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The deacon is one who waits. He is never in charge. He is the servant of others--of God, of his bishops, of the congregation. He is a voice: it is his task to read the Lord's Gospel, not his own....He is a servant: it is his task to wait at the Lord's table....It is others who preside; he is the waiter, the attendant. Is there anything at all that is peculiar to the deacon? Is he given powers that are given to no one else? The answer is "No." There is nothing he can do which nobody else can do. But that is just what is distinctive about him. He has no power. He is a servant. he is entrusted with the ministry of Christ who washes his servants' feet. He embodies the service of the Lord who has made himself the servant of us all.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am posting this entry on the sixth minute of the sixth hour (...PM but anyways) of the sixth day of the sixth month of '06! Oh my gosh! that's like ... 66666! That's even more evil than 666!

Evil movie!
Well, what would a day like today be without summer blockbuster The Omen to commemorate it? And what kind of commemoration would a summer blockbuster be if said summer blockbuster was not a remake of an original from 30 years ago? (And thirty is a multiple of six! What're the odds??)

I have not seen it (and will not tonight because I have better things to do that don't involve the occult in any way shape or form), but hope to at some point. Roger Ebert gave it a positive review. He said something in the review that got me thinking:

I've observed before that when it comes to dealing with demons and suchlike, Roman Catholics have the market cornered. Preachers of other faiths can foam and foment all they want about satanic cults, but when it comes to knowing the ground rules and reading ominous signs, what you want at the bedside is a priest who knows his way around an exorcism.

Amen to that, Roger.

Okay so, that may be overstating it. People have been joking about this empire of baloney since before the movie came out I'd wager. But now the jokes are really starting to permeate. Two great pieces on the DaVinci Load that came out recently:

"Opus Dei's Box-Office Triumph" by Paul Fortunato
On June 2 an Opus Dei member from Houston wrote an op-ed in the New York Times. He practices corporal mortification, and is not ashamed to admit it. He also does something that works as a demonstration of class while serving at the same time as a nice little back-handed jab at the author and creators of the Load. He thanks them.

As a member of Opus Dei, I would like to thank Dan Brown and Ron Howard for "The Da Vinci Code." Why am I not outraged like so many other devout Roman Catholics? Because I think we could not have wished for a better result: critics attack the film (and, retrospectively, the book) as boring and annoying and cartoonish; and because everyone is seeing it anyway, many people who would otherwise have no interest in Opus Dei are curious, allowing us to explain what we are really about.

"Heaven Can Wait" by Anthony Lane
This piece, printed in the May 29 issue of the New Yorker, is laugh-out-loud funny. The last paragraph is priceless, and I won't give it away. Just read it.

I read this from Mother Theresa's No Greater Love on Friday while sitting on the pier in Glaveston.

What we need is to love without getting tired. How does a lamp burn? Through the continuous input of small drops of oil. What are these drops of oil in our lamps? They are the small things of daily life: faithfulness, small words of kindness, a thought for others, our way of being silent, of looking, of speaking, and of acting. Do not look for Jesus away from yourselves. He is not out there; He is in you. Keep your lamp burning, and you will recognize Him.