![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/7\/2011\/02\/throw-out-your-tv.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMy friend Tony Rossi<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 who has a fun and thoughtful piece up over at Patheos, looking at the headline-reflecting themes on this seasons episodes of \u201cV\u201d<\/strong><\/a>, particularly as pertains to the ongoing battle between people of faith and the secularists (do read!<\/a>) \u2014 sent along this cute piece from NCR, asking which personality are you in the Catholic Combox?<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n \nEncyclical Man.<\/strong> Encyclical Man has a quote from a papal document for every occasion. Doesn\u2019t matter if you are talking social justice or the Latin mass, Encyclical Man has a quote at the ready that will clearly establish that anyone who does not share his opinion on the matter is a heretic. Even if you were just writing about what you watched on television last night, Encyclical Man has a quote, usually from the Council of Trent. Ah, television. This brings me to the next cast member.<\/p>\n Throw Out Your Television Man!!<\/strong> Any mention whatsoever of television, even if tangential or passing, will have \u201cThrow Out Your Television Man!!\u201d excoriating you as a bad, bad Catholic. You see, \u201cThrow Out Your Television Man!!\u201d has not watched television since the Father Dowling Mysteries went off the air in 1988. \u201cThrow Out Your Television Man!!\u201d will tell you in no uncertain terms that the Devil invented television to swallow up the souls of the unsuspecting. Encyclical Man will sometimes respond to \u201cThrow Out Your Television Man!!\u201d by quoting papal documents citing the positive aspects of media, but to no avail. The thing I don\u2019t get about \u201cThrow Out Your Television Man!!\u201d is that he lives on the Internet. The Internet has the potential to be ten times worse than TV, but let\u2019s not confuse things with logic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read it all.<\/strong> He missed a few \u201ctypes,\u201d but I\u2019m sure he was working on a word limit. I agree with Barbara Nicolosi<\/strong><\/a> who has expressed the view that if people want to toss their televisions, that\u2019s fine, but they needn\u2019t cast aspersions on those who do watch, and who respond to what they see, so they might still have some influence on the popular culture, rather than simply seceding the ground to the worst of it.<\/p>\n A very sound point, btw,<\/strong> about the internet\u2019s potential to be worse than television. I have always thought so. Television may be a vast wasteland, but it has limitations. The internet, if used narrowly, can fool you into believing that there are millions of people who think as you think, when in reality it\u2019s just the same 80 people, popping in and opining over and over again. Magazines, television, books \u2013 they\u2019re all bound and limited, but the internet can suck you into an idea, or an ideology, or an obsession, or a perversion, and draw you ever-further in, because there are no page limits, no programming hours. There is just you, your ego and imagination, and \u2014 if you\u2019re reckless \u2014 the endless ability to click, click, click.<\/p>\n Simcha Fisher also has a post<\/strong> up that looks at \u201ctypes\u201d and we probably can all recognize ourselves in them. Wondering about a world with married Catholic priests, she imagines a damned-if-they-do-or-don\u2019t<\/strong><\/a> aspect of their lives:<\/p>\n \n\u201cWell! I see the pastor\u2019s wife is pregnant again! What is she trying to prove? Must be nice to pop \u2018em out year after year, while the parish has to support all those brats.\u201d<\/em> and:<\/p>\n \u201cI see the pastor\u2019s kids are taking tennis lessons! I guess they\u2019re doing pretty well\u2013 no need for me to leave anything in the basket this week, when we\u2019re barely getting by.\u201d<\/em> and:<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to meet with Father to talk about the new brochures for the pro-life committee, and his secretary said he was busy \u2014 but on the drive home, I saw him at the McDonald\u2019s playground, just fooling around with his kids! I guess I know where I stand in this parish! Harumph.<\/em>\u201d<\/em> When I happen to be around that sort of harumphing<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/strong>, I always think of the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland, who said, \u201cit seems to me if everyone minded their own business, the world would go around a good deal faster.\u201d<\/em> Or, we\u2019d get more done, at any rate!<\/p>\n On a slightly different but somewhat related topic,<\/strong> Catholic Phoenix writes a terrific piece on the Catholic education received<\/strong><\/a> at the hands of Jewish parents, and how it still goes on:<\/p>\n \nThe first part of my education that I remember took place in my parents\u2019 bedroom \u2014 my goodness, that sounds ominous \u2014 no, I\u2019m talking about the nightly readings of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Lord of the Rings, just before bed. My father, who has always admired Mel Blanc, is no slouch either when it comes to making up voices. He can make his voice wily (for Odysseus), high-pitched and earnest (for Sam Gamgee) and up-all-night-with-the-lights-on terrifying (for the Nazg\u00fbl). The second part that I remember took place on the couch downstairs. That\u2019s where my mother read us the Narnia books. There are eight of us, and she wanted everyone to hear all of them, so she read the series through about eight times. There was significant overlap, which we minded not at all. It\u2019s a great piece \u2013 don\u2019t miss it.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Finally Pat Gohn\u2019s column<\/strong> this week takes a look at Sacramentals<\/strong><\/a>; that St. Benedict Medal you\u2019re wearing is one, and (and I admit, I never thought of this before) so is your wedding band!<\/p>\n All these tangible, wearable sacramentals are outward signs that remind me who I am and whose I am. They bring my faith, hope, and love alive.<\/p>\n Despite their name, sacramentals are not sacraments. Nor are they lucky charms or magical talismans. I harbor no superstitions about them, as no powers accompany them. Yet they do reflect all the special graces I have already received, pointing to the gift of God\u2019s on-going presence in my life.<\/p>\n A sacrament actually confers grace that comes directly from Christ. If the sacraments are the big-ticket events\u2014the most important moments of grace in the lives of Catholics\u2014then sacramentals might be happily referred to as the small change of the sacraments. They do not confer any grace in and of themselves, but they prepare us to receive the fruit of the sacraments. They sanctify our daily lives.<\/p>\n Sacramentals illuminate the sacred in every day. Given to us by the Church in the service of the sacraments, they remind us of the graces we hold dear, and the God who holds us near. They dispose us to divine life found in daily life, like loving tokens of friendship between God, the communion of saints, and us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Once again<\/strong>, read it all<\/strong><\/a>. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever look at my wedding band in quite the same way again!<\/p>\n
\nor:
\n\u201cWell! I see another year has gone by and the pastor\u2019s wife still isn\u2019t pregnant. A fine example they\u2019re setting! I won\u2019t have them teaching my children CCD, since his own wife is clearly on the Pill.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nor:
\n\u201cI see the pastor\u2019s kids are wearing such ratty shoes. What a terrible example he sets! No one\u2019s going to want to join a church that encourages you to have more kids than you can care for.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nor:
\n\u201cEveryone thinks it\u2019s so great that Father started all these holy hours and processions and prayer groups, but I saw two of his little ones sitting all alone, just looking so sad and neglected. It\u2019s a shame that any children should grow up that way, without proper attention from their parents. Harumph.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n[\u2026]<\/p>\n
\n[\u2026]
\nThe third part took place at the kitchen table, where my mother taught me relativity, biology, theology, and metaphysics. Originally these subjects were discussed over breakfast or lunch. Later in life \u2014 just a few weeks ago, for example \u2014 they were discussed over morning coffee, or a midnight sandwich.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n