Aquilina and Tolkien on the Creation of the Universe

Two of my favorite authors ... together! Mike Aquilina looks at the answer to a question about J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion.

I was a teenager when The Silmarillion appeared in print. I wasn’t much of a reader at the time, but a friend of mine, Ron, was fanatically invested in Middle-Earth. His copy of the book, not yet a week old, was already worn and its cover creased.

Ron was a big guy, and he’d already spent time in juvenile detention. So I complied when he insisted that I sit down, shut up, and listen as he read the entire creation account aloud. He read with more passion than I could muster for anything but food and baseball.

The moment stayed with me. The narrative stayed with me. I remembered my friend’s declamation when, just this year, a reader, deeply moved by the same passage, posted a question in an online forum for Tolkien fans. He asked if Tolkien’s work had been based on any “real creation myths.”

Mike Aquilina, Chord of the Rings

Of course the answer is yes. But it goes deeper than I'd realized. Read it all. Via Brandon Vogt.

Worth a Thousand Words: Winter Plum Blossom and Mountain Birds

Emperor Huizong of Song (1082–1135), Winter Plum Blossom and Mountain Birds

Well Said: Our Favorite Quotations

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting.

John Green

Well, of course!

Prayers for the French Victims

I can find no words to express the shock and sorrow of these continual attacks by barbarians upon innocent people. In this case, we grieve for the lost, the wounded, the families and friends and innocent bystanders who suffer.

I pray for them and I pray for those lost souls who do evil's work.

Lord have mercy upon us and on the whole world.

Well Said: Truth and Memory

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Mark Twain

Yes, it's not only the right thing to do but the simplest and easiest thing to do.

Worth a Thousand Words: Umbrellas

Umbrellas
taken by Will Duquette

Worth a Thousand Words: Victory

Victory. Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (French, 1845-1902)
via Books and Art

Well Said: Talking About and To the Poor

Today it is very fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately it is very unfashionable to talk with them.”

Brandon Vogt, Saints and Social Justice

It's as if he summed up The Lady in the Van. Which is an excellent mirror for us.

Failing all the way to sainthood

However, can we truly call any of our disappointments real, absolute failures? Something may look bad in the moment, and the future may seem bleak to us, but what does God think of it? As always, he is in control and knows how to turn a failure into the greatest blessing of a person’s life.

Take for example the lives of Louis and Zélie Martin.

Get the whole picture here.

This inevitably reminds me of Isaiah 55:8-9.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.…

If we just keep on trying, adjusting as we go and accepting that we don't know everything, there's hope for all of us!

Worth a Thousand Words: Big Catch!

Big Catch!
taken by Remo Savisaar

Well Said: Imaginative literature and our reactions

Who has not caught some odd resemblance in an ink blot — to a tree, or a lizard, or a map of Florida? A Swiss psychologist has devised a personality test based on the "reading" of especially receptive ink blots prepared in advance. You tell what you see int he blots and unconsciously you expose your innermost self. The psychologist need not have taken all that trouble. The supreme imaginative literature of the world is a survival of the fittest ink blots of the ages, and nothing reveals a man with more precision than his reaction to it.

Harold Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vol. 1

Worth a Thousand Words: Three Bowls

Three Bowls by Duane Keiser

Genesis Notes: What the Bible Says About Marriage

Jacopo Amigoni, Jacob and Rachel

Right after studying Adam and Eve seems like a good place to take a look at marriage in the Bible. I like the way that the Life Application Bible breaks the subject out and cross references all the things that Scripture teaches us that a good and holy marriage should be. For one thing, I know I never would have gone looking in Malachi for info on marriage!

• Genesis 2:18-24 — Marriage is a good idea
• Genesis 24:58-60 — Commitment is essential to a successful marriage
• Song of Songs 4:9, 10 — Romance is important
• Malachi 2:14-15 — Marriage creates the best environment for raising children
• Matthew 5:32 — Unfaithfulness breaks the bond of trust, the foundation of all relationships
• Matthew 19:6 — Marriage is permanent
• Romans 7:2, 3 — Ideally, only death should dissolve marriage
• Ephesians 5:21-33 — Marriage is based on the principled practice of love, not on feelings
• Ephesians 5:23, 32 — Marriage is a living symbol of Christ and the church
• Hebrews 13:4 — Marriage is good and honorable

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: We want the definite ...

To our age anything Delphic is anathema. We want the definite. As certainly as ours is a time of the expert and the technician, we are living under a dynasty of the intellect, and the aim of the intellect is not to wonder and love and grow wise about life, but to control it.

Harold Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vol. 1

Prayers and Support for Dallas Police Officers Killed and Wounded

12 police officers were shot and five were killed in an attack by snipers in downtown Dallas at a peaceful protest of officer-involved shootings across the country on Thursday night.

Two civilians were also shot during the attack.

NBC News

Our hearts are broken right now. Nothing I can say adequately conveys the mixture of feelings that come from seeing flags at half mast at police substations. We're headed there later today to take flowers as a sign of our support and grief.

"We're hurting ..."

