Road Trip - Duluth (updated)

The Str. American Victory (then, the Middletown) passing beneath Duluth's aerial lift bridge

We went to a wedding in Duluth, Minnesota, of a good friend of Hannah's, who is also very dear to us. It was moving to witness this moment of promise and joy in her life and, as is often the case, to reflect upon how we have seen her grow during the eight or so years we've known her. It was really wonderful.

It was also the occasion for us to plan a road trip. The idea of spending two days of solid driving to get somewhere can be daunting but ever since we took our youngest daughter to California for her first job (U-Haul and Boxer in tow), I've felt differently. 

There is something about seeing the land change as you drive by. About meeting the different people on the way, hearing new accents, seeing food specialties change. You understand the country a little differently.

That slow evolution also is reflected on the people traveling, as Tom and I have found. Listening to music or audiobooks, letting silence fill the car, watching miles slip away - these are all conducive to reflections that we just don't have time for in regular life. We may never have the time to develop the thoughts, much less carry them through into conversation. Long hours in the car lend themselves to such things. 

So we embrace any chance for a road trip. I get my knitting, we pick out audiobooks and podcasts, pack up the cocktail kit, and hit the road. Plus, you have the chance for side trips which indulge at least one person's special interests. 

Mike Breitbach and me!
He's hardworking - see the glove? When we met him,
he was refilling croutons at the salad bar.

Cindy Breitbach and me!
She took time away from the kitchen just for a second —
pies wait for no man (or pictures!)

That meant we took to the back roads so we could sample fried chicken and pie at Breitbach's Country Dining, which was one of the three restaurants featured in the Spinning Plates documentary (a great favorite of mine).

It was truly worth the trip. We met both Mike and Cindy Breitbach, who were gracious and charming. Community is key for them, as we could see, and the food was definitely worth the trip. (We should've taken pictures of the place, but check here.)

And you really do have to want to take the trip. We saw lots of little roads and communities as we made our way from Balltown to Duluth. Thank goodness for Google Maps!

William A. Irvin tour

On Saturday we had all day to be tourists and it was Tom's chance for special interests. We walked around Canal Park looking at the lighthouses and, most of all, the aerial lift bridge which excited no little interest when a ferry came through so we could see it working. Afterward, we met up with our son-in-law who was also at loose ends. Naturally that meant we needed to take a tour of an ore hauler which the guys found fascinating. I especially was interested in the living quarters and galley. Thinking about living and working on that ship, often in extreme winter conditions, was fascinating to me.

Gin can be more flavors than juniper - who knew?
But this Juniper Gin has underlying flavors that never
made it into my favorite brand

We were intrigued to find the Vikre distillery not too far from where we were staying which had cedar and spruce gins in addition to the usual juniper flavoring. I liked the cedar but the spruce was too much like chewing a Christmas tree for me. Most interesting was that when I added the tonic water, the flavors really bloomed in my mouth, as opposed to the straight sip I'd taken initially. I've heard about the effect water can have on a liquor but it was the most vivid example I could've asked for.

Overlaying the entire trip was our repeating our Beyond Cana marriage retreat along the way. Once you've done the marriage retreat, you refresh the basics on your own once a year. We first did the retreat in 2005 so we've had plenty of practice and could talk over the various steps at different points on the trip. We'd put it off for longer than we should have so it was a really wonderful renewal of our marriage.

A great trip, all in all!

Guest Interview on Among Women Podcast

I have the pleasure of being a guest on the Among Women podcast where Pat Gohn and I discuss my book Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. It leads us to the every day life of a believer… grounded both in the interior life — the life of prayer — and the call to do good works. Join us!

Well Said: Christianity thoroughly approves of the body

Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body — which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty, and our energy.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Worth a Thousand Words: Geraniums

Geraniums, Childe Hassam
via Arts Everyday Living

Genesis Notes: Laban's Resume

I never really thought about Laban much except as an obstacle to Jacob's plans. But he's more than a stereotypically difficult father-in-law. I have really enjoyed the insights about how gave Jacob have a taste of his own medicine by tricking him so thoroughly. And he was the instrument God used to help humble Jacob and make him stretch himself in different ways.

Jacob reproaching Laban for giving him Leah in place of Rachel, Hendrick ter Brugghen

Strengths and accomplishments:

• Controlled two generations of marriages in the Abrahamic family (Rebekah, Rachel, Leah)
• Quick witted

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Manipulated others for his own benefit
• Unwilling to admit wrongdoing
• Benefited financially by using Jacob, but never fully benefited spiritually by knowing and worshipping Jacob's God

Lessons from his life:

• Those who set out to use people will eventually find themselves used
• God's plan cannot be blocked

Vital statistics:

• Where: Haran
• Occupation: Wealthy sheep breeder
• Relatives: Father - Bethuel. Sister - Rebekah. Brother-in-law - Isaac. Daughters - Rachel and Leah. Son-in-law - Jacob.

Key verses:
"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you" (Genesis 31:42).

Laban's story is told in Genesis 24:1 - 31:55.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. 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.

When it comes to the life of a child, should parental devotion be disqualifying?

