Pine cone? No, pineapple...

While at Sam’s Club today letting my mom use my membership to buy heat-and-eat brisket at prices so good…how good are they?...so good you can’t imagine how good they really are. Anyway, she was trying to repay me for taking time out of my day by offering to buy me things. Everything we passed she tried to entice me with. “Soup? Noodles? Nacho cheese?” “No,” I would say. I had just been to the grocery store three times in three days (forgot some stuff, broke some stuff, long story). But we passed the fruit section I couldn’t help but be taken in by the pineapples. I love pineapples. They had the oversized plastic container of pineapple spears (basically big wedge sections of the good stuff in the pineapple, if you didn’t know) that I knew I couldn’t ignore. I walked away with the magnificence of the pineapple spears and she has enough brisket to feed thirty people. Fair trade, don’t ya’ll think? I have decided then to learn more about the delicious pineapple and to share that knowledge with you. Here we go!

Pineapple (Latin name Ananas comosus) is the common name for an edible tropical plant and also its fruit (although technically multiple fruit merged together, and perceived as one…that’s right, mind blowing). The word “pineapple” in English was first recorded in 1398, when it was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit, they called them pineapples (term first recorded in that sense in 1664) because of their resemblance to what is now known as the pine cone. It is native to Paraguay and the southern part of Brazil (hooray, South America…something good other than dogs and Venezuelan food). Pineapple is eaten fresh or canned and is available as a juice or in juice combinations. It is used in desserts, salads, as a complement to meat dishes and in fruit cocktail (by the way, fruit cocktail with cherries…the bomb). While sweet, it is known for its high acid content (perhaps malic and/or citric). Pineapples are the only bromeliad fruit in widespread cultivation. It is one of the most commercially important plants which carry out CAM photosynthesis (Crassulacean acid metabolism, look it up).

The pineapple is a herbaceous (in botanical use simply herb, is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level) perennial plant which grows to 3.3 to 4.9 ft tall with 30 or more trough-shaped and pointed leaves 1.0 to 3.3 ft long, surrounding a thick stem. The pineapple is an example of a multiple fruit: multiple, helically-arranged flowers along the axis each produce a fleshy fruit that becomes pressed against the fruits of adjacent flowers, forming what appears to be a single fleshy fruit. The fruit of a pineapple are arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number (read a Dan Brown book for explanation, he’s in love with Fibonacci). The leaves of the cultivar (a cultivated variety of a plant) 'Smooth Cayenne' mostly lack spines except at the leaf tip, but the cultivars 'Spanish' and 'Queen' have large spines along the leaf margins. If you’ve seen a picture of a field of pineapple plants it resembles an agave field (if you haven’t seen an agave field, then you aren’t drinking enough).

Pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme bromelain, which breaks down protein. Pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat (it’s a favorite of mine…some people like orange better, but screw you). The enzymes in raw pineapples can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts. The bromelain breaks down in cooking or the canning process, thus canned pineapple can generally be used with gelatin. These enzymes can be hazardous to someone suffering from certain protein deficiencies or disorders, such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (doctor?). Raw pineapples also should not be consumed by those with hemophilia or by those with kidney or liver disease, as it may reduce the time taken to coagulate the consumer's blood. Didn’t realize there were so many health considerations with dealing with pineapple. Wow, glad I’m healthy enough to enjoy them (notice I said healthy enough…exactly). Consumers of pineapple have claimed that pineapple has benefits for some intestinal disorders, and others believe it serves as a pain reliever (it’s true, my knees were killing me right before I had some pineapple and now they are not…could just be because I sat down); still others claim that it helps to induce childbirth when a baby is overdue. Medicinal uses include taking the root and fruit and either eating it or applying it topically as an anti-inflammatory and as a proteolytic agent. It is traditionally used as an antihelminthic (drugs that expel parasitic worms) agent in the Philippines. Pineapple is a good source of manganese (Manganese is an essential trace nutrient in all forms of life), as well as containing significant amounts of vitamin C and vitamin B1.