"We don't feel much support most days," [Police Chief] Brown said. "Let's not make today most days. Please, we need your support to protect you from men like these, who carried out this tragic, tragic event."

NPR

As always, what we can do, wherever we are, is to pray.

The City of Dallas is having an interfaith prayer vigil at noon today at Thanksgiving Square. They are encouraging us to join them in prayer in our churches or wherever we are. My parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, is having a noon service if you happen to be nearby.

In the meantime, we don't have to wait until noon to pray for those who were attacked and for their families.

And most especially for the souls of those who were killed.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.

Amen.

And, while we are at it, we must remember to pray for those who committed these crimes. Clearly they need prayers.

Well Said: Feelings and doing right

You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.

Pearl S. Buck

Worth a Thousand Words: Louis & Lola?

Louis & Lola ?-- TITANIC survivors, [1912 April]
Library of Congress on Flickr

Well Said: Men of the ages and the unconscious mind

Only very ingenious persons will think that the wise men of the ages did not know of the existence of the unconscious mind because they did not call it by that name or formulate its activities in twentieth-century terms.

Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vol. 1

Genesis Notes: Masculine Genius and Feminine Genius

Adam and Eve after Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c.1818), Johann Anton Ramboux

You know, you read commentaries and studies and you think that you've picked all the meaning out of Adam and Eve in the Bible ... and then something completely new comes along and knocks you off your feet.

I'd heard the phrase "feminine genius" before but had never really thought about it Certainly I wasn't aware it came from John Paul II's 1988 Apostolic Letter On the Dignity and Vocation of Women. Then recently a friend gave me a copy of a piece exploring the masculine genius (and the feminine too, never fear) based on what we can see in the text of chapter 2 of Genesis.

I've rarely seen something that so well illustrated men's and women's true nature and their complementarity. It is so insightful.

... But in the first instance, man is surrounded by the “things” God has made - and then tasked with naming all the creatures God brings him as they search for a suitable partner for him. It is in naming them that he takes dominion over them. ... It is here that we find the source and proper context of man’s well documented (and often ridiculed) natural tendency to attend to things. It is found in the Scriptural account of the first man. And it is his special genius.

Even more revealing, it is man who, at Genesis 2:15, is put in the garden to “till it,” well before the fall puts him at odds with creation. This is his work. And his knowledge of “things” serves him well as he goes about his work there.

Thus to this genius, we can credit the survival of the human species, the building up of civilizations, and the preservation of families throughout the history of mankind. The radical feminist movement would have you believe otherwise, but the truth is, if it weren’t for men, we would still be living in grass huts. ...

But this should not be taken to mean that man is oriented only toward things. When the woman is brought to him, though he also names her, he knows immediately that she is not an object; she is a person. For upon encountering her, he says “This at last is bones of my bones, flesh of my flesh.” Through his encounter with the woman, the Lord God reveals to him the nature of the reciprocal relationship of the gift of self. ...

A brief word concerning the source of the feminine genius is necessary here ... it is found when we recognize that woman’s first contact with reality is of a horizon that, from the beginning, includes man, that is, it includes persons. Upon seeing Adam, Eve recognizes another like her, an equal, while the other creatures and things around her appear only on the periphery of her gaze. Thus, in addition to her capacity to conceive and nurture human life, indeed prior to it, woman’s place in the order of creation reveals that, from the beginning, the horizon of all womankind includes persons, includes the other. The genius of woman is found here. While man’s first experience of his own existence is of loneliness, woman’s horizon is different, right from the start. From the first moment of her own reality, woman sees herself in relation to the other. ...

Dr. Deborah Savage, The Masculine Genius

This is just a bit. Be sure to click through on the link for the whole piece.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Lagniappe: Words in Mouths

Did you know that writing stories down kills them?

Of course it does. Words weren't meant to be stiff unchanging things. ... Many, many generations ago, before pictorals and numeratics and hieratics, words were kept where they belong, in mouths.

N.K. Jemisin, Killing Moon

Interesting idea, isn't it? It's from a fascinating book which I'm only partway through.

4th of July in Dallas 2016

More specifically, in the Lakewood neighborhood we live near. This is how you do 4th of July!

I felt silly but it brought a tear to my eye at one point because this was such a pure expression of loving our country as compared to all the dreck from politics lately... we heard Born in the USA from a lot of floats.

The theme was Lakewood Dreams Big ... which some ignored in favor of patriotism and which some did in very big, over the (big) top style.

Worth a Thousand Words: Golden Sunrise

Golden Sunrise
taken by Remo Savisaar

Well Said: Always Try Again

After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

What We've Been Watching: Theeb, Cinderella, 13 Hours, Joyeux Noel, Kingsman

Theeb

★★★★
In the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, a young Bedouin boy tags along behind his older brother on a perilous desert journey.

Simple storytelling, that nevertheless works, in this tale which was dubbed an Arab Western by some film critics. The actors are all genuine Bedouin tribesmen and it was shot in gorgeous Jordanian surroundings. It's not all action and you have to let yourself move at the pace of the tribesmen but it works. If I had boys who'd read captions, I'd corral them to watch this.

