A Sane Voice in The Age of The Narcissist

I must thank the great blogger Dr. Sanity for all I learned about narcissism in politics. She was my virtual mentor for years. When she stopped blogging after the last election, I knew the blogging world had lost one of the finest commentators.

If you have not read her articles. you can google Dr. Sanity. Or, here is the link. Just look at the articles on the side for the great ones on narcissism.

One of her best was a warning on the social engineering in education, which many of us saw and why we home schooled.

Years before Common Core, which is totally bad, bad, bad, Dr. Sanity wrote this. My choice of cartoon...

 NOVEMBER 27, 2009

EDUCATION IS A WEAPON

“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” - Joseph Stalin

If you thought I was joking or too extreme in my discussions of the ongoing corruption of k-12 education; and how all the leftist "educational experts" like Bill Ayers intend to destroy the minds of your children in the era of hopenchange, then you need to read this. All of it.

What is happening in Minnesota is the evolution of education into leftist political indoctrination.

The health of our educational system--from K-12 through college-- is absolutely essential to the long-term welfare and competitiveness of the United States. American education used to be the strongest on the globe, and to the extent that remains true, it is because the hard sciences in this country (e.g., math, engineering, computers etc.) have been largely resistant to the political taint that runs rampant in the humanities. The latter subject areas, which include literature, philosophy, and history, have become unabashedly ideological over the last two decades; and the "social justice" advocates of today's collectivists have taken over our K-12 education system and are determinedly undermining American values with their politically correct, multicultural and anti-capitalist curriculum.

Make no mistake about it, what many teachers today are doing is indoctrinating their students minds into an unquestioning obedience to the collective. This they cannot do unless they also can manage to corrupt even the hard sciences with their dogma.
There can be no area where a child is allowed to think freely and without the proper political perspective. That is far too dangerous for the underly ideology they are promulgating.

And here is one of her classic articles on narcissism. Remember, she is a trained clinical psychiatrist and worked with NASA for years.

 MAY 17, 2009

NARCISSISM, PATHOLOGICAL LYING, AND POLITICS

With the classic narcissist, language is used cruelly and ruthlessly to ensnare one's enemies, to sow confusion and panic, to move others to emulate the narcissist ("projective identification"), to leave the listeners in doubt, in hesitation, in paralysis, to gain control, or to punish. Language is enslaved and forced to lie. The language is appropriated and expropriated. It is considered to be a weapon, an asset, a piece of lethal property, a traitorous mistress to be gang raped into submission. --Sam Vaknin, author, Malignant Self Love.

Pathological lying is one of the hallmark characteristics of a narcissist, who does it out of a need to manipulate and maintain control. For the immature narcissist there is an essential emotional truth: lying is an expression of his (or her) mistrust of others; and his (or her) need to maintain a fragile sense of self at all costs.

Being honest (and therefore vulnerable) terrifies the narcissist. Since his primary goal is to control others, through projection he constantly fears that others will try to control him. Thus, lying becomes the modus operandi through which he can maintain his superficial presentation of himself and keep people from learning the truth of who he really is. He never allows himself to be "pinned down", or accountable. More lies are always necessary to cover up a previous lie. And typically, he even begins to believe his own lies and become outraged at any suggestion that he may be lying. Thus he becomes sincere in his lying and others may actually believe the lies because of the sincerity. This is why truly pathological liars (such as sociopaths) are so hard to detect in the population. In general, the lack of an ability to feel guilty about the lies, and the perverse sense that he is "entitled to lie" are standard for the political narcissist.

Having said all this, it is important to remember that lying, no matter how pathological it may be is not in itself a disease. EVERYONE LIES. Most psychological tests have built in scales that detect this tendency to make one's self look better to others.

When you combine an overwhelmning need to make one's self look better (i.e., superior) with a grandiose sense of self-worth; throw in glibness and a superficial charm that easily convinces others of your sincerity; then there is little to stand in the way of easily manipulating others to your will. Of course, it behooves you to also throw into the mix that whatever you do, you do it for the sake of others. Children are a good standby (as in, "do it for the children!").

Let me refresh your memory about some basic psychological defense mechanisms.
Denial, which is an immature defense is defined as an attempt to reject unacceptable feelings, needs, thoughts, wishes--or even a painful external reality that alters the perception of ourselves. This psychological defense mechanism protects us temporarily from:
-Knowledge (things we don’t want to know)
-Insight or awareness that threatens our self-esteem; or our mental or physical health; or our security (things we don't want to think about)
-Unacceptable feelings (things we don’t want to feel)

One type of denial is Repression , a neurotic defense characterized by a seemingly inexplicable naivete, memory lapse, or lack of awareness. Repression is often dismissed as an artifact of diminished attention by cognitive psychologists, but I find that it almost always reflects a rather creative method to resolve some inner conflict for the person who uses it. With repression, affect is out in the open, but the associated idea is out of the mind and unavailable to consider. Someone who has repressed some knowledge may be genuinely astonished that anyone would consider them to have deliberately ignored the issue.

The "forgetting of repression is different from ordinary forgetting in that there is often some sort of parallel symbolic behavior that goes along with it.

