Aliens and working at a fevered pitch

What you need to know before reading this: Gwedif is an alien. The narrator is human.

Gwedif pulled up to me as we walked. "I wish we had more time," he said. "This happened with Carl too. Barely time for introductions, and then off to decide the fate of our peoples. If nothing else, we've learned that you humans thrive on crisis."

"Anything worth doing is worth doing at a fevered pitch," I said.

"I don't know about that," Gwedif said. "I think the first place I'll go when I visit your planet—really visit your planet, I mean, not that little trip I took earlier—I think I'll go visit a monastery. Those people seem to have the right idea. Slow meditative spiritual contemplation."

"I think most of the monasteries these days are either making chant CDs or boutique wines," I said.

"Really?" Gwedif said. "Well, hell. What is it with you people?"

John Scalzi, Agent to the Stars

Feast Day: St. Bartholomew, Apostle

Statue of Bartholomew, Pierre Le Gros the Younger.

In St. John's Gospel, Bartholomew is known by the name Nathaniel (the liturgy does not always seem aware of this identity). He hailed from Cana in Galilee, was one of the first disciples called by the Lord. On that initial meeting Jesus uttered the glorious compliment: "Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile!" After the Resurrection he was favored by becoming one of the few apostles who witnessed the appearance of the risen Savior on the sea of Galilee (John 21:2). Following the Ascension he is said to have preached in Greater Armenia and to have been martyred there. While still alive, his skin was torn from his body. The Armenians honor him as the apostle of their nation.

Catholic Culture

I just love Nathaniel who is so straight forward that when Philip tells him to come and see the Messiah, just up and says, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" This is from someone who is from tiny Cana, so little that people argue to this day about where it really was. Just in case we didn't know how tiny and despised Nazareth was.

As Jesus says there truly is no guile in him, because when he mentions the fig tree, Nathaniel bursts out, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." This is the honest soul who is akin to St. Martha, to St. Teresa of Avila, to St. Thomas — speaking truth with a sharp tongue while simultaneously acknowledging God with whole-heartedness. They resonate with me. (Read the whole exchange here. It's good stuff.)

I remember reading a commentary speculating about that Nathaniel was praying something specific under the fig tree, whose branches go down to the ground and provide a nice private spot. This illuminates one of those moments when a simple statement is a piercing truth that speaks to the heart from God ... and yet means nothing to anyone else around.

Notice what he's holding in the sculpture above? That's right, his flayed skin, the source of his martyrdom. Truly he was without guile and where he gave his heart, he followed to the end. Makes the things I suffer and offer up seem very small.

Maiden with a Laurel Wreath

Henry Ryland, Maiden with a Laurel Wreath

This picture was so arresting  that I just had to share it here. There's just something about Henry Ryland's work that grabs me. See more here.

Mary, Queen of Heaven

 

Coronation of Virgin, Giacomo di Mino, 1340-1350

From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.

Ad Caeli Reginam
His Holiness Pope Pius XII
Encyclical on Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary
Promulgated October 11, 1954

I remember the thing that made this feast day come into focus for me was learning about King Solomon's Queen Mother who brought cases before him for special attention. I tell you, typology really helps you get a mental grip on things.

Third Occultation of Saturn by the Moon!

Third Occultation of Saturn by the Moon!, Thierry Legault

Click on the image link to see it much larger.

 I discovered Thierry Legault in a Wall Street Journal article years ago. He very graciously gave me permission to share his wonderful photography here. Click here to enjoy all his images. They are superb.

A Saint for Today: St. Pius X

I never paid much attention to St. Pius X before but once you read about him it becomes blindingly obvious that he is a saint we should be asking for intercession in these modern times.

Pope Pius X working in the Vatican Gardens, 1913

He exercised holy intransigence in keeping the faith pure from doctrinal error. He reformed the Sacred Liturgy and promoted the custom of the frequent reception of Holy Communion. The motto of his Pontificate was Instaurare omnia in Christo [To restore all things in Christ]. He died on August 20, 1914. ...

St. Pius X made the motto of his Pontificate a reality -- to restore all things in Christ -- through his deep concern to stem the tide of the many evils that threatened the faithful. He frequently insisted on the damage ignorance of the Faith produces. He used to say: It is useless to expect a person without formation to fulfill his Christian duties. Time and again he pointed out the need to teach the catechism. From his uneasiness concerning the lack of Christian formation there was produced the Catechism of St. Pius X, which has done so much good in the church. His vehement desire to give doctrine in a world starving for the want of it, is reflected throughout his entire magisterium. ...

Many of the errors St. Pius X fought against are uncritically accepted in our own day. In countries evangelized almost twenty centuries ago great numbers of people are ignorant of the most elementary truths of the Faith. Many are defenseless and with the complicity of their own passions allow themselves to be taken by the erroneous opinions of a few. The call of St. Pius X to conserve and spread good doctrine is still a fully current and vital issue.

In whatever way possible, it is especially urgent to make known the teachings of the Church on the meaning of life, on the end of man and his eternal destiny, on marriage, on generosity in the number of children, on the right and duty of parents to choose the education their children receive, on the social doctrine of the Church, on love for the Pope and his teachings and on the evil of abortion. We should do all we can -- family catechism, the diffusion of good books, daily conversations concerning faith and morals ... Moreover, may we never forget as Pope John Paul II reminds us, that faith is strengthened by sharing it.

