Do you remember the Dolphin Doom that took place just a few days after Pope Benedict resigned in February 2013?
No of course not.
Here is the original Dolphin Doom Post Published 18 February 2013
I called doom on that day in February 2013 - I guess it turned out to be true.
Well now there is more Dolphin Pope Doom.
This time the Dolphin Doom took place in the homeland of Pope Francis the Destroyer:
Dolphin MYSTERY: Scientists baffled after 49 dolphins wash up DEAD on beach
The acquatic mammals were found stranded in Puerto Medryn, an Argentinian city in northern Patagonia.
According to local authorities, 49 died on the coast of the El Doradillo Protected Natural Area, while the remaining 12 were saved and returned to the sea alive.
They were discovered by a couple walking around the coastal area who noticed a higher than normal number of birds on the beach.
When they realised they were pecking at scored of dolphins, they immediately alerted the coastal authorities.The operation was led by Mariano Coscarella and Silvana Dans, two scientists from the Marine Mammal Laboratory for the Study of Marine Systems.
Mr Coscarella said: “It is the first case of marine mammals being stranded in this region, therefore it is an unprecedented situation.”
The scientist explained an investigation into the stranding of the dolphins will begin once the dead specimens have been stored.
Secretary of Protected Areas Nestor Garcia suggested a large influx of killer whales around the coast might have driven the dolphins to shore.
Mr Garcia said: “After speaking with specialists, I can say that there has been an increased presence of killer whales in the area but we do not yet know if that is a cause.
“We will have to wait for the results of the investigation.” Source
The Ecclesiastical Review
VOLUME I
JANUARY, 1902
THE DOLPHIN
WHY this name for a magazine that appeals to the educated gentleman and lady who are especially interested in the work of the Church ?
Because in the symbolic language of the Catholic Church the image of the Dolphin signifies Christ.
There are several reasons that render the comparison singularly apt and instructive. The dolphin, according to Mamachi, was considered by the ancients the king of fishes. It was supposed to live only in the purest waters, such as the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. It possessed incredible swiftness of motion, which made it appear in different places almost simultaneously. Pliny says of it that it glides through the water more rapidly than an arrow pierces the air. This power and agility of motion by which the animal escaped the control of man made its name a synonym of strength. On the other hand the dolphin was known to possess singular docility and a strange fondness for music and the sounds of the human voice. Herodotus and Ovid dwell upon the story of Orion whose melodious complaints moved dolphins to bear up the sweet singer on the waves of the ocean. Among the Christian legends we have that of the martyr Callistratus (April 26), who when cast into the sea was saved from death by two dolphins. Hence the Greeks called this fish by the name oi philanthropos, that is to say, " lover of man." Since its affection for man made it not only open to approach in an extraordinary degree, but also caused it to follow vessels which frequented the open sea, recognizing the sailors who fed it and warning them of approaching storms by abandoning its frolicsome gambols about the ship and moving towards the shore. Gellius ' relates a touching story taken from the record of Apion, an Egyptian, who affirms that he was an eye-witness to the incident, of how a child having made friends with a dolphin at the seashore, the latter came daily to play with the boy, and sometimes took him on its back, riding him through the water for short distances. The writer adds that, the fact having become known, all the people of the town came daily to witness the sport. At one time the boy having been taken sick ceased to come to the beach. Then the mariners noticed the dolphin to linger daily for hours close to the shore, and finally they found it dead upon the sand.
Much is also said by the ancients of the strange beauty of the dolphin. As it leaps out of the water it displays the living colors of the sky and sea, changing with every movement, as Byron has described it, into the varying sky-tints of parting day — " the last still loveliest."
Thus the purity and swiftness, the strength, the beauty and the affectionate disposition of this singular animal caused the ancients to liken it to what they considered the divine element in man, and the same image was transferred later on to Christ, the God-Man.
But there is another reason why the symbol of the fish and particularly that of the dolphin should be recognized by the faithful as expressing the name of Christ. The Greek translation of fish is ΙΧΘΥΣ(ichthys). The five letters of this word are the initials of the phrase — Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ— which is translated : " Jesus Christ, God's Son, the Saviour." To the early Christians, therefore, the sign of a dolphin was the sign of Redemption ; for it must be remembered that before the time of the Emperor Constantine, who first permitted the open exercise of the Catholic religion, the cross could not be venerated in the Roman territory by any one who would not incur the penalty of martyrdom ; thus the Christians came to love the image of the dolphin even as we love the crucifix, and it was the secret badge of their faith in private homes and in the sepulchral recesses of the catacombs, the tombs of the martyrs upon which the saints offered the mystic sacrifice.
The Anchor.