Most often repression is associated with histrionic traits. A typical example might be the doting and dutiful wife who remains blissfully unaware of the husband's constant philandering--although the evidence is obvious to everyone else; and she may not understand why she feels anger at her spouse. She may defend him passionately from his accusers, but the anger will find a way to express itself in various ways within their relationship. Or, another example is a devoted public servant and leader of the Party, whose behavior in a recent press conference raised red flags in almost everyone who was watching and listening to her.

Neo-neocon captures the essence of her psychological dilemma, on view for all to witness:

Some people have asked why Pelosi hasn’t just said, “Look, at the time of the briefings I thought waterboarding was okay, but now I see the light and I’m against it.” Such a statement would have arguably gotten her in a lot less trouble than the course she’s taken instead: a series of ever-changing and hedgy excuses that read as lies, culminating in her making accusations against the CIA that have roused its formidable defenses against her.

I don’t think Pelosi is stupid, although I agree with almost nothing she stands for or says. She has shown great political savvy and cunning in her long career. Why does it appear to be deserting her now?

I see Pelosi as having been put between a rock and a hard place by Obama’s release of the “torture memos” and the resultant brouhaha. If she were to make the statement I posited in the first paragraph of this post, she would be admitting something that would contradict the entire Democratic Party “narrative” of the Bush administration’s decisions regarding terrorists.

Going that route would destroy the tale the Democrats have ridden to victory and power: that the Bush administration was evil, lying to us (rather than sometimes mistaken), trampling on liberties for the sake of power and even sadism. How can Democrats contradict themselves by acknowledging now that nearly all of Bush’s decisions in the war on terror were arrived at after due deliberation, analysis of the best information available at the time (the conclusion that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs would be a prominent example), acting in the best interests of our country, and with an effort to preserve as much liberty and protection as seemed possible?

For Democrat leaders to do so would be to undercut their own story about Bush, which was (and remains) vital to their own success.

So, we might reasonably conclude that Nancy's "surprise" in discovering that she was actually briefed by the CIA on its enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, is an example of:

(a) PSYCHOLOGICAL DENIAL (suggesting she is out of touch with reality)
(b) PSYCHOLOGICAL REPRESSION (suggesting that she has neurotic conflicts)
(c) DELIBERATE LYING (suggesting that she is a liar)
(d) NORMAL FORGETFULNESS (suggesting that she is clueless and inattentive)

Of course, it could well be a vast rightwing conspiracy to take down the poor, hapless Speaker. But I rather suspect it is the Democrats' own neurotic conflicts coming home to roost (to coin a phrase.)

Neurotic defenses may be used by all sorts of otherwise intelligent people; and in this case, the willingness to believe anything that is said--especially when it is said by a Democrat (no matter how obviously ridiculous); while sneering and demeaning anything said by a Republican (no matter how true or obvious) suggests an underlying neurotic conflict.

Perpetual Displacement, anyone? Poor Obama "can't turn the page" on Bush? Or, is it that Obama and Co. are unable to turn that page because their entire success and current power grab depends solely on this bizarre neurosis of theirs?

There are narcissists and liars in both parties, of course; but Nancy Pelosi's rather blatant attempts to play fast and loose with the Truth, even as she loudly demands "Truth Commissions" is nothing more than the extreme narcissism and pathological lying that is peculiar to politics. Victor Davis Hanson is amazed that she--and Democrats, in general--seem not to believe in the god Nemesis:

There is an odd sense among Democrats that nemesis simply does not exist.

A once-vein-bulging Al Gore who barnstormed the country slurring President Bush by calling him a liar now seems baffled about the precedent he set of a vice president (albeit now much more politely in the case of Cheney) questioning the policy of the current president.

A Nancy Pelosi, hellbent on releasing once-classified memos for partisan advantage, and eager to begin 'Truth" hearings, suddenly believes such an inquisition will not apply to herself, despite the fact that she, like so many Democrats from Senator Schumer to Senator Rockefeller, in that dark period in 2001, spoke of the need for, or was complicit in, approving enhanced interrogation techniques.

Then the president himself, who jump-started his campaign in Iraq's crisis year by slamming the commander-in-chief on renditions, military tribunals, email and phone intercepts, Predator drone attacks, and Iraq, now suddenly wishes to explain the nuances and complexities of these policies and why he will continue the Bush protocols — apparently oblivious to the hypocrisy involved with his own prior self-interested stridency. These examples could be easily augmented.

To explain their behavior, Hanson invokes the deity in charge of just consequences--Nemesis; but I would account for it by pointing out the self-satisfied smugness and narcissism of Democratic leaders who pathologically are unable to believe that reality and truth have any hold on them. In psychiatry, we call this delusional.

And the leaders of the Democratic Party (including the Great, Supreme Poobah Messiah) demonstrate their delusional and narcissistic credentials on a daily basis.

For those Catholics who still have their kids in CC schools, get them out now. You are allowing others to steal their souls. Period. Remember that the majority of diocesan schools have capitulated to CC, because of the money. Your children's minds and souls are being exchange for government influence through government money.

