way!” Sound familiar to anyone? Now inso-far as this just expresses a simple frustration with the multiplicity of tasks or some per-sonal and momentary over-burdenedness, it is perhaps defensible (although this gnostic harbors private doubts). But what is some-one really saying when one voices these and similar complaints?

Insofar as one assumes that the education being pursued here (at Franciscan) is intended to form the mind of the one edu-cated, can one ever say that, strictly speak-ing, too much has been asked? Put down the pitchfork! Let me explain! I qualify that question as follows: granting that for some of the people some of the time and for most if not all of the people at one time or an-other, there are definite limits to the amount of mental work possible and definitely limits to the amount of work advisable, does one ever dare say (or even imply) that the forma-tion of mind should be tabled? Suspended on account of a time of rest, certainly, but ta-bled outright? Sanity forbid!

Ye Auld Gadfly

The thought this gnostical soul would leave you with is this: yes, academic work can become a burden. Yes, it is at least sometimes a servile work and must be set aside at times to rest. But the formation of mind and the habits of reflection cultivated are (at least hopefully) not merely for aca-demic or career-oriented purposes. Hope-fully we can take this time of study here at University and use it to cultivate a love for truth and a disponiblity before the beauty of the true. And maybe, just maybe, those atti-tudes can form our hearts and minds, not only for our assignments, but for living. Something to think about as you reflect on your life this Advent. Knowingly yours, I am most intractably,

Quoth the Gnostic: “Thou hurtest my very brains.” Quoth he,

“And servest thy very soul.” Quoth me.1

There comes a time in the life of every Gadfly staff writer when he must say some-thing he knows will upset many readers. I knew this day would come when I signed on, though perhaps I chose not to con-sciously acknowledge it. “Nay,” said I, “it will not be so with me! I will be a beacon of level-headed and amicable admonition for the adoring readership!” But alas, my day has come. After much thoughtful con-sideration I have come to the conclusion that in spite of the hatred I will doubtless garner for the views I’m about to express, the best thing to do is to say them directly. Therefore:

I dislike Mass-dates—you know, where you treat your significant other to a romantic repast at the table of the Lord’s Word and Body. They frustrate the real reason we go to Mass, distract us, and con-fuse our intentions.

My main complaint is that when we go to Mass it ought to be so that we can worship God in the fullest and most perfect

way possible. We ought to be focused on the Lord and nobody else. When you go to Mass with the intention of being at Mass with some-body, you lose that. (Remember that Jesus said “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” And remember that “mammon,” as we all know, is Sanskrit for “your boyfriend/girlfriend.”)

Now someone is sure to point out to me that at Mass we come together as the Body of Christ to celebrate the Sacrament, the point of course being that unity is important to the celebration. I agree with that. But as far as distractions in prayer go, getting cuddly with a prayer-buddy of the opposite sex probably ranks pretty high. And not just for you, either, but for me—er, for the people sitting behind you, too!

Before we get all upset and emotion-ally charged (or has that ship already left the harbor?), let’s be clear: I don’t think everybody does this and I don’t think it’s wrong to go to Mass with your boyfriend or your girlfriend. But, I do think that it’s important to remember

the reason we go to Mass: not to sit with Mr. Perfect or Miss Bakes-So-Well and not to test a vocation with someone, but to receive the true fulfillment of our being, God enfleshed. We go to give ourselves totally to God and our union with the Church is an effect of that. We prevent ourselves from having a proper disposition for receiving Him when we’re distracted, especially when that distraction is more-or-less voluntary. How can we fully partici-pate if we’re busy snuggling up and gig-gling during the homily?