Let us stipulate a distinction between removing someone from life support, as the hospital proposes, and taking active measures to induce death. Put another way, if Connie Yates and Chris Gard —Charlie’s parents—decided to remove their son from his ventilator and allow nature to take its course, it would be a difficult but eminently defensible position.

But the claim asserted by the representatives of Britain’s state-run health care system is more sweeping and insidious: This is our call, they say. Such is the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s sense of dominion, says Ms. Yates, that it refused to allow Charlie to come home to die, wrapped in the loving arms of his mom and dad.

Bill McGurn wrote a really excellent editorial, For the Love of Charlie Gard, for the Wall Street Journal. It is hidden behind the WSJ's paywall but if you click through from his Facebook post then the whole article may be read.

Worth a Thousand Words: Evening on the Meadow

Evening on the Meadow, taken by Remo Savisaar

Worth a Thousand Words: Drawing for Alfred Gilbert's project for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence

Arthur Robertson,
Drawing for Alfred Gilbert's project for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence
via Lines and Colors

Lagniappe: Dating girls in Thrall to Creatures from the Void

"Something's been calling her," he said. "In dreams. Someone that wants to be let out. I'm afraid she's going to get hurt."

"She's not worth it," said Gaspode. "Messin' around with girls who're in thrall to Creatures from the Void never works out, take my word for it. You'd never know what you were going to wake up to.

Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

Lagniappe: Warning Shot

“Were you proposing to shoot these people in cold blood, sergeant?"

"Nossir. Just a warning shot inna head, sir.”

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Worth a Thousand Words: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood, John Singer Sargent

Well Said: The "Prince of this World" is a great P.R. man, a great master of the media

It is not brains or intelligence that is needed to cope with the problems with Plato and Aristotle and all of their successors to the present have failed to confront. What is needed is a readiness to undervalue the world altogether. This is only possible for a Christian... All technologies and all cultures, ancient and modern, are part of our immediate expanse. There is hope in this diversity since it creates vast new possibilities of detachment and amusement at human gullibility and self-deception. There is no harm in reminding ourselves from time to time that the "Prince of this World" is a great P.R. man, a great salesman of new hardware and software, a great electric engineer, and a great master of the media. It is his master stroke to be not only environmental but invisible for the environmental is invincibly persuasive when ignored.

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and the Light

Tomato-Basil Soup

This has become a classic soup during my lifetime. I recall when La Madeleine restaurants in Dallas served it to rave comments, sold it bottled at grocery stores, and yet ... I never tried it. And then came Rose, who insisted we try it ... check it out at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

The Hauntingly Beautiful Music of the Trees

Instead of a vinyl disc, Traubeck's record player uses a cross-section of a log or tree trunk, using light to translate the different colors and textures of the tree's rings into musical notes and instruments. Because every tree has its own unique configuration of rings, every tree has its own unique "song."

For details about the technology, read the top comment at YouTube.

Worth a Thousand Words: Inside the Church

Inside the Church, Franklin Booth

Genesis Notes: Rachel's Resume

My favorite story about Rachel is when she hides the household gods that she stole from her father by sitting on them and saying, "It's that time of month!" A plea that any father of teenage daughters has heard many a time to excuse lots of different behavior. It makes that father-daughter dynamic so real to me.

All that aside, it is when Jacob encounters Rachel that he has met his equal (also his true love). Rachel is strong-willed, determined, and not above bending the rules to get what she wants.  I always felt so sorry for poor Leah.

The resume digs deeper into Rachel as a person.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Rachel sitting on the idols

Jacob's love for Rachel was both patient and practical. Jacob had the patience to wait seven years for her, but he kept busy in the meantime. his commitment to Rachel kindled a strong loyalty within her. In fact, her loyalty to Jacob got out of hand and became self-destructive. She was frustrated by her barrenness and desperate to compete with her sister for Jacob's attention. She was trying to gain from Jacob what he had already given: devoted love.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• She showed great loyalty to her family
• She mothered Joseph and Benjamin after being barren for many years

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Her envy and competitiveness marred her relationship with her sister, Leah
• She was capable of dishonesty when she took her loyalty too far
• She failed to recognize that Jacob's devotion was not dependent on her ability to have children
  

Lessons from her life:

• Loyalty must be controlled by what is true and right
• Love is accepted, not earned

Vital statistics:

• Where: Haran
• Occupation: Shepherdess, housewife
• Relatives: Father - Laban. Aunt - Rebekah. Sister - Leah. Husband - Jacob. Sons - Joseph and Benjamin.

Key verse:
"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her" (Genesis 29:20)

Rachel's story is told in Genesis 29 - 35:20. She also is mentioned in Ruth 4:11.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. 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 Future

The Future, by Chris Turnham

Well Said: The Church is a Superhuman Institution

I never came into the church as a person who was being taught. I came in on my knees. That is the only way in. When people start praying they need truths; that’s all. You don’t come into the Church by ideas and concepts, and you cannot leave by mere disagreement. It has to be a loss of faith, a loss of participation. You can tell when people leave the Church: they have quit praying.

Actively relating to the Church's prayer and sacraments is not done through ideas. Any Catholic today who has an intellectual disagreement with the Church has an illusion. You cannot have an intellectual disagreement with the Church: that's meaningless. The Church is not an intellectual institution. It is a superhuman institution.”

