Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie.

As you'd expect, this was tons of fun. I especially enjoyed the way Charlie's common sense and regular life experience gave him an edge in dealing with rival super villains.

I will say that the beginning seemed a bit slow, mostly because we already knew the "surprise" that was revealed in slow stages to Charlie — that his uncle was a super villain. I mean to say, it's in the title. And the book blurb. So I was a bit impatient over how slowly this was unrolled for us.

However, the pace picked up once those first few chapters were over and he'd followed the cat. It's perfect for those moments when you just want popcorn for your brain.

A Cloud and Landscape Study by Moonlight

A Cloud and Landscape Study by Moonlight, Johan-Christian-Clausen Dahl

This seems so evocative of autumn and also the upcoming celebration of Halloween.

The Litany of the Counsel of the Saints III

Magnificat usually has this wonderful litany this month leading up to All Saints' Day.  There will be a posting of part of this litany throughout October.

This litany is a meditation on what some of the saints have spoken or written. As we listen to these saints, we pray for a deeper personal participation in their sanctity. This litany represents only a small sampling of the vast communion of the saints. Feel free to add our favorites to it. One option is to sing the litany and its response.

R. (Saint's name), pray for us

Saint Athanasius: "It is the Father's glory that man, made and then lost, should be found again' and, when done to death, that he should be made alive, and should become God's temple." R

Saint Ephrem the Syrian: "O Jesus, in that hour, when darkness like a cloak shall be spread over all things, may your grace shine on us in place of the earthly sun." R

Saint Charles Borromeo: "The candle that gives light to others must itself be consumed. Thus we also have to act. We ourselves are consumed to give a good example to others." R

Saint Catherine De' Ricci: "You have been reborn with him through a holy desire to live a new life, looking at yourselves as reflected in his life." R

Saint Cecilia: "To die for Christ is not to sacrifice one's youth, but to renew it. Jesus Christ returns a hundred-fold for all offered him, and adds to it eternal life." R

St. Cecilia, Guido Reni

Saint Leo the Great: "Let us be raised to the one who made the dust of our lowliness into the body of his glory." R

Saint Patrick: "I arise today through the strength of Christ with his baptism, through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, through the strength of his Resurrection with his Ascension." R

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque: "All my pleasure in this land of exile is that of having every other kind of suffering found on the cross, deprived of every other consolation except that of the Sacred Heart." R

Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort: "In Mary alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made godlike as far as human nature is capable of it." R

Saint Benedict: "What is more delightful than this voice of the Lord calling to us? See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life." R

Saint Columba: "Loving Savior, inspire in us the depth of love that is fitting for you to receive as God." R

Saint Benedict of Nursia by Fra Angelico

Excusing Hatred Against Jews

 Here's a solid chunk of the first piece of the Pillar's newsletter about attitudes toward Jews in this war between Hamas and Israel. This is what strikes me too. I am praying for peace. I am going to fast on the Oct. 17 day of fasting and prayer that has been called for. While all that's happening, do go read the whole thing that this extended excerpt came from.

My view is undoubtedly colored by all of this, but there are still some things I think can be seen clearly enough.

You can have your own opinions on the proportionality and even morality of Israeli policies and actions in Gaza over the decades.

And you can pray, like me, that somehow the Israeli government and military might be dissuaded, even now, from visiting total and indiscriminate revenge on the people of Gaza.

But no one celebrates the deaths of civilians in Gaza. When a bomb claims the life of a Palestinian mother or child, crowds do not gather in the streets of Paris and Vienna to revel in their deaths. After the attacks last weekend, in which murder and rape and carnage were livestreamed on social media, no one demanded a worldwide “day of rage” to legitimize and support Israeli violence.

They do gather and celebrate and seek to legitimize it all, though, when Jews are killed. Not Israelis, Jews.

People who celebrate such things are not motivated by grievance, or a frustrated sense of justice, but by hatred — hatred not of a system, or a circumstance, or a government, or even a nation. It is hatred of a people.

It is a hatred so deep and fierce and bitter that it moves them to shout victory slogans at the violent desecration of women and the literal slaughter of actual infants.

And yet this goes largely excused among us - however much we might bluster about some things being supposedly unacceptable.”

What Are Ghosts?

Without our action or invitation, the dead often do appear to the living. There is enormous evidence of "ghosts" in all cultures .... We can distinguish three kinds of ghosts, I believe. First, the most familiar kind: the sad ones, the wispy ones. They seem to be working out some unfinished earthly business, or suffering some purgatorial purification until released from their earthly business. These ghosts would seem to be the ones who just barely made it to Purgatory, who feel little or no joy yet and who need to learn many painful lessons about their past life on earth.

