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This is from a wonderful get-together yesterday at our good friends Gary and Chris Michuta's house. Also in attendance were our longtime friends Steve and Janet Ray, Al and Sally Kresta, Stan Williams, Dan and Lori Grajek, Fr. Ed Fride, Fr. John Riccardo, and many others. I had a fantastic time chatting about theology and apologetics for over six hours (whew!).
This photograph was taken by Steve Ray on his iPhone. I think it's a pretty good one. I have my (relatively) new (progressive lens) glasses, new hair style (starting to grow it longer on the sides) and a new shirt I received for Father's Day! Judy looks fabulous as always, with her beautiful big brown eyes. We are both 50, and I'll be 51 in six days. On October 6th we'll have our 25th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe! I still think Judy is (literally) the best woman in the whole world. And she still seems to like me and put up with all my shenanigans too, so we are very thankful to God for the undeserved happiness He has granted us.
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15 comments:
Great Pic Dave. That's the best picture I've seen of you. And, pray tell, how in the world did you land that lovely woman standing next to you.
Rich
Thanks!
To answer your ?, beats me, Rich! It's one of those mysteries of life, like predestination, eternity, the Lions' inability to win a game in an entire season, the liberal mind, etc. LOL
Nice pic. Do all of you live close enough together or was there an event to make this happen?
We're all in southeast Michigan: either metro Detroit or Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti (Rays and Krestas, Fr. Ed Fride), which is about a 40-mile radius. I've known Al and Steve since 1982 when we were all Protestants. This party was the 2nd or 3rd annual, and it is becoming quite the event to attend every year.
The annual apologists get-together :) keep up the good work Dave. as an addendum I'm not sure you completly understand the root cause of trad grieviances but unlike many Orthodox Catholics you've treated us with true Christian Chairty on your blog.
Hi Jack,
I'm so used to getting flak from trads I'm delighted to actually receive a compliment. I've tried to understand better in the last few years and I think I do more than I did. Still big differences, but I am encouraged that dialogue seems more possible, at least with some people in trad circles.
Well Dave most effective way to deal with Rad Trads is getting through the shell of anger which is about 40 years thick and then things can begin to develop from there.
I am a trad but I am also a revert so I skipped through the anger and just get sad when I see "wreckovated" churches and abusive liturgies.
Of course as a revert it is people like you and Mr. Shea that played an important role on that. I am a revert from agnosticism.
As a trad I do wish that people like you and Mr. Shea would get more involved not just in the dogma but also in the Liturgy and what liturgy is suppose to represent.
For the majority of Catholics the Liturgy is the first and only thing they see of the Church. I think it is of the out most important that the Church reforms the reform because as it stands now VII is not being followed.
Dave,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord!
I'm very pleased that we've had a number of excellent conversations over the past couple of weeks. It is my desire that we continue to challenge each other as respectfully as we've been able to thus far.
And now I'm going to say something you wouldn't normally hear a Calvinist say.
When it comes to your wife, how in the world did you rate her? You're a lucky dog!
By the way, we're very close in age, you being a couple of months older. However, October will be my wife's and my 28th anniversary, so we're a little ahead on that end.
All God's best to you and your family,
Tim
No problem Dave
In the future I'm sure you'll find more complaments coming from traditional circles (I don't like the word because of the connotations it carries) especially the younger generation. I say this becasue the older (and generally more angry) trads have managed to wind themselves up so much that they can't see that they repeatedly contradict themselves whereas the younger ones whilst appreciating the likes of Walter Matt and Michael Davies (especially for his work on the history of the SSPX) for the good work they have done, realise that they have/do view themselves as an alternative inquisition and are very quick to publically call down fire from heaven where a quite word in private from a competent authority would be the best policy.
All the Best: Jack
Hi Giovanni,
Interesting comments about anger, etc. One must also determine who is a radtrad and who is just a trad. I think the latter category is larger than I thought previously. In the past, I have tended to think most trads were radtrads. So who knows?
I have written a fair number of papers on the liturgy and liturgical abuses, including the history of liturgy. They are found on the Eucharist topical page, which has a section on liturgy. Perhaps you weren't aware of that.
I am very liturgically traditional. My own parish is quite traditional: altar rails, receive from the priest only, Latin Mass (both forms), wonderful German Gothic Revival architecture (1873), very reverent, etc. I've attended Latin Mass for over 18 years now. But lately we go mostly to the English Mass because of my four children. Even some of them have said they like the Latin, too, though.