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and the Light

Worth a Thousand Words: Golden Winged

Golden Winged, taken by Remo Savisaar

Blogging Around: Biblical Art, American Causes for Sainthood, and My Conversion Story

Summula Pictoria: a Little Summary of the Old and New Testaments

Second Dream of St. Joseph, Daniel Mitsui

Daniel Mitsui is an artist I greatly admire and whose paintings I have featured here occasionally. I especially enjoy his "translations" into Asian styled art, although not all of his work is done that way.

He's got an ambitious new project planned.

Over fourteen years, from Easter 2017 to Easter 2031, I plan to draw an iconographic summary of the Old and New Testaments, illustrating those events that are most prominent in sacred liturgy and patristic exegesis.

The things that I plan to depict are the very raw stuff of Christian belief and Christian art; no other subjects offer an artist such inexhaustible wealth of beauty and symbolism. Were I never to draw them, I would feel my artistic career incomplete. I hope to undertake this task in the spirit of a medieval encyclopedist, who gathers as much traditional wisdom as he can find and faithfully puts it into order. I want every detail of these pictures, whether great or small, to be thoroughly considered and significant.

Find out more here. Be sure to browse Daniel's website to see his gorgeous art and read his thoughts and inspirations as an artist.

US Causes for Canonization

We've got more holy Americans than you might think. Certainly than I was aware of when reading this National Catholic Register piece about the causes underway for canonization. I was impressed by the timespan since the causes range across a time period from the 1500s to 2006.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

I also enjoyed looking through the list and seeing the wide variety of holy people represented. I was happy to see a particular favorite of mine included, who is relatively unknown: Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1853). He's a former slave from Saint-Domingue whose charity for the poor made him well-known and loved in NYC. He and his wife opened their home as an orphanage, employment bureau, and a refuge for travelers. They also organized a credit bureau, an employment agency, and a refuge for priests and destitute travelers. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.

Also I was pleased to see Servant of God Mother Rose Hawthorne (1926) listed. Does that last name look familiar? Yep. She's Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter who converted to Catholicism, trained as a nurse, and began a charitable organization to care for impoverished cancer patients. Later, in 1900, she founded a new order which was then named the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. I admire her intensely.

This is the summary of a two-part story so if you are interested in more details be sure to check out their links.

My Conversion Story

I met fellow convert Nancy Ward at the Catholic New Media Conference when it was in Dallas a few years ago. She's a lively go-getter, a Catholic writer, and a very kind supporter of my blog and writing.

I'm honored to have her featuring my conversion story at her blog, JOY Alive, in preparation for an interview she'll be doing to help get out the word about Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. While you're there be sure to check out her site, which:

... reaches out both as an expression of my desire to share my own experiences and an invitation to those of you who want to explore a life of joy. As we share our stories we share the joy of our hearts with one another. We will learn more about each another, more about our true selves and more about how intimately the Lord loves us.

Well Said: Testing the Church's Claims - With Prayer

At every turn, while he was investigating the background for his study of Thomas Nashe, he would encounter the Church — what Chesterton called (another book title) The Thing. It was everywhere. At one point, he later told me (and he was never very specific just when that point occurred), he decided that the thing had to be sorted out or he couldn't rest. Either it ws true, or it wasn't. Either the entire matter was true, all of it, exactly as the Church claimed, or it was the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on a gullible mankind. With that choice clearly delineated, he set out to find which was the case. What came next was not more study, but testing.

The matter had to be tested — on its own terms: that is, by prayer. He told me that the principal prayer that he used was not some long or complex formula, but simply, "Lord, please, send me a sign." He reported that, almost immediately, not one but a deluge of signs arrived. And they continued to arrive unabated for a long time. As to just what the signs consisted in and what happened next, well, some things must remain private. The reader may deduce the rest from the fact of his conversion. ...

Eric McLuhan, introduction to 

The Medium and the Light by his father Marshall McLuhan

Worth a Thousand Words: Sun Protection

Sun Protection, Karin Jurick

Well Said: No such thing as supernatural

There's no such thing as the supernatural. Everything, by definition, is natural. But you have to find out what the rules are.

Jack McDevitt, The Devil's Eye

We are about to become missionaries.

Yep. That’s it, in a nutshell: You and I, and the people in our parishes, and the whole church, are about to become new missionaries in a new land — in the vast, untamed and often faithless jungle where “live streams” leave no room for casting out into the deep, and bear no relation to living waters. In the neighborhoods, towns and cities where people have been so long subjected to relativistic engagement, that almost everything has become unfamiliar and strange to them.

Taking our cue from the Incarnate Word — who chose not simply to preach to us about right and wrong, but to live among us, and know us in the fullness of our humanity before he saved us — we are going to purposely push past where we are now, out of our bubbles and our safe-feeling familiarities, to meet others where they are.

The Anchoress boils down the Convocation of Catholic Leaders for us. A great piece. Read it and become inspired. I did.

Hash Brown Frittata

This one's a real find and perfect for meatless Fridays — easy, filling, cheap. Oh, and delicious!

Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Well Said: Taking Christ into the world

Sometimes it may seem to us that there is no purpose in our lives, that going day after day to this office or that school or factory is nothing else but waste and weariness. But it may be that God has sent us there because but for us Christ would not be there. If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile.