Cinderella

★★★★★
Kenneth Branagh's live-action Cinderella. Sumptuous, gorgeous, thoughtfully told, with surprising depth, charm, and a dash of humor. Perfect!

I was especially impressed with the moral underpinning and the way the evil stepmother's story subtly intertwines with Cinderella's by the end. Never has one had a better example of the reason to "have courage and be kind." This is so simple but so all encompassing that I've found it echoing through my head as I face difficult situations in my own life. I didn't expect to be motivated by Cinderella but that is the power of this telling of the classic fairytale.

Joyeux Noël 

★★★½
About the World War I Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish and German soldiers. Quite well done with characterizations that help flesh out the details of the Christmas Peace ... as well as the problems that resulted. I found adding the woman to the mix was distracting and annoying (much like the German commander did, in fact!). However, it would make a terrific Christmas movie for those who don't mind reading captions, since it is done in the three authentic languages (the Scots almost require captions since their accent is so broad).

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

★★★★★
No one was more surprised than we were to really like this movie. At its most basic it is a war movie about the real-life events in the overrunning of the Benghazi US embassy and the attack on the CIA annex. We follow the security team as they struggle to get the Americans out.

Super intense, but did a terrific job of putting the viewer in the "fog of war," as so many others have observed. I was also impressed (and relieved) that we were spared the up close gore of many modern movies. A study in frustration at how much went wrong but also a look at warriors in action.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

★★★½
A light feeling spy movie that made me think of the Roger Moore days in the James Bond franchise. I also liked that the violence was not gory or shown close-up, though it can't be denied that there was an awful lot of violence.

The predictable plot has a troubled kid recruited by Colin Firth for a super-secret spy organization. He goes through training. Firth uncovers a villainous plan to destroy the world.

Well, actually it is a villainous plan to save the world. Go figure. And that was the least of the subversive surprises. I didn't expect Kingsman to take on know-it-all environmentalists, churches preaching hate, obsession with technology, consumer culture, and the glorification of killing.

I was stunned to see the pro-human, pro-life underpinning to this fun spy thriller. It's rated R for good reason. There's violence, language, and a really offensive sexual reference. This movie isn't for everyone. In fact, I'm not sure it really was for me. Nonetheless, it was heartening to find that there's something very worthwhile in Kingsman.

Genesis Notes: Eve's Resume

Eva from the Brautpforte (Rathaus Hamburg), Jacob Ungerer

We don't know many details about Eve but she was a key player in the beginning of Genesis as Adam's wife and the person who had to deal face to face with Satan's temptation. As with Adam, I like the way that the Life Application Study Bible's profile on Eve makes the key lessons from her life stand out.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• First wife and mother
• First female. As such she shared a special relationship with God, had co-responsibility with Adam over creation, and displayed certain characteristics of God

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Allowed her contentment to be undermined by Satan
• Acted impulsively without talking either to God or to her mate
• Not only sinned but shared her sin with Adam
• When confronted, blamed others

Lessons from her life:

• The female shares in the image of God
• The necessary ingredients for a strong marriage are commitment to each other, companionship with each other, complete oneness, absence of shame (2:24, 25)
• The basic human tendency to sin goes back to the beginning of the human race

Vital statistics:

• Where: Garden of Eden
• Occupation: Wife, helper, companion, co-manager of Eden
• Relatives: Husband - Adam, Sons - Cain, Abel, Seth, numerous other children.

Key verse:
The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18)

Eve's story is told in Genesis 2:19-4:26. Her death is not mentioned in Scripture.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Conversation

Paul Gustav-Fischer, The Conversation, Helgoland, 1896
via Arts Everyday Living

Well Said: Eschewing Adjectives and Jesus

Cornwell imputes ugly motivations to people though he has no way of knowing what drives them. Cornwell uses a trowel to smear thick layers of degrading adjectives on every priest, nun, or merely any Catholic he encounters. These are trite and transparent writer's tricks. Again, telling the truth is all about obeying William Carlos Williams' dictum: "no ideas but in things." Again, telling the truth in that way is not just a writer's discipline. It is a Christian's discipline. ...

Again, I marvel at how the Gospel writers didn't lather Jesus with adjectives. He isn't "kindly Jesus" or "angry Jesus" or "helpful Jesus" or "woman-friendly" Jesus. He is a Jesus of eyewitnesses disciplined and integral enough to record only what they saw: Jesus who lets children sit on his lap, Jesus who whips the moneychangers out of the temple, Jesus who turns water into wine at a friend's wedding, Jesus who has his longest and most interesting conversation with a woman, who saves a woman from killers, and who appears, first, to a woman after rising from the dead.

Danusha Goska, God Through Binoculars (unpublished)

I already loved those gospel writers. This just makes me appreciate them even more.

Worth a Thousand Words: Calling the Roll After An Engagement

Elizabeth Thompson, Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea, 1874, Royal Collection

I'd never have heard of this if Malcolm Gladwell hadn't featured it in the first episode of his new podcast, Revisionist History.

Each week for 10 weeks, Revisionist History will go back and reinterpret something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood.

"Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance."