What this boils down to is having pure intentions. A single-minded and sim-ple devotion to God is surely more worth-while to Him than the most beautifully adorned devotion of a person who is giving half his heart. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37). It is a better thing to simply encourage your special someone to attend Mass on his or

Courtshipia Missa

Hail and greetings, drowsy equines of this fine city of Athens (or drowsy students of Franciscan U, whichever)! It seems some-one in the editorial staff here at the Gadfly has let the local gnostic slip his chain one last time for the semester. Since by the time this sees print you will be looking forward to the glorious combat with professorial wits in the arena of examinations and the blessed break beyond, I thought I would bend my closing remarks to attempt a consideration doubtless close to all our hearts (maybe closer than some of us would like to admit) -- Complaining! Specifically, complaining about study, academic rigor, and/or being requested to employ the habits of mind formed in the classroom outside it.

From what this little gnostic has had occasion to hear as he stalks this other-wise fine campus, this complaining can take a variety of forms. Some seemingly typical examples are “My brain hurts,” “Don’t make me think on Saturday!” and “(insert faculty name here) wants us to read ____ pages! No

“To persuade and reproach” “To persuade and reproach” “To persuade and reproach” “To persuade and reproach” - Socrates, The Apology

December 4,

Vol. VII, Iss. VI

~Ye Gnostic of Goodkin

Continued on page 5

1 Unto Grammarians: This title (yea also this very notice) violatest not thine arts. It be but an excess of poesy, inflicted upon me by some vile imbalance of humor.

cles, to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. It is a time of waiting and longing.

When you consider this, it makes perfect sense that we would forget Advent. The entire principle of waiting is contrary to our current mode of being. One of my favor-ite books growing up was the Dr. Seuss clas-sic, Oh, the Places You’ll Go, which doesn’t mince words when speaking of waiting. Seuss says:

You can get so confused

that you’ll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

The poem goes on to talk about how you can, “escape all that waiting and staying,” and I used to think there was great wisdom in those words. However, in the past few years I’ve begun to question my good friend Dr. Seuss. And now, I’m going to go ahead and disagree with him. I think waiting is good. It would appear that God agrees. In Acts, before Pente-cost, what do the disciples do? They waited in the upper room. And prayed. And waited some more. It seems to me, more and more, that waiting is an essential part of maturing. Look at nature – there is always a germina-tion period before birth, a time to prepare the world for the new creature and the creature for the world.

Sure, there are times when waiting is

Staff:

~Mission Statement~

The Gadfly is an attempt to “bite the sleeping horse” in the spirit of Socrates. It is a student publica-tion whose purpose is to facilitate discussion concerning campus and cultural issues as they pertain to

students of Franciscan University. It aims to be a forum for open,

well-thought out, and honest dis-cussion towards the end of knowing and loving truth in its most robust

sense.

Interested in joining our staff?

Email us at

notestothegadfly@gmail.com

Page 2

Advisor:

Dr. John White

Advisor Extraordinaire

A few weeks ago, Adela, my host-mother, com-plained at dinner that the stores were already stocking turrón. This, of course, meant nothing to me, so I asked her to explain. Turrón is a type of candy that is reserved for Christmastime. Adela’s rage was directed at people who think that Christmas starts at the beginning of No-vember.

And really, I feel similarly. People complain an awful lot about how consumerism, materialism, and the culture of tolerance have watered down Christmas, but it seems to me that before we look around to find the source of our tepid Christmas celebrations, we should look within. Maybe we are culpable. After all, if they’re putting turrón in the stores, someone must be buying it.

This all seems related to the loss of Advent in Catholic culture. So to begin my investigation, I asked: what is (was) Advent, anyway? Did you know that Advent (like Lent) is a penitential season? The priest used to vest in black during these four weeks, and marriages weren’t celebrated. Fasting and penance was the order of the day. That seems pretty serious to me. However, the only vestiges of Advent that I have seen recently are the occasional wreath and those chocolate-filled calendars (which just might count as penance, the chocolate is that bad).

What made us forget Advent? What is it supposed to mean? Advent was originally instituted (back in the fifth century) as a time 1) to remember Christ’s coming to earth the first time, 2) to renew our awareness of the presence of Christ on earth right now, and 3) to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ at the end of the world. In these four weeks, it is our task to work to make ourselves more fitting taberna-

QUO VADIS?QUO VADIS?QUO VADIS?QUO VADIS?