Caryll Houselander, Reed of God

Genesis Notes: Wrestling With Faith and a New Name

GENESIS 31 - 33

These are action-packed chapters. Jacob realizes it isn't safe to have such success when Laban can take it away. He packs up for home, faces down his angry father-in-law, prepares for meeting his presumably angry twin, and ... most famously ... wrestles with an angel, who gives him a new name.

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, Léon Bonnat

One thing you've got to say about Jacob. His life was never boring. Or was it? I bet that during those years of exile, working to win Rachel, supporting a growing family, finding a way around unreasonable father-in-law demands, life must have seemed mundane. Frustrating probably. Just like the way we feel when working every day, dealing with family issues, and so forth.

What becomes really clear is that those long, boring, mundane years wrought a change in our trickster.

Several things stand out about God in these chapters: First He keeps His promises. He stayed with Jacob as He promised at Bethel, even though Jacob was gone for a full 20 years. Also as promised, He gave Jacob descendants and is taking him back to Canaan safely, protecting him from Laban's wrath. Secondly, God does not depend on perfect people but uses even human failings to advance His plan. And third, He protects His own, intervening if and when it is necessary. ...

What Jacob does with his fear [of Esau's anger when they meet again] shows how far he's come in 20 years. He takes immediate action to protect his family and herds by dividing them up, and then attempts to pacify his brother and perhaps hold him off a bit by sending ahead a series of herds as presents to him. But most importantly, he prays.  ...

The young Jacob longed for what God promised him and did anything and everything in his power to get there. The mature Jacob continues to want what God has for him and does what is prudent to move ahead, but his prayer shows that he knows he is in God's hands and wants to work with him.

Genesis, Part II: God and His Family

Even though Jacob is a changed man, that doesn't mean he is done wrestling. As he is alone, the night before his meeting with Esau, a man wrestles with him. Later it is revealed that Jacob has been wrestling with God (or at the very least God's messenger). This evokes a lot of images for us, even if our own wrestling is less physical than Jacob's. Doesn't our own wrestling with God and faith leave us changed, even if our name remains the same?

I myself never realized just how imbued Jacob's story is with wrestling. Right down to the moment when Esau's wrestling hold turns into something very different.

the image of wrestling has been implicit throughout the Jacob story: in his grabbing Esau's heel as he emerges from the womb, in his striving with Esau for birthright and blessing, in his rolling away the huge stone from the mouth of the well, and in his multiple contendings with Laban. Now, in this culminating moment of his life story, the characterizing image of wrestling is made explicit and literal. ...

Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell upon his neck. This is, of course, the big surprise in the story of the twins: instead of lethal grappling, Esau embraces Jacob in fraternal affection.

Robert Alter, translation and commentary on Genesis

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: Fireworks in your brain

The Library didn’t only contain magical books, the ones which are chained to their shelves and are very dangerous. It also contained perfectly ordinary books, printed on commonplace paper in mundane ink. It would be a mistake to think that they weren’t also dangerous, just because reading them didn’t make fireworks go off in the sky. Reading them sometimes did the more dangerous trick of making fireworks go off in the privacy of the reader’s brain.”

Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

Worth a Thousand Words: Philippine Duman

The makings for Philippine duman
via EatingAsia where you can get details on this artisanal product.

Worth a Thousand Words: A Study for a Horse and Rider

Peter Paul Rubens, A Study for a Horse and Rider
via Arts Everyday Living

Well Said: My stories affect my Christianity, restore me ...

I stray, and then my stories pull me back if I listen to them carefully. I have often been asked if my Christianity affects my stories, and surely it is the other way around; my stories affect my Christianity, restore me, shake me by the scruff of the neck, and pull this straying sinner into an awed faith.

Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

Well Said: Literature

Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.

Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

Worth a Thousand Words: Five Bighorn Sheep

Five Bighorn Sheep, Colorado Nature Photography

Genesis Notes: Growth and Testing

GENESIS 29 & 30

These chapters are interesting. Jacob, avoiding Esau's anger, is off to seek his fortune. He's been used to getting his own way through trickery and his own wits. but now he's going to come up against other people who are just as wily as he is. And who are also used to getting their own way.

This doesn't make Jacob any less determined, but it does mean it's an opportunity for growth and change. When the chips are down, how do we react? It is this which forms our character.

Also in these chapters, the focus is on family. Jacob falls for Rachel, works to earn her and then is fobbed off with first-born sister Leah. We greatly feel the injustice for Jacob and Rachel. But we also now have Leah in the mix. She longs for her husband's love and is denied repeatedly. And Jacob is continually dealing with his tricky father-in-law who wants nothing more than to cheat him. This is both humbling and serves to teach lessons.

It is not done thus in our place, to give the younger girl before the firstborn. Laban is an instrument of dramatic irony: his perfectly natural reference to "our place" has the effect of touching a nerve of guilty consciousness in Jacob, who in his place acted to put the younger before the firstborn. This effect is reinforced by Laban's referring to Leah not as the elder but as the firstborn (bekhirah). It has been clearly recognized since late antiquity that the whole story of the switched brides is a meting out of poetic justice to Jacob—the deceiver deceived, deprived by darkness of the sense of sight as his father is by blindness, relying, like his father, on the misleading sense of touch. ... *

Jacob has a visceral sense of just what his actions felt like to Esau.

