About Us...

Galilee

A native of California, the 18 year old home educated, Church going, knife throwing, future doctor and creator of ‘Erecti Moriamur’, Galilee, enjoys movies, studies science, plays in the rain, slurps black coffee, hardcore road trips, swims in the sea, admires sports cars, reads Saint Augustine, reprimands pickpockets, practices spiritual bounty hunting, critiques theater, fingers red rosary beads, bakes up a storm, glides in socks on slick hardwood, rocks to 80’s music, dreams of time travel, is an armature artist, prays to the martyrs, tours museums, is an urban spelunker, worships in cathedrals, reads old books, pickets for Life, recites rhetoric, and hugs a platypus named ‘Sting’.

Merwin

As her name denotes, the 16 year old from Illinois, will have you under her enchantment in no time. She is best known for her love of literature, poetry, theatre, music, philosophy, theology, quotations, world travel, culinary arts, writing, operas, history, platypi, Earl Grey tea, Beethoven, scarves, owls, and popcorn. She is also known for rocking out to opera, being an art snob, and laughing at inappropriate times.




Noah
A 17 year old who dwells in California, enjoys music (especially bagpipes), guitar, and Gregorian chant/English choral tradition, composer Edward Bairstow, rugby, philosophy, and history.

Suffering

When one steps back from life to examine it, the first thing that becomes readily apparent is suffering. We all suffer to some greater or lesser degree, and each of us is sure no one suffers as much as himself. The question, then, that must surely arise is: why do we suffer? Why is there so much suffering in the world? One’s mind may next make a very logical jump to the conclusion that sin is the root of all suffering. God must be punishing us for our sins. ‘But no, that can’t be right, can it?’ one might think. ‘Sure, I have sinned in the past, but what about little children in war-torn countries? What about severely autistic children and adults? These people seem to be innocent of wrongdoing, so is suffering really a punishment for sin?’ As with most good theological answers, the answer is both yes and no.

Yes, suffering is the just punishment for sin. The hitch, then, is that those who do
not sin still suffer. Our Lady suffered, as did Our Lord. These two facts, while seemingly
irreconcilable, in fact go hand in hand. The reason is this: while sin is the cause for suffering, suffering is not always directly proportional to personal, actual sin. All of us are born with original sin, the stain deposited on our souls by our first parents when they defied and denounced God by heeding the serpent and fulfilling their own selfish desires. The Baltimore Catechism states: “On account of the sin of Adam, we, his descendants come into the world deprived of sanctifying grace and inherit his punishment, as we would have inherited his gifts had he remained faithful to God.” This same Catechism also states Adam’s punishment thus: “On account of their sin Adam and Eve lost sanctifying grace, the right to heaven, and their special gifts; they became subject to death, suffering, and a strong inclination to evil, and they were driven from the garden of paradise.” Notice that it is “on account of the sin of Adam” and not necessarily on account of our personal sins that we are laden with suffering.
Furthermore, our very duty as Christians is to suffer for our lord.  Suffering for Him is expected and required of us. Multiple times does scripture emphasize this fact: “He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me,” (Matt. 10:38). Other references include Luke 9:23 (taking up our crosses daily) and Luke 14:27 (“whosoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple”).
Our glorification in Christ also depends on our suffering, as He Himself had to suffer on the cross first before being resurrected--- for are we better than our God? Sacred Scripture makes this clear in passages such as Romans 8:17 and 1Peter 2:19-21. It is through suffering and self-denial that we earn, or at least gain merits for, Paradise and eternal life. This fact can be summed up with the classic adage: “No pain, no gain.”
Another reason that God allows suffering to permeate our lives is for the chance for each and every one of us to prove ourselves faithful to Him, not for His sake, but for our sakes and for the sake of inspiring and directing others in His way. Here is a temporal example that perhaps is easier to understand than a complicated theological explanation. A marine drill sergeant one time told his group of new recruits: “Okay, girls, the good news is that if you pass my training course, you will never have to prove anything again. The bad news? You have to prove it to me.”  Now, this is a flawed analogy, as any common one must be when describing the great truths of theology. Yes, the instructor does test recruits to see if they have the stuff to be marines, but he is also testing them so they can prove themselves to themselves, so they have confidence in themselves to be true marines. So does God test us, so as to show us how strong we really are and how far we can actually push ourselves. Also, we all look up to the marine corps because of their amazing toughness and capabilities. So too is the example of Job supposed to inspire us to greater heights of holiness just as the marines inspire us to greater heights of temporal greatness. God used his suffering and his faithfulness through suffering to give us this great example to follow.
Suffering, then, has reason other than to manifest divine retribution. God is doing more than sitting in heaven showering thunderbolts of punishment upon the earth. He wants to help us, to give us opportunities for extraordinary graces, and help us grow ever closer to Him. Suffering is merely a tool He uses to accomplish this end.