Second, there are malicious and deceptive spirits -- and since they are deceptive, they hardly ever appear malicious. These are probably the ones who respond to conjurings at seances. They probably come from Hell. Even the chance of that happening should be sufficient to terrify away all temptations to necromancy.

Third, there are bright, happy spirits of dead friends and family, especially spouses, who appear unbidden, at God's will, not ours, with messages of hope and love. They seem to come from Heaven. Unlike the purgatorial ghosts who come back primarily for their own sakes, these bright spirits come back for the sake of us the living, to tell us all is well. They are aped by evil spirits who say the same, who speak 'peace, peace, when there is no peace'. But the deception works only one way: the fake can deceive by appearing genuine, but the genuine never deceives by appearing fake. Heavenly spirits always convince us that they are genuinely good. Even the bright spirits appear ghostlike to us because a ghost of any type is one whose substance does not belong in or come from this world. In Heaven these spirits are not ghosts but real, solid and substantial because they are at home there: One can't be a ghost in one's own country.

That there are all three kinds of ghosts is enormously likely. Even taking into account our penchant to deceive and be deceived, our credulity and fakery, there remain so many trustworthy accounts of all three types of ghosts - trustworthy by every ordinary empirical and psychological standard - that only a dogmatic prejudice against them could prevent us from believing they exist. As Chesterton says, "We believe an old apple woman when she says she ate an apple; but when she says she saw a ghost, we say 'But she's only an old apple woman." A most undemocratic and unscientific prejudice.

Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Heaven

As we head closer to Halloween, this seems like a good topic. And so interestingly told as is everything that Peter Kreeft writes.

Reading Devotions to Grandfather

Reading Devotions to Grandfather, Albert Anker

This is just so sweet. The earnest concentration of the young reader, the half-asleep grandfather. I love it.

Couldn't Quit Listening — Third Eye by Felicia Day

Once upon a time, in the magical land of San Francisco, there lived a not-so-ordinary girl named Laurel Pettigrew. She was supposed to be the Chosen One. The plan was simple: she would vanquish the great evil Tybus in an epic battle. But destiny had other ideas, and Laurel's performance in the whole heroics department was a colossal flop.

Now, instead of being a legendary hero, Laurel's the resident pariah of the magic realm. Until a girl looking for a hero comes along some secrets that might just give Laurel a shot at redemption and a chance to rewrite her destiny.

Ever since seeing The Guild webseries I've been a Felicia Day fan. Here she combines tropes of fantasy quests where a Chosen One must vanquish the ultimate villain. When the Chosen One fails and winds up reading tarot cards in a seedy part of San Francisco is when the fun begins.

Whether you want something light and fun that will make you laugh or are just having a bad day, this is the book to pick up. It's quick, fun, and well acted by a star cast including Neil Gaiman as the Narrator, Wil Wheaton as the evil one's local enforcer, and Sean Astin as a less-than-complete vampire.  My favorite character was the morbid high school counselor who is otherwise normal but tailor-made for Frank the vampire. Just thinking about their courtship puts a smile on my face.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves, Edward Okuń

 It has gotten just a touch chilly for our morning walks. We won't have autumn colors until next month probably, but that's what paintings are for!

The 2024 Schedule is Here for A Good Story is Hard to Find

 We've got mystery, a novel from Japan, sci-fi, Shakespeare, a deal with the devil, and much more! We are proud to present the 2024 schedule for A Good Story is Hard to Find!

• Jan. 9 — Guest - Kim Lawler - book or movie TBD
• Jan. 23 — The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 
• Feb. 6 — Bholaa
• Feb. 20 — The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin 
• March 5 — Soul (Pixar) 
• March 19 — The Rosary by Romano Guardini 
• April 2 — Father Stu 
• April 16 — Passage by Connie Willis 
• April 30 — Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 
• May 14 — Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 
• May 28 — Dum Laga Ke Haisha 
• June 11 — Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias Buckell 
• June 25 — The Bridge on the River Kwai 
• July 9 — Christy by Catherine Marshall 
• July 23 — Little Miss Sunshine 
• Aug. 6 — The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany 
• Aug. 20 — King Lear by Willy Shakes 
• Sept. 3 — Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis 
• Sept. 17 — Mulk 
• Oct. 1 — Midnight Mass, Ep 1-3 
• Oct. 15 — Midnight Mass, Ep 4-7 
• Oct. 29 — The Wolf-Leader by Alexandre Dumas 
• Nov. 12 — Green Book
• Nov. 12 — To Know Christ Jesus by FJ Sheed 
• Dec. 10 — North by Northwest

Now those are some good stories!

Azuma Gorge

Azuma Gorge by Kawase Hasui

We don't have fall colors yet but this helps with my desire for them!

