Psalm 22 (part 1) — What Did It Mean Before Jesus Quoted It From the Cross?

In Psalm 22 he speaks in the person of the Savior about the manner of his death. ... The psalmist places all these teachings in front of us because the Lord suffered all this not on his own account but for us.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

After I became Christian I flipped open the Bible one day and came upon Psalm 22 with the distinctive opening line, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

I was stunned. Of course, these are words that Jesus said on the cross. Surely this was prophecy, being written so long before Jesus' passion. Reading further I came upon more familiar moments, all from  accounts of Jesus' crucifixion.

He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him! (Passersby, priests, soldiers and, specifically, one of the two thieves who was crucified with Christ.)

They pierced my hands and feet. (Crucifixion)

I can count all my bones (None of his bones were broken.)

They stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots. (The soldiers dicing for Jesus' robe.)

We can see how this would have great resonance with Christians. It sure did with me. And the Church Fathers were all over it. But, of course, they had the example of Christ on the road to Emmaus showing how all the scriptures related to his coming as Messiah.

That makes it kind of easy to forget it was a psalm that the Jewish people prayed in ancient days before the time of Jesus. Psalm 22 is read on Purim, which commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from a Persian Empire official who was scheming to massacre them with government sanction. So it  is considered a prophetic psalm but about Queen Esther who saved the people. In fact, Jesus would have prayed it as an observant Jew within the community. The fact that he could quote that first line knowing people would get deeper meaning meant he was referring to the significance it already had to the faithful.

We're going to get a couple of takes on this psalm, today reflecting on the psalm itself and next week from Pope Benedict XVI meditating on Jesus quoting it on the cross.

Detail, Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 150

This psalm is long and powerfully descriptive. The psalmist laments God's absence and silence and attacks by humans. However, interwoven in this is trust in God as strength, as one who is listening, as one who will reign and have dominion over nations. The big question in our own lives, as in that of the psalmist, is how do we react when we are in agony and God seems to be absent?

Only as we understand what the psalm means on its own are we better able to understand why Jesus chose these words to reflect his own agony of abandonment by his Father at the final moment of crisis represented by the cross.

Far from being just a prediction of events surrounding Jesus' death the psalm reflects a model of response to abandonment and divine delay ... By quoting just verse 1 of this psalm, Jesus could draw on a long history of awareness on the part of his listeners who knew how the first nineteen verses illustrate the struggle of the faithful sufferer who waits for deliverance by God. ...

The psalmist's faithful response to the absence of God is placed within a broader context of an eschatological* vision of hope. In the midst of fulfilling a vow of praise "in the congregation" — a praise grounded in the past history of Yahweh's faithfulness even in the face of his absence (22:22-24) — the psalmist suddenly sifts gears with a remarkable profession: "My praise in the great assembly [is] from with you!" This phrase is remarkable because the psalmist realizes that even when Yahweh is most distant and entirely absent from our experience, the ability to praise him is a testimony to his enduring presence with those who fear him. The very ability to praise comes from God himself.

This realization catapults the psalmist from a historical reflection to a vision of eschatological hope. ...

It admits the possibility that faithful living may not result in deliverance — that suffering and death are realities for the faithful. But, at the same time, it also understands that present suffering and evil will not ultimately prevent the fulfillment of God's plans. ... The faithful psalmist remains loyal and takes solace in the knowledge that regardless of the personal outcome, God's will will be done.

Psalms vol. 1 (The NIV Application Commentary)

 Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here. 

 

*relating to death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind

Mademoiselle Huquier Holding a Cat

Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, Mademoiselle Huquier Holding a Cat, 1747

 I love  the playful nature of this young lady's pet.

I feel as if life with dogs is easier but I do occasionally miss having a cat around the house. However, even if my husband were amenable, our little white Kaylee would surely try to kill any cat we brought home. So I will just enjoy them in art.

I could never be a Catholic because I'm such a snob.

9 May. Miss Shepherd's funeral is at Our Lady of Hal, the Catholic church round the corner. The service has been slotted into the ten o'clock mass, so that, in addition to a contingent of neighbors, the congregation includes what I take to be regulars: the fat little man in thick glasses and trainers who hobbles along to the church every day from Arlington House; several nuns, among them the ninety-nine-year-old sister who was in charge when Miss S. was briefly a novice; a woman in a green straw hat like an upturned plant pot who eats toffees throughout; and another lady who plays the harmonium in tan slacks and a tea-cozy wig. The server, a middle-aged man with white hair, doesn't wear a surplice, just ordinary clothes with an open-necked shirt, and, but for knowing all the sacred drill, might have been roped in from the group on the corner outside The Good Mixer. The priest is a young Irish boy with a big, red peasant face and sandy hair, and he, too, stripped of his cream-colored cassock, could be wielding a pneumatic drill in the roadworks outside. I keep thinking about these characters during the terrible service, and it reinforces what I have always known: that I could never be a Catholic because I'm such a snob, and that the biggest sacrifice Newman made when he turned his back on the C of E was the social one.

Alan Bennett, The Lady in the Van

This might be one of the biggest compliments to the Church I've ever read.

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The Unbroken Thread by Sohrab Ahmari

Holy moly, what a great book!

Sohrab Ahmari wrote this book for his 2-year-old son, Max, after he began worrying about what sort of man Max would become when formed by our modern culture. Max is named for Maximilian Kolbe, a great saint of the 20th century. Ahmari thought about the gap between our cultural expectations and the culture that led Kolbe to to lay down his life for a man he didn't know. He wanted to bridge the gap between those two different cultures using the "unbroken thread" of tradition — both Tradition as Catholics would know it and tradition from other cultures such as from someone like Confucius.