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE ADVENT

Ceaseless Shatterer of

bublious Spheroids:

Mike Andreola (MA)

Brian D’Amico (BD)

Emily Davis (ED)

Gary Klump (GK)

Jamie Kropka (JK)

Gillian LaMuro (GL)

Alchemical Epistilary:

Callie Langworthy (CL)

John Mario Levri (JML)

Andy Moe (AM)

Ye Gnostic of Goodkin:

Michael C. Pezzulo (MCP)

Hannah Starre (HS)

High Inquisitor:

Mark Schreck (MS)

Dan Tysz (DT)

Exchequer:

Sarah Bartley (SB)

Lord Chancellor:

Manuel Garcia (MG)

Empress of Eight Pages, Jewel of the Green Pen, and Queen of Journalism, Her Editorship:

Cate Shultis (CS)

** Please note that the views held in the

of the whole staff.

~CS

Dear Readers,

Many thanks for your support this semester! We hope you enjoy our “Ye Auld Gadfly” themed issue. We’ll be back next year– until then, keep biting!

Yours,

A Note From the Editor

Send Us Thine Letters

notestothegadfly@gmail.com

Continued on page 5

Dear Troubadour,

This is JML of the Gadfly. We don’t hate you. In fact, I never understood why people thought that. Okay, my freshmen year the Gadfly tore you apart and was rude, but this is a new Gadfly, so I think we should put that behind us. Really, we’re fans of yours. I can’t believe it either. We love reading articles written by our fellow students and friends. And that is exactly why I want to offer this letter as a peace offering between our two publications. Some of my friends that write or have written for you feel reading, let alone writing to, the Gadfly is dirty or forbidden. I don’t see any reason for this. Let’s love each other. Here’s to the future!

Happy Advent,

Professor Quote

of the Week:

“You’re all sighing like people who are eating caf food. I’m sorry. You must have a really hard time coming to communion with God!”

-Professor Bratten, on the subject of a juicy steak.

With Peace and Good Will for All

Page 3 St. Paul, patron saint of journalists and newspaper staffs, pray for us.

Advertise with Us

Next Semester! Students with:

•personal businesses/ads

•household functions

•clubs

•sports

•school organizations

email for more info:

gadflyfus@gmail.com ~JML

~ED

After reading the last issue of the Gadfly, I felt I had to respond to Scott Santucci’s letter to the editor. Ron Paul is a candidate that has many things going for him. A good portion of his views are excellent and I would be glad to have our next President share them. How-ever his foreign policy is just something I cannot swallow, and something that will prevent me from giving him my vote.

I simply do not agree with the posi-tion of pulling out of Iraq now. The reality is that the Middle East is a very unstable region of the world, and we cannot simply up and leave. The reasons are twofold:

1) America’s security. We cannot pin our hopes on every terrorist and Islamic extremist just ‘staying over there’ and fight-ing it out amongst themselves. 9-11 proved that they will not be content to keep the vio-lence in their backyard, but are all too willing to bring it home to us. We cannot just hope, against the examples of the past, that if we leave them alone they will do likewise. I’m not saying we’re going to get nuked by these people (leave that to Iran), but we adopted this style of ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you’ pre-9/11, and though I could bring up other attacks / attempts as examples, I think what happened on September the 11th says it all.

2) The sake of the Iraqi people. Whether or not you agree with the whys or the hows of the War on Terror, we did remove Iraq’s former system of government. This leaves the Iraqi people in a very vulnerable position. Especially considering where they are. Iraq simply is not in any condition to be able to defend itself yet. In a dog eat dog world, leaving a defenseless Iraq would be like leaving a lone sheep among hungry wolves. Whatever service or disservice you believe we may have done to those people, you cannot deny the fact that leaving Iraq in its present condition would be a terrible mistake.