Laments for Israel

 I heard over the weekend about the barbaric attacks upon Israel but it was very briefly as bombings and military attacks. I had pressing family matters at the moment and also don't read news much online so it wasn't until I saw the paper yesterday morning that I learned more about the full extent of the aggression and the horrifying treatment of the innocent people there. 

Of course, I am praying for them wholeheartedly. I also was struck by the fact that I have been reading the many laments in the psalms as I slowly work my way through them. The more things change, the more they are the same. 

The psalms aren't a bad place to start when we don't have adequate words to beg God to protect the innocent and turn away evil.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. — Psalm 46:1

Mother's Ill

Mother's Ill by Gaetano Chierici

I found this at J.R.'s Art Place where he points out:

Notice how everyone seems to be after one another's food in this painting: the father is cooling down a spoonful for baby, but three other children are grabbing for it as well! And the boy seated on the floor is in imminent danger of having cats and chickens stealing his meal.

Kathal — A Jackfruit Mystery

When two prized jackfruits disappear from a politician’s garden, a spirited cop’s investigation takes an unexpected turn as she digs for the truth.

We all really loved this movie which follows Inspector Mahima Basor and her team as they pursue the ridiculous case of two stolen jackfruits. Everyone realizes it is a waste of resources but no one will say no to the politician. As you might expect there is a fair amount of humor but it is usually gentle and understated, which can be a rarity in Indian movies.

We learn a little about the team and what they care about — a dowry for a daughter, a promotion for a constable, a way to balance husband and career. And we meet other characters, most notably a village reporter who is hoping for a big story and dives into the jackfruit investigation. All are likable and even the villains aren't too heavy handed. 

The character development and plot twists were perfectly paced, and wove some serious topics very naturally into the story without heavy-handed moralizing. You don't have to be Indian to enjoy this light hearted film though I'm sure there are many little moments that we missed. 

The talented cast included some actors we have long enjoyed — Sanya Malhotra in Dangal and Badhaai Ho, Vijay Raaz in Monsoon Wedding and Gangubai Kathiawadi. All did a great job and I hope to see other movies with these actors especially the young constable and the local reporter.

Definitely recommended.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

October

October, Theo van Hoytema

The Bells

Because Halloween is this month! When better for bells and Poe! Read it aloud for best effect.

The Bells

by Edgar Allen Poe

I
Hear the sledges with the bells-
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And an in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

III

Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now- now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
Of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

IV

Hear the tolling of the bells-
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people- ah, the people-
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone-
They are neither man nor woman-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells-
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells-
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
Bells, bells, bells-
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

The Litany of the Counsel of the Saints II

Magnificat usually has this wonderful litany in the month leading up to All Saints' Day. There will be a posting of part of this litany throughout October.  

This litany is a meditation on what some of the saints have spoken or written. As we listen to these saints, we pray for a deeper personal participation in their sanctity. This litany represents only a small sampling of the vast communion of the saints. Feel free to add your favorites to it. One option is to sing the litany and its response.

R. (Saint's name), pray for us

 Saint Gertrude the Great: "Once again I give you thanks for your merciful love, kindest Lord, for having found another way of arousing me from my inertia." R

Saint Bonaventure: "God created all things not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it." R

Saint Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi: "Who doesn't know what God is, should apply to Mary. Who doesn't find mercy in God, should apply to Mary. Who doesn't have conformity of will, should apply to Mary." R 

Saint Francis de Sales: "We must fight our battle between fear and hope in the knowledge that hope is always the stronger because he who comes to our help is almighty." R

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal: "Oh, how happy is the soul that freely lets herself be molded to the liking of this divine Savior!" R

Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal, medal 1867

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons: "The glory of God is man fully alive." R

Saint Agatha: "Lord Jesus Christ, you created me, you have watched over me from infancy, kept my body from defilement, preserved me from love of the world, made me able to withstand torture, and granted me the virtue of patience in the midst of torments." R

Saint Cyprian: "Our union with Christ unifies affections and wills." R  >

Saint Peter Julian Eymard: "Abide in the home of the divine and fatherly goodness of God like his child who knows nothing, does nothing, makes a mess of everything, but nevertheless lives in his goodness." R

Saint John Bosco: "What tenderness there is in Jesus' love for man! In his infinite goodness, he established with each of us, bonds of sublime love! His love has no limits." R

Irenaus, in Church of St Irenaeus, Lyon.

Psalm 39 — To Know Gladness

  If ... you wish to pray on your own behalf as the enemy prepares the attacks, there is all the more reason, in arming yourself for the battle, to sing the words of Psalm 39.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

When discussing Psalm 38, I forgot to mention that we're down to the last four of the psalms of Book 1 of Psalms, The Laments of David (psalms 38-41). It hasn't escaped our notice that we've been working our way through many laments. So. Many. Laments. 