He begins with the premise that the great traditions offer answers to questions that liberal modernity doesn't even begin to ask. Therefore, Ahmari asks twelve questions, each of which he explores through the life of different great thinkers from across the political and ideological spectrum. The style is kept very readable as it encompasses both story telling and intellectual thinking.

For example, his first question is "how do you justify your life?" What is at the bottom of that question is  modern scientism which says that everything must be measurable through cold, hard facts. The great thinker he uses to help examine this concept is C.S. Lewis.  First we are given a mini-biography so that the context of Lewis's thinking is clear. The place that Ahmari finds Lewis's thinking on science is in the first book of his science fiction trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet.

Some of the thinkers were those I'd heard a lot about, such as St. Thomas Aquinas. However, Ahmari also included people I'd never heard of like anthropologists Edith and Victor Turner. And there were plenty of in-betweens where the most I knew was a vague sense of their contributions, such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It got to the point where I was excited to begin a new chapter to see what thinker was going to be highlighted.

I felt lucky to begin the book on a fairly open weekend so I finished it in two days. It was exciting and satisfying to read. And I was surprised to find myself moved in one spot where a teacher asked a former student, "May I hope that's the second volume of your Gnosticism book?" You'll have to read it yourself to see why that matters.

I really appreciated that Ahmari included people who are not 100% in lockstep with traditional Catholic teachings. It was enough that their basic premises showed logical thinking and that "unbroken thread" from past to present. That in itself is an important lesson to the modern reader in how to discern when someone has the big idea but may go astray on smaller details. He's not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

The others in my household are eagerly waiting their turn before this goes back to the library. Needless to say, I will be buying my own copy for rereading. Highly recommended.

Shop Sign of Gersaint

Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), Shop Sign of Gersaint

The picture was originally painted on one canvas, depicting clients and staff at the shop. As a worker packs away a portrait of Louis XIV at the left, in the centre a young man offers his hand to a woman who is stepping over the threshold of the shop. At the right an elderly couple examine a painting of nudes, and a pretty young shop assistant, possibly Gersaint's wife, shows a painting to a group of well-dressed young people.

I know that trade work was common for artists trying to keep their heads above water, but something about this shop sign really grabs me ... and amuses me at the same time.

Agua Dulce Wine

Agua Dulce Wine by Belinda Del Pesco

This is so evocative of place. I almost feel as if I'm standing in the vineyard.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #47: Art & Copy

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

Art serving capitalism.

We like documentaries. We love advertising.

So we were suckers for this film which looks at the creators of several campaigns which have lent our culture iconic phrases.

Got milk?

It's morning in America.

I want my MTV.

Just do it.

And many more.

The ad stories are told through interviews with some of the chief creative figures of the advertising world from the last few decades. It's interesting to watch the very different styles and ways they describe themselves and their process because they all have the essential ability to distill a product's appeal into key words and images that spark our imaginations.

Dropped into the narrative are facts and figures about advertising and the daily life of a laborer who changes billboard signs. Those added a nice bit of perspective to the sometimes high flown conversation.

"Are there any good coming of age books?"

My friend Meg asked this question during last week's book club and I could only think of Huckleberry Finn. Which I was loathe to include, as was Meg. Now that's crazy because it is, of course, a coming of age book. But, as it turns out, neither Meg nor I like coming of age stories and we both like Huckleberry Finn.

At the same time another friend, Emily, mentioned Anne of Green Gables, to which I automatically said "No." Now that's even more bonkers because, of course, it also is a coming of age story and a good book. To me, though, it seemed too simple and sweet, without the deep layers of angst that I hate when reading about coming of age.

So I went home thinking about Meg's question and my peremptory exclusions. 

Suddenly I understood why I never liked David Copperfield until the very end where he's wrestling with his marriage ... and is an adult! Right. The whole darned book is coming of age with angst. So much angst. (Not that I don't love Aunt Betsy and Mr. Dick because, you know, Dickens isn't going to let you out of any book without making you love at least some of the people in it.)

Rose and I talked this over and came to the conclusion that  coming of age stories are fairly predictable and boring unless that is just one element of a much more compelling, complex tale. 

Naturally, I made a list. 

I'm including two classic coming of age tales because I encountered them at just the right age to love them always. And they manage to be legitimately good books even without lots of other elements.

• Treasure Island
  Pirates! And ... no, that's it - Pirates!
  
  
• Anne of Green Gables
  Classic
  
  
• Little Women
  Classic
  
  
• Kim
  Adventure, espionage, and exotic India from all walks of society
  
  
• Northanger Abbey
  Deliciously fun satire of Gothic novels. And romance!
  
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird
  Small town life in the South, racial injustice, and the best father in the world
  
  
• Huckleberry Finn
  Road trip, adventures on the Mississippi, and racism
  
  
• Citizen of the Galaxy 
  Slavery, beggars, exotic far-off worlds, spaceships, espionage
  
  
• Dune
  Giant worms, interplanetary intrigue, and trying to spot the coming messiah
  
  
• Harry Potter (books 1-7)
  Super villain, wizards, magic, Muggles —you already know why this is fun and also great
  
  
• The Giver
  Fascinating utopian/dystopian society.
  
  
• The City (Dean Koontz)
  Supernatural horror with plenty of jazz
  
  
• The Jungle Book / The Graveyard Book
  Take your pick since Neil Gaiman wrote Graveyard in homage to Jungle. Raised by animals or ghosts, running from a tiger or a hired killer, encountering mysteries and wonders in a world that isn't human.
  
  
• Jane Eyre
  All things gothic and mysterious. Avoid the attic!
  