Gladwell's famous for comparing and contrasting things we wouldn't have thought of connecting. I love his books and this podcast is similar to his writing.

Just a note in passing, the website is so hip and modern that it is practically impossible to navigate easily. Yep. I like Gladwell but I don't like that website. Here's the iTunes link if you'd rather just get them there.

Well Said: Adam and the value of each individual life

Adam is an individual, apart from a mob. The Talmud teaches that God created only one Adam, rather than a group of men at once, to emphasize the value of each, individual life. One man, in himself, is an entire universe. The Bible teaches: you matter. Not some ideal you. Not you as a cog in a big machine. You who you are, right now. You matter. The God who created the universe wants contact with you. Bring your moment-by-moment concerns to God.

Danusha Goska, God Through Binoculars (unpublished)

Another thing that never occurred to me. Just when you think you've gotten all the goodness out of Genesis (and Scripture in general for that matter), someone comes along, flips it sideways, and shows you a new truth that was there all along.

Well Said: God looks like Adam and Adam looks like God

Between 1508 and 1512, on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo depicted the spark of life in the fingertip-to-fingertip, eye-contact encounter between one, loving, creator God and one human being – not a teeming mass – just one person. In Michelangelo's fresco, we see Adam's full naked form, from head to toe. God looks like Adam, and Adam looks like God. They are the same size. Every detail here matters – that Adam is just one man, that he is naked, that he is anatomically detailed, that he is the same size as God, that God and Adam are fundamentally structured the same, that Adam is making eye contact with God, that God looks upon Adam with fiercely attentive love – every detail here has an impact on the life anyone can live in a Judeo-Christian society.

Danusha Goska, God Through Binoculars (unpublished)

This is one of those cases where a painting is so familiar that it never occurred to me to consider what the artist might be saying besides the obvious message. Yes, God creates Adam. But the way that Adam is portrayed compared to God tells us a wealth of information about Michelangelo and theology. And what it tells us, as Danusha Goska points out, is wonderful.

Worth a Thousand Words: Immaculate Heart of Mary Church

Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in San Antonio was built in 1911 by the Claretians,
a community of priests and brothers devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is one of the Painted Churches of Texas.
Photograph and caption by Jason Merlo, Merlo Photography

What are the painted churches of Texas?

Cross the threshold of these particular Texas churches and you'll encounter not a simple wooden interior but an unexpected profusion of color. Nearly every surface is covered with bright painting: exuberant murals radiate from the apse, elaborate foliage trails the walls, wooden columns and baseboards shine like polished marble in shades of green and gray. These are the Painted Churches of Texas.

Built by 19th century immigrants to this rough but promising territory, these churches transport the visitor back to a different era, a different way of life. ...

Read all about them here. Jason Merlo Photography has some stunning shots.

Unknowns, and Ghosts, and Hidden Rooms. Oh my!

Chapters 15-17 of The Bat await you at Forgotten Classics podcast.

Live in Dallas? Want to make your good marriage better?

Have we got a deal for you!

The Beyond Cana® marriage retreat offers the time and tools to restore and strengthen marriages - with God and His direction for us at the center.

It's a 2½ day retreat designed to enrich the marriages of couples who want to focus on the communication, respect, love, and intimacy that are so integral to a good marriage.

Tom and I've been helping present this retreat for ten years and can vouch for the way it has made our good marriage better.

The next retreat is July 22-24.

To sign up or for more information, go to the St. Thomas Aquinas website.

Worth a Thousand Words: A Paper Trail

A Paper Trail, Karin Jurick
Artist's note: A young lady enthusiastically sketches
on the floor in the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

Well Said: Holy Spirit, Work in Us Through Grace

Come, Holy Spirit
Let the precious pearl of the Father
and the Word's delight come.
Spirit of truth,
you are the reward of the saints,
the comforter of souls,
light in the darkness,
riches to the poor,
treasure to lovers,
food for the hungry,
comfort to the wanderer;
you are the one in whom
all treasures are contained.

Come! As you descended on Mary,
that the Word might become flesh
work in us through grace.
Amen.

St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi,
via Voices of the Saints by Bert Ghezzi

I've read longer prayers to the Holy Spirit, but never better, never richer. This seems to have endless food for meditation. At least, it speaks to me that way.

Free State of Jones movie review

In 1863, Mississippi farmer Newt Knight (Matthew McConaughey) serves as a medic for the Confederate Army. Opposed to slavery, Knight would rather help the wounded than fight the Union. After his nephew dies in battle, Newt returns home to Jones County to safeguard his family but is soon branded an outlaw deserter. Forced to flee, he finds refuge with a group of runaway slaves hiding out in the swamps. Forging an alliance with the slaves and other farmers, Knight leads a rebellion that would forever change history.

Until I saw the trailer, I'd never heard of the anti-Confederate rebellion which came to be known as the Free State of Jones, from which this movie takes its premise. The history around the rebellion and Newton Knight, who has been portrayed as a Civil War Robin Hood, is somewhat muddled.

Perhaps that is why Free State of Jones is a bit of a mess. The director/screenwriter couldn't seem to decide whether he was telling an inspirational story, a morality tale, or a history lesson. The actors do their best but they are given little to sink their teeth into as they are yanked from one focus to another. The result is no focus at all.