Then we'll be on to Book 2, which is the Triumphs of David! Huzzah! First though let's keep in mind that these last four laments seem to be an extended meditation on personal sin as the cause for divine judgment, the need for confession, the need for God's aid, and pleas for delivery from suffering. 

General thinking is that they were written by David and present his sufferings and trials when he is not yet delivered but is still confident that God will help him. It is worth keeping David's life in mind when reading these psalms. Of course, our lives are reflected here also and that is the more important part of any meditation.

I was struck, when reading this psalm and the commentaries, by how similar this is in some ways to Ecclesiastes. The psalmist talks about how fleeting life is, that "each man's life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro." And so forth and so on.  

Never do we feel more like this than when we are in the depths of despair with no help or answers immediately forthcoming.

Were can the psalmist look for help? To God, of course!

Psalm 39 in a Franciscan manuscript

I've said plenty above but wanted to share this from St. Ambrose which really touched my heart.

39.13 To Know Gladness

Forgive Me. Ambrose. Forgive me, so that I need no longer be a pilgrim and a wayfarer. Forgive me so that I may be called home from exile. If you forgive me, before I go from this place, I shall no longer be an exile and a pilgrim. Once you will have forgiven me, I will not longer be in foreign parts. I shall be a fellow citizen of your saints; I shall be with my ancestors, who were pilgrims before me and are now truly citizens. I shall be a member of God's household. I shall not dread punishment but also merit grace through our Lord Jesus; with whom, Lord God, be praise to you, and honor and glory forever; now and always for ages of ages. Amen. (Commentary on Twelve Psalms 39.39.)

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

An index of psalm posts is here.

Give your servant Don eternal peace, O Lord

Yesterday, I was at a deathbed with my son-in-law when his father died. Truth be told, I would have felt very out of place, but I am lucky enough to be very good friends with his mother. I am extremely fond of my son-in-law but I just love his mother so much. When she told me there were mere hours left, I dropped everything to go support them. 

Therefore, I was privileged to be there both simultaneously mourning his passing and also cheering him over the final bit of his race to his Eternal Reward.

I ask your prayers for the soul of Don Edinburgh and in support of his grieving family.

Give your servant Don eternal peace, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul, as well as the souls of all the faithful dead,

rest in peace, thanks to God’s grace.

Amen.

Mississippi River

 

Missippi River - View from Fire Point

Since we were talking about time's river today, let's look at a river — here is the great Missippi in lovely Fall colors.

Standing to the side of time's river

My father passed away in 1991, but I remember the things he said to me, and they are present to me in a still powerful and formative way. I think it is an earnest of our immortality that we can stand to the side of time's river and let things long past continue to dwell in us; and not just as remnants, either. Who knows, but that some experience I have long forgotten will someday return and be a central and powerful part of my future days?

Anthony Esolen, Word of the Week essay: Time

I never would have thought of immortality this way but it is a striking image and acknowledgement of how our humanity interacts with time.

Grey Heron

 

Grey Heron, Remo Savisaar

Click through to see this lovely bird with many more details in the original blog post.

The Litany of the Counsel of the Saints I

Magnificat usually has this wonderful litany in the month leading up to All Saints' Day. There will be a posting of part of this litany throughout October.

This litany is a meditation on what some of the saints have spoken or written. As we listen to these saints, we pray for a deeper personal participation in their sanctity. This litany represents only a small sampling of the vast communion of the saints. Feel free to add your favorites to it. One option is to sing the litany and its response.

R. (Saint's name), pray for us

Holy Mary, Mother of God: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." R

Saint Gabriel the Archangel: "Hail favored one! The Lord is with you." R

Saint Joseph: [pause in reverent silence] R

Saint Joseph

Saint John the Baptist: "Jesus must increase; I must decrease." R

Saint Peter: "Lord, you know that I love you." R

Saint Paul: "We had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death, that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead." R

The Beheading of Saint Paul by Enrique Simonet, 1887

The Gallery of HMS Calcutta

The Gallery of HMS Calcutta, James Tissot

Click on the link to see the painting larger. The detail on those gowns is really wonderful. Those were the days!

Cinderella (2015)

Kenneth Branagh's live-action Cinderella and the best of the live-action Disney remakes because they stuck to the story without trying to improve it for modern values.

Sumptuous, gorgeous, thoughtfully told, with surprising depth, charm, and a dash of humor. Perfect!

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

I loved it long ago and loved it equally this time around. We showed it for my mother who hadn't seen it but who also loved it. I wasn't sure how my husband would take it, though he is always willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of my mom's enjoyment. However, he also really liked it as a skillful, respectful retelling of a classic fairytale and appreciated all the filmmaking.