  
• Something Wicked This Way Comes
  The creepiest carnival ever. Do not — I repeat "do not" — ride the merry-go-round.
  
  
• Ender's Game
  Giant alien insects want to invade Earth. Who can possibly save us?
  

Notre Dame de Bayeaux Crypt

Notre Dame de Bayeux Crypt
By Anton Bielousov

Freedom and small daily acts of self-denial

Unselfishness, which makes men free, is attained only through the patience of small daily acts of self-denial. By this daily passion, which alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego, by this daily passion and by it alone, a man’s eyes are slowly opened. He sees only to the extent that he has lived and suffered. If today we are scarcely able any longer to become aware of God, that is because we find it so easy to evade ourselves, to flee from the depths of our being by means of the narcotic of some pleasure or other. Thus our own interior depths remain closed to us.

Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), 1969 radio address

I try to practice daily self denial (emphasis on try). Thinking of it as a "daily passion" is something new, which elevates it beyond my usual routine.

The Fading of Forgiveness by Timothy Keller

What are the influences that are making forgiveness problematic in our culture?

Pastor Timothy Keller's article about forgiveness is important and worth reading. The article can be found online from Comment magazine.

I came across this article via The Word on Fire podcast where Bishop Barron is discussing it in two parts. Here's part 1.

I finished Les Miserables!

 

I finished!!!

It took three months and so much skimming but I'm glad I read it, although I will never read it again. And I'm very impressed that the Les Miserables movie (Hugh Jackman) did such a good job of carrying through important characters and themes. In fact, if I hadn't seen the movie about 5 times I would occasionally have gotten lost in the novel. As it was, I was fascinated at the places where the plots diverged between the two with both still carrying the same message. In fact, I wound up being surprised that the movie's ending was so overtly religious when the book handled religious elements in that spot with much less emphasis.

At any rate, much as with Crime and Punishment — huzzah! My whole day is one of triumph!

Poppies

Augusto Giacometti - Poppies [1932]
via Gandalf's Gallery

Gardening had gone out the door, nature had returned in all its glory.

Gardening had gone out the door, nature had returned in all its glory. Weeds flourished, which is a wonderful adventure for a poor patch of dirt. The stocks there were having a field day, riotously splendid. Nothing in the garden opposed the sacred effort of things toward life; venerable growth was very much at home. The trees hung down toward the brambles, the brambles reached up toward the trees, the plant climbed, the branch bowed, what crawls on the ground had gone to look for what blossoms in the air, what floats on the wind had stooped toward what trails in the moss; trunks, limbs, leaves, twigs, tufts, tendrils, shoots, thorns mixed together, crossed, married, merged; in a close and powerful embrace, the vegetation had achieved and celebrated there, under the satisfied eye of the Creator, in this enclosure of three hundred square feet, the sacred mystery of His fraternity, a symbol of human fraternity. This garden was no longer a garden, it was a colossal thicket, that is, as impenetrable as a forest, as crowded as a town, as tremulous as a nest, as sombre as a cathedral, as fragrant as a bouquet, as lonely as a tomb, as full of life as the teeming multitudes.

In Floréal, this enormous bushland, free behind its gate and within its four walls, began to rut in the mute labour of universal germination, quivering in the rising sun almost like an animal gulping in the effluvia of cosmic love and feeling the April sap rise and boil in its veins; it shook its extravagant green hair in the wind, scattered over the wet ground, over the worn statues, over the crumbling steps of the villa and even over the pavement in the deserted street, flowers like stars, dew like pearls, fecundity, beauty, life, joy, perfume. At noon, a thousand white butterflies took refuge there, and it was a divine spectacle to see this living summer snow swirling there in flakes in the shade. There, in the jaunty gloom of the greenery, a host of innocent voices spoke softly to the soul, and what the warbling forgot to say, the humming completed. At night a dreamy vapour rose from the garden and enveloped it; a shroud of mist, a calm celestial sadness covered it; that intensely intoxicating smell of honeysuckle and wild morning glory wafted up on all sides like an exquisite and subtle poison; you could hear the final calls of the tree creepers and the wagtails dozing off under the branches; you could feel the sacred intimacy of bird and tree; of a day, the wings rejoice the leaves, of a night, the leaves protect the wings.

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Victor Hugo will take very long side trips in the course of telling his story, many of which I don't care about much. This description of the garden where Marius and Cosette meet, however, is so wonderfully described that I copied it into my quote journal and have read it over several times. It is so evocative.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #46: Intouchables

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

Sometimes you have to reach into someone else's world to find out what's missing in your own.

 

 Wealthy quadriplegic Philippe needs an assistant to help him with all the functions of daily life.

Immigrant, ex-con Driss needs a signature on his application to fulfill unemployment requirements.

Philippe hires Driss because the regular applicants are missing one important quality and the lives of both men are changed.

This sounds like a predictable enough plot except it is played as a sympathetic comedy. Philipe doesn't want pity. Driss has irrepressible honesty and humor that changes the dynamic of many scenes from what we expect to see. They make each other laugh. They enrich each other's lives. They broaden each other's worlds.

Omar Sy is a delight, as always. We've been enjoying him in the French series Lupin where his charm keeps coming through. Francois Cluzet is masterful in a role where all the acting must be done with voice and expressions. Both performances are nuanced.

It is based on a true story. The original Philippe turned down several movie offers until these filmmakers presented him with this comedic script. After watching the movie I can see why. There are moments of both pathos and comedy for both men. Neither is perfect and each is untouchable in his own way. It shows that no matter our handicaps, life goes on. We choose how to live it.

