A Princess of Mars

Frank E. Schoonover, A Princess of Mars

Catholic Faith, Exuberance, and Hope

I feel about Catholicism as G. K. Chesterton did—that it encourages an exuberance, a joy about the gift of life. I think my conversion was a natural growth. Even in the darkest hours of my childhood, I was an irrepressible optimist, always able to find something to fill me with amazement, wonder and delight. When I came to the Catolic faith, it explained to me why I always had—and always should have—felt exuberant and full of hope.

Dean Koontz

Rereading an old quote journal I came across this quote which reminded me of blogging days of old, when it was a new discovery that Dean Koontz is Catholic. This must be why his horror novels, though they may contain some very bad things indeed, have characters who are themselves full of hope and determination.

Mummy Portrait of a Woman

Attributed to the Isidora Master (active 100 - 125), Mummy Portrait of a Woman
The J. Paul Getty Museum

As is so often the case I am astounded by how modern this woman looks. It is not the age of the portraits that make them look old and so unlike us, it is the artistic style. This style translates perfectly into our modern times.

Worshippers of Moloch were members of a mature and polished civilization ...

There was a tendency to call upon spirits of terror and compulsion. There is always a sort of dim idea that these darker powers will really do things, with no nonsense about it. In the interior psychology of the Punic peoples this strange sort of pessimistic practicality had grown to great proportions. In the New Town, which the Romans called Carthage, as in the parent cities of Phoenicia, the god who got things done bore the name Moloch, who was perhaps identical with the other deity whom we know as Baal, the Lord. The Romans did not at first know quite what to call him or what to make of him; they had to go back to the grossest myth of Greek or Roman origins and compare him to Saturn devouring his children. But the worshippers of Moloch were not gross or primitive. They were members of a mature and polished civilization, abounding in refinements and luxuries; they were probably far more civilized than the Romans. And Moloch was not a myth. These highly civilized people really met together to invoke the blessing of heaven on their empire by throwing hundreds of their infants into a large furnace. We can only realize the combination by imagining a number of Manchester merchants with chimney-pot hats and mutton-chop whiskers, going to church every Sunday at eleven o’clock to see a baby roasted alive.

G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

What is terrible is that today we don't have to imagine Moloch worshippers being civilized the way Chesterton did. We've got abortion clinics all over the country.

Notes on Mark: Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac

6th century AD Mosaic of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac
from the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna

MARK 5:1-20
This is the familiar story of Jesus sending the demon from the possessed man into the swine, which then rush over the cliff. I knew that the presence of pigs would signify a Gentile population but never fully realized all the elements in this scene that speak to Jesus saving Gentile nations. And I've gotta say that the symbolism connected with the sea is fabulous. I certainly never heard that in any homily!

Gerasenes: Gerasa is one of the cities of the "Decapolis" (5:20), a confederation of ten cities in NT Palestine. They were predominantly Gentile in population, and most of them were located east of the Jordan River. The presence of "swine" in 5:11 reinforces this Gentile context, since the Jews would never herd animals that God declared unclean (Lev 11:7-8).

Legion: The term for an armed regiment of nearly 6,000 Roman soldiers. It points to the overwhelming presence of demons in the man and accentuates the intensity of spiritual combat between Jesus and the forces of evil...

Allegorically (St. Bede, In Marcum), the demoniac represents the Gentile nations saved by Christ. As pagans, they once lived apart from God amid the tombs of dead works, while their sins were performed in service to demons. Through Christ, the pagans are at last cleansed and freed from Satan's domination.

Into the sea: Biblical symbolism associated with the sea is diverse and flexible. According to one tradition, God's enemies arise from the sea in the form of beasts that oppress God's people (Dan 7:1-3; Rev 13:1). Here Jesus reverses the direction of evil by sending the demon-possessed swine back into the sea. Like Pharaoh's army in the OT, God's adversaries are drowned in the waters (Ex 14:26-28; 15:1).

The Gospel of Mark(The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

Looking Forward: here is a parallel connection,a foreshadowing, that never occurred to me (yes, there's a lot of that going around).

The principles "sitting" and "clothed" reappear in Mark 16:5, again in the setting of a tomb, where it describes the young man who announces Jesus' resurrection. With these verbal parallels Mark hints that the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, like all Jesus' miracles in the Gospel, is an anticipation of the power of his resurrection, already at work in the lives of human beings.

Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Mark by Mary Healy

And we see that power at work in the life of the demoniac when Jesus tells him to proclaim what has been done for him. Yet another leap forward from the present text that I hadn't made, but one that works powerfully in my imagination in looking at my own life.

The seemingly inauspicious missionary, a former demoniac, faithfully carries out Jesus' command by broadcasting throughout the entire region his story of deliverance--the kind of