--Noah De La Cruz

A Virtual Mask

Over one hundred years ago an Irish playwright by the name of Oscar Wilde voiced the famous words, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”  
While these words have, and I’m sure, always will be true of humankind, they have been given a new weight by the dawn of the Internet. This virtual mask has given society a sense of anonymity that grants courage to the before hidden thoughts.  
Sign on to Facebook and your senses will instantly be bombarded by the thoughts of your “friends”.  These thoughts are expressed by way of statuses, wall posts, instant  messages and comments.
You all know what I’m talking about.  You have that lady who posts catty threats over status, the girl who voices her heartbreak over a high-school breakup, that guy who rants about his boss and of course... that kid who’s every other status is: “im bored”.
The average Facebooker has over a hundred friends, sometimes over a thousand. Imagine for a moment, that all the people on your “friends list” are in an auditorium and you stand on the stage reading your statuses aloud to the crowd.  Would you have the courage? Would you even want to?  If you saw the faces of your co-workers and classmates, the face of your aunt, the face of your local priest, or the face of your twelve year old cousin, would you read on?
           The words that you write on that glowing screen are real words that are being read by real people.  Somehow we have convinced ourselves that because we can’t see whose reading our words that those people simply… don’t exist, that we are voicing our thoughts to some faceless, virtual void.
           Everything  you say will have an effect on those who read it, aka anyone with Internet access.  You are not speaking a faceless void, you are speaking to your world.


--Merwin

What happened to Christmas?

I had lunch at a local Mexican fast food ‘joint’ today. When i walked in, i did my usual sweep of the room for Christmas cheer in the form of decorations, music, and Santa hats on willing employees. What met my startled eye was something quite out of the ordinary.
Hanging precariously from the light fixtures were snow men's heads.  
Yes, just the decapitated heads of Frosty’s clones.
I was first struck by the cleverly disguised morbidity, and couldn’t help noticing, the heads still had their sales tags. This was a sure sign that the employees had not simply severed the snow men’s heads from their roundish bodies. They had actually bought these heathen, head-hunter-style, Christmas decorations, hanging from thin cords on the lights. Perhaps this was a warning issued to wayward snowmen that this eatery was a no-snow-zone. Perhaps somewhere in the far north there are snowmen in restaurants with human heads hanging as symbols of Christmas cheer...
Anything is possible.
Turning on the radio i flipped to the Santa’s Sleigh radio channel. This is a regular channel that goes ‘All Christmas, all the time’ from the day after Thanksgiving, till the day after Christmas.
What i heard was far from comforting, and even less enlightening.
Selections such as “I’ll Be Blue on Christmas Without You”
and “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”
and “It’s a Marshmallow World in the Winter” met my scandalized ears.
What happened to Christmas?
Did i miss the worldwide announcement that Christmas was now to be completely secularized? Turned into one, very large, very obnoxious, advertising campaign?
Nah...not possible.
Right?
I was truly hoping that my local tree farmer was the only one in the world who dared to sell firetruck red and neon purple Christmas trees to the general public.
I was truly hoping that Nativity scenes would appear in the neighborhood yards, instead of big fat “ho ho” Santa’s on sleighs drawn by undernourished, skeletal, reindeer.
I was truly hoping that Christmas wouldn’t be lost in the flurry of preparing for the “holidays”.

Christmas is the day that Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, became man.
Christmas is the day that Heavens gates are opened the widest to shower blessings and light upon the earth and all of mankind.
Christmas is the day that we all look back on the past year and thank God for what He has given and ask God to bless our lives in the years to come.
Christmas....

Call me a dreamer, but at this point, i would rather dream than live in this ‘Marshmallow World” reality that everyone has dreamed up. However, we’re young, there’s still time, we will change this.