God shows himself in this family struggle as he has through every family we've encountered in Genesis. I think about how he reveals himself through the everyday like breeding sheep and the big events like Leah's children. No special dreams or spoken voices are needed. God's there through everything in this story of our long-ago ancestors in faith.

Jacob and Rachel at the Well, Francisco Antolínez

*Quote from Robert Alter's translation and commentary of Genesis. 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: The common people and the high lords

The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.

George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones

Worth a Thousand Words: Return from fishing, dragging the boat

Return from fishing, dragging the boat; Joaquim Sorolla y Bastida

Save Send Delete Review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life

Danusha Goska has published a thoughtful and generous review at her blog, Save Send Delete.

Here's a bit:

Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life: Prayers and Reflections for Getting Closer is one of the weightiest little books I've ever read. There are just 209 pages of main text, and each page has few words. I open randomly to page one hundred and I find a three-sentence quote from the Gospel of Luke, a brief, one-paragraph quote from Saint Augustine, and ten sentences of reflection from Davis. The few words that appear on each page, though, like the words in a rich poem, are dense with meaning. They are the kind of words that cause the reader to pause and ponder. [...]

Davis wants this book to be an aid to other Christians in their prayer life. Online reviews attest to its value and success at just that. ...

I think Seeking Jesus has another use. I think this would be a great gift to an open-minded Christophobe. There are a lot of people these days who insist that all Christians are violent bigots. Jesus is certainly the main character of this book, but Davis is a very appealing sidekick. She is humble, eager to learn, thoughtful, and patient. I think giving this book as a gift to someone trying to understand a modern American Christian's interior life would be a very charitable act.

Do go read it all. It gives a wonderful overview coupled with Goska's feelings about the book.

Then stop by Amazon to pick up your own copy!

Hansel and Gretel - on SFFaudio

Jesse, Maissa, and I discuss the classic fairy tale, Grimm Brothers style, at SFFaudio. Our discussion is preceded by my unabridged reading of the folk tale.

A good time was had by all. (Except, of course, by the wicked old witch. That goes practically without saying.) Join us!

Worth a Thousand Words: Snow, Moon, Flowers

Sakai Hôitsu; Snow, Moon, Flowers

Well Said: Love and marriage and the right room

It seems like people make the mistake of thinking love is about the bedroom. It's not. It's about the emergency room. Love and marriage are about who will sit there and wait.

Stephen Tobolowsky

Truer words were never spoken.

National Catholic Register Review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life

A lovely review from Sarah Sarah Reinhard at National Catholic Register.

Among other things she says:

"This is about forming a friendship that will last through eternity," Davis writes. And that's exactly the foundation she's set for each reader of this volume.

Go read the rest at NCR and then stop by Amazon to pick up your own copy!

Worth a Thousand Words: Elisabeth of Bavaria

Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria (1865).
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873).

Look at that dress! I know she was a great beauty of the time but that dress is the star of this painting to me.

Lagniappe: Cooking With Actual Food

It was lovely to be cooking with actual food. There's something so grounding about it. It's not that I was doing any magic, beyond the magic it is to take big flat mushrooms and raw potatoes and turn them into something totally delicious. I was just making dinner. But I wonder how much of cooking for someone else is magic anyway, more than I know about. I think it might all be.

Jo Walton, Among Others

This evokes a sense of place and activity that speaks strongly to me, even if it is "just making dinner." And she's right, cooking for others is magical though it is usually felt most strongly when you all come together for the meal.

3 Myths (and 1 Truth) About Grain-Fed Beef

I've been a fan of the Nutrition Diva for a long time. I especially love the way she looks into facts versus what "everyone knows" (a.k.a. "myths) on different topics.

This time she's looking at grain-fed beef, In particular 3 myths and 1 surprising truth about the impact of various feeding programs on the health of the cow and on the environment. That's an area where there are a lot of misconceptions. And I was really surprised by the truth ... also pleased.

You can listen her podcast episode or read the transcript — both are at Nutrition Diva.

Worth a Thousand Words: Sun and Sundial

Sun and Sundial, Wettenhausen monastery emblem

To go with today's quote!

Well Said: May the gods confound the man ...

May the gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours, and the man who put this sun-dial here to cut my day to pieces.

Plautus

Well Said: If you feel like fighting fire with fire ...

If you feel like fighting fire with fire, remember real firefighters use water.

Anonymous

via Lynn Underwood

I love this. It goes hand in hand with the quote someone used at dinner last night.

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

Anonymous

(attributed to many, confirmed for none)

Genesis Notes: Esau's Resume

I've already talked about my soft spot for Esau. Let's look over his resume to see what we can apply from his example to our own lives.

I haven't mentioned this before, but one of my favorite parts of these resumes is at the end when we see where else a person is mentioned in the Bible. I like to read up on how others use their examples also.