The natives of southern Brazil and Paraguay spread the pineapple throughout South America, and it eventually reached the Caribbean. Columbus discovered it in the Indies and brought it back with him to Europe. The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines, Hawaii (introduced in the early 19th century, first commercial plantation 1886), Zimbabwe and Guam. The fruit was cultivated successfully in European hothouses, and pineapple pits, beginning in 1720. Commonly grown cultivars include 'Red Spanish', 'Hilo', 'Smooth Cayenne', 'St. Michael', 'Kona Sugarloaf', 'Natal Queen', and 'Pernambuco'. The pineapple was introduced to Hawaii in 1813; exports of canned pineapples began in 1892. Large scale pineapple cultivation by U.S. companies began in the early 1900s on Hawaii. Among the most famous and influential pineapple industrialists was James Dole, who started a pineapple plantation in Hawaii in the year 1900. The companies Dole and Del Monte began growing pineapple on the island of Oahu in 1901 and 1917, respectively. Maui Pineapple Company began pineapple cultivation on the island of Maui in 1909. In 2006, Del Monte announced its withdrawal from pineapple cultivation in Hawaii, leaving only Dole and Maui Pineapple Company in Hawaii as the USA’s largest growers of pineapples. Why is this important? You need to buy American in order to help the economy, so only buy Dole or Maui Pineapple Company pineapples…seriously.

Fresh pineapple is often somewhat expensive as the tropical fruit is delicate and difficult to ship. Pineapples can ripen after harvest, but require certain temperatures for this process to occur. Like bananas, they are chill-sensitive and should not be stored in the refrigerator. They will, however, ripen if left outside of a refrigerator. The ripening of pineapples can be rather difficult as they will not ripen for some time and in a day or two become over-ripe, therefore, pineapples are most widely available canned. Now, as a pineapple purist, I say that fresh is best, but having pineapple on hand and the necessary tools to cut it can be a pain in the butt. Canned or cut and packaged pineapple is still the best fruit ever, so just go with it. That’s pretty much all I have to say. I hope you got as much out of this as I did. If not, I’ll throw another little opinion bone to you…those of you running out to get the new iPhone 4 who are complaining about it being on AT&T (or those of you already possessing an iPhone) maybe you should’ve thought two about buying a phone from a computer company rather than a phone company. I have a Blackberry on AT&T and don’t have any issues at all. That’s my two cents.

Lasers, tombs, and artifacts...kinda like Indiana Jones

I usually only talk about religious stuff on Monday, but I can across an article today and I had to write about it. It appears that even though the Catholic Church shies away from using technology in worship services and, well, most everything else, they have decided that technology is the only way to get an accurate look at the past. That’s right, archeologists (with the support of the Vatican) have uncovered frescoes in a catacomb under Rome that depict the Apostles (icons, anyone?). That’s right, the early Christians depicted not only Christ and Old Testament stories in artwork, but also the Apostles. I won’t get into the rich artistic history of Christianity and Catholicism when it comes to depicting religious figures other than Christ (or the fact that many Protestant religions now look on that practice as idol worship…seriously? Idol worship?). This article just struck me as amazing that a technique has been found to uncover lost art without fear of damaging the art itself. It can be used in the future not only for religious artwork, but for any kind of art that needs to be shown to the people.

Twenty-first century laser technology has opened a window into the early days of the Catholic Church, guiding researchers through the dank, musty catacombs beneath Rome to a startling find: the first known icons of the apostles Peter and Paul. Vatican officials unveiled the paintings Tuesday, discovered along with the earliest known images of the apostles John and Andrew in an underground burial chamber beneath an office building on a busy street in a working-class Rome neighborhood. The images, which date from the second half of the 4th century, were uncovered using a new laser technique that allows restorers to burn off centuries of thick white calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the brilliant dark colors of the paintings underneath.

The technique could revolutionize the way restoration work is carried out in the miles of catacombs that burrow under the Eternal City where early Christians buried their dead. The icons were discovered on the ceiling of a tomb of an aristocratic Roman woman at the Santa Tecla catacomb, near where the remains of the apostle Paul are said to be buried. Rome has dozens of such burial chambers and they are a major tourist attraction, giving visitors a peek into the traditions of the early church when Christians were often persecuted for their beliefs. Early Christians dug the catacombs outside Rome's walls as underground cemeteries; since burial was forbidden inside the city walls and pagan Romans were usually cremated. The art that decorated Rome's catacombs was often simplistic and symbolic in nature. The Santa Tecla catacombs, however, represent some of the earliest evidence of devotion to the apostles in early Christianity, Vatican officials said.

Last June, the Vatican announced the discovery of the icon of Paul at Santa Tecla, timing the news to coincide with the end of the Vatican's year of St. Paul. On Tuesday, Vatican archaeologists announced the image of Paul was not found in isolation, but was part of a square ceiling painting that also included icons of three other apostles, Peter, John and Andrew, surrounding an image of Christ as the Good Shepherd. The catacombs’ walls and ceilings are covered with paintings of scenes from the Old Testament, including Daniel in the lion's den and Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. But the gem is on the ceiling, where the four apostles are painted inside gold-rimmed circles against a red-ochre backdrop. The ceiling is also decorated with geometric designs.