October

October, Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

Tilling and sowing are being carried out by the peasants, in the shadow of the Louvre - Charles V's royal palace in Paris.

University of Chicago

Till We Have Faces Discussion at Mythgard Academy

As I've mentioned before I'm addicted to Corey Olsen's free classes at Mythgard Academy.  He's the best of all the book podcasts that I listen to because he focuses on what the text is telling us, not on what we know will happen later in the book or getting sidetracked into tangential ideas.

I admit that I have skipped all of the Tolkien materials once they finished The Lord of the Rings. However, these have been interspersed among rich discussions of many wonderful books ranging from Dracula to Le Morte d'Arthur to Ender's Game to Watership Down. 

I'm extra excited that they have just begun Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. It is a book that I struggle with but which nonetheless fascinates me. I've listened to various podcasts cover it but 20 minutes into the first episode I know that Corey Olsen is showing me the book from a point of view that I find irresistible. 

They're on a lot of platforms but I listen to the podcasts. Find out how to listen or watch here.

Let's Talk Angels

We've got angelic feasts coming up. Here's a post to get us in the mood ... that is a good run down of "angelic basics". I first wrote this in 2011 but it is just as good now.

+++++++++++++++++

I usually have some "mind's eye" angel thinking going on. During Mass I think about the fact that there are double the visible inhabitants, because we each have our guardian angel with us. I read somewhere that angels are always worshiping when the Host is consecrated ... I always have that mind's-eye vision of them prostrating themselves at that point. St. Josemaria Escriva always mentally greeted the guardian angel of the person and sometimes I remember to do the same. More important to me is to be sure to ask my guardian angel for guidance during the day ... according to St. Escriva, the more you "talk" to your angel, the more sensitive you are to any guidance.

I was fascinated by the entire concept of angels when I converted but wanted the real scoop ... not one of those cutesy "I met my angel" books that were popular at that time (2000). Wouldn't you know, Peter Kreeft (is there anything that guy can't write about?) has a wonderful book, Angels and Demons: What Do We Really Know About Them? Here is the quickest possible Angels 101 course from the first page of the book.

O.K., so I'm browsing through this book and wondering: why should I buy it? What can you tell me about angels in one page?

1. They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.
2. They're present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.
3. They're not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or "cool." They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.
4. They are the real "extra-terrestrials," the real "Supermen," the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.
5. They are more brilliant minds than Einstein.
6. They can literally move the heavens and the earth if God permits them.
7. There are also evil angels, fallen angels, demons, or devils. These too are not myths. Demon possessions, and exorcisms, are real.
8. Angels are aware of you, even though your can't usually see or hear them. But you can communicate with them. You can talk to them without even speaking.
9. You really do have your very own "guardian angel." Everybody does.
10. Angels often come disguised. "Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares" -- that's a warning from life's oldest and best instruction manual.
11. We are on a protected part of a great battlefield between angels and devils, extending to eternity.
12. Angels are sentinels standing at the crossroads where life meets death. They work especially at moments of crisis, at the brink of disaster -- for bodies, for souls, and for nations.

The Letter

The Letter (c.1890). Thomas Benjamin Kennington

First, I'd like a letter that gave me that expression. Second, I'd love that dress. Oh, who am I kidding? The dress is what I'd like first!

The sheep are insolent

[The Lord says:] The straying sheep you have not recalled; the lost sheep you have not sought. In one way or another, we go on living between the hands of robbers and the teeth of raging wolves, and in light of these present dangers we ask your prayers. The sheep moreover are insolent. The shepherd seeks out the straying sheep, but because they have wandered away and are lost they say that they are not ours. “Why do you want us? Why do you seek us?” they ask, as if their straying and being lost were not the very reason for our wanting them and seeking them out. “If I am straying,” he says, “if I am lost, why do you want me?” You are straying, that is why I wish to recall you. You have been lost, I wish to find you. “But I wish to stray,” he says: “I wish to be lost.”

So you wish to stray and be lost? How much better that I do not also wish this. Certainly, I dare say, I am unwelcome. But I listen to the Apostle who says: Preach the word; insist upon it, welcome and unwelcome. Welcome to whom? Unwelcome to whom? By all means welcome to those who desire it; unwelcome to those who do not. However unwelcome, I dare to say: “You wish to stray, you wish to be lost; but I do not want this.” For the one whom I fear does not wish this. And should I wish it, consider his words of reproach: The straying sheep you have not recalled; the lost sheep you have not sought. Shall I fear you rather than him? Remember, we must all present ourselves before the judgement seat of Christ.

From a sermon On Pastors by Saint Augustine, bishop,

Office of Readings, Liturgy of the Hours

I was really struck by St. Augustine's point about the sheep being so insolent that they sass the shepherd for seeking them out. We think of that insolent rejection of God as being something so modern. Yet there are plentiful examples in both the Old and New Testaments that this is an attitude as old as mankind itself. 