I want war no more then the next Catholic, and despite where people may agree or disagree on the morality of this war, the fact is that we simply cannot leave Iraq right now. Even setting strict timetables can be flirting with danger. You do not remove abusive par-ents from a child only to leave that child alone on the streets, you have to ensure that child can be taken care of / take care of itself before leaving the situation. We must allow the Iraqi people to become strong enough to stand on their own two feet before leaving, it is the only responsible thing to do.

-Anthony Cerrato

Epistola Editorum

Page 4

Get Thee to A Study Lounge During one of my father’s many Coca-cola runs south of the border, I wandered by myself into a shady cantina and found Ab-bie Hoffman sitting at the bar and nursing a vodka martini which surprised me as I had always figured him for a beer man. As I shyly went up to him with my tattered copy of Steal This Book for him to sign, which in a moment of weakness I had actually paid for, I asked him why of all places was he here. Why not a ganja bar in Amsterdam, I queried, or a coke-den in D.C., instead of a decidedly establishment Mexican cantina? The great anarchist then told me it was not the location of a place or its politics that makes it welcoming, but the general ambi-ence. He then pointed out the decidedly comfy chairs, the toothless leather-skinned patrons who always minded their own busi-ness, and the unmistakable fragrance of camel cigarettes. He opened my eyes and his words of wisdom have stayed with me always, even during my time at Franciscan University. You see, there are many places

that masquerade as “places of study” that simply do not satisfy even the most basic of student needs.

First of all, let’s all laugh over even considering common rooms as a good place to read. That felt good, didn’t it. Now let’s consider that other Mecca of the student body, the J.C. Williams Center. The J.C. has a disturbingly arena-type set up with a circular plain on the bottom floor that is visible to the howling spectators in the loft above. The bottom floor also has an unfortunate lighting situation with natural light beckoning from the windows, artificial light radiating from the bookstore, and har-rowing darkness from the museum or what-ever that thing is back there. This creates a horrible contrast, an unsettling and psycho-logically disturbing situation. The second floor is slightly better, but one alternates from being either blinded by sunlight or seduced into that shady area known as “the pub.” And let’s not even get into the chair situation there, as you have to slap those

wooden receptacles with a harassment suit simply to get out of the blasted things. The library is another popular place simply be-cause it’s there. The chairs are not comfy and the desks too high to rest on comforta-bly without receiving chest bruises. The only thing I think Hoffman would approve of is the flagrant disregard for the “No Food” signs posted everywhere.

Moving on, we shall regard the laughably titled student lounges that always make me feel as if somebody has hidden a body somewhere on the premises, the at-mosphere being always slightly… mellow. The thing is, people go into the lounges only if they don’t have time to go anywhere else or have been rejected by their peers, so the general attitude is similar to a county lock-up sans the happy drunks. Then there is, of course, the language lab with its uncomfort-able library-esque desks and the occupants bellowing in foreign tongues. Always makes me think of Pentecost… Anyway,

would mandate motorists in Thailand to come to a complete stop for the duration of the national anthem when it is played na-tionally two times each day. Many Thais are well-accustomed to giving their respects when the anthem is heard on public loud-speakers at the beginning and end of each workday, but there is no law currently on the books that requires cars to hit the brakes for the 1:08 minute song. Retired General Pricha Rochanasena thought the bill was a good idea to promote patriotism and rea-soned that motorists “already spend more time in traffic jams anyway.”

London, England: Scientists at Bristol University announced the discovery of a pre-historic sea scorpion that measures lar-ger than the average human. The fossilized claw of Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, which

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : A Malaysian of ethnic Indian background is suing the Brit-ish government for $4 trillion. His case: England owes Malaysian Indians $4 trillion for the years they were oppressed under British colonial rule and the economic dis-advantages they still face today. The case also asks for the abolition of the Malaysian constitution and the allocation of British citizenship to Malaysian Indians. Out of the 26 million citizens of Malaysia, two million of them are ethnic Indian. Yet the mostly Hindu group shares only 1.5% of the pre-dominantly Muslim nation’s wealth. The Malaysian government has dismissed the case as absurd, but it has not failed to make headlines around the world as it was offi-cially filed in London’s Royal Courts of Justice.