Catholic Taliban

I am very concerned about some Catholic parents, most likely not anyone who reads this blog, who have decided that their home schooled girls do not need academic training or education.

I consider not teaching your girls classical education as child abuse. Western education was created by the Catholic Church through the Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, and many other orders featured on this blog.

The great heritage of liberal arts education was created by the members of these orders, as were the great colleges and universities of Europe. Catholic girls should be educated so that they can attend the great Catholic colleges of our day: Thomas Aquinas, Wyoming Catholic, Christendom and so on.

That Catholic parents choose anti-intellectualism alarms me, as to be a Catholic is to be educated in the glorious disciplines created and fostered by Catholics throughout the history of the Church.

Why would parents not want their girls to learn the classics? Disciplining the mind by studying grammar, music, math, art, literature, history, geography, and, of course, religion, have been part of our Catholic culture for over a millennium.

Do these anti-intellectual Catholics, many of whom are trads and charismatics, (sharing an odd ideal which they have in common), think that God does not intend us to use our intellect?

The intellect must be developed not only for skills, for logic, for rational discourse, but for prayer. The worse sins happen in the intellect, and all Catholics must learn to fight these sins in that part of our being.

Intellectual purity does not mean the absence of intellectual studies, on the contrary. Purity of the intellect does not mean emptiness, but a working with knowledge in grace, in appropriate studies, in the virtue of studiosity. In fact, this virtue cannot be ignored without sinning.

Recall my series on the Maritains, intelligence and prayer; recall my many posts on classical education. Follow the tags.

Virtue training involves the mind, not merely the hands. Virtue training comes with developing one's intellectual gifts, which we all have at various levels as God has given us, of intellectual abilities.

To ignore the disciplines of learning to is actually interfere not only with God's plans for one's life, but essential for coming to know God.

Few saints had infused knowledge. Most learned about God through the hard study and meditation, first of Scripture, and then of reading and studying the Doctors of the Church, and the writings and sermons of the great saints.

To deny children, especially high school age girls of the beauties of knowledge is, simply, child abuse. Some parents think that these girls or young women who only know how to sew, cook, take care of children will be good wives. Absolutely not. The Catholic husband needs a help-mate even in the area of intellectual discussion.

We do not need ignorant girls and ignorant women. We need savvy women, who can teach their children all the subjects in home schools. Of course, the skills of cooking, sewing and so forth can also be accomplished. All these skills can be learned well easily. Getting a higher degree does not mean one does not know how to cook or sew or can tomatoes. Many of us did all these things, and more. We made candles, soap, went back to the basics in household duties, and still managed to learn various academic subjects.

We learned how to properly entertain for visitors, and we learned womanly manners. We also learned that to be a woman meant learning our heritage, culture, faith.

Look at the writings of the great Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena.

We have in the Church, these women,  who are Doctors of the Church, not because they could cook and sew, but because they could pray, write, advise people, even popes. They knew the Scriptures, and much theology, as well a music.

To ignore the glories of our own culture, the Catholic culture, amounts to choosing anti-intellectualism and becoming a Catholic Taliban. Ignoring the intellect of young women does not prepare them for sainthood, but for stunted growth, and possibly, rebellion.

For All Parents-

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/21368-parental-awakening-offers-hope-against-common-core-expert-says

A simple view of the Illuminative State-II

Garrigou-Lagrange's explanation sounds like a summary of all the posts of mine on the virtues. Of course, Aquinas provides us with most of this teaching.

The explanation of the drawing below continues....Someone yesterday told me a person became "unhinged" and ended their marriage. This word in common parlance means the same thing as here-the lack of virtue.

This drawing and the explanations would make a great part of Confirmation prep, imho. Home schoolers, take note.

However, to enter this spiritual edifice there must be a door. According to tradition, in particular the teaching of St. Gregory the Great, often quoted by St. Thomas, the four hinges of this two­leafed door symbolize the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Their name "cardinal" comes from the Latin cardines, meaning hinges. This meaning is preserved in the current expression, "That man is unhinged," when irritation makes a man fail in these four virtues. Without them man is outside the spiritual temple in the uncultivated region ravaged by the evil weeds of egoism and inordinate inclinations.(3) The two upper hinges on the temple door symbolize prudence and justice, which are in the higher part of the soul, and the two lower hinges are figures of fortitude and temperance, which have their seat in the sensible appetites, common alike to man and animal.

To each of these four hinges is fastened a triple piece of ironwork, symbolizing the principal virtues annexed to each of the cardinal virtues. Thus, to prudence is attached foresight (a reflection of divine Providence), circumspection attentive to the circumstances in the midst of which we must act, and steadfastness or constancy, that we may not because of difficulties abandon good decisions and resolutions made after mature reflection in the presence of God. 

Inconstancy, says St. Thomas, is a form of imprudence.(4)

To the virtue of justice are also attached several virtues. Those which relate to God as forms of justice toward Him are: religion, which renders to Him the worship due Him; penance, which offers Him reparation for the offenses committed against Him; obedience, which makes man obey the divine commandments or the orders of the spiritual or temporal representatives of God.