Study of a Hat

Study of a Hat (1889), Susan Merrill Ketcham
via Books and Art

Psalm 21 — Thanksgiving and Trust

Psalm 21 reveals Christ's kingdom, and the power of his judgment, and his coming again in the flesh to us and the summoning of the nations

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

This psalm is like an response to Psalm 20's anticipation of God's promised support. Both trust in victory and both are royal psalms.

 More importantly in our understanding, is that the king serves as a model for individual believers and their relationships with God. Reading this psalm do we see ourselves trusting God's strength and unfailing love?

The top of the photo has source information.
I look at this fragment and wonder who used it in prayer,
who was inspired by it, how long has it been used?
It's another reminder of the timelessness of the psalms.

Psalm 20. Contemporary Significance.

Characteristic of Israelite kingship was a tension that most of us face almost daily. If you look at the early narratives of the origins of Israel's monarchy, this tension is very apparent. The Kings constantly struggled with competing demands. On the one hand, the people wanted them to become political and military leaders winning victories against Israel's enemies. On the other hand, God  called them while demanding them to forego the normal kingly reliance on military, political, and financial power in order to lead the people in the ways of Yahweh. [...] Rather than the usual forms of kingly power, therefore, the kings were required to bind themselves to keep the law of Yahweh and to rely on him alone.

Psalms vol. 1 (The NIV Application Commentary)

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.

Love, Treachery, and Other Terrors by Katharine Campbell

Fairies have one job. They are tasked with helping people learn and practice virtue. I am sure you've heard stories of fairies taking the form of beggars, blessing those who help them, and cursing those who don't.

However, not all fairies are good. Instead of helping people practice virtue, some encourage vice. These are the types of fairies you generally want to avoid. Nothing would delight them more than seeing you destroy someone you love.

Unfortunately, for the young King Alexander, his sister falls victim to a pair of such fairies who convince her to launch a coup. Alexander has no choice but to flee to a barbarian kingdom and try to build himself a new life among the uncouth locals.

Even if happiness were possible in such a place, could he live with himself if he left his people at the mercy of such evil beings? And even if he wanted to help his people, how could he possibly match the fairies' power?

I enjoyed this book a lot. It is a fractured fairy tale of sorts, updated for modern sensibilities but still anchored in the things that make for good fairy tales — fantastic adventures, heroes, right and wrong, good and evil, and even a faithful hound. There are even solid spiritual lessons woven into it, thankfully without ever hitting you over the head with them.

All this is told with a good sense of humor, clever plot twists, and solidly developed characters. I was really on tenterhooks at the end, wondering what sort of countermeasures Alexander could come up with against the two evil fairies. (He did it very cleverly, by the way.)

Definitely recommended.

Udria Cliff

Udria Cliff, Remo Savisaar

 

Creating what does not exist and changing natures to something new

If the words of Elijah had power even to bring down fire from heaven, will not the words of Christ have power to change the natures of the elements? You have read that in the creation of the whole world he spoke and they came to be; he commanded and they were created. If Christ could by speaking create out of nothing what did not yet exist, can we say that his words are unable to change existing things into something they previously were not? It is no lesser feat to create new natures for things than to change their existing natures.

St. Ambrose, from treatise on the Mysteries

This is such a basic bit of logic and yet one that never occurred to me. Now I just have to hope it pops into my mind if I am in discussion about the Eucharist.

Michelangelo’s Handwritten 16th-Century Grocery List

Michelangelo’s Handwritten 16th-Century Grocery List
via J.R.'s Art Place

“Because the servant he was sending to market was illiterate,” writes the Oregonian‘s Steve Duin in a review of a Seattle Art Museum show, “Michelangelo illustrated the shopping lists — a herring, tortelli, two fennel soups, four anchovies and ‘a small quarter of a rough wine’ — with rushed (and all the more exquisite for it) caricatures in pen and ink.”

A child is not an "add on"

A child does not come from outside as something to be added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2366

Canticle: Letter to the Philippians (2: 6-11) – He humbled himself

He humbled himself

We're taking another short break from the psalms to consider another canticle. This one is featured in the Liturgy of the Hours every Sunday in evening prayer, so we know it is a biggie. When you go read it, you'll recognize it from the fact that it is often mentioned in the regular liturgical readings. And it is one of my favorites since I need that reminder that Jesus' obedience is key to our salvation. Like everyone, I struggle with obedience so this is something that hits me fresh every time I read it. Once a week seems just about right!

Icon of the Mosaic Pantocrator (Agia Sophia)

In every Sunday celebration of Vespers the liturgy proposes anew the Christological hymn of the Letter to the Philippians (cf. 2: 6-11) which is short but laden with meaning. We are examining the first part of this hymn that has just resounded (vv. 6-8), in which the paradoxical "self-emptying" of the Divine Word is described as he divests himself of his glory and takes on the human condition.

Christ, incarnate and humiliated by the most shameful death of crucifixion, is held up as a vital model for Christians. Indeed, as is clear from the context, their "attitude must be that of Christ" (v. 5), and their sentiments, humility and self-giving, detachment and generosity.

[...]

The basic element of this first part of the Canticle seems to me to be the invitation to enter into Jesus' sentiments. Entering into the sentiments of Jesus means not considering power, riches and prestige as the supreme values in our lives, for basically they do not respond to our most profound spiritual thirst, but rather, by opening our hearts to the Other, carrying with the Other our life's burden and opening ourselves to Our Heavenly Father with a sense of obedience and trust, knowing that by such obedience to the Father, we will be free. Entering into the sentiments of Jesus: this should be our daily practice of living as Christians.

Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on Evening Prayer, June 1, 2005

I've linked above to where you can find this on the Vatican website. However, there are actually four different homilies, one for each week, in the series on the evening prayers for the Liturgy of the Hours. Two are by Saint John Paul II and two are from Pope Benedict XVI. You may read them all at Totus Tuus.

An index of canticle posts is here.   

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Goodness gracious, I first shared this recipe in 2004. That is so long ago! In the meantime, I've made a number of time-saving changes or those that up the flavor. This soup is so simple and so delicious you've got to try it so I'm rerunning it, revised. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #45: Attack the Block

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

Inner City vs. Outer Space

 

This was one of my favorite movies of 2013 and I just realized that I never gave more than a one line description of this unexpected delight.

It's a good, solid monster movie with a basic puzzle to solve in order to rid oneself of the monsters. In this case, the twist is that the alien monsters land in London. The only ones to realize what's happening are some young thugs in a council block (that translates to "the projects" in the U.S.). They must battle the aliens while trying to escape the police who believe the resulting destruction is from gang violence. Its thoroughly enjoyable if one doesn't expect too much from it and watching the young actors is a delight, many of whom were recruited from local acting schools.

I especially enjoyed the fact that you can tell the aliens are not computer generated. The young actors said that they were actually frightened during action sequences because they were acting with real, unpredictable "creatures" ... it both shows and enhances the film.

The director went to a lot of trouble to get the place right. He interviewed council block kids to find out what weapons they'd grab if aliens landed. They use real slang and at times I felt as if I were watching a foreign language film with the captions off. However, there was always enough understandable dialogue for context.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

It is Mom's birthday. This is the second year she is with us so we can enjoy celebrating the day together.

I'm not making a Sunflower Cake but odds are good that I will be making her a chocolate cake of some sort. She's requested a chocolate cake with orange frosting and that is a divine combination.

I put the sunflower cake picture because Mom loves sunflowers (as do I). And that's perfect, actually because thinking of Mom's birthday makes me think of how many we celebrated when I was growing up in Kansas. One of my fondest memories is of sunflowers everywhere. The scene below is typical of what you'd see driving through backroads through the open country. It is thanks to Mom that I have my enduring love of nature, flowers, and wildlife of all sorts. That's a gift you can never say thank you enough for.

Happy birthday Mom!

Either man governs his passions and finds peace, or ...

... either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.126 "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint.

[...]

Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2339, 2342

Yoshida-jinja Shrine Aichi

Yoshida-jinja Shrine Aichi, Find47

 

If Christ had acted as we do

Let us not be insensible of Christ's loving kindness. For if he had acted as we do, we would have been lost indeed.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, letter to the Magnesians

Basket of Berries

Basket of Berries by Sarah Miriam Peale

Since I was talking about Strawberry Raspberry Pie, this seemed perfect!

What is a Yankee?

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

E.B. White

So true! Tom told us this because Rose and I were talking about eating Strawberry-Raspberry Pie for breakfast. Because, you know, it is mostly fruit and, therefore, so healthy! It was delicious. And did not make us Yankees! It just made us happy.

"I'm from Texas"

A man from Iowa or Illinois will say "I'm from the Middle West"..a Georgian or a Mississippian may admit to being merely a Southerner...but no Texan, given the opportunity, ever said otherwise than "I'm from Texas."

J. Frank Dobie, Texan

Indeed, very true!

Gerontius

Gerontius, N Puttapipat Illustration

 

Good Listening, Catholic Style

Here are a few podcast episodes that I really enjoyed in the last few days:  

• Disney and Theology.
  Brandon and Father Blake at The Burrowshire Podcast discuss the The Disney Renaissance (aka The Disney Decade), lasting from 1989-1999, and examine the religious themes of four Disney films: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
   
• Catholicism and Race.
  Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers (a favorite speaker of mine) is on Catholic Answers Focus with an answer to the scourge of racism — imitating Jesus. Our society refuses this path, preferring a culture of constant critique and revolution. It is time that the revolutionaries heard the hard truth—their cure is no cure at all. Real healing requires us to take up the Gospel with courage and humility.
  
  
•  The Poison of Indifference.
  Indifference does not mean you don’t care; it just means you don’t care enough to move. Father Mike Schmitz's homily about allowing one’s circle of interest to outstrip one’s circle of influence.
  
  
• The Best Argument for Outlawing Assisted Suicide.
  Trent Horn reports on a worrisome uptick in assisted suicides in Canada and lays out a blueprint for arguing against this offense to innocent human life.

REREAD — Catholic Family Fun by Sarah A. Reinhard

I reviewed this book when it came out in 2012. All these years later I am a godmother and a grandmother and sat down to reread this for inspiration. It is even more of a treasure now that I know I'll have reason to use it myself ... and soon!

I'm rerunning the review for anyone who doesn't know about this wonderful resource.

Right now the wind may have gone out of your summer sails and family time together may be more about feudin' and fightin' than enjoying each others' company.

I've got the solution. How about trying:

• Unbirthday Party
• Mystery Food Night
• Backyard Circus
• Silly Story Hour

Catholic Family Fun is a guide families can use for having a great time together, often using supplies from around the house or just plain imagination. Sarah Reinhard has a variety of ingenious ways to have fun in an old fashioned way that doesn't seem "old fashioned." The headings alone point you in the right direction. Who can resist Silly Things to Do Together, Story Starters, or Outdoor Adventures?

Each activity has a several variations, starters to help you get going, faith angles, and a way to "make it yours." There must be over a hundred possibilities when you consider all the alternatives. Some of these are activities that we did with our children when they were little but many of the variations are new to me. I'd have loved this book as an idea generator for a way to grow closer to the kids.

