On the road again — back July 6!

Back July 6! 

My husband and I are taking a road trip through Utah. We're going to Zion National Park, Brice Canyon and eventually we'll loop around through Denver.

However, the real reason we're doing this is that my longtime podcasting partner Scott and I have never met — NOW is the itme! We've done the podcast for 16 years. Surely it's time for a couple of face to face recordings at the very least. I'm super excited about this. 

Also, I love road trips together where we have so much time that our thoughts and conversation range much further afield than is ever possible during everyday life.

A few regular posts will show up here for saints' days and suchlike. Comments will be closed while I'm gone. 

I'm going off the grid for a really old fashioned sort of vacation. No phone!

I'll be back online July 6!

Our capacity for patience

The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.

John Piper

Amen, amen. My growing ability to do this has made a huge difference in daily life.

Cornflower, National flower of Estonia

Cornflower, National Flower of Estonia, taken by Remo Savisaar

How a gentleman shouldn't go to the devil

Flambeau had known Quinton in wild student days in Paris, and they had renewed the acquaintance for a week-end; but apart from Flambeau’s more responsible developments of late, he did not get on well with the poet now; choking oneself with opium and writing little erotic verses on vellum was not his notion of how a gentleman should go to the devil.

G.K. Chesterton, The Wrong Shape

Chesterton is just so darned funny. And this is just a toss off line in a Father Brown mystery.

Vacation Book Sorting Has Begun

First run

I have begun book sorting — how is it possible to go on vacation without the right combination of books? Answer — it isn't. We're leaving Monday but it's never too soon to consider the options.

My Kindle helps a little. Nevertheless actual, hold in the hand, printed books are necessary. BUT WHICH ONES?!?!?!?!?!?!

It's a delightful problem to have.

(This isn't counting audiobooks — we're taking a road trip so that offers more chances to sort books! What will Tom enjoy?)

Notes on Mark: When the King Comes Into His Own

manuscript Minuscule 544 with text of Mark 8:31–38

MARK 8:38-9:1
I really always think of Jesus as being confident, especially when he is speaking to his disciples. However, I never really associated it with what Barclay speaks of here ... the seemingly insurmountable odds against success.

One thing leaps out of this passage -- the confidence of Jesus. He has just been speaking of his death; he has no doubt that the Cross stands ahead of him; but nonetheless he is absolutely sure that in the end there will be triumph...

The last part of the passage has caused much serious thought. Jesus says that many who are standing there will not die until they see the Kingdom coming with power. What worries some people is that they take this as a reference to the Second Coming; but if it is, Jesus was mistaken, because he did not return in power and glory in the lifetime of those who were there.

But this is not a reference to the Second Coming at all. Consider the situation. At the moment Jesus had only once been outside Palestine, and on that occasion he was just over the border in Tyre and Sidon. Only a very few men in a very small country had ever heard of him. Palestine was only about 120 miles from north to south and about 40 miles from east to west; her total population was 4,000,000 or thereby. To speak in terms of world conquest when he had scarcely ever been outside such a small country was strange. To make matters worse, even in that small country, he had so provoked the enmity of the orthodox leaders and of those in whose hands lay power, that it was quite certain that he could hope for nothing other than death as a heretic and an outlaw. In face of a situation like that there must have been many who felt despairingly that Christianity had no possible future, that in a short time it would be wiped out completely and eliminated from the world. Humanly speaking, these pessimists were right.

Now consider what did happen. Scarcely more than thirty years later, Christianity had swept through Asia Minor; Antioch had become a great Christian church. It had penetrated to Egypt; the Christians were strong in Alexandria. It had crossed the sea and come to Rome and swept through Greece. Christianity had spread like an unstoppable tide throughout the world. It was astonishingly true that in the lifetime of many there, against all expectations, Christianity had come with power. So far from being mistaken, Jesus was absolutely right.

The amazing thing is that Jesus never knew despair. In face of the dullness of the minds of men, in the face of the opposition, in face of crucifixion and of death, he never doubted his final triumph -- because he never doubted God. He was always certain that what is impossible with man is completely possible with him.

The Gospel of Mark
(The Daily Bible Series, rev. ed.)

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index 

Fairytale of the Tsar Saltan

Illustration for Alexander Pushkin's 'Fairytale of the Tsar Saltan,' Ivan Bilibin

Hell Spawn by Declan Finn

My name is Officer Thomas Nolan, and I am a saint. I can smell evil. I show mercy to the lesser criminals - the desperate. Even those I’ve put behind bars seem to like me. But now there’s a serial killer bringing darkness beyond imagination to my city. I can smell his stench a mile away. But how can I prove it? How do you do forensics on a killer possessed by a demon?

This is an action thriller in the style of the Dungeon Crawler Carl and Joe Ledger series. Straight forward and no fancy writing while blending honorable intentions with graphic violence usually against monsters. The good are very good and the evil are very evil. They can often be heavy handed. They're not the kind of book you brag about reading like you do Dickens, but you can't stop because they're like popcorn. This one is a Catholic action horror novel.

In this series, Detective Tom Nolan discovers that he can bilocate, smell evil, and is open enough to God's grace to becoming a saint. A saintly warrior, in fact, who is trying to stop a demon-possessed serial killer who has targeted his family and friends. He becomes a Catholic army of one battling the legions of Hell.

The Saint Tommy series is one that will appeal to a very specific audience. Catholic. Especially Catholics who believe in what the Church teaches 100%. So that means conservative Catholics. Lucky for me, I'm one of that crowd! I don't think you have to be Catholic to enjoy it but it will certainly help get some of the jokes.

When Detective Nolan discovers he wasn't killed because a pyx stopped the bullet, you give a little chuckle. When he wants an educated priest and goes to his pal Father Freeman because he's a Dominican (and specifically not a Jesuit), there's that chuckle again.

This story surprised me because the horrific way a serial killer is treating the victims' bodies points back to something that is hidden from the general public in many ways. And which they might not think of as being horrific in the original usage, depending on their political and moral stances. It was a clever way to bring a pointed message home.

The fight sequences are over the top and get increasingly long as the book goes on. However, I really enjoyed the way the Rikers fight action was interspersed with lines of the rite of exorcism. This gave extra meaning to the point and power of those prayers. I have gone on to read more of the series and this often is done with lines of psalms in those books. It gives me a sense of what the psalmist had experienced and was expressing in a way that made the lines very vivid.

Also, I was impressed by Nolan's continual insistence that he is achieving nothing on his own, that he is doing God's will and only by God's grace will anything be accomplished. That also resonated.

I don't care for the way that political broad brushes are applied to certain groups. This becomes even more pointed as the series continues. But I've put up with a number of other series applying similar broad brushes in the other direction so, as I've done with those, I shrug it off and go on.

Surprisingly, this book stuck with me in a way that has affected my faith life as I mentioned above. It's not bad to have that as the takeaway!

Julie wants to ride on top of the stagecoach. Scott wants to stay inside to talk with the nice man about how to be an hombre.

 Join us for Episode 381: Hombre (1967) starring Paul Newman.

Women Preparing Silk

Women preparing silk, Emperor Huizong

Is Burglary a Sport, a Trade or an Art

It is a moot point whether burglary is to be considered as a sport, a trade, or an art.

For trade, technique is scarcely rigid enough, and its claims to be considered an art are vitiated by the mercenary element that qualifies its triumphs. On the whole it seems to be most justly ranked as a sport, a sport for which no rules are at present formulated, and of which the prizes are distributed in an extremely informal manner.

H.G. Wells, The Hammerpond Park Burglary

I don't think of H.G. Wells as being funny so this was a delightful surprise.

I don't like soccer but have discovered that I am enjoying the FIFA coverage

I don't actually care about FIFA but have really been enjoying watching all the stories with people having so much fun — both discovering America and Americans bonding over watch parties. What better way to lead us into our 250th anniversary? 

This video reel gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

How and why to cook

'Now, just one more question, Mrs. Appleyard,' the Editor said, hoping she would break another cookie. 'I've heard it said that a well-known painter when asked what he mixed his paints with, said "With brains." Now do you feel that--to sum up what you've told me--people should cook with brains? May I quote you?'

Mrs. Appleyard put another batch of cookies into the oven.

'Brains are not enough,' she said. 'You have to like things: the dishes you cook with, the people you buy the butter from, the field where the crows fly over the corn and the wind that blows through their wings. You have to like the table you put the food on, and the people who sit around it. Yes, even when they tip back in your Hitchcock chairs, you have to like them. You don't just like how the food tastes--you like how it looks and smells and how the egg beater sounds. You like the rhythm of chopping and the throb of the teakettle lid. You like to test the frying pan with water and see it run around like quicksilver. You like the shadow in pewter and the soft gleam of silver and the sharp flash of glass. You like the feel of damask napkins and the shadows of flowers on a white cloth. You like people eating in their best clothes in candlelight, and in their dungarees on a beach in the broiling sun, or under a pine tree in the rain.

'You like the last moment before a meal is served when the hollandaise thickens, the steak comes sputtering out of the broiler, the cream is cooked into the potatoes and the last drop of water is cooked out of the peas.' Here she was silent long enough to take the correctly lacy and golden cookies off the pan. 'Not with brains,' she repeated, putting down the spatula. 'With love.'

Louise Andrews Kent, Mrs. Appleyard's Cookbook

A book I love to read over and over. There are recipes — which are fun enough on their own to read — but there are also wonderful pieces like this.

A Gift

A Gift, taken by the amazing Remo Savisaar

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

In the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Savior's Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church should celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is not a new devotion. In the seventeenth century, St. John Eudes preached it together with that of the Sacred Heart; in the nineteenth century, Pius VII and Pius IX allowed several churches to celebrate a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. Pius XII instituted today's feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession "peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue" (Decree of May 4, 1944).

Catholic Culture

As always you'll find a lot more information, prayers, and activities at Catholic Culture.

I particularly like this reflection which reminds me of why Mary was not only the first and best of Jesus' disciples, but why I should ask her for help in my own Christian journey.

The Preface of the Mass attributes a number of qualities to the Heart of Mary. It is wise, because she understood the meaning of the Scriptures as no other person had ever done, and she kept in it the memory of the words and things relating to the mystery of salvation. It is immaculate, that is, immune from any stain of sin. It is docile because she submitted so faithfully to God's will and to every one of his wishes. It is new, according to the ancient prophecy of Ezechiel  -- a new heart I will give you, and a new spirit -- clothed in the newness of grace merited by Christ. It is humble because she imitated the humility of Christ, who said Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart. It is simple, free from any duplicity and full of the Spirit of truth. It is clean and thus able to see God according to the words of the Beatitude. It is firm in her acceptance of the Will of God when Simeon announced to her that a sword of sorrow would pierce her heart, when persecution broke out aginst her Son or when the moment of his death was at hand. It is ready, for whilst Christ slept in the sepulcher she kept watch in the expectation of his resurrection, just like the spouse in the Canticle of Canticles.

As we consider the splendor and holiness of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we can examine today the depths of our own soul: whether we are open and docile to the graces and inspirations of the Holy Spirit, whether we jealously guard our heart from anything that could separate it form God, whether we pull up by the roots our little feelings of resentment, of envy ... which tend to bed themselves down within it. We know that from our heart's richness or its poverty our words and deeds will speak. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good things. (Matt. 12:35)

In Conversation with God, Vol. 6: Special Feasts: January to June

The Immaculate Heart, Józef Mehoffer