
[Said in a light-hearted way (though making a serious point) in this episode of Catholic Answers Live ("The Healing Power of Laughter") in an interview with Patrick Coffin (starting about the 21:26 mark)]

Monday, March 4, 2019

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dion DiMucci in a recent interview to Forbes Magazine
Clash: What does fame do to somebody?

DiMucci: I'll give you a real true answer. It's a little long. I'm going to say it in a Bronx way, because I'm not an academic or intellectual. I started reading St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. If you don't have God in your life, you have to fill up on something. And you usually reach for the four great substitutes, the classical addictions: wealth, pleasure, power and honor. So you try to fill yourself up. You can see that there are some people who have all of that, and I'm one of them. I acquired the wealth, I have the girl of my dreams, I have position, I had a contract with Columbia Records for half a million dollars - guaranteed. That's 1961, that's a lot of money for a kid from the Bronx. And honor. I'm from the streets. It's all about reputation and respect. But those things, if you acquire them, still make you feel an emptiness - you want more. Because it's not God. Those things - fame included - don't satisfy the soul, the center of your being. Not that they're not good - we're not Puritans here - but once you have God in your life, he shapes your desire for those things. With God, you have this healthy detachment from thinking those things will make you happy. Does that make sense?

Friday, March 1, 2019

It is stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it.
-Msgr. Ronald Knox