Adding to this problem is  a 1960s courthouse tale which is occasionally intercut with the Civil War era story. This was extremely distracting until the very end of the movie where it finally began coming together with the main story.

There were also various anachronisms, beginning with the glass windows in the cabin on Newt Knight's hardscrabble farm.

I was pleased, however, with the way religion was portrayed. It was clear that there was an underlying belief in and reliance on God. If poor people had the luxury of a book it was likely to be a small Bible, and the Bible was used to teach people to read. Despite trying times and several funerals God was never railed against and his promises were always turned to for comfort. This really seemed realistic for the times and, as frequent readers here know, is the way many regular Americans still practice their faith.

Unfortunately, despite some praiseworthy elements, Free State of Jones squanders a fascinating story and the potential of the talented contributors.

Summer Reading: My Lady Jane

My Lady Jane
by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and , Jodi Meadows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A one-of-a-kind fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.

A GoodReads friend had so much fun reading this that it seemed like the perfect summer book ... and I luckily had an Audible credit burning a hole in my pocket so I plunged it.

For what it was — a humorous, inventive, light, romantic, alternative history — it was practically perfect in every way. It was sometimes silly but always charming and I was glued to it in every spare moment.

There are intrigues, betrayal, arranged marriages, inconvenient shapeshifting, pickpockets, notes slipped under doors, swashbuckling, blackberries, and men with big noses. Mixed with a smidgeon of history. And romances. I can't recall the last time I've been so invested in whether people would kiss.

One could see the major plot points ahead but that didn't matter. The fun ride is the thing wherein the reader is caught.

The story is told from three points of view (Edward, Jane, and Gifford), each of which was written by a different author, but I had to read that information to be sure of it. The story style flows smoothly without any obvious style breaks.  Narrator Katherine Kellgren was over the top sometimes in a way that startled me at first but soon saw perfectly reflected the story. The various accents and voices were perfectly performed.

I loved it.

Worth a Thousand Words: At Ease

At Ease, Karin Jurick

Speak Lord. Your Servant Is Listening.

Breton Girls at Prayer
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1904
via French Painters

Before the Lord the whole universe is as a grain from a balance
or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.
But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;
and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent.
For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things, because they are yours,
O Lord and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!
Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,
warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,
that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O Lord!
The Book of Wisdom 11:22-12:2

I present one of my favorite Old Testament passages for our prayerful reflection. It's a wonderful image of love, understanding, and mercy. It also reminds me that Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Amen.

Thanks and gratitude for:

• Rose's job opportunity
• Deb's father's amazing healing progress

Lord, hear our prayers for:

• Upcoming Beyond Cana marriage enrichment retreat — for couples attending, for more to sign up, for those presenting the retreat
• Danusha's healing
• Zoe's eye to heal
• Tammy's request

Continual prayer intentions ...

• For our government officials to uphold our right to religious liberty
• An end to abortion and a reverence for life in all stages of age and health.
• Our priests and for vocations
• Abortion providers, Lord open their eyes and hearts
• Strength, joy and peace for oppressed Christians in China, Asia, and the Middle East. Also that their oppressors may have their eyes opened to the truth. And for all those oppressed, actually.

If you have prayer requests, please leave them in the comments and I'll add them to the list. I keep these in my prayer journal also.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Gardeners

Gustave Caillebotte, Les jardiniers, 1875

Well Said: Understanding Life ... and Living It

It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.

Soren Kierkegaard

Well Said: A Great Love Constrains Us

Do not see us as coming to force upon an unknown people benefits against their will. Be assured that only a great love constrains us to do this. For we long, beyond all the desires and glory of the world, to have as many follow citizens with us as we can in the Kingdom of God.

St. Augustine of Canterbury
via The Voices of the Saint by Bert Ghezzi

I like this way of putting it. I'm so accustomed to seeing Christianity attacked that I can become diffident about wanting others to join me in the faith. When you hear the voices long enough you are in danger of beginning to believe them.

This is a wonderful reminder that it isn't because I want to force people to something. It's because I want them to join me in my great happiness and freedom!

Genesis Notes: Adam's Resume

Adam, figure from the Brautpforte (Rathaus Hamburg), Jacob Ungerer

The Life Application Study Bible has a great feature for major Biblical characters. They do a profile on each one including a summary of their lives, a resume style listing of information, and key verses. It really helps bring the lessons learned from each into focus. I won't reproduce the entire thing here but liked this summary for Adam.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• The first zoologist -- namer of animals
• The first landscape architect, placed in the garden to care for it
• Father of the human race
• The first person made in the image of God, and the first human to share an intimate personal relationship with God

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Avoided responsibility and blamed others; chose to hide rather than to confront; made excuses rather than admitting the truth
• Greatest mistake: teamed up with Eve to bring sin into the world

Lessons from his life:

• As Adam's descendants, we all reflect to some degree the image of God.
• God wants people who, though free to do wrong, choose instead to love him
• We should not blame others for our faults
• We cannot hide from God

Vital statistics:

• Where: Garden of Eden
• Occupation: Caretaker, gardener, farmer
• Relatives: Wife - Eve, Sons - Cain, Abel, Seth, numerous other children. The only man who never had an earthly mother or father

Key verses:
The man said, "The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. (Genesis 3:12)

Adam's story is told in Genesis 1:26-5:5. He is also mentioned in 1 Chronicles 1:1; Luke 3:38; Romans 5:14; Corinthians 15:22, 45; 1 Timothy 2:13, 14.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: Girl with a Pomegranate

Girl with a Pomegranate, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1875

Well Said: What gets us into trouble ...