The virtue of fortitude makes us keep to the right road in the presence of great dangers instead of yielding to fear; it manifests Itself in the soldier who dies for his country and in the martyr who dies for the faith. To fortitude several virtues are also attached: notably, patience that we may endure daily vexations without weakening; magnanimity which tends to great things to be accomplished without becoming discouraged in the face of difficulties; longanimity which makes us bear over a long period of time incessant contradictions that sometimes are renewed daily for many years.

Lastly, to the virtue of temperance, which moderates the inordinate impulses of our sensible appetites, are attached chastity, virginity, meekness which moderates and represses irritation or anger, and evangelical poverty which makes us use the things of the world as though not using them, without becoming attached to them.

According to St. Augustine and St. Thomas, to each of these cardinal virtues corresponds a gift of the Holy Ghost, symbolized by so many precious stones which ornament the door; portae nitent margaritis, as we read in the hymn for the feast of the dedication of a church.

To prudence corresponds manifestly the gift of counsel, which enlightens us when even infused prudence would remain uncertain, for example, as to how to answer an indiscreet question without telling a lie. To justice, which in regard to God is called the virtue of religion, corresponds the gift of piety, which comes to our help in prolonged aridities by inspiring in us a filial affection for God. To the virtue of fortitude corresponds the gift of fortitude, so manifest in the martyrs. To the virtue of temperance, and especially of chastity, corresponds the gift of filial fear, which enables us to surmount the temptations of the flesh, according to the words of the Psalmist: "Pierce Thou my flesh with Thy fear."

Thus the picture of the spiritual edifice condenses the teaching of the Gospel, the writings of St. Paul and of the great doctors on the subordination of the virtues and their connection with the gifts of the Holy Ghost.

This structure may appear somewhat complicated when insistence is placed on the virtues attached to the cardinal virtues; but the superior simplicity of the things of God stands out if the following profound statement is considered carefully: When in a soul or a community the foundation of the edifice and its summit are what they ought to be, in other words, when there is profound humility and true fraternal charity, the great sign of the progress of the love of God, then everything goes well. Why is this? Because God then supplies by His gifts for what may be lacking in acquired prudence or natural energy; and He constantly reminds souls of their duties, giving them His grace to accomplish them. "God . . . giveth grace to the humble," and He never fails those who understand the precept of love: "Love one another as I have loved you; by this shall all men know that you are My disciples."

STM on Education

I have gone on record for supporting only NAPCIS schools and home-schooling.

Here is the NAPCIS site. http://napcis.org/

You can look at my many, many posts on home schooling.

I saw the rot in the 1980s. The lack of Faith in most Catholic schools was seen by many of us then.

Contraception must be taken into account as well as Mass attendance.

No surprises in 2015.

The nuns started the lack of faith...sorry, this has to be addressed.

I had faithful nuns in grade school and high school, but not in college.

The nuns had left the Faith.

Let us be honest about this.

We can never go back to those happy days.

Go home schoolers!!!!!

As soon as a school takes government money, it is compromising.

I home schooled and STS went to TAC.

I have a Master's Teacher's Certification from NAPCIS.

The Catholic Church started education in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Benedictines passed on the great classical education. St. Anselm re-introduced classical ed into the seminaries. I used to give talks on these facts.

For Parents During The Triduum

My mother had a sense of what to do in the house over the Triduum. We were not allowed to be part of loud or raucous activities. Quiet settled into the house on Thursday and continued until Sunday morning.

We did not have to be silent, but subdued. No parties, of course, no sports, no tv, just peace,and a sense of solemnity while doing chores around the house, getting ready for Easter.

We did not have to be silent the entire time Christ was on the Cross, but we did have to be silent from one until we went to Church at three. We did quiet things in our rooms, like color, or read, or pray, or think.

My mother had the sense to teach us the proper decorum for this holy time. The home is the domestic church, and in times to come, it may be the ONLY local church your family will have.

Teach your children that Christ was on the Cross for six hours, and that darkness covered the earth for the last three hours. This may seem like a long time for dying, but Pilate was surprised that Christ had died so quickly. One cannot imagine the pain of six hours, Godly pain, more than what we would experience, as Christ suffered for all of our sins.

A nice timeline is here. I had one at home of all the Bible events--in fact, we had two different ones.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/when-precisely-did-jesus-die-the-year-month-day-and-hour-revealed

One thing home schooling and other parents can do with children ten and over, is simply go through the section in the CCC on the Crucifixion, and discuss the points. Here these are.