Of course, we need to be sure we do not become insolent. It is also a good reminder that I need to persevere with my loved ones who I wish to bring to the joy of knowing Jesus. They know not what they do, as Jesus said.

The Visit

The Visit, Abram Efimovich Arkhipov

He really captures the mood of happy excitement and enjoyment, doesn't he?

Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (Rocky and Rani's Love Story)

Rocky is a loud, showy Punjabi from a family who made their fortune making laddoos (sweets). Rani is a sophisticated, stylish television personality from a Bengali family. Brought together by a fluke because each loves their grandparents, they fall in love. Struggling to plan their future with such different backgrounds they do the only logical thing (from a Bollywood point of view) — live with each other's  families for three months to adjust to their cultures and backgrounds and to know if their marriage will survive. This leads to funny and interesting contrasts as each has something to learn and something to teach their "new" families.

Rocky Aur Rani is a three-hour long, dance loaded, romance loaded movie that leaves you smiling. It's been described as "delicious eye candy with a rebellious core" and nothing could be truer. Ranveer Singh as Rocky has never been more charming or energetic. Alia Bhatt makes the romance seem genuine. As well as the romance, the contrast between traditional and progressive values gives you something a little deeper than the fun and froth. 

Highly recommended.

NOTES FOR INDIAN MOVIE FANS:

Rocky Aur Rani also is a delightful blending of old and new. We couldn't appreciate it the way that it would strike Indian audiences but our limited knowledge still made us happy when we recognized callbacks to old Indian films. The music was composed by superstar Pritam as an homage to 1960s and 70s songs from Bollywood classics. Some of the actors were actually in those classics. We were especially delighted to see Dharmendra and Jaya Bachan (who we'd seen in the curry-western Sholay, as well as a few other films). 

Partway through, this suddenly struck me forcibly as a modern take on Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G - my review). We watched it early in our Indian movie explorations and it didn't go down well for this American family. I'd forgotten most of the details but somehow that K3G vibe was there. Afterward, I remembered it was an early film for Rocky Aur Rani's director, Karan Johar. It's as if he was shaking off the cobwebs and bringing it into the present. I don't tend to love Johar's films, but this time — we thoroughly approved.

Stairs

Stairs, Bertha Wegman

I'd love to live in the house that has these stairs.

The Old Testament is not outdated for our modern world

The Old Testament is a message addressed to a people who had to be detached from the pagan, polytheistic mentalities of antiquity. It contains nothing outdated for our modern world, which has become pagan again and enslaved by its own idols, denying the difference between good and evil. It teaches us to give God His place as the origin and destination of everything, the source of life and the final end of man, who is a pilgrim traveling toward the Absolute; this is the great moral and religious revolutiaon of the law of Moses. The People of God must be drawn out of their enslavement so as to live up to the divine election that is theirs.

Robert Sarah, Catechism of the Spiritual Life

Amen, amen.

September

September, Theo Van Hoytema

 

The emblem of our unity.

This flag which we honour and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us. — speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. ... from its birth until now it has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of great, events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people.

Woodrow Wilson, June 1917,

as the country entered World War I

These are things we need to remember, especially in this time of great division over the choices contributing to the plan of life we are working out together as a country.

Chili

At first chili was a hellish food for me, but now I almost can swallow it like a Mexican.

German Immigrant Ernst Kohlberg, 1876

letter to family in Germany

Today we're celebrating Texas and here's part of that rich cultural mix which has gone to make our great state so unique. Talk about a culture clash!

Pete's Meat Market

Pete's Meat Market in El Paso, 1979
via Traces of Texas

My favorite thing is the plastic cow head.

The Young Eel Angler

The Young Eel Angler, Myles Birket Foster

 I love this style of painting where it is as accurate as a photograph, but so much more than a mere snapped image.

Blood of St. Januarius ‘completely liquefied’ on feast day

“We have just taken from the safe the reliquary with the blood of our patron saint, which immediately completely liquefied,” the abbot of the chapel of the treasury of the Naples Cathedral announced on Sept. 19. ...

“It’s a testimony that is present, living, current, and capable of speaking to the heart of every believer, pushing him to more consistency, beyond courage, to a life of giving, steeped in sharing.” (Bishop Battaglia).

This is one of those miracles that seems impossible or the result of feverish, over-devout wishful thinking. However, with video handy, you can see the actual liquefied blood of St. Januarius, which was first recorded in 1389.

I myself have never been attracted to these sorts of miracles so I've not paid much attention in the past. However, recently, I heard a friend talking about how his faith grew because of this sort of miracle and the inability of scientific investigations to explain it.

Here's the video.