One of the most frequent combinations of symbolical figures found in monuments of early Christian art is that of the dolphin winding itself about the anchor.
The anchor is the symbol of hope, of safety. Hence the two figures of the dolphin and the anchor express hope or confidence in Christ. St. Paul, speaking of the advent of the Messiah as foretold in the promise which God made to Abraham, calls it " the hope set before us which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm." This leads readily to the interpretation given of the dolphin and anchor by the early Christians as the symbol of the Church representing the fruits of the Redemption. Hence the same composite figure found engraven upon gems, rings, or trinkets in the homes and tombs of the early Christians, represents the badge which bore witness that its owner was a faithful member of the Church. Thus did the emblem which had been used by the pagans to express swiftness and security, assume a more elevated meaning, which it has retained in the symbolic language of the Catholic Church.
The symbol of the dolphin and anchor adopted by us as a badge in the first instance for The Ecclesiastical Review and now for The Dolphin, is therefore intended to be expressive of the thought which originated both magazines, namely, that they are devoted in a particular sense to the service of Christ and His Church. That service implies the furnishing of material which sets forth to just advantage the manifold virtue of the Spouse of Christ, her beauty of external cult and ritual, as well as the principles of her doctrines. Our purpose is to aid in the constant gradual upbuilding of that magnificent edifice which is ever going on upon the solid foundations of St. Peter's Rock. Hence our motto surrounding the Dolphin and Anchor:
— in the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles : " That the Church may receive edification."
This edification, this upbuilding can be effected only by an intelligent appreciation of the spirit, the methods, the magnificent capacities of permanent fruit which the organization of the Church provides under the guidance of her divinely ordained priesthood. Yet if this appreciation be confined to the clergy, it is of little or no avail. The legislation of the hierarchy, the preaching and edifying example of the parochial clergy must reach, must convince, and persuade the laity and above all the educated laity. There must be a constant, sympathetic contact between the spiritual captains and the rank and file of the faithful who compose the army of the Church. To a certain extent such a contact is maintained by our missionary or parochial methods. The priest ministers to the people not only in the church as to a flock, but to the individual by the administration of the Sacraments in cases of sickness, and through pastoral visitations by which he maintains the personal parish membership.
But all this, whilst it makes the people understand and value their devoted priests, does not make them fully understand and value the magnificent organism of the Church, both as an efficient factor in prompting and promoting great works of charity and education, but especially as a power which attracts the soul, fills the thousand voids of the heart, and knows how to engage most nobly the highest and fairest gifts of genius, and thus to bring something of the air of Paradise into our cold world of duty and mechanical fulfilment of precepts.
Much, indeed, of what is beautiful in the Church — our music, painting, architecture, decoration, symbolism, rites and customs of the Church — is being discussed in our well-edited Catholic periodicals. Yet it is not done systematically or with reference to principles so as to serve a permanent or consistent purpose. This field remains to be cultivated in order that Catholic exposition of doctrine and practice may take the place of non-Catholic interpretations through works which only half and with bias tell the story of our great cathedrals, our monastic schools, our organizations of charity, and to whom the meaning of our magnificent rites is hardly intelligible, because no one can justly interpret the minds of those masters who drew their inspiration from the Church who is not familiar with the motives which influenced them.
Furthermore, there are many things in the doctrine of the Church, in the Catholic liturgy, in the traditional legislation of ecclesiastical courts, or in the recognized code of pastoral practice, with which the layman is not familiar, and the beneficent effect of which is lost to him, if, indeed, its apparent strangeness do not cause him doubts and scandal. To explain these rites and forms and practices will be within the special province of The Dolphin. By these means the clergy and the people will be more easily enabled to move upon harmonious lines and avoid the dangers which arise from the mistaken spirit of independence characterizing our age and fostering the efforts of irreligious demagogues to emancipate the people from the authority of the Church. Where theclergy and the people work together for the common honor of the Church of Christ, there will be the true social as well as religious progress, because this harmony produces an atmosphere favorable to the growth of virtue ; and virtue is the basis of true intelligence and of lasting and honorable industry. " Justum deduxit Dominus per vias rectas, et ostendit illi regnum Dei, et dedit illi scientiam sanctorum, honestavit ilium in laboribus, et complevit labores illius," which is interpreted as a pledge of the inspired wisdom that " him who is virtuous God leads through straight ways, and He shows him His kingdom (the true Church), and He gives him the wisdom of the saints, and He renders him honorable in his pursuits, and completes his work for him."
To foster this wisdom and thus to aid in the upbuilding of the Church of Christ is the one object of The Dolphin, as we hope to prove in the course of its advance.
No comments:
Post a Comment