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.

Mark Twain

3 Godfathers

3 Godfathers

★★★

This is a sweet Western about three desperados who come across a dying woman and promise to save her newborn baby. The outlaws seem like pretty decent guys, except for their habit of robbing banks, so we aren't ever worried about the child's fate as they immediately bend all their slim resources to getting the baby to civilization. That isn't easy because there's a posse on their trail.

I've been interested in this movie since seeing Tokyo Godfathers which is a family favorite. The idea of the Japanese director being so taken with this film that he created his own version (and an excellent one it is), almost boggles the mind. It certainly makes me take the movie more seriously than I might have otherwise.

The fact that John Ford shot this in Technicolor in 1948 shows how seriously he took it and how much pull he had with the studios at the time. That made it very expensive indeed.

Is it the best movie I've ever seen? No. But there was something about it that I can't quite shake so I thought I'd mention it to y'all.  It is worth keeping in mind since it'd make a good Christmas film to break the monotony of the usual candidates, as we often do with Tokyo Godfathers.

Worth a Thousand Words: Pomegranate

Pomegranate, late Southern Song dynasty or early Yuan dynasty circa 1200–1340

Blogging Around: Real Christian Responses to Massacre

Chick-Fil-A's Example of Living the Christian Faith

Chick Fil A has made national news for its owner’s stance on gay marriage. Anytime they do something even remotely non-PC, their supposed slip up goes viral. ...

In a shocking move the Orlando location, at University and Rouse Road, fired up its grills on Sunday. The chain is notorious for not being open—ever—on the first day of the week. Employees cooked up hundreds of their famous chicken sandwiches. They brewed dozens of gallons of sweet tea.

Then, instead of making a single dime, they crated the product of their labor to the One Blood donation center. The food and drinks were handed out, free of charge, to all the people who had lined up to donate blood.

This is how we show love ... or should. And they did it without seeking any publicity for it. Read it all here at the DC Gazette.

More on Orlando, and the depths of meaning in this tragedy.

Gerard M Nadal says it well. This is only on Facebook ... be sure to click through and read the whole thing. Here's a bit from the body of his comments.

So into a club walked an Islamist extremist who only saw entities who, in his eyes, all commit sexual sin. What he never saw was the beauty, the care, the grace present in these people. In fact, he never saw persons at all. He never contemplated "The Book" his faith reveres, whose Psalm says, "If you should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?"

Worth a Thousand Words: Wavering Canal

Wavering Canal, 2001, Andrew Jones

Supremes

Rich walnut-oatmeal bars with a baked-in sweet chocolate filling. And they're super easy and super popular. Pick them up at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

In which Miss Cornelia gets sneaky.

Episode 309 of Forgotten Classics, The Bat, chapters 13-14. Come join us!

Worth a Thousand Words: Place d'Anvers

Place d'Anvers, Paris; Federico Zandomeneghi; 1880

Genesis Notes: Pride and Suffering

Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

GENESIS 3:16-19
The punishment meted out to Adam and Eve seems severe. What about another chance? It turns out that human suffering is that second chance.

All Adam would have had to do was to cry out to God for help from the serpent. Yet he didn't. Genesis Part 1: God and His Creation looks at this using the example of a good parent who must punish their child to get them to save them from a greater ill.

That singular act in the Garden — crying out for God's help — would have altered the course of human history. Why? Because it would have given expression to the life God's grace intended man to live. Man's faith would have prized the unseen God as his greatest good, no matter how intimidating the serpent or how appealing the fruit. His cry for help would have meant humility and obedience. Instead of love for God, man chose self-love. In his pride, there was silence.

Is it any wonder, then, that God allows a measure of suffering to overtake the human creatures? When they lost God's grace, and spiritual blindness set in, they would need some strong incentive to choose to do what they were originally designed to do-put themselves into God's hands, no matter what. Suffering, then, means that God has not given up on His human creatures. He wants them to run into His arms, as every good father delights in the love and trust of his children. He will do whatever it takes, even if it means playing the ogre, to provoke His children to cry out to Him. If Adam and Eve have lost the grace of God in their lives, a loss they will pass on to their progeny, then this kind of suffering and misery, still with us in the world today, is the greatest act of love God could bestow on them and us. Anyone who suffers has an opportunity to experience his own frailty, powerlessness, and desperate need for God's help. One cry will change everything.

The Complete Bible Handbook points out that the Jewish understanding of The Fall is about as opposite as you can get from the Christian view.