Paragraph 2. Jesus Died Crucified
I. THE TRIAL OF JESUS
Divisions among the Jewish authorities concerning Jesus
595 Among the religious authorities of Jerusalem, not only were the Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of Arimathea both secret disciples of Jesus, but there was also long-standing dissension about him, so much so that St. John says of these authorities on the very eve of Christ's Passion, "many.. . believed in him", though very imperfectly.³⁷⁸ This is not surprising, if one recalls that on the day after Pentecost "a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith" and "some believers. . . belonged to the party of the Pharisees", to the point that St. James could tell St. Paul, "How many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; and they are all zealous for the Law."³⁷⁹
596 The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take towards Jesus.³⁸⁰ The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers.³⁸¹ To those who feared that "everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation", the high priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."³⁸² The Sanhedrin, having declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas who had been accused of sedition.³⁸³ The chief priests also threatened Pilate politically so that he would condemn Jesus to death.³⁸⁴
Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death
597 The historical complexity of Jesus' trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The personal sin of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles' calls to conversion after Pentecost.³⁸⁵ Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders.³⁸⁶ Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowd's cry: "His blood be on us and on our children!", a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence.³⁸⁷ As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council:

. . . [N]either all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion. . . [T]he Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.³⁸⁸

All sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion
598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured."³⁸⁹ Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself,³⁹⁰ the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone:

We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him.³⁹¹Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.³⁹²

II. CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
"Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God"
599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God."³⁹³ This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.³⁹⁴
600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."³⁹⁵ For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.³⁹⁶
"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"
601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin.³⁹⁷ Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures."³⁹⁸ In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant.³⁹⁹ Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant.⁴⁰⁰ After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.⁴⁰¹
"For our sake God made him to be sin"
602 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers. . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake."⁴⁰² Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death.⁴⁰³ By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."⁴⁰⁴
603 Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned.⁴⁰⁵ But in the redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"⁴⁰⁶ Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son".⁴⁰⁷
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love
604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins."⁴⁰⁸ God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."⁴⁰⁹
605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."⁴¹⁰ He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.⁴¹¹ The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."⁴¹²
III. CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS FATHER FOR OUR SINS
Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father
606 The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do [his] own will, but the will of him who sent [him]",⁴¹³ said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."⁴¹⁴ From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work."⁴¹⁵ The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"⁴¹⁶ expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "[for] I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."⁴¹⁷
607 The desire to em race his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, ^{for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour."419 And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?"420 From the cross, just before "It is finished", he said, "I thirst."421}
"The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world"
60  After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the wÀrld".⁴²² By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover.⁴²³ Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."⁴²⁴
Jesus freely embraced the Father's redeeming love
609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."⁴²⁵ In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men.⁴²⁶ Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to stve, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord."⁴²⁷ Hence the sovereign freedom of God's Son as he went out to his death.⁴²⁸
At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life
610 Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the twelve Apostles "on the night he was betrayed".⁴²⁹ On the eve of his Passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: "This is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."⁴³⁰
611 The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his sacrifice.⁴³¹ Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it.⁴³² By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."⁴³³
The agony at Gethsemani
612 The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in the garden at Gethsemani,⁴³⁴ making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . ."⁴³⁵ Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly exempt from sin, the cause of death.⁴³⁶ Above all, his human nature has been assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life", the "Living One".⁴³⁷ By accepting in his human will that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree."⁴³⁸
Christ's death is the unique and definitive sacrifice
613 Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world",⁴³⁹ and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins".⁴⁴⁰
614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices.⁴⁴¹ First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.⁴⁴²
Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience
615 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous."⁴⁴³ By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities".⁴⁴⁴ Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.⁴⁴⁵
Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the cross
616 It is love "to the end"⁴⁴⁶ that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life.⁴⁴⁷ Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died."⁴⁴⁸ No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.
617 The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the source of eternal salvation"⁴⁴⁹ and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood of the cross merited justification for us."⁴⁵⁰ And the Church venerates his cross as she sings: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope."⁴⁵¹
Our participation in Christ's sacrifice
618 The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men".⁴⁵² But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery" is offered to all men.⁴⁵³ He calls his disciples to "take up [their] cross and follow [him]",⁴⁵⁴ for "Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps."⁴⁵⁵ In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries.⁴⁵⁶ This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.⁴⁵⁷

Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.⁴⁵⁸

IN BRIEF
619 "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures" (I Cor 15:3).
620 Our salvation flows from God's initiative of love for us, because "he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (I Jn 4:10). "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
621 Jesus freely offered himself for our salvation. Beforehand, during the Last Supper, he both symbolized this offering and made it really present: "This is my body which is given for you" (Lk 22:19).
622 The redemption won by Christ consists in this, that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt 20:28), that is, he "loved [his own] to the end" (Jn 13:1), so that they might be "ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [their] fathers" (I Pt 1:18).

623 By his loving obedience to the Father, "unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8), Jesus fulfills the atoning mission (cf. Is 53:10) of the suffering Servant, who will "make many righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities" (Is53:11; cf. Rom 5:19).

Entering the Holiest Week of The Year

As a child, growing up in pre-Vatican II, pre-Novus Ordo Catholic culture, this coming week was clearly special. Even in the home, things began to be "different".

Of course, we had all fasted and abstained during Lent-even those under age-a good habit which should be done in all Catholic families.

But, beginning the Saturday before Palm Sunday, new and exciting preparations for Holy Week and Easter began.

First of all, we went to confession on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, but then we went as a family once a month.