Francesco Hayez, Esau and Jacob reconcile

Common sense isn't all that common. In fact, the common thread in many decisions is that they don't make sense. Esau's life was filled with choices he must have regretted bitterly. He appears to have been a person who found it hard to consider consequences, reacting to the need of the moment without realizing what he was giving up to meet that weakness. He also chose wives in direct opposition to his parents' wishes. He learned the hard way.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• Ancestor of the Edomites
• Known for his archery skill
  
• Able to forgive after explosive anger

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• When faced with important decisions, tended to choose according to the immediate need rather than the long-range effect
• Angered his parents by poor marriage choices
  

Lessons from his life:

• God allows certain events in our lives to accomplish his overall purposes, but we are still responsible for our actions
• Consequences are important to consider
• It is possible to have great anger and yet not sin
  

Vital statistics:

• Where: Canaan
• Occupation: Skillful hunter
• Relatives: Parents - Isaac and Rebekah. Brother - Jacob. Wives: Judith, Basemath, and Mahalath.

Key verses:
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears." (Hebrews 12:14-17)

Esau's story is told in Genesis 25-36. He also is mentioned in Malachi 1:2, 3; Romans 9:13; Hebrews 12:16, 17.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. 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.

Study reports beautiful churches important in young people's conversions

Inside of Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal)

Now that there's a study proving what most of us already knew, can we return beauty to our churches?

The Telegraph revealed the results of the study, stating that, “Around 13 percent of teenagers said that they decided to become a Christian after a visit to a church or cathedral.”

Even more surprising was the report’s finding that the “influence of a church building was more significant than attending a youth group, going to a wedding, or speaking to other Christians about their faith.”

In fact, “The study suggests that new methods invested in by the Church, such as youth groups … are less effective than prayer or visiting a church building in attracting children to the Church.”

Philip Kosloski reports on this as well as considering how U.S. parishes have begun building traditionally beautiful churches again.

I still remember being in Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal and seeing a young man standing in the center aisle with tears running down his face. His concerned girlfriend was asking if he was ok. He looked somewhat embarrassed, responding, "No, I was just having a moment. It just hit me all at once."

Yes, that beauty does hit you and hits you hard. If we are open to it, often God's presence is using beauty to touch your soul.

More than beauty is converting young people

The Telegraph reports on the study's other points. Interestingly, the British are dumbstruck that one in six young people are Christian, saying how high these numbers are. I was interested in the point that it is not youth groups or guitar masses that pull people in but having read the Bible or being taken to visit a church.

The study suggests that new methods invested in by the Church, such as youth groups and courses such as Youth Alpha, are less effective than prayer or visiting a church building in attracting children to the church.

One in five said reading the Bible had been important, 17 per cent said going to a religious school had had an impact and 14 per cent said a spiritual experience was behind their Christianity.

“Things which we would class as old hat methods are some of the more effective ways."

Yes, the good old fashioned ways of personal encounter with Christ still work just fine.

Lagniappe: The Anti-authoritarian Authority

“Commander, I always used to consider that you had a definite anti-authoritarian streak in you."

"Sir?"

"It seems that you have managed to retain this even though you are authority."

"Sir?"

"That's practically zen.”

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

Well Said: Blandings Castle and the original garden

The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled. All those who know them long to return.

Evelyn Waugh on P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle series

Well Said: The prayer is like the river itself ...

The words [of the Rosary] are like the banks of a river and the prayer is like the river itself. The banks are necessary to give direction and to keep the river flowing. But it is the river with which we are concerned. So in prayer it is the inclination of the heart to God alone which matters ... As the river moves into the sea, the banks drop away. So, too, as we move in to the deeper sense of God's presence the words fall away and ... we shall be left in silence in the ocean of God's love.

Robert Llewelyn

I don't pray the rosary often but I do find it very helpful occasionally for getting me back on target, getting me back in the river so to speak.

Worth a Thousand Words: An Out of Doors Study

John Singer Sargent, An Out-of-Doors Study, 1889,
depicting Paul César Helleu sketching with his wife Alice Guérin

Worth a Thousand Words: The Artist's Father, Reading a Newspaper

Albert Engström, The Artist's Father, Reading a Newspaper

Genesis Notes: My Soft Spot for Esau

When you are reading slowly through a book the way we are through Genesis, you can never tell what might strike you.

In my case, reading Robert Alter's translation of Genesis what hits me are the details we're given about Esau. He's slow and simple, as we are shown, but darn it, he tries so hard to do what his parents want. And then he's always done down by his own mother as well as his twin.

I already was feeling this, pondering Jacob's theft of the birthright while knowing that at the end of their "twin" saga it is Esau who welcomes his brother home generously. It's one of the unexpected bits of the story that I love most — Esau's welcome home.

Then reading about Jacob going off to find a wife, I noticed for the first time that little insertion of Esau overhearing his mother's dislike of Hittite wives (which he's got two of) and how he went and got a wife from the tribe of Abraham.

And Esau was forty years old and he took as wife Judith the daughter of beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a provocation to Isaac and to Rebekah. ...

And Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life because of the Hittite women! If Jacob takes a wife from Hittite women like these, from the native girls, what good to me is life?" ...

And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him off to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there when he blessed him and commanded him, sayng, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan." ... And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac his father. And Esau went to Ishmael and he took Mahalath daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to his wives, as a wife.

Genesis 26:34-35; 27:46; 28:6, 8-9, Robert Alter transl.