Judaism does not see in the Genesis story the "Fall of Man." It may be that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, but God stayed in conversation with them. Seeking wisdom and distinguishing between good and evil become essential human attributes. Toiling for food and suffering pain in childbirth are the prices paid for knowledge. For Judaism, if there is a "fall" in Genesis, it is a fall upward into new opportunities of responsibility and achievement. Christians see a radical fault that affects all subsequent humans. The fault of the first Adam has been dealt with by Jesus, who as the second Adam, brings redemption to the world.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: 1930's Modern Publicity

Via BibliOdyssey

Many more images from this early commercial art magazine may be found at BibliOdyssey.

Well Said: The Rhodora

On being asked, whence is the flower.

In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals fallen in the pool
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose
The self-same power that brought me there, brought you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Vatican Cookbook by David Geisser

The Vatican Cookbook: Favorite Recipes, Stories, and Prominent Portraits of the Holy Fathers by David Geisser

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is as much about the Swiss Guard as it is a cookbook, but I counted that as a plus. With the brief biographies and history of the Guard, plus the gorgeous photography, I wound up feeling as if I'd gotten an insider's tour of the Vatican and met some of the people who live and work there. One interesting point, which shows just how varied the Swiss Guard's members are, is that the person who wrote the recipes was an accomplished and respected master chef before he left that behind to join up. Originally the Guard had planned to write a little booklet of their history but after he came on board the book took on a new life to become The Vatican Cookbook.

The recipes themselves range from gourmet to such familiar basics as Spaghetti Carbonara. They are drawn from the home country favorites of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI, and Holy Pope John Paul II which is another nice touch that makes you feel a bit of connection with the Vatican. Also included are favorites of major Vatican and Swiss Guard officials, so there is a wider range than you might expect.

This is a lovely coffee table book but I plan on trying out some of the recipes too. It would make a perfect special occasion gift for your favorite Catholic friends.

I did NOT get this as a review book but spent my own hard earned cash on it. It is just the sort of book my beloved mother-in-law would have gotten me for my birthday were she still alive. So I stood in for her.

Worth a Thousand Words: Rain at Yabakei

Rain At Yabakei, Goyo Hashiguchi, 1918

Jennifer the Damned by Karen Ullo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't recall how this book got on my radar but it immediately piqued my interest. A teenage vampire, adopted by nuns, who goes to Catholic school, and yearns for the chance to take Communion ... with many reviews at Amazon praising it as "literature, rich with vampire lore and intertwined with Catholic doctrine." I was thrilled when the author offered me a review copy.

Sixteen year old Jennifer Carshaw, isn't living in a world where vampires are taken as a matter of fact. The nuns had no idea why their adopted charge would only eat raw meat.

With her unusual background, Jennifer's got full knowledge of good and evil. She also, which is more important, longs for the capacity to experience true love and closeness to God. All of which are impossible for someone without a soul. This provides a rich background for a fast-paced horror novel which is also funny, intelligent, and spiritually deep.

It is a YA novel so when we meet Jennifer she's worrying about the usual high school problems. This is no sparkly vampire tale. When Jennifer matures into a full-fledged vampire the true horror unfolds as she spirals out of control, pinging between good and evil desires.

This is also when the true horror unfolds for the reader. We've learned to like Jennifer by this point and watching her become evil is hard to take. The lack of a soul has real consequences and we see the devastating trail of destruction.

In fact, there was one point where I put the book down, distressed by my inability to reconcile Jennifer's decisions with the character I loved. It took me months to pick it up again. However, I am very glad that I finally did. The author opens the door for the reader to really grapple with evil, deliberate sin, the consequences of lost hope, and redemption. This is all done with full belief in Catholic dogma but without ever hitting the reader over the head with religion, believe it or not.

I didn't love some of the more obvious YA elements such as all the romances and vignettes of high school at the beginning. However, I'm not the book's prime audience and I've ignored much worse in pursuit of a good story. Since this is an excellent story, they are indeed minor quibbles.

To give you a sample, here is the bit where I knew I was really in for a unique ride.

What happens during Mass — more specifically, during Holy Communion — is one of the most contentious issues between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics believe that, during the Eucharist, bread and wine are transformed into the actual Body and Blood of Jesus, in accordance with the words He spoke at the Last Supper. Most Protestants believe Jesus was speaking in metaphor and Communion is merely a symbol. Centuries of holy wars could have been avoided if people had just invited a vampire to Mass. If the Catholics were right — if the Eucharist was really the Blood of the Son of God — then it would send us into a frothing, rabid rage.

Which, of course, it does.

My mother had discovered this truth for herself nine hundred years ago. She was walking past a tiny, rustic church in France when a scent slammed against her olfactory nerves, so overpowering that she burst through the doors and killed six people just by throwing them out of her way. As she snatched the holy chalice from the altar, one single purple drop still glistened in the golden cup.

"I am only alive today, Jennifer," she said, "because I found the strength not to drink it. That one drop would have satisfied a thousand years of thirst ‚ and that one drop would have killed me."

It is rare to find a book of this calibre. Having just finished rereading Dracula for the umpteenth time before I finished this book, I've had "the blood is the life" resonating in my head for days.