Second, mother and one grandmother took us to the clothing stores for new Easter outfits, to wear for the first time on Easter day and keep for Sundays. This was a yearly event-buying new Easter clothes, when was an old custom in the family. I would be given a new hat, new dress, new spring coat, new socks with little lace at the top, new shoes and so on. My brothers would get a new shirt, new trousers, and a new jacket. As children grow, they need new clothes and this was the time for the spring buy.

Third, cooking would begin for Easter Sunday. Breads and cookies would be baked and set aside. Later in Holy Week, more food would be prepared and saved for the Pasch. Holy Saturday, kept in low key, almost silent observance, would be the day we colored eggs, but I get ahead of myself.

My mother's great gift, among many, was cake decorating and the baking of cakes "from scratch". She still does this, at 87 and last week she told me on the phone that she made a coffee cake for Dad.

Fourth, we would clean the house from top to bottom. Lent was coming to an end, and the winter clothes were packed, (except for a few in case of a late snowstorm), curtains and rugs washed, windows cleaned, and so on. Easter day would find a house clean and bright.

Fifth, the garden would be put in order. March is the time for pruning rose bushes, especially before the cold weather broke, and we did that. Leaves were cleaned away. Lilies appeared in the house on the dining room and kitchen tables. but only on Holy Saturday.

Sixth, Palm Sunday saw special visits to the grandmothers and the talk of more Easter food prep.
(For me, no more perogies!!!!!!!!!)

As the week progressed, the house fell into a quiet mode of preparation so that all could attend the Triduum. Simple foods for dinner meant that Mom could go as well. When I was much older, many of us in our thirties would get together for a great meal on Holy Thursday, more solemn than Easter, but a gathering of friends to celebrate Holy Thursday before the Triduum began. We would not have a feast such as on Easter, but it was a symbol of the gathering of the apostles in the Upper Room with Christ, and then we would go to Holy Thursday Mass together.

Seventh, when I grew up, Catholic schools let out on Wednesday afternoon and we had Thursday, Friday, and Easter Monday off. I am not sure what the school systems do now. But, this meant we could help Mom get the house ready and be in a proper attitude for the Triduum.

Eighth, Good Friday was a serious day. Mother made us go to our rooms before we went to Church and be quiet. We could not play music, but were encourage to pray or sit and think of the Passion. Even as a young child, I was encouraged to do this We never, never shopped on Good Friday.

Ninth, Saturday was also a quiet day, preparing the Easter dinner with the dishes we could do ahead of time. When I was married, our dinner was, of course, lamb, with Greek dishes, as I love to cook.
Our typical Easter meal was lamb, spanakopita, dolmathes, baklava, some amazing lemon muffins I would make which were a family favorite, and  blueberry cheese cake for desert or a bunny cake.

In my family, we had special wines set aside for different feast days or holidays. For example, Gewurztraminer is and was always our Thanksgiving wine at dinner, port and burgundy for Christmas, along with whiskey for Dad, and for Easter, a Spatlese, Auslese, and Eiswien for desert.

Tenth, visiting the grandmothers was an absolute on Easter Sunday, if one did not come for dinner, which she usually did with one uncle, who lived in the same city. (My family tends to spread out across the entire USA). She would bring something for us all as well, little gifts, usually religious. We would look for our Easter baskets before Mass, (our family went to two Masses after the babies grew up, as Mom and Dad were in the choir), which were hidden around the house in rather obvious places. If we found someone elses, we were not allowed to share the secret.

Eleventh, we attended all the Triduum, especially after the Easter changes of Pope Pius XII.

I have more memories, but these are shared to encourage families to start seeing this week coming up as different, solemn, special.

Sad, sad, sad

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/finland-schools-subjects-are-out-and-topics-are-in-as-country-reforms-its-education-system-10123911.html?cmipid=fb

One of the best educational systms in the world has capitulated to Deweyite utilitarianism.

Sad. Finland, with the highest math, science and reading skill results in the Western World, will rue the day. Another sign of BB, imho. Remember, Bismarck did the same thing and what resulted what the Holocaust, because the populace had been changed from thinkers to sheeple.

Read my posts on classical education. Home school.

Homeschoolers--for the home classroom

CTS has produced a Catholic Knowledge Network series of posters. There are eight in the series.

Find them here. These come laminated.

Read this on Kulturkampf

The reason the U.S. faces the risk of declining educational achievement is its failure to sufficiently respond to the profound demographic change reshaping society. The current school year marks the first time in American history when a majority of all K-12 public school students nationwide are minorities. Minority students already comprise nearly two-fifths of high-school graduates and will reach about half by 2023, the Education Department projects.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/population-2043/the-coming-college-decline-20150114

I have nothing against community colleges and some of the best professors in America teach in these small colleges.

I also think most kids in university do not need to be there, as we need more schools teaching basics such as mechanics.

However, to undermine universities, especially those which have liberal arts as a basis for curriculum, which community colleges do not, is to follow Bismarck's deliberate undermining of the academies, for the support of gymasiums. which I have written about at length on this blog. Some are listed below.

Why is this bad? Only liberal arts create a thinking populace. Technical schools do not.

The Holocaust and Hitler were a direct result of Bismarck's education "reforms". Read my previous posts.

And wake up, America!

