Somebody I knew for over twenty years died recently.

In our grandparents’ days, death was all around and thought of constantly. Sex was private and seldom mentioned.

Now we saturate ourselves in what passes for sex — all advertisements, entertainments and gossip seeming to drag sex in somehow.

But when forced to talk about death – as at funerals – we mostly find we have nothing intelligent to say.

* * *

Somebody gets up and describes the deceased’s hobbies, favourite music, favourite sporting club — and how “passionate” he/she was.

Cheer up, says somebody else, death is merely a journey. Whatever you do, do NOT get up and ask, “A journey to where?” Nobody will forgive you.

Modern funerals: we tend to call these embarrassing gatherings “not so much a grieving at his loss, but more a celebration of his life . . . .”

But clearly they are designed to celebrate, console and comfort the living – with little thought for any spiritual profit for the dead.

Yet death is a religious subject, whether we like it or not.

We can try having our funerals at the graveside, or at other places that are not churches . . . but we’re wasting our time. Death is religious by its very nature, and there is nothing we can do about it.

* * *

You, dear reader, are going to die:

 * make sure your relatives know that you want your funeral held in a church.

 * and that you want prayers said for your departed soul — both at the funeral and privately by all    present for the rest of their lives.

 * and that you want the priest to wear black vestments, as done for centuries for good reasons, and    abandoned recently for bad reasons.

 * and insist that you be buried, not cremated.

Recent research indicates a link between boredom and early death.

Based on questionnaires completed by 7,500 London civil servants aged 35 to 55 in the 1980s: those who reported being bored at work have subsequently died of heart attacks at over double the rate of those saying they liked their jobs. (International Journal of Epidemiology)

* * *

A quote from Pope Benedict XVI: “We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism . . . which has as its highest goals one’s own ego and one’s own desires . . . the church needs to withstand the tides of trends and the latest novelties.”

* * *

To hear a child say, “I’m bored,” is a frightening thing. We hear it all the time. We don’t know what to do.

The temptation is to be blackmailed — to give children even more of the very “trends and novelties” which are white-anting their souls.

Must their lives centre forever around the shopping mall and what can be bought there or shoplifted there?

See them practising at being little middle-aged robots. See them “hanging out” in the mall with like-minded, unprogrammed automatons — bored, bitter and meaningless already.

* * *

We educate them in the technological questions of “how?” Secular education ignores and lampoons all questions of “why?”

The answer to questions of “why?” ultimately relate to God.

Love for God is what could save them – and us.

* * *

Another beautiful quote: “O God, my love for you ought to be total, infinite in desire; because you will not give yourself entirely to a soul unless it gives itself wholly to you. I must not cling to any attachment, nor admit even a single voluntary imperfection, nor refuse you anything . . . .

“Seeking sacrifice in the smiling acceptance of suffering, O God, for love of you, I want to take advantage of the little opportunities, so that I may be strong in the big ones.”  (Sister Carmela of the Holy Spirit)

* * *

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, a key day in the Christian year, a day to begin in earnest to mentally approach Good Friday, Easter and all that they mean.

They mean everything.

More about that tomorrow.

Saint Valentine was a Catholic priest, first clubbed almost to death — and then beheaded — by Roman Emperor Claudius, apparently on February 14, in about the year 270AD.

Claudius had ordered all Romans to worship the Roman pagan gods.

The alternative was execution.

Valentine had been famous for his real love for mankind, giving from his heart and assisting the poor, the needy and widows – and encouraging the well-to-do of his time to be generous to the less privileged in their communities.

* * *

In Saudi Arabia, celebrating Saint Valentine’s Day is prohibited.

The nation’s Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is supposed to enforce bans against “pagan holidays”.

Virtue Commission spokesman, Sheik Ali Qarni, defends this ban, saying that Muslims know the true meaning of love — the love of God — and behave accordingly throughout the year.

Of course, wherever there is a ban there is a black market. Some Saudi florists are supplying bootleg bunches of red roses (at over three times the regular price) to those who will pay.

* * *

Meanwhile, polls are reporting that 40 percent of Muslims in the United Kingdom want Sharia Law introduced in Britain – more so young British Muslims than their elders.

Muslims now number 1,591,000 in the UK — 2.7 percent of the population — a proportion said to be rising 10 times faster than rest of society.

What about Australia?

At the 2006 Census there were 340,000 Muslims in Australia. In early 2010, WikiAnswers estimates it is now 446,500 (about 2 percent of the population).

How many Australian Muslims want Sharia Law? Nobody seems to know. Perhaps we don’t want to know.

* * *

This year, Melbourne’s Latrobe University is offering an 18-month course in Master of Islamic Banking and Finance – described as a “cutting-edge program built around a defined body of knowledge of proven relevance to the Islamic finance industry”.

The thin edge of the wedge, perhaps?

Certainly, it’s a long way from amputation for thieves, stoning for adultery etc. . . . .

And a long way from being clubbed and beheaded for being a Christian . . . .

But you have to start somewhere if you want “change”, as President Obama might say.

Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, said last Wednesday that he personally favours a 21-year old minimum legal drinking age, quoting links between Australia’s high P-plater road deaths and alcohol-swallowing.

But is it not probable that most teenage drunks will vote Labor (if still alive when next election happens)?

And likewise most people who sell alcohol?

It is hard, under Australia’s present form of “democracy”, to imagine any major party – especially Rudd’s so-called “Labor” — doing anything real to upset either of those two interest groups.

* * *

Federal Opposition leader, Mr Abbott, commented that 18-year olds drinking is OK with him, because he is not a “wowser”.

Deep stuff, eh?

* * *

The scientific evidence about drinking ages and alcohol-related mayhem is, of course, well and truly in.

Professor Ian Hickie, at Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Research Institute, really does want legal alcohol drinking ages raised to 21 — on the basis of research showing that young people’s brains are particularly susceptible to alcohol damage.

Also the US experience, which provides further evidence –- in those states which have raised their drinking age to 21, accidents and violence involving youths having fallen . . . .

* * *

Both sides of Australian politics are carefully testing the water. Could it be that winning the next election is almost as important to both of them as is doing the right thing — i.e. preventing teenage deaths?

* * *

Once again, the Church isn’t much help.

Two generations ago, when young Catholics celebrated their Confirmation, they were encouraged to sign an undertaking not to drink before turning 21. Many adhered to that promise.

Will that excellent practice ever be re-introduced?

Or would Church leaders need to “test the water” too – so as not to offend anybody – pretty much like a bunch of politicians?

.

Today, 7 February 2010, Australians have been asked to make time to remember 7 February 2009 – the day bushfires in Victoria burnt out 430,000 hectares of land — and killed 173 people.

Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, has declared a “national day of mourning”, with flags flown at half mast and a minute’s silence at noon.

Remembrance services are planned for churches in towns in the fire-affected areas, including Kinglake West, Marysville, Flowerdale, Whittlesea, Toolangi and Bendigo.

Mr Rudd and Victorian Premier, John Brumby, will attend a “multi-faith” service at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne.

Multi-faith? Will nobody be praying out loud for the souls of the deceased? They will not. The Protestants wouldn’t stand for it.

Better for Catholics to arrange their own one-faith memorial services — those people need our prayers.

* * *

Mr Brumby has told the media, “We don’t want this tragedy to ever happen again. We all need to learn from this terrible disaster.”

OK. So a three-member Royal Commission was set up – Ron McLeod (ex-Defence Department public servant), Susan Pascoe (ex-CEO of Victoria’s Catholic Education Commission) and chairman Bernie Teague (ex-Supreme Court judge).

They’ve come up with an Interim Report — 51 recommendations – focussing on establishing early fire-risk warnings, relocation plans (fire refuges) and reorganising fire service command hierarchies.
They made no recommendations about fuel reduction.

* * *

Everybody knows that fuel-reduction burning is the most important preventative tool  to  help avoid future multi-fatality bushfires.

However, the Victorian government’s burn target for 2009-2010 was 130,000 hectares – unchanged over five years  – ignoring its own Parliamentary Bushfire Inquiry’s recommendation of 385,000 hectares.

Is this government so dependent on the preference votes of the (anti-fuel reduction) Greens Party?

A useful recommendation which the Royal Commission probably will not make would be to stop calling that fatal day “Black Saturday” — and call it “Greens Saturday”.

Then whenever we remember those who died we’ll remember whose fault it was — and remember who never to vote for.

.

Being promiscuous can still kill you.

American researchers recently surveying 263 college student couples found 64 percent to be both infected with the same strain of cancer-causing human papilloma virus (HPV) within 4 months of starting to have sex with each other.

HPV causes cervix cancer.

Researcher in charge, Dr F. Coutlee, says that, because all these HPV transmissions happen early in new relationships, this “reinforces the need for prevention.”

What does he mean by “prevention”?

Presumably condoms: if so, the whole project has been a waste of time and money.

Everybody knows that young people sloppy enough in their lifestyle to be having sex outside marriage are not people likely to discipline themselves to use condoms each and every time they perform the deed.

* * *

Condoms are not very on-turning.

Who prefers showering with their raincoat on?

Or washing their feet with their socks on?

* * *

What alternative is there to condoms as a way to prevent youthful venereal disease?

At the risk of seeming to offer a genuine alternative, one might suggest chastity, i.e. not having sex until you marry and then only having sex with the person to whom you are married.

To do this, it helps to believe in God, and to love him above all else.

If one really believes in God — really, not just half-heartedly — it becomes possible and normal and agreeable to restrict oneself in this way.

* * *

Many Catholics recite daily a morning prayer called the Office of Prime, part of which goes like this:

“Now that the sun has risen, let us as suppliants ask of God that in today’s acts He preserve us from all that may hurt us . . . may our inmost soul be pure and the folly of impurity find in us no place . . . so that when day has gone, and night, as God planned, has returned, we may be found free from sin through our self restraint and thus sing praise to Him.”

Praying that prayer sincerely every morning, a person finds him/herself able to live a life filled with love, completely free of sexually transmitted diseases.