Hi Tim,
I'm very pleased that we've had a number of excellent conversations over the past couple of weeks.
Me, too. Isn't it sad that good dialogue seems to be so rare anymore on the Internet that people are really surprised to find it? But let's be glad that we can do it. Maybe it'll start a new trend or something. I've had very good relations, too, with Rich, from the top of this thread. So it's entirely possible. But it doesn't seem to be for the "anti-" folks on both sides.
It is my desire that we continue to challenge each other as respectfully as we've been able to thus far.
I don't see why not. It has to start with a friendly, courteous attitude. You were gracious enough to approach me in that way, even in the midst of an avalanche of personal attacks on another blog (which was very impressive to me). This is the true Christian attitude. I think that is the central requirement for good dialogue. I've always said that. I believe Plato and Socrates also noted that a good dialogue has to occur between people who are friendly, not hostile to each other.
And now I'm going to say something you wouldn't normally hear a Calvinist say.
LOLOL
When it comes to your wife, how in the world did you rate her? You're a lucky dog!
:-) Like I told Rich above, beats me! I had many years of loneliness before we met and became good and then best friends, for about a year and a half. Then both of us felt the Lord telling us to go in a more serious direction (at the same time, but separately). We were right for each other; made for each other, and we both had prayed a great deal for the right mate, and it worked out in the end. All glory to God! Most of us guys marry "up" don't we? LOL
By the way, we're very close in age, you being a couple of months older. However, October will be my wife's and my 28th anniversary, so we're a little ahead on that end.
Congratulations! The good ol' Baby Boomer generation, huh?
Did you know that I am a very musical person, too? I majored in music in high school (the best public school in Detroit: Cass Technical) and played trombone in the band and orchestra. I used to play piano as a child and became good enough to play Chopin's Minute Waltz at age 12. I have very wide-ranging musical interests, as one can see on my
Music web page
In fact, last spring I visited the Mississippi Delta specifically to see a lot of the blues sites (like Robert Johnson's and Charlie Patton's and Jimmie Rodgers' gravesites). We also saw all the musical things in Memphis (Sun studio, Stax studio) and Nashville, and Hank Williams sites in Montgomery, Alabama.
I'm particularly fond of older jazz, blues, country, folk, rockabilly, and R&B, so I am a bit of an amateur historian of music. And of course, as a Detroit native, we have the whole Motown heritage here.
Hi Jack,
More interesting comments. I find it fascinating that the trads now seem to be undergoing a self-evaluation, particularly regarding things like excessive anger. This is great. Many of my own observations made in the past did indeed have to do with attitude and lack of restraint in criticising even popes, etc. There was a certain imprudence and lack of moderation in attitude that I often observed.
I'm delighted, then, to see that there is a sense of that and some impulse to present a better image or what-not. On many of the issues, I am right along with you. I despise liberalism and heterodoxy and liturgical abuses and compromise, etc., every bit as much as any trad does. The difference comes in the precise identification of causes and solutions.
Hi Dave,
And Happy Birthday in case I forget!
Congratulations! The good ol' Baby Boomer generation, huh?
Yeah, well, I'm of the mindset that the world will be better off when our generation is gone. I like what Dennis Prager says about the boomers (of which he is one) and what they did to common sense: "The generation that ushered in the age of stupidity."
You certainly do have varied tastes in music, as do I. I suspect, though, that you are more proficient in what you do because I'm only a self-taught hack on piano.
I also like R&B, though it is not my main interest. I mostly listen to film music, classical, rock and "New Age" (an annoyingly broad term which in the record sales world includes traditional, celtic, folk and the like).
I think you would like George Winston's music, especially his stride piano, slack key guitar and harmonica work. For R&B you want to listen especially to Gulf Coast Blues and Impressions and Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi. It has been my privilege to tune for him in concert twice now.
Talk to you again later,
Tim
Thanks for the birthday greetings. My birthday gifts from Judy (well, I picked 'em out) were all musical: biographies of Hank Williams and Marvin Gaye, the new compilation of George Harrison songs ("Let it Roll") and a wonderful album of ballads by Marvin Gaye called "Vulnerable." I got all four for $31 by looking for the best deals, and the bios are hardcovers.
Now I am counting the days till all the Beatles' stuff is remastered (9-9-09). The stereo set is going for $205 on amazon (16 albums). I decided to hold off on the mono set (for now, anyway :-).
Still my all-time favorite group and probably always will be.
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