Darn it. Just made me feel worse for him.

It is proof that there is always more in Scripture than we can absorb in just a reading or two. Slow reading allows time to ponder and for it to come truly alive. I have a real fondness for Esau that I'd never have thought possible before.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau, 1624.

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: Lady Writing a Letter

Albert Edelfelt, Lady Writing a Letter

Well Said: Belief in the Middle Ages

From Introduction to Christianity by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) which is admittedly dense but is also simply terrific. One of the things that I love most about this book is the way that Benedict will casually admit a truth that many believers would like to ignore. He does it time and again and every time I mentally cheer because hiding our heads in the sand is not only unbecoming, the only ones we fool are ourselves.

...when today as believers in our age we hear it said, a little enviously perhaps, that in the Middle Ages everyone without exception in our lands was a believer, it is a good thing to cast a glance behind the scenes, as we can today, thanks to historical research. This will tell us that even in those days there was the great mass of nominal believers and a relatively small number of people who had really entered into the inner movement of belief. It will show us that for many belief was only a ready-made mode of life, by which for them the exciting adventure really signified by the word credo was at least as much concealed as disclosed. This is simply because there is an infinite gulf between God and man; because man is fashioned in such a way that his eyes are only capable of seeing what is not God, and thus for man God is and always will be the essentially invisible, something lying outside his field of vision. ...

Benedict never forgets that Truth can only be found by not ignoring all truth when we come across it, even when that truth is something we would rather gloss over. Such as the fact that people are people both in the Middle Ages and now ... and that nominal believers are not something only found in our time.

Lagniappe: Someone was trying to kill him ...

Vimes smiled. Someone was trying to kill him, and that made him feel more alive than he had done in days.

And they were also slightly less intelligent than he was. This is a quality you should always pray for in your would-be murderer.

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

My Interview Tomorrow on EWTN's Son Rise Morning Show

I'm excited to have a chance to discuss Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life on the Son Rise Morning Show. Son Rise Morning Show is a fast-paced morning program covering everything from current events to catechesis, with reflections on the saint of the day and the readings from Mass.

Airing Tuesday, June 13

6:50 a.m. (Central Time)

740AM Sacred Heart Radio in Cincinnati

and on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network

If you miss the show, you can listen to the podcast.

Well Said: Simple and Stupid

Colon thought Carrot was simple. Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was.

Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

My Interview Tomorrow on KATH 910 AM radio

When it rains, it pours! I've got another interview airing this weekend!

I got the chance to tour the local Catholic radio studio and, most importantly, talk with Dave Palmer.

We talked about Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life, but also a whole lot more: my conversion story, podcasting, connecting with Catholics online, and everyday Catholic life.

Here's where you can hear the interview.

Airing Saturday, June 10

3:10 p.m.

KATH 910 AM

North Texas, Guadalupe Radio Network

Lagniappe: "Wot a thing it is to be so sought arter!"

"Wot a thing it is to be so sought arter!" observed Sam, smiling.

"I don't take no pride out on it, Sammy," replied Mr. Weller, poking the fire vehemently, "it's a horrid sitiwation. I'm actiwally drove out o' house and home by it. The breath was scarcely out o' your poor mother-in-law's body, ven vun old 'ooman sends me a pot o' jam, and another a pot o' jelly, and another brews a blessed large jug o' camomile-tea, vich she brings in vith her own hands." Mr. Weller paused with an aspect of intense disgust, and looking round, added in a whisper, "They wos all widders, Sammy, all on 'em, 'cept the camomile-tea vun, as wos a single young lady o' fifty-three."

Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

The Wellers are both wonderful characters and when Sam and his father get together there are few better, or funnier, scenes in literature. I was laughing out loud by the the time Mr. Weller finished explaining to Sam why a coachman is such prime husband material. This is just a sample of the passage.

Christopher Closeup Interview - 2nd Verse - Better Than the First!

Or maybe I remember the second half of my conversation with Tony Rossi as being better because I just kept getting more and more interested myself! As I've said before, Tony is a great interviewer.

If you haven't heard of The Christophers before this is your chance to check out a very worthy group. Their motto is "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." And that's how we all should try to live, right?

Here's where you can hear the interview.

Part 2 of the interview airs this Sunday:

• Sirius-XM’s The Catholic Channel (129) at 6:00 am and 10:30 am (Central time)
• Relevant Radio network at 3:30 pm (Central time)

Tune in and get the inside scoop on Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life ... and me!

Both parts of the interview also will come along as a podcast. Rest assured, I'll let you know when that happens!

Seeking Jesus: "Julie points to very particular aspects of Christ with each entry."

I've been slowly working my way through this book page-by-page, and so far I am really appreciating the ways in which Julie points to very particular aspects of Christ with each entry. It's all too easy to make Christ into an abstraction in prayer, and I love how the text is guiding me back to making that relationship more tangible and concrete. I'm so glad I have a lot more to go!

JoAnna, GoodReads

JoAnna's progress report makes me so happy! That is exactly what I hoped for, that the book would gently lead readers to open up and encounter Christ in their own way.

For a sample, more reviews, or interviews, go here. Or pick up a copy for yourself or as a gift.