In keeping with the faith theme, the sections Faith with Fun, Ways to Serve, Saints to Celebrate and Praying Together are all just as fun and ingenious as the rest of the book. Somehow I never thought of doing the housework together while singing the Divine Mercy chaplet but just thinking about the house ringing with that song is one that makes me smile.

Although it is Catholic Family Fun, you could easily give it to families who don't care about the Catholic angle. Fun is fun no matter what a family does or doesn't believe. In the faith areas, many of the service ideas, for example, work just as well for any faith orientation with a bit of creative tweaking.

Just reading this book cast my memory back to sleepovers our girls would have when the big event was a musical show. The kids planned, costumed, and scripted it using Disney soundtracks. The next morning, all the parents got a show. Nothing we bought them could have given the fun and excitement they had from those evenings. This book is full of similar ways of "making" your own good times.

Full disclosure: when this book showed up in the mail, I immediately began thinking of which young mother of my acquaintance would be the recipient. Certainly, I planned on reading a few sample chapters at best. Therefore, this book's best testimony is that a third of the way into it, I was wishing I'd had it when my children were small and planning to tuck it away thinking "grandchildren someday."

Families with small children or grandchildren need this book. Period. If I had the cash, I'd keep a supply on hand to distribute to my many friends with small children. This could not only save their sanity but give them the reputation as the most fun mom on the block.

I will leave you with this lengthy excerpt because it makes the point about what a treasure this book is much better than I can. I chose this because I could easily imagine how much fun my husband and the kids would have had planning a course and then coming up with other variations. It shows how flexibility and creativity are the order of the day so that you can get on with having the fun.

Obstacle Course

Prep: High 2-4 hours
Duration: Less than 1 hour
Cost: Medium

My adult love of obstacle courses began recently, when a friend whose house is a frequent landing place for us suggested using an obstacle course setup to teach some math concepts. Watching our then-preschoolers laughing, and then observing how they started playing and modifying on their own, I was hooked.

I began to see the backyard as a canvas. Add some simple ingredients—a hula hoop, some lawn chairs, a folding table, a sawhorse, some PVC pipe, a ball or two, a baby pool, and anything that strikes your fancy from the house or garage. Spend a little time arranging, and voila! An obstacle course!

You may not have a large backyard—or even any backyard—but a room in your house, cleared out, could just as easily host your obstacle course. For that matter, you can build a miniature obstacle course on your kitchen table and race marbles or small objects through it.

Here are some of my ideas for obstacle courses. Let them spark your imagination—and be sure to get input from your family. You may find that creating and building the course if part of the fun!

1. The Whole Body Challenge: This is the full-blown backyard version of the idea. Gather your materials and dedicate an evening to devising and building an obstacle course. These tasks could be part of your family fun agenda.

a. Materials you could use: lawn chairs, buckets, small balls (plastic or foam), beach ball, sports balls (soccer, basketball), PVC pipe, baby pool, folding table, backyard play structures, rope, hula hoops, cardboard boxes, bandanas (for blindfolds), safety cones (overturned buckets, old tires, laundry baskets, or large cardboard boxes can serve the same purpose).

b. A few obstacle ideas to get things started:

• Balance beam: lay a length of or a plank (wood or cardboard) along the  ground. The object is to walk along it.
• Ball toss: place a bucket a distance away from a pile of balls. Toss the balls into the bucket. Bonus for doing it blind-folded.
• Crawl: line up a row of chairs (or a long bench) and crawl underneath it.
• Kicking weave: Put safety cones (or overturned buckets) in a row, with a beach or soccer ball at the end. Weave among them, kicking the ball.
• Repetition on the play set: find a way to use the different parts of your backyard play set. Go up and down the slide three times or swing five times back and forth. Try the same course backward—either facing backward or doing things in the opposite order.

2. Tabletop obstacle course ...


3. Croquet with a twist ...

Faith Angle

1. Life Obstacles ...
2. Old Testament obstacle course: Build an obstacle course around an Old Testament Bible story. For example, you could use a sandbox for a desert and have a wading pool nearby for a sea, and then have everyone sprint to escape the Egyptians (reference Exodus 14). You could build a maze—life size using cardboard or smaller using toilet paper rolls—for the 40 years the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, winding up with a feast in the "Holy Land."
3. Saint Obstacles ...

Make It Yours

• Make it a race to the finish! Use a stopwatch to time the participants as they go through the courses.
•  Pair up into teams. Have one team build the course and the other team go through it. who built the harder course? Who completed it faster? 
• Relays are always a fun way to change things up. Give each team a stick to serve as a baton; if the baton drops, the team has to start over. 

One More Step, Mr. Hands

One More Step, Mr. Hands, N.C. Wyeth
illustration for Treasure Island (1911) by Robert Louis Stevenson

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls by Hiroshi Yoshida
via J.R's Art Place

 

What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies!

Or it might be the third case, of the madman who called himself Christ. If we said what we felt, we should say, “So you are the Creator and Redeemer of the world: but what a small world it must be! What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies! How sad it must be to be God; and an inadequate God! Is there really no life fuller and no love more marvellous than yours; and is it really in your small and painful pity that all flesh must put its faith? How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down!”

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

This is so fascinating when considered with our world 113 years after Orthodoxy was written. With the denial of religion and the underpinnings of Western culture, we can see that there are an awful lot of people who are like "the madman who called himself Christ."

Psalm 20 — The King and the Community Can Trust the Lord with Their Desires

When you see others in affliction, comfort them by praying with them in the words of Psalm 20.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

Several sources point out that this is a royal psalm, invoking blessing on the king during Israel's time of trouble. How many times have we asked God to give us wise rulers, to inspire them to right action, and to bless the outcome of their decisions? I don't know about you, but in my church we do it every Sunday. 