Bangkok, Thailand: A new bill, if passed,

lived 390 million years ago, measured 18 inches long, making the entire scorpion roughly eight feet in length. Scientists can only speculate why prehistoric anthropods (animals with external skeletons and seg-mented bodies) were so much larger than anthropods today, but some have attributed it to larger prehistoric oxygen levels. “We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realized, until now, just how big some of these an-cient creepy-crawlies were,” said Bristol University researcher Simon Braddy.

Further Yet Beyond thine Hill

~BD

Continued on page 5

year, and wait to eat your turrón until Christmas day.

your backside in a vice and actually on a cushion. So if you see tortured souls there, reading a tattered and autographed copy of Steal This Book, just walk on by, brother. They’ve reached a place of peace.

after reading this article, you really just want to hurt the author—why not go to Mass instead?

Page 5 St. Pancras, protector from perjury, pray for us.

~GL

the real stinger about the language lab is that it is “staffed.” I have always imagined that the Secret Service behave similarly to the language staff, fearing, no, knowing that you idiots are going to do something stupid and that it’s going to get the both of us killed, but this is what I’m paid to do, dang it, so don’t try to make friends, okay, it just makes it harder when the time comes. Slightly fatalistic, I know, but they have their reasons. Also, the staff demand that you actually sign in on paper and that you attest that you are actually taking some sort of language. However, if you desire an atmosphere akin to the birthday of the Church and you want some political experi-ence, the language lab is the place for you. Another option to consider is that big black sofa in the St. Joseph Center, a known place

for canoodlers and business major canood-lers no less. It’s funny that a place with absolutely no privacy and an abundance of Ritz cracker crumbs would attract canood-lers, but I digress. Now, we shall consider the only place on campus that even comes close to study lounge ideals. This is…cue heavenly choir music… Cosmos and Damien. “What?” you exclaim, “the place where they cut up dead cats and discuss body parts?” The one and only, my friends. This place has the comfiest leather chairs, the nicest lighting, and no where else on campus will the faint odor of formaldehyde calm your frazzled nerves. Mind you, one has to fight the nursing students for every inch of space on the sofa, but it is well worth not having

~AM

~ED

founded in indecision, and this is harmful. But there is another, deeper, type of waiting. It is waiting-with-hope. The disciples were waiting for Jesus’ promise to be fulfilled, “I will not leave you orphans” (John 14:18). And just as Christ promised, the Advocate came at Pentecost.

Similarly, during Advent, we are called to await the coming of Christ. We need to wait and pray. We need to feel our emptiness without Christ. We need to long

for a new closeness and intimacy with him. Because the thing is, when Advent is forgot-ten, Christmas loses its meaning. If we were lacking in nothing, why should we cele-brate? Because it’s the 25th of December? Because it’s what we always do?

I propose that a return to Advent will rejuvenate Christmas far more effec-tively than quibbling about wishing people “happy holidays” or complaining about Christmas lights being up in October, so I challenge you to make Advent matter this

her own than to attend with him or her if that means dividing his or her attention between God and yourself.

So let’s get our priorities straight. If you go to Mass, go because you want to receive Jesus. The corollary is: if you go to Mass with your boyfriend/girlfriend, go because you want to receive Jesus. And if

“Courtshipia Missa” continued from page 1

“Quo Vadis...” continued from page 2

“Get Thee to a...” continued from page 4

j|Çx? j|à? tÇw jtzzxÜç

~CS

Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors: Join The Gadfly Today!

NOTESTOTHEGADFLY@GMAIL.COM

J.C. Williams Center Ponder-