If you've read Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life and liked it, please consider posting a review on Amazon or GoodReads. It makes a difference in helping others decide to try it too!

Genesis Notes: Jacob - Chosen By God

GENESIS 27 & 28
These two chapters are interesting in many ways. I remember reading about Jacob having that dream about the ladder and it always seemed as if it would be rather crowded for those angels ... I didn't know exactly what kind of ladder they had in mind.

The ladder described here is probably a ziggurat, the sort of tower built by the people at Babel. A ziggurat was a tall, stepped temple-tower believed to connect heaven and earth - hence the angels ascending and descending the steps. God himself was at the top of the ladder and spoke to Jacob in his dream, a sign that God would now be Jacob's God.

The reconstructed facade of the Neo-Sumerian Great Ziggurat of Ur
(I always wondered what a ziggurat looked like)

What always stood out most was the infighting that was going on in the family. Not only do we have Esau's and Jacob's sibling rivalry, but we have the parents favoring different children. Isaac wants to pass his blessing on to Esau and Rebekah is determined that Jacob will inherit everything, so everyone is working at cross-purposes. By this time, I have been trained to look below the surface just enough to know that Rebekah and Jacob are going to reap a whole lotta trouble for forcing their way through instead of letting God handle it in His own time.

Abraham and Sarah took things into their own hands and tried to produce the promised son through Sarah's maid Hagar (Gen. 16). They were successful in the sense that they had a child, but it was not the son God intended and although God did bless Ishmael, the promises were not fulfilled through him. The results of Abraham and Sarah's efforts were bitterness and discord in the family; division between them; and long lasting trouble between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. Rebekah's and Jacob's efforts to bring about God's will by their own efforts would be equally destructive to their family. Their actions would force Jacob to flee his brother's anger and be separated from his family for 20 years, and he would never see his mother again.

Rebekah's (and Jacob's) actions are not justified; a good end even if promised by God does not justify the use of trickery to get there. But God will make good come of it. (NOTE: we will read in Gen. 48 of a younger twin being blessed - by a blind Jacob this time - over the older without any trickery or double-dealing.)

Once again, it just doesn't seem fair that one person is arbitrarily chosen over another as God's favorite. However, that thinking is just not looking at the "big picture."

That God "loved" Jacob and "hated" Esau means not that Esau (the nation of Edom) was condemned arbitrarily but that Jacob (Israel) was chosen, not on the basis of any intrinsic good or merit but by God's sovereign will. Remember that all mankind is in a state of separation from God. All mankind is "hated," if you will, because of sin. But the love and mercy of God are so great that He reached down and chose one of those "hated" ones and made his family into a channel of blessing for all the world, so that all men might benefit. God "chose us in him before the foundation of the world," Paul told the Ephesians in Eph. 1:4-6, "that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved."

Throughout Israel's history, God had to remind them again and again that being chosen as His "firstborn" did not mean they were better or more deserving of His blessing than anyone else. They only needed to look at their past to see that God does not use human criteria of worthiness. More often than not He selects the young, the weak, the poor, and the undeserving on whom to bestow His grace. All favor is due to God's great love and grace, and not to any merit on our part.

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. 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: It was an age of reform, and even radical reform

It was an age of reform, and even of radical reform; the world was full of radicals and reformers; but only too many of them took the line of attacking everything and anything that was opposed to some particular theory among the many political theories that possessed the end of the eighteenth century. Some had so much perfected the perfect theory of republicanism that they almost lay awake at night because Queen Victoria had a crown on her head. Others were so certain that mankind had hitherto been merely strangled in the bonds of the State that they saw truth only in the destruction of tariffs or of by-laws. The greater part of that generation held that clearness, economy, and a hard common-sense, would soon destroy the errors that had been erected by the superstitions and sentimentalities of the past. In pursuance of this idea many of the new men of the new century, quite confident that they were invigorating the new age, sought to destroy the old sentimental clericalism, the old sentimental feudalism, the old-world belief in priests, the old-world belief in patrons, and among other things the old-world belief in beggars. They sought among other things to clear away the old visionary kindliness on the subject of vagrants. Hence those reformers enacted not only a new reform bill but also a new poor law. In creating many other modern things they created the modern  workhouse, and when Dickens came out to fight it was the first thing that he broke with his battle-axe.

G.K. Chesterton, commenting on Oliver Twist,
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens

That national feeling sounds very familiar, doesn't it?

Worth a Thousand Words: The Oval Fountain in the Gardens of the Villa d'Este, Tivoli

Hubert Robert, The Oval Fountain in the Gardens of the Villa d'Este, Tivoli

From my inbox: Catholic Door Online Store

The New Way to buy Catholic ... shop Catholic ... evangelize.

Catholic Door is the premier Catholic store online. Here you will find the most popular items along with unique and even one of kind items. Whether you are studying up on your faith, getting something to help you during your prayer time, wanting to display your Catholic identity or find the perfect Catholic gift for a loved one, Catholic Door can help you. Our goal is to modernize the shopping experience.

It looks like they sell just about any Catholic thing you need. And they've got a blog with some interesting posts. Check them out!

SFFaudio - Dracula

Jesse, Jim Moon, Paul, and I dig into one of my favorite classics - Dracula by Bram Stoker!