There were earlier known images of Peter and Paul, but these were depicted in narratives. The images in the catacomb, with their faces in isolation, encircled with gold and affixed to the four corners of the ceiling painting, are devotional in nature and as such represent the first known icons. In addition, the images of Andrew and John show much younger faces than are normally depicted in the Byzantine-inspired imagery most often associated with the apostles.

The Vatican's Sacred Archaeology office oversaw the two-year $73,650 project, which for the first time used lasers to restore frescoes in catacombs, where the damp air makes the procedure particularly difficult. In this case, the small burial chamber at the end of the catacomb was encased in up to two inches of calcium carbonate. Restoration using previous techniques would have meant scraping away the buildup by hand, leaving a filmy layer on top so as not to damage the painting underneath. Using the laser technique, restorers were able to sear off all the deposits by setting the laser to burn only on the white of the calcium carbonate; the laser's heat stopped when it reached a different color. Researchers then easily chipped off the seared material, revealing the brilliant ochre, black, green and yellow underneath. Similar technology has been used on statues, particularly metallic ones damaged by years of outdoor pollution, she said. However, the Santa Tecla restoration marked the first time lasers had been adapted for use in the dank interiors of catacombs.

Most catacombs in Rome are open to the public, but the Santa Tecla catacomb will only be open on a permission basis to protect the artwork until it can be studied further. I have to say, whatever tour group is going to get a chance to see this place I want to be on it. Seeing Italy and Rome in particular, is on the list of things I want to get done before I die. Not just for all the religious sites and architecture, but also because I hear Italian women are hot (and they like the suave American who can offer them a new life and a green card). So, that’s it…pretty cool stuff isn’t it?

Millions of voices, united in prayer, throughout the world

As a part of my spiritual renewal over the past few months I have taken to performing the Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours before I go to bed. As I was praying last night, I realized that not many people know about this cornerstone of Catholic prayer. So, I decided I’d let you know what the deal is. Liturgy of the Hours / Divine Office / Breviary…all three names refer to the same reality, the official prayer of the Church offered at various times of the day in order to sanctify it. Clergy and religious have a canonical obligation to pray the Liturgy of the Hours as official representatives of the Church. Increasingly, the laity (such as myself) are also praying it, though they do not do so in the name of the Church.

The Liturgy of the Hours is further proof of the Catholic Church's deep Jewish roots. Formerly more commonly known as the "Divine Office" or "breviary," these prayers have a long and venerable history that stretches back to apostolic times. The Divine Office owes its remote origin to the inspiration of the Old Covenant. God commanded the Aaronic priests (c.1280 BC) to offer a morning and evening sacrifice (Ex. 29:38-29). During the Babylonian Exile (587-521 BC), when the Temple did not exist, the synagogue services of Torah readings and psalms and hymns developed as a substitute for the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, a sacrifice of praise. The inspiration to do this may have been fulfillment of David's words, "Seven times a day I praise you" (Ps. 119:164), as well as, "the just man mediates on the law day and night" (Ps. 1:2).

After the people returned to Judea, and the Temple was re-built, the prayer services developed in Babylon for the local assemblies (synagogues) of the people were brought into Temple use, as well. We know that in addition to Morning and Evening Prayer to accompany the sacrifices, there was prayer at the Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours of the day. The Acts of the Apostles notes that Christians continued to pray at these hours. Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles, was at the third hour (Acts 2:15). Peter prayed on the housetop at the sixth hour (Acts 10:9). And Peter and John went to the Temple to pray at the ninth hour (Acts 3:1). And, although the Apostles no longer shared in the Temple sacrifices, they had its fulfillment in the "breaking of the bread" (the Eucharist).

Monastic and eremitical (hermit) practice as it developed in the early Church recognized in the Psalms the perfect form of prayer and did not try to improve upon it. The practices were quite individual from monastery to monastery. At first some tried to do the entire Psalter (150 Psalms) each day, but eventually that was abandoned for a weekly cycle built around certain hours of the day. Among the earliest Psalter cycles of which we have a record is the division given by St. Benedict with canonical hours of Lauds (Morning Prayer) offered at sunrise, Prime (1st hour of the day), Terce (3rd hour, or Mid-morning), Sext (6th hour or Midday), None (9th hour or Mid-Afternoon), Vespers (Evening Prayer) offered at sunset, and Compline (Night Prayer) before going to bed. In addition, the monks arose to read and pray during the Night. This Office of Matins (Readings) likewise had its divisions, into nocturnes, corresponding to the beginning of each of the "watches of the night" (Ps. 63:6), that is, 9 pm, midnight and 3 am. With the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the traditional one-week Psalter cycle became a four-week cycle.