Here's everything you need to know about the miracle of the liquefication of St. Januarius's blood. Of special interest to me was the fact that there is no scientific explanation. 

Here's the CNA story which reports the bishop's speech in full.

Men, pennies and the King

A religion is a thing which, by its nature, does not think of men as more or less valuable, but of men as all intensely and painfully valuable, a democracy of eternal danger. For religion all men are equal, as all pennies are equal, because the only value in any of them is that they bear the image of the King.

G. K. Chesterton, Charles Dickens

This is why I love G. K. Chesterton. He gets it so right with such unique images as examples.

September

September, Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

Probably the most famous of the calendar images. The grapes are being harvested by the peasants and carried into the beautifully detailed Chateau de Saumur.

University of Chicago

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?

This was so much more than I realized it would be. Within this simply told tale are the stories of four people who go to a special cafe in order to time travel. The rules are strict, the time is very limited, and it seems impossible that they could accomplish much. However, each is surprised by what they find. And therein lies a wonderful, charming tale.

Scott Danielson and I discuss this in episode 331 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

“Mr. Toulouse paints Mr. Lautrec”, a double-exposure photograph of Toulouse-Lautrec

“Mr. Toulouse paints Mr. Lautrec”,
a double-exposure photograph of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
by his friend Maurice Guibert, 1891.

 Isn't this great? So imaginative and fun! Via J.R.'s Art Place.

Wedding at Cana (in the style of Japanese art)

We're off for the weekend to help St. Joseph's parish with their Beyond Cana retreat. After this one, their retreat team will be completely made up of their own parishioners! This seemed like the perfect piece of art for today.

Wedding at Cana
by Daniel Mitsui
This image is under copyright. The artist has given me permission to share his images on this blog.

I get excited every time I get one of Daniel Mitsui's newsletters. I know there it is always going to include at least one piece of art that thrills me. I'm such a fan of Asian art that I haven't been able to stop examining this depiction of the wedding at Cana.

Of this piece, Daniel says:

The original was created on private commission. This is the fifth commission I have received to transpose traditional subjects from medieval European art into the style of Japanese art. Various Japanese woodblock prints of the 18th and 19th centuries were used for visual reference. Paintings by Hinrik Funhof, Hieronymus Bosch, Gerard David and Bertram von Minden were among the occidental works that influenced the content and arrangement.

The Wedding at Cana is depicted in the middleground as a Japanese marriage ceremony, with the bride wearing the traditional garb, about to sip sake. Christ and Mary converse in the foreground, while a servant fills the six stone jars with water.

There is much more, which you can read here. For example the images on the jars and both sets of screens have very specific symbolic significance.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #91 — Imitation of Life (1934)

A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.

This was the final movie we watched  from the 1935 Oscars as we work our way through Oscar winners and selected nominees. We were all surprised at how much we liked this tale of two mothers — one black, one white — who become good friends as they struggle together against the world in raising their daughters and earning a living. It tackled issues in a manner really surprising when you consider everyday life for black Americans in 1934.

I really love the 1935 winner - It Happened One Night - but we think Imitation of Life was robbed by not winning. I was especially interested to see Claudette Colbert in her third movie nominated for an Oscar that year. She was red hot that year and her performance here was good.

However, it was Louise Beavers who really stood out. We'd seen her previously in She Done Him Wrong, the Mae West film that was nominated for the 1934 Oscars. Beavers played a stereotyped, giggling, joking maid in that one. However, here she was allowed a role that was very unusual for any black actor of the time. Most definitely she was robbed by having no Oscar nomination for her performance, most probably because she was black as newspapers at the time noted.

I especially liked the portrayal of the friendship between the two women after reading that the book from which the story was adapted was inspired by a road trip to Canada the author took with her friend, the African-American short-story writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.

This is one worth watching for a lot of reasons.

Self Portrait - Reubens Santoro

Self Portrait, Reubens Santoro

 I love artists' self portraits. Selfies are now commonplace but just recently they were thought of as new, exciting, indulgent, and more. But we can see that they are as old as the urge to create art.

9/11, Our Choices and Making a Stand

I originally wrote this for my Free Mind column at Patheos. It is still posted there.

Two days after 9/11, my father-in-law had a massive stroke. My husband and I drove from Dallas to the hospital in Houston. Largely in shock between the double burden of terrorist attacks and personal tragedy, we were nevertheless stirred with pride at the many flags and hand-made signs we saw along the road. Tears sprang to my eyes when we passed a battered pick-up truck complete with obligatory shotgun rack and "We are all New Yorkers today" written on the rear window.

My husband said, "Those terrorists don't know what they have done. This guy would've spit on a New Yorker last week. And now he'd fight for them."