John Paul II points out how this psalm connects us with Christ who is, of course, the ultimate king. His actions and judgments we can trust unreservedly.

King David, David Jarvis (some rights reserved)

The Messiah as Ultimate King

... chariots and horses (cf. v. 8) are mentioned and seem to be advancing on the horizon; however, the king and his people put their trust in the Lord who marches with the weak, the oppressed, those who are victims of the arrogant conquerors.

It is easy to understand how Christian tradition transformed this Psalm into a hymn to Christ the King, the “consecrated one” par excellence, “the Messiah” (cf. v. 7). He comes into the world without armies, but with the strength of the Spirit. He launches the definitive attack against evil and guile, against arrogance and pride, against lies and egoism. The words Christ addressed to Pilate, emblem of sovereign earthly power, reverberate in our ears: “I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn 18: 37).

2. In reviewing the structure of this Psalm, we notice that it reveals in filigree a liturgical celebration being held in the Temple of Jerusalem. It depicts the assembly of the sons of Israel who pray for the king, head of the nation. Indeed, it opens with a fleeting reference to a sacrificial rite, one of the many sacrifices and holocausts offered by the king to the “God of Jacob” (Ps 20 [19]: 2), who does not abandon “his anointed” (v. 7), but protects and supports him.

The prayer is deeply marked by the conviction that the Lord is the source of security: he goes to meet the confident desire of the king and of the entire community, bound by the terms of the covenant. The threat of war hangs in the air, with all the fears and risks to which it gives rise. The Word of God does not appear as an abstract message, but rather a voice that adapts to humanity’s miseries, great and small. It is for this that the Psalm uses military language and reflects the oppressive climate of war in Israel (cf. v. 6), thus adapting to the feelings of men in difficulty.

John Paul II, General Audience, Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.

Preparing for the Matinee

Preparing for the Matinee, Edmund Tarbell

 

Eiffel Tower from Below

Eiffel Tower from Below

 

Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing ...

Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin – a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing. But certain religious leaders in London, not mere materialists, have begun in our day not to deny the highly disputable water, but to deny the indisputable dirt. Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Still Life with Oranges by Adelaide Palmer

Still Life with Oranges by Adelaide Palmer

Sharing food ...

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

M. F. K. Fisher

We should be displeased at what displeases God

We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God. Sinful though we are, let us at least be like God in this, that we are displeased at what displeases him. In such measure then you will be in harmony with God's will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

St. Augustine, Sermon

Pazzi Madonna

Donatello, Pazzi Madonna

 

Psalm 19 (part 3) — Right Relationship with Nature and God

As you wonder at the order of creation, the grace of providence and the sacred prescriptions of the Law, sing Psalm 19

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

Psalm 19 reveals the truth about what "everybody knows" in ancient and modern times. First  it sets the record straight for the pagans living around them at the time by pointing out that the sun, moon, and stars are not divine beings.

Psalm 19 has some enlightenment for us today too. It points out that the Law is a source of delight and love, rather than the idea of punishment or restriction that our narrow modern understanding of the word "law" might suggest.

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud,
ESA/Hubble (click the image to see it larger)

19:1. The Heavens Tell the Glory of God

A Rebuke to Idolators. Athanasius: Creation ... points to God as its Maker and Artificer, who reigns over creation and over all things, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; whom would-be philosophers turn from to worship and deify the creation that proceeded from him, which yet itself worships and confesses the Lord whom they deny on its account. For if people are awestruck at the parts of creation and think that they are gods, they might well be rebuked by the mutual dependence of those parts; which moreover makes known and witnesses to the Father of the Word, who is the Lord and Maker of these parts also, by the unbroken law of their obedience to him ... Against the Heathen

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

Demythologizing the Cosmos

What we usually recognize as inanimate creation is here given life and voice as the heavens and skies "declare," "proclaim," and "pour forth speech in praise of the creator. ... [The verbs and participles] emphasize the continuously ongoing nature of the proclamation made by the heavens ... This is, then, a continual outcry of nature to God from the moment of creation until now and on into the future.<br><br>In a more subtle fashion the heavens in Israelite Scripture proclaim that Yahweh is the only true God. In the pagan world of the ancient Near East the heavenly bodies — sun, moon, stars — were divine beings who exercised power over their own realms and over humans. In Psalm 19, however, the sun appears not as an independent deity but as one of the "works of [God's] hands" who carry out his bidding ... By removing the polytheistic element of creation the biblical poets emphasize the sovereignty of Yahweh over the created universe. In this way the heavens with all their features testify to the glory and creative might of the one who made them.

Psalms vol. 1 (NIV Application Commentary)

================

Torah as Guidance and Blessing

As Psalm 19 suggests, Israel proclaimed the Torah to be no onoerous burden but instead the source of wisdom (19:7), joy (19:8b), and light (19:8d). Torah is both precious (19:10a) and pleasurable (19:10c). ...

It is this broader understanding of Torah that makes the traditional translation "law" such an inadequate interpretaion of this complex concept. We tend to equate Torah and law on a one-to-one basis that leads us frequently to misunderstand what Israel experienced through her long acquaintance with Torah. ...

The purpose of Torah is to "warn" the faithful servant of Yahweh (19:11a) to remain on the path that leads to "reward" (19:11b). By its buidance, one is empowered to understand one's errors and to avoid "hidden faults" or "willful sin" (19?12-13a). Rather than restriction, Torah offers freedom from the rule of sin and consequently escape from divine judgment (19:13b-c).

