Clemens non Papa’s Job Tonso Capite Sung by The Marian Consort, Directed by Rory McCleery

Job tonso capite corruens in terram adoravit et dixit: nudus egressus sum de utero matris meae et nudus revertar illuc. Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est. Sit nomen Domini benedictum ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.

Job, his head shaven, fell upon the ground, and worshipped, and said: naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so was it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord from now and for ever.

Calls for and against Ceasefire

“For Hungary, the most important thing is to save human lives, and that is why we are advocating a ceasefire as soon as possible and peace negotiations,” said the country’s primer minister, Remix News reports — PM Orbán: ‘Europe suffers from war psychosis’.

“We don’t support calls for a ceasefire right now,” said not the Russian President but the White House National Security Council spokesman, ZeroHedge reports — Putin Tells Xi He’s “Open to Negotiating Process” on Ukraine as US Says Ceasefire “Unacceptable”.

A New New World Order

“A new world order is slowly taking shape,” Thomas Fazi at Unherd writes — How Russia and China overtook the West.

The White House National Security Council spokesman bloviates about “two countries that are chafing against this international rules-based order that the United States and so many of our allies and partners have built up, since the end of World War II” David Cohen at Politico — Russia and China want to disrupt the world order, NSC spokesperson says.

“Greatest Western Foreign Policy Disaster Since 1204”

“This month marks the 20th anniversary of the greatest western foreign policy disaster since the Fourth Crusade,” Ed West of the Wrong Side of History reminds us — Iraq was all about blood. He continues:

It was the pre-eminent modern-day example of folly, driven by wishful thinking, utopianism and a lack of interest in history and how human societies differ. This was mostly carried out by good people, including our own Tony Blair, and promoted by thoughtful and humanitarian commentators who thought they were making the world a better place.

The White House regime which brought chaos and misery to Iraq were most of all entranced by The Weekly Standard, the now-defunct magazine most associated with neoconservative foreign policy. Had any of them read The American Conservative instead, they might have avoided the whole tragedy. In particular they ought have read Steve Sailer’s ‘the Cousin Marriage Conundrum’, printed in the run-up to the invasion and in which the author made a seemingly curious argument for why nation-building in Iraq would fail — its high rates of cousin marriage. 

Pointing out that between 46 and 53 percent of Iraqis who married did so to first or second cousins, Sailer wrote that: ‘By fostering intense family loyalties and strong nepotistic urges’, cousin marriage ‘makes the development of civil society more difficult’. The neocon dream of jumpstarting democracy was therefore clearly doomed to failure.

Two on Silence

Sister Nancy Usselmann at our local Catholic Courier on why our “attachment to digital technology needs an assessment” — Learn media fasting for intentional living.

The Daily Roman Missal I purchased over the weekend gave the same advice as that given by Fr. Michael Rennier at Aleteia today — Why an annual retreat can be so good for you.

Early American Catholicism

The incredible story of Fanny Allen is shared by Stephanie Mann at National Catholic Register today — Revolutionary War Hero Ethan Allen’s Daughter Became a Nun After an Apparition of St. Joseph.

Alfred Schnittke’s Gospodi Sung by Youth Choir Kamēr, Directed by Jurģis Cābulis

Ēriks Ešenvalds’ O Salutaris Hostia Sung by Youth Choir Kamēr, Directed by Jurģis Cābulis

Arvo Pärt’s Nunc Dimittis Sung by Youth Choir Kamēr, Directed by Patriks Kārlis Stepe

New Devotionals

I made the hegira across town to the St. John the Evangelist gift shop and left with three new devotionals at a cost of less than fifteen bucks.

At the end of last year I took up “[t]he tradition of drawing a patron saint of the year” — Blessed Miguel Pro, Ora Pro Me — but was less than diligent in keeping up with the custom. Thus, when I stumbled upon the Chaplet of Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. I was delighted. The best thing is about the chaplet is that at the end of each of “the red beads that symbolize his martyrdom” one shouts his last words: “¡Viva Cristo Rey!”

I also picked up, at a ridiculously low price, the People’s Prayer Book, “literally an encyclopedia of prayer,” which “draws prayers from a wide variety of spiritual sources including the Bible, the Liturgy, the Enchiridion of Indulgences, the Saints, Church scholars, and other spiritual writers.” There is even a small section of prayers from other religions, all addressed to God, which jarred with my orthodoxy but spoke to my perennialism.

The only lacuna in this volume is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which leads to the devotional, the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul, a book I have been meaning to read ever since catching episodes of the Divine Mercy in My Soul radio show on The Station of the Cross on my commute home.