Etheldredasplace: Educaton and the Death of the Soul

07 Dec 2012

Bismarck and Dewey would be pleased. American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014. A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Another posting on kulturkampf

20 Apr 2012

The Popes of the 19th century fought against the Bismarck movement to change social and political life, partly by emphasizing Thomism in the face of the other isms which grew up after the Reformation: godless republicanism ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Again, on the Liberal Arts and the Trivium and Quadrivium

07 Apr 2013

For centuries, children and adolescents learned the liberal arts in order to learn how to think. This ideal was destroyed on purpose in the 19th century by Bismarck and by Dewey, among others. If a Catholic has not had the ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Trying to be patient............the missing articles rewritten on ...

01 Feb 2013

Years and years of propaganda and hatred, plus the loss of critical thinking among the German people under Bismarck's changes in education, created a compliant people. Here are a few highlights of article for Stage Four.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: Long gone is stage two of persecution

01 Feb 2013

... from atheistsforum.org. Catholics who are weak-minded have allowed these types of pre-persecution ideas to simmer in the culture. So too, Bismarck and others took advantage of simmering anti-Semitism. To be continued.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

European Journalists Finally Respond to Crisis in America

07 Feb 2012

But, as you know, anti-Catholicism goes back to Bismarck, who hated the Church, so you are witnessing 100 plus years of such. As to finding all those friends, three are in England, two in America, one in Malta and so on...so ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Etheldredasplace: On False Seers And Saints, Again

12 Oct 2014

Steven, all done on purpose, like Bismarck's gymnasium vs. academies. I use to give lectures on the undermining of the rational in education about 15 years ago--too late now with two generations with goo in their heads.

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/

Making Saints Part Two

Holy communities with real saints for abbots or prioresses or whoever, would make for excellent followers.

The same is true for families. If the leader, that is the dad, is holy, the chance for vocations and holiness in the children seems more likely.

Some people say saints are born, not made. Yes, God does decide through Divine Providence and predestination, who will have more grace and what types of grace. One can follow my other posts on grace and predestination on these points.

But, environment must be an issue of importance. Children raised in godless households, totally spoiled and without virtue training, can become saints, but it is much harder. One cannot count on a St. Augustine.

The newer orders may have a better chance of nurturing saints than the older ones, and many older ones are dying out. The vocation numbers reflect both the charism of the founders, such as Dominic or John Bosco, but also those in current authority.

Of course, if the older orders embraced the Latin Mass, I am convinced we would see a renewal of the traditional orders.

to be continued...

The Loss of The Normal

Montessori training changed my life in my early twenties. I had a strong Catholic upbringing and clarity regarding roles, virtues, responsibilities and talents.

I did not have a sense of what a normalized child was like by definition. I had these characteristics myself, but to see these being nurtured in an excellent environment helped me to understand what education was really all about.

As I have noted on this blog before, here is the list of what makes up a normalized child.

(1) Love of work

(2) Concentration

(3) Self-discipline

(4) Sociability. 

For a brief moment in history, the West had the chance to join education with religion in the nurturing of normal children.

Then, because of social and secular forces, the moment was lost.

It may never occur again.

Yes, individual parents will create normalized children, mostly through home schooling, if it is done correctly in discipline and with an appreciation of the intellectual capabilities of the child.

However, outside the ability of the few, the vast majority of youth are being trained to be sub-normal, abnormal.

Do youth learn to love to work? Do they have the natural concentration given by God, which before television and computers was determined at forty-five minutes for a three-year old on one subject? Are children trained to have self-discipline, which happens when external discipline becomes internalized? Are young people truly socialized, able to work with people of various ages and backgrounds?

The sad answer is a resounding "no". I have come to the unhappy conclusion that the vast majority of youth are abnormal and will become abnormal adults.

Those who have been baptized have not been trained to cooperate with grace. Virtue training is completely absent from most homes.

Work is not encouraged. I was trying to show a young lady with whom I was camping along with her family how to scale a fish and her father would not let me, saying it was inappropriate for a teen to learn such a thing. 

I was astounded by his attitude, which was based on a skewed idea of class structure and the fact that he did not want his children to learn how to do menial tasks.

All children need to learn to do menial work. Learning to do simple chores creates confidence and reveals talents.

To be snobbish is a real fault of parents, which means they are creating princes and princesses, peter pans and peter pams, instead of capable grown-ups.

The abnormal has become the rule.

What does this mean for society? 

Chaos. 

With the loss of the sense of the normal comes a sense of the less than normal as being the rule. 

The abnormal in behavior, expectations, even play determines that a society is doomed to fail for the lack of responsible, caring adults.

A culture dominated by the abnormal, by the narcissists, those with borderline personality disorders or co-dependencies cannot last long. A culture wherein young people do not know how to be self-disciplined or control their desires and emotions is a dying culture.

This is what is happening in the West. We have committed psychological suicide as Westerners moving away from centuries of moral sensibilities,  and common sense, as well as true religion.

We have lost a sense of the normal.