We were lucky. We didn't know anyone, then, who had died or been in the attacks. But we still suffered with the rest of the nation. It changed us as a people and as individuals.

It taught me a big lesson in forgiveness; as I expressed my forceful wish to see the people behind this attack "killed," a gentle friend from our parish looked at me with a troubled face. "I don't know," she said slowly. "But that doesn't seem right either."

I was taken aback and began to pray, even as I expressed anger. Gradually, the anger faded and the ability to forgive crept in.

Today, I mourn the 9/11 attacks as much as ever. Easy tears still spring to my eyes when I look over the old pictures, video footage, and exchange "what I was doing when I heard" stories with others.

I also think about the opportunity that we had to go forward as a people united—to bring something good out of the evil. We are more divided than ever, and ruder than ever. We squabble and complain about the red states, the blue states, the liberals, the conservatives, the Muslims, the Catholics, and on and on it goes.

Some of this is basic human nature, as old as the stories in Genesis, of brother striking brother. It seems to me, though, that some of it is Evil pushing its way into the world, and we are failing to push back for the common good. We listen to the siren call of "my way," which goes hand in hand with pride.

As always, when it comes to thinking things through, I find that others have pondered the matter so much more thoroughly than I could. Recently I picked up one of my favorite "good versus evil" books and found the words defining my thoughts.

It is said that the two great human sins are pride and hate. Are they? I elect to think of them as the two great virtues. To give away pride and hate is to say you will change for the good of the world. To vent them is more noble; that is to say the world must change for the good of you. I am on a great adventure.

Harold Emery Lauder, in Stephen King's The Stand

Twenty-three years before 9/11, Stephen King published one of his best-known and best-loved books, The Stand. It tells a tale of the United States, laid to waste when a biological weapons-grade virus inadvertently gets loose. As survivors roam the post-apocalyptic ruins, they begin to have dreams about an incredibly old holy woman, named Mother Abigail, or of a supernatural entity—Randall Flagg—who is her opponent.

Following their dreams, two communities begin to form—Mother Abigail's in Boulder and Flagg's in Las Vegas—and the stage is set for a final "stand" between Evil and God.

King has expressed frustration that so many fans call The Stand their favorite work, even though he has written scores of books since its publication.

Well, it's a heck of a book for one thing, so it's no wonder people love it. And although this is a horror novel, it is very translatable to our own lives. We no longer worry about bio-terrorism the way we did back then, but we can still relate to the scenario King paints.

In The Stand, King holds up the mirror to us. God and evil are present, of course, but they work through men, as ever, and we recognize ourselves in the pages.

Harold Emery Lauder was the quintessential misunderstood nerd, picked on in school, crossed in love, and finding power in hatred. His note could have been written by any of the terrorists who flew those planes into the World Trade Center. I imagine that, like Harold, their betrayal of innocents was the culmination of a long trail of choosing their own desires first. King shows us enough of Harold's choices—sometimes made despite the screaming of his own instincts—so that we can see a little of him in every selfish choice we make.

Harold's end is not a good one, and it is made pitiful by the fact that he is tossed aside like a worn out doll when evil is done using him for its own purposes. We cannot hold onto our anger at him because he has been misled so completely. In a similar way, when I think of those terrorists and their deliberate evil, I have a bit of that pity for them as well.

Once they were somebody's babies. I don't know what led them astray, but I lament the loss of the people they could have been.

King directly juxtaposes a rock star, Larry Underwood, against Harold.

"You ain't no nice guy!" she cried at him as he went into the living room. "I only went with you because I thought you were a nice guy" . . . A memory circuit clicked open and he heard Wayne Stuckey saying, "There's something in you that's like biting on tinfoil."

The Stand

After the plague, Larry is haunted by those words, "you ain't no nice guy"—they jump to mind whenever he contemplates a selfish or cowardly act. Ultimately, he actually becomes a "nice guy" by consistently choosing the nobler act, if only to prove those words wrong.

Larry is no different than you or me, or anyone who can see themselves with a modicum of self awareness. None of us are "nice guys" deep down because we are all stained with Original Sin. And we know it.

We have help, though, that Stephen King didn't give Larry Underwood. We have the grace of Christ, the sacrament of reconciliation, and our faith to strengthen us. Like Larry, though, we have to keep picking ourselves up and trying again. We must practice until we are more perfectly "nice guys."

9/11 has presented us with a chance to practice forgiveness over and over again. We're all in this together and lifting our thoughts (or hands) in hatred belittles us and our targets. We are Christ’s followers, charged to see Him in everyone they meet. We all have the same choice. Do we embrace Harold's way, or Larry's?

There's always a choice. That's God's way, always will be. Your will is still free. Do as you will. There's no set of leg-irons on you. But . . . this is what God wants of you.

Mother Abigail, The Stand