Season’s Greetings,
Happy Holidays,
Merry Christmas,
Fight on,
Galilee

Tron: Legacy, Review

Seriously?
I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but i am becoming more confused by the day.
The movie was Tron: Legacy.
The chances of this film leaving a legacy are similar to the chances of a lightening bolt striking my dog’s i.d. tag on a summer afternoon.
The acting wasn’t bad at all, but the actors skill was smashed under the weight of poor dialogue and plot. The costumes were very plain, but i suppose that if you pin neon glow strips to the contours of tights and a leotard, all’s well that ends well. This film was treated like a budget-crunched disaster.
I can say that the 3D was intense, and well done to boot, but it was painfully obvious that they spent all their time on the special effects, and about ten minutes before breakfast on the plot and script. Which only shows that this film had great potential.
I guess what i want to know is, why can’t incredible plots and scripts be put together with incredible actors, sets, effects, etc.? Why are movies like Tron: Legacy allowed to escape and be integrated into the general public? Why can’t we write good dialogue, so that we don’t have to compensate by throwing in random and misplaced wisecracks?

EM rating: B-
EM final comment: we like the music, done by Daft Punk.


Fight on,
Galilee

Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Review

I am happy to report that the 3D was an experience all its own, and well worth the three dollar surcharge. However, if your wallet will cry because you remove that much money from it, seeing this particular film in 2D is just as good.

The plot followed the book to a tee, save a few tiny things that were lost in the translation from page to screen.

I would call this movie a “examination of conscience”, as it did a broad sweep of the seven deadly sins. The seven deadly sins, pride, lust, anger, covetousness, envy, sloth, and gluttony (easily remembered by the acronym "PLACES G"). When watching the movie, if you keep these sins in your mind and look for them, all are shown, even gluttony and lust. The theme of temptation to commit the seven sins was clearly pulsing throughout the plot. 
The seven lost knights who Caspian and the crew of the Dawn Treader were searching for each lost their 'swords' to one of the temptations.
Redemption, conversion of heart, and forgiveness were also demonstrated in the character of Eustace Scrubb (a favorite literary character of mine).

I have seen it twice already, the first time with two 24 year olds, and a 20 year old. All of them enjoyed it very much. The second time i went to see it, i was accompanied by a 15 year old. He also enjoyed it.
I highly recommend this movie to all ages, and all creeds.
There is not much i can say that is negative about this movie...which is different for me, since usually i enjoy standing on a soap box and ranting about the poor quality of today’s entertainment.

EM rating: A
EM final comment: go see this movie, nuff’ said.


Fight on,
Galilee

Narnia Fever: the epidemic thats sweeping the nation

Can you feel it?
That’s the magical pull of Narnia roping you in and dragging you off in the direction of the local cinema.
Oh yes, to the joy of us here at Erecti Moriamur H.Q., Narnia is back...with a vengeance. We had been questioning the sanity of Disney studios after they dropped the series (based in Walden Media) after the release of the second instalment, Prince Caspian, but we forgive them. Now we throw confetti and congratulate Fox on its adoption of the series. And to top it all of with a massive, juicy, sugar coated cherry, Narnia is now in 3D. (Yes, you read that right.)

The Narnia series, based on the book series of the same title by C.S. Lewis, has a strong Christian theme.
Allow me to illustrate.
In the first film, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the character Aslan, the great lion is a portrayal of Jesus Christ.
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, are the apostles St. Peter the leader, St. Thomas the doubter, Judas Iscariot the traitor (only during his betrayal of his siblings, then he becomes a modified St. Matthew or Philip later on), and St. John the youngest and beloved, respectively.
Obviously the White Witch is satan or, it is also argued, an incarnation of sin.
The plot closely mirrors the story of Christ’s life, death, glorious Resurrection, and conquering of sin and death.


The second film was slightly less religion oriented, and substantially darker than the first. However, Prince Caspian  did carry heavy Christian themes.
The deposition of Prince Caspian (mankind) from the throne of Narnia (the world) by Miraz (the devil) is the story of the plight of all mankind who are now living in a world where satan reigns over those who willing to serve.
Aslan (Christ) and His Church (the returning Pevensie children) come to the rescue with Grace (Aslan reawakens the trees), and a little positive pep talking (the Gospel message).

The third film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,  still carries the same strong Christian themes. We will wait to illustrate them till after the release of the film (due to plot spoilers). However, you can brush up on them (and spoil the movies for yourself) by grabbing a copy of the book and reading it.

So go--see the third film, and the first two as well, if you haven’t already. Then be sure to click back here and read an illustration of the Christian attributes.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe rated PG (appropriate for all ages, though some frightening images may scare small children)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian rated PG (appropriate for all ages, though some frightening images may scare small children, and an innocent kiss at the end may give tween boys cooties)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader rated PG  (appropriate for all ages, though some frightening images may scare small children and puppies)

Fight on,
Galilee