Worth a Thousand Words: Hunting Flight

Hunting Flight
taken by Remo Savisaar

This is spectacular when seen full size. Click the link above for a larger view.

Genesis Notes: The Consequences

Gustave Doré, Adam and Eve hiding from God

GENESIS 3:7-15
This is the scene when God comes calling and Adam and Eve hide from Him. I almost could laugh at the whole "blame game" they play, pointing fingers at everyone but refusing to take any personal responsibility. No one even says they are sorry at all. However, it is too serious to laugh at because this doesn't just affect them but all of us, which is still how it is when we sin today. Also, just as today, is the fact that God already knows what they have done. He is giving them a chance to redeem themselves by confessing their sins. He doesn't need their confession. It is for their benefit. What a shame that they didn't take advantage of that chance. Even today we fall into the same trap. I think that is why Reconciliation is such a wonderful sacrament. There is nothing so wonderful as being able to face up to your sins, confession and being forgiven, as well as being strengthened for future struggles against temptation.

The surprise for me in this segment of study was realizing that when God tells how the devil will be defeated, He is deliberately choosing the most ignominious way to do it. What could be worse than knowing you will be put in the power of those you despise as the devil does humans? This is when we see what is a major theme of Genesis: God does His work through reversals.

... a battle already existed in the rebellion of Satan against God. The difference now is that God is gong to extend the battle to include the human beings. Initially, the humans had been targets of the devil's wrath against God. But now God is going to enlist the humans on His side. Could the serpent have possibly imagined this incredible twist? It is the first great reversal in the story of man. From this point on, reversal will be the underlying theme of our human history. Pause now to think carefully about this. However we come to understand ourselves and our world, we must get this one truth firmly in place — God does His work through reversals.

Remember the contempt for the humans that filled the serpent, infusing that deadly conversation he began with Eve? The devil despised Adam and Eve. They must have looked like such dupes to him. He decided he would strike out at God by striking out at them. He made patsies of them in short order. They appeared to be weak links in the chain. So, when God announces that the serpent, as his punishment, will face a battle with human creatures, the woman and her seed, in which he will be defeated, it is a crushing, mortal blow to his pride and arrogance. We need to linger long enough to let it really sink in. Whatever the devil attempted to rob from humanity — our life, our dignity, our exalted position in God's family-is more than made up for in the punishment meted out to him. God will vanquish His enemy through human beings!

Genesis 1: God and His Creation

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: Fulfillment

Fulfillment does not lie in comfort, ease, and following one's inclinations, but precisely in allowing demands to be made upon you, in taking the harder path. Everything else turns out somehow boring, anyway. Only the person who recognizes an ideal he must satisfy, who takes on real responsibility, will find fulfillment. It is not in taking, not on the path of comfort that we become rich, but only in giving.

Pope Benedict XVI

Worth a Thousand Words: Cypress Trees in Cibolo Creek

Cypress trees reflected in Cibolo Creek, Cibolo Nature Center - Boerne, Texas
by Jason Merlo Photography, used by permission

Well Said: Each and All

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
Of thee from the hill-top looking down;
The heifer that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
The sexton, tolling his bell at noon,
Deems not that great Napoleon
Stops his horse, and lists with delight,
Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;
Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.
I thought the sparrow's note from heaven,
Singing at dawn on the alder bough;
I brought him home, in his nest, at even;
He sings the song, but it pleases not now,
For I did not bring home the river and sky; —
He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye.

The delicate shells lay on the shore;
The bubbles of the latest wave
Fresh pearls to their enamel gave;
And the bellowing of the savage sea
Greeted their safe escape to me.
I wiped away the weeds and foam,
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
Had left their beauty on the shore,
With the sun, and the sand, and the wild uproar.

The lover watched his graceful maid,
As 'mid the virgin train she stayed,
Nor knew her beauty's best attire
Was woven still by the snow-white choir.
At last she came to his hermitage,
Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage; —
The gay enchantment was undone,
A gentle wife, but fairy none.

Then I said, "I covet truth;
Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat;
I leave it behind with the games of youth:" —
As I spoke, beneath my feet
The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath,
Running over the club-moss burrs;
I inhaled the violet's breath;
Around me stood the oaks and firs;
Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground;
Over me soared the eternal sky,
Full of light and of deity;
Again I saw, again I heard,
The rolling river, the morning bird; —
Beauty through my senses stole;
I yielded myself to the perfect whole.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Worth a Thousand Words: A Domestic Interior

Charles Joseph Grips, A Domestic Interior, 1881

It's the cat that makes it work. As anyone who has a cat would tell you. Or any cat would tell you, for that matter. If they deigned to bother with conversation.

Rose on Reading Envy: A Good Era for Communists

Rose joins Jenny on the Reading Envy podcast ... where they cover a lot of ground, historically and geographically, from moody moors to being raised by vampires for political reasons to whether or not an Oprah Book Club sticker makes us more or less interested to read a book.

I can't wait to hear this! Two of my favorite people, both ambitious readers, finally together!

I see that the "books mentioned" list manages to rival my own. Nicely done ladies!