See also, http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-to-create-peter-pan.html

Footnote to yesterday's post on marriage

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/12/part-xxvi-of-perfection-series-xiii.html

I used the short quotation on marriage from Raissa, but I want to expand using a footnote of Jacques regarding the perfection of the species as one of the reasons for marriage.

He writes this: "For the perfecting of the species, that is to say in order that the highest exigencies of the natural law with regard to the human species should be recognised and supernaturally confirmed and that the rigour which is thus demanded from each one should raise the moral level of the species."

This type of idea is why I keep saying that lay people must stop blaming the clergy and nuns for the lack of faith among the laity.

We are all called to the perfection of the species, and marriage is one way in which this is done.

How?

For each person to come to perfection demands that rigour noted by Jacques. That following of God's moral law is absolutely the duty of each one of us. All humans experience natural law, even in this perverted world, which denies natural law, even as a basis of human law. as we see with abortion laws, for one example, as human laws in contradiction to natural law.

The Ten Commandments are merely an extra clarification of natural law. Jacques is noting that those in marriage relationships, in families, need to see how their individual and group actions inform the larger world. First, the couple and family recognize natural law and then take the next step, which is putting it into context of the soul, heart, mind, the very reason why people were created in the first place.

This supernatural confirmation happens in virtue training, in the formation of character, in cooperation with the graces received in baptism. Parents have this duty to lead their children into the life of virtue, but of course, they cannot lead where they are not willing to go themselves.

The moral level of the species has dropped and this is the fault of the laity, as well as the clergy and other religious. No one is exempt from blame, or repentance and accepting the duty, the call of God to perfection.

What Raissa expressed so beautifully, Jacques summarizes, like the excellent philosopher he was, the whole point of the perfection of individuals in marriage leading to the perfection of the species.

Follow the tags for many of my posts on virtues and virtue training.

To be continued....

Perfection Series VIII Part XV Philosophy

Well, I started reading Raissa's Journal after I had studied both philosophy and theology. In fact, I would state that I love teaching philosophy greatly, as then I can teach people how to think.

Raissa notes two things in her diary which may help parents in the training of their children.

The first is this, that one cannot trust the reasons of the heart if these are not based on the intellect. In other words, the intellect validates the heart. Sadly, in our age of Catholic anti-intellectualism, few want to discuss this.

That Raissa would know, even when she was an atheist, that the heart cannot be trusted until it is purified, was sheer grace.

Her second comment I want to highlight, which follows this entry, is that girls should study philosophy as it keeps them from falling into the evils of the world by creating a simplicity of thought.

I totally agree with this. One's good sense and faith are strengthen by the study of philosophy.

Raissa writes, and again I agree with this wholeheartedly, that too many women are trained merely to please people, and thereby fall into discouragement and error. The girl who studies philosophy learns to reflect, and can "cultivate" the intellect in humility. Raissa knows that knowledge increases charity.

I have seen many women's lives ruined by this training to please others before pleasing God. They have a fear of rejection because their minds have not been trained to think independently of the opinion of others and to be quiet and reflect. They concentrate on looks rather than the soul, and on money, rather than virtue.

I taught logic, both formal and material, as well as the history of philosophy and history of ideas.

Whether my female students avoided the pitfalls of so many women in merely playing up to men and allowing themselves to be manipulated, I do not know. A teacher rarely sees students beyond one semester.

Good thing maybe I only had one girl

...who I lost in the womb. If one can name a lost unbaptized child, I did, as Johanna Christine, not one of my chosen names.

But, if she would have had sisters, as one of my friends said, it is rather good no girls came along with my choices of names. However, I love these names and the saints connected.

First, Aleth, after Blessed Aleth of Montbard, St. Bernard's mum. All the girls would have had a Marian name second.

Second, Olga, after the great "Equal to the Apostles" St Olga of Kiev, (another family name)...

Third, Rosemary, just because it is such a beautiful English name....

Fourth, Audrey, which is a variation of guess who?--- St. Etheldreda...

Fifth, and I never imagined beyond five girls, Gwendolyn, unashamedly literary, but there is a St. Gwenn of Wessex, and we lived in old Wessex near her hermitage for a while, well not too far, as Marshwood Vale is in Dorset and we were in Sherborne. Her bones may be in Whitchurch Canonicorum, the only shrine not to be destroyed in the revolt under Henry VIII. 

Good thing...

...I only had one boy. I would have named number two Anselm, number three Bernard, and number four Bramwell. Such a strange name...my son had the entire series of Old Bear books, which included Bramwell. Number five would have been Vaclav, (a family name), number six, Charles, (a family name), number seven, Johannes, (John being a family name), number eight Nicholas, (yet another family name), number nine being Placid, companion to Benedict, number ten coming in with Maxim, short for Maximus the Confessor and last, but not least, Paulinus, after Augustine of Canterbury's companion. If there had been twelve, Jacques would have followed, (not James, for a reason I cannot explain), as long as he was never Jimmy.

Of course, there is no saint Bramwell, but I would have stuck Augustine of Canterbury in there. as his second name. Bramwell Augustine of Canterbury.

I just wanted a cricket "eleven" team at home behind the house, plus one or two to watch with me...sigh. Girls' names coming up next...