The history of the early Church's prayer times is difficult to follow after the first century, largely due to the periodic destruction of documents during persecutions. By the fourth century, however, under the Roman emperor Constantine (d. 337), practices of the faith—including communal daily prayers—became legal and, because of that, public. The persecution of Christians had ended, and the faithful found themselves free to gather without fear around their bishop for what became known as the "cathedral office." Since lay people had daily work and families to care for, the cathedral office was by necessity brief, consisting of perhaps a psalm, antiphon (short verse from a psalm or sentence from the Bible), Scripture reading, homily and intercessions.

Over time, the cathedral office as a communal liturgical celebration died out in the Western Church. Monasteries in urban centers became closer to the dominant influence on liturgical development, and the office consequently became the long, complex monastic office. It was seen more and more as the exclusive duty of priests and Religious, and among the former was not usually prayed in common. The increased demands of clerics in the Middle Ages made the need for a shorter, reformed office evident. In monasteries, it was common for monks to use a number of large books for the Divine Office. They might have a psalter (book of psalms), another book for antiphons, a Bible, a hymn book and yet another volume containing the non-scriptural readings required. This worked fine for clerics who lived and prayed in one location, but the newer, more mobile clerics, such as the Franciscans, needed to travel light. (St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans, died in 1226.) For them the Vatican devised a condensed version of the office. Its name, breviary, comes from the Latin word for "abbreviated." The Franciscans spread the use of the breviary throughout Europe and beyond.

The reform of the Liturgy of the Hours has been ongoing since the 1500s, with Pope Pius X utilizing the liturgical-renewal movement, and the Second Vatican Council eventually revising and streamlining the office, resulting in a simpler, more flexible liturgy. Since the council, the Church has reaffirmed the public, communal nature of the Liturgy of the Hours as the prayer of the entire Church and has underlined the need for lay participation in it. In fact, since the revision of the Divine Office after Vatican II, lay people have been encouraged to participate in the Liturgy of the Hours, either with the priest, among themselves or even individually. When they do, they join with the entire Church throughout the world in its common prayer, sanctifying the day and night, giving praise and worship to God in a rich and beautiful tradition of our Catholic heritage.

Example of Sunday Night Prayer for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introduction

God, come to my assistance.

Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.

Amen. Alleluia.

This is an excellent moment for an examination of conscience. In a communal celebration of Compline, one of the penitential acts given in the Missal may be recited.

Hymn

Psalm 90 (91) The protection of the Most High

Night holds no terrors for me sleeping under God’s wings.

He who lives under the protection of the Most High

dwells under the shade of the Almighty.

He will say to the Lord:

“You are my shelter and my strength,

my God, in whom I trust.”

For he will free you from the hunter’s snare,

from the voice of the slanderer.

He will shade you with his wings,

you will hide underneath his wings.

You will not fear the terror of the night,

nor the arrow that flies by day;

nor the plague that walks in the shadows,

nor the death that lays waste at noon.

A thousand will fall at your side,

at your right hand ten thousand will fall,

but you it will never come near.

His faithfulness will be your armour and your shield.

You will look with your eyes

and see the reward of sinners.

For the Lord is your shelter and refuge;

you have made the Most High your dwelling-place.

Evil will not reach you,

harm cannot approach your tent;

for he has set his angels to guard you

and keep you safe in all your ways.

They will carry you in their arms

in case you hurt your foot on a stone.

You walk on the viper and cobra,

you will tread on the lion and the serpent.

Because he clung to me, I shall free him:

I shall lift him up because he knows my name.

He will call upon me and for my part, I will hear him:

I am with him in his time of trouble.

I shall rescue him and lead him to glory.

I shall fill him with length of days

and show him my salvation.

He will shade you with his wings; you will not fear the terror of the night.

Reading

Revelation 22:4-5

They will see the Lord face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. It will never be night again and they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them. They will reign for ever and ever.

Short Responsory

Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

You have redeemed us, Lord, God of faithfulness.

– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

Canticle

Protect us Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace.

Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace.

You have fulfilled your promise.

My own eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples.

A light to bring the Gentiles from darkness;

the glory of your people Israel.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Protect us Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace.

Let us pray.

Today we have celebrated the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection, and so now we humbly ask you, Lord, that we may rest in your peace, far from all harm, and rise rejoicing and giving praise to you.

Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

May the almighty Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.

AMEN

Hail, Holy Queen

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve, to thee do we send
up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;

O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God

That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.