The appropriate response to Torah, according to the psalmists, is "delight" (1:2; 119-70, 77, 92, 174) and "love" (119:97, 113, 163), not some grim-lipped adherence. It is through Torah that life is preserved (119:93, 149, 165). It is little surprise that the later postbiblical celebration of the end of the yearly Torah reading cycle and the beginning of the next was called Simhat Torah ("Joy of the Torah"), emphasizing the joy that the Jewish community experiences in having the Torah to guide their lives before God. ...

Rather than a heavy burden, rightly understood, the law was the guide to continued life and restoration of communion with the holy God.

Psalms vol. 1 (NIV Application Commentary)

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.

C/o Kancharapalem

From a schoolboy’s crush to a middle-aged bachelor’s office romance, four love stories spanning age, religion and status unfold in a small Indian town.

Kancharapalem is the name of a little neighborhood, which some of the residents actually call their village, in a small Indian town. Telugu is spoken there so this is not a Bollywood film but a Tollywood film, as the Telugu-language film industry is called. This movie features four very sweet love stories which engaged us from the beginning. Interesting side note: none of the 80 people in the film are actors.

Director Venkatesh Maha recruited most of his cast, nearly 80 non-actors, who are from the town itself. While no one in the town took seriously that he was making a film, they had shown great enthusiasm to act nonetheless. — Wikipedia

And they do a great job. The critics loved this and so did we. It went on my favorite movies of 2021 list as soon as we saw it.

Hannah and Rose talk about it in episode 46 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

It is streaming on Netflix and for rent on Amazon and various other places.

Tasty Caterpillar

Tasty Caterpillar, Remo Savisaar

I do not have to win the world ...

I do not have to win the world, even for Christ: I have to save my soul. that is what I must always remember, against the temptation of success in the apostolate. And so I will guard myself against impure means. It is not our mission to make truth triumph, but to testify for it.

Henri de Lubac, Paradoxes of Faith

August Afternoon

Childe Hassam, August Afternoon

 

When people forget to worship God

When people forget to worship God they begin to worship human beings, and from there it is but a short distance to tyranny.

Jonathan Sacks, Exodus: The Book of Redemption

À Chloris

À Chloris, Edward B. Gordon

 

Psalm 19 (part 2) — God's Self Revelation

As you wonder at the order of creation, the grace of providence and the sacred prescriptions of the Law, sing Psalm 19

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

God's creation is a revelation. The more we learn, the more we wonder at the intricacy of the natural world, all of which is a mute testimony to God's creative genius.

God's law is a revelation. Below we will see some Jewish commentators about the connection with the sun and Torah. Of course, the Church Fathers didn't miss that connection and further connect the sun with Christ.

Christus helios, the mosaic which is interpreted as Christ-Sol (Christ as the Sun).
From the necropolis under St. Peter's Mid-3rd century

The classical Jewish commentators all point to the connection the psalmist makes between the sun and the Torah. These connections include:

• The Torah enlightens man, just as the sun lights his way (Rashi)
• Both the sun and the Torah testify to the glory of their Creator (Ibn Ezra and Radak)
• The Torah is more perfect, whole, or complete than the powerful sun (Metzudat David)
• While the sun conveys God's glory and greatness in the physical world, the Torah expresses God's glory in the spiritual realm (Malbim).

Wikipedia

================

19:6. Nothing Hidden from Its Heat

The Benign Light of Christ. Ambrose: Christ fills his world with copious lights, since "his going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end of it, and there is no one who can hide himself from his heat." Benignly he gives light to all, wishing not to repel the foolish but to correct them and desiring not to exclude the hard of heart from the church but to soften them. Hence ... Christ in the Gospel invites them, saying, "Come to me, all you who labor, and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." On His Brother Satyrus

19:10. To Be Desired

Desirable Light. Clement of Alexandria: "Sweet is the Word that gives us light, precious above god and gems; it is to be desired above honey and the honeycomb." for hos can it be other than desirable, since it has filled with light the mind that had been buried in darkness and given keenness to the "light-bringing eyes" of the soul? For just as, had the sun not been in existence, night would have brooded over the universe notwithstanding the other luminaries of heaven, so, had we not known the Word and been illuminated by him, we should have been nowise different from fowls that are being fed, fattened in darkness and nourished for death. Let us then admit the light that we may admit God; let us admit the light that we may admit God; let us admit the light and become disciples to the Lord. Exhortation to the Greeks

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.

Banded Demoiselle

Banded Demoiselle, Remo Savisaar

A Movie You Might Have Missed #44: Ink

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

The power of dreams is stronger than you think.

As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge. They are invisible except for the power they exert over us in our sleep, battling for our souls through dreams. One force delivers hope and strength through good dreams; the other infuses the subconscious with desperation through nightmares.

John and Emma, father and daughter are wrenched into this fantastical dream world battle, forced to fight for John's soul and to save Emma from an eternal nightmare. Separate in their journey, they encounter unusual characters that exist only in their subconscious. Or do they?

This is actually a movie that almost everyone missed. I know I did. I never heard of it until Mom showed me the dvd. Intrigued by the description, she'd had it for a long time and hadn't watched it. It has a slow start (just let the first 20 minutes wash over you) but then the story pulls you in. We both found ourselves emotionally invested by the end of the film and talked about it through dinner afterward.

Part of the slow start is necessary to explain the world you are dropped into. The story is ultimately a tale about free will, how our choices affect those around us, and, ultimately, the power of love. I also really appreciated that this was made on a shoestring ($250,000) and the way they managed locations and special effects without affecting the otherworldliness of the film. Lastly, I liked the storyline effects with different color themes telling us whose eyes we were seeing through. The filmmakers did a good job with telling an inventive story in a way that kept us engaged.