In Conversation With God : Feast Days July - December

Also, I've gotta love a defender of the faith who can make quips.

The Pope was renowned for performing miracles. One day his former parishioners went to the Vatican to pay him a visit. With their customary simplicity and confidence, devoid of tact, they asked him: Father Beppo (as they used to call him when he was a parish priest), is it true you can work miracles? And the Pope with simplicity and good humor responded: Look, here in the Vatican, you have to turn your hand to a bit of everything. ...

The Catholic Church and the Mood of the Age

The Catholic Church never suits the particular mood of any age, because it was made for all ages. A Catholic knows that if the Church married the mood of any age in which it lived, it would be a widow in the next age. The mark of the true Church is that it will never get on well with the passing moods of the world. "I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you" – John 15:19.

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Love One Another

Our own time certainly testifies to that truth. As Jesus told us, we shouldn't be expected to be treated any differently than he was. We're reminded frequently enough of that fact but still we're surprised when it happens. At least, I know I am!

Whataburger Trot Thru

Two women getting their food on at a Whataburger in Corpus Christi
appeared in the Corpus Christi Caller newspaper
Via Traces of Texas

Burgers, Texas-style.

Notes on Mark: Gradual Journeys

Sebastiano Ricci, Christ Healing the Blind Man

MARK 8:22-26
Jesus usually healed people instantly. I never stopped to wonder why this might be a more gradual healing. It makes me feel a little better at my lack of understanding sometimes when I think that the disciples had the same need for gradual understanding that I do.

The man's more gradual return to sight reflects the gradual journey of Jesus' disciples from spiritual blindness to spiritual insight. Surely they had seen Jesus perform many signs and wonders. Peter later confessed that Jesus was the Christ (Mark 8:29). Yet, as Jesus began to reveal to them what was going to happen -- that he would suffer and die -- the disciples struggled to comprehend God's plan for redemption. "And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him" (8:32). They still lacked the spiritual acuity to grasp God's plan for the salvation of the world through Jesus.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary
(The Word Among Us)

The gradual healing also has been seen by Church fathers to contain even deeper meaning.

Allegorically (St. Bede, In Marcum), Jesus heals the blind man to announce the mystery of redemption. As God Incarnate, Jesus heals man through the sacrament of his human nature, here signified by his hands and spittle. This grace cures our spiritual blindness gradually, and, as with the blind man, progress is measured in proportion to our faith.

Allegorically (St. Jerome, Homily 79), the restoration of the blind man signifies our gradual increase in wisdom, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of truth. Christ's spittle is the perfect doctrine that proceeds from his mouth; it enhances our vision and brings us progressively to the knowledge of God.

The Gospel Of Mark
(The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

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Sources and Notes Index   

Lost in Africa

Lost in Africa: A Yarn of Adventure. Frederick Horatio Winder

I guess it is a sign of our times that I looked at the fellow in the lower right corner and, just for a second, thought he was on his cell phone.

The Riddle of Fiction

The riddle of fiction comes to this: Evolution is ruthlessly utilitarian. How has the seeming luxury of fiction not been eliminated from human life?

Jonathan Gottschal, The Storytelling Animal

Jonathan Gottschall measures everything against evolution, which is the only measure he really trusts for giving scientific answers about people and story. Therefore, he isn't able to answer some of the questions he poses in his book because some things just can't be measured by science. (It's still an interesting book. You don't have to answer every question all the time.)

That was what made it entertaining when, some time later in his books, he inadvertently answered the above question with the conclusion that I, as a Catholic, already knew.

Why do stories cluster around a few big themes, and why do they hew so closely to problem structure? Why are stories this way instead of all the other ways they could be? I think that problem structure reveals a major function of storytelling. It suggests that the human mind was shaped for story, so that it could be shaped by story.

Jonathan Gottschal, The Storytelling Animal

Yep.

What Happens Next?

What Happens Next? Guglielmo Zocchi (Italian, 1874-1957)

This is just how I feel when I'm talking over a book with someone!

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi

This was Wikipedia's photo of the day recently. It reminded us of the painted churches of Texas. There are many of them, but here are a couple that I featured.

Journey to Reality: Sacramental Life in a Secular Age

As modern people, we also need to come to two realizations. We need to understand the ancient, sacramental perspective, but we can't do that without simultaneously understanding on how our own modern, secular perspective influences our thinking.

... In order to understand to understand sacramental Christianity, we have to encounter the sacraments on their own terms. We have to enter into that life and become a part of it; nothing can substitute for that experience. But in order to do this well, in order to hear what the sacraments are trying to tell us, we must take seriously the possibility that we are more secular than we realize—and understand clearly what that means.

This is a really wonderful book that helps us separate the secular thinking we swim in from the sacramental Christian thinking which helps us understand God and reality. Of course, this deepens our relationship with God. It also gives us the tools to be able to share this with others. Understanding what the ancient Christians' perspective not only changes how we think, it also will help completely secular people have a better understanding of Christianity and God.

Zachary Porcu does this wonderfully with simple examples that are woven throughout the book so that we are building on the meaning and context he puts before us. My mind was blown by the concept of the Arché and ultimate reality. As a devout Catholic, I'm a sacramental Christian so many of the concepts Porcu introduced were familiar. But he put a different spin on my understanding which deepened everything.

Highly recommended and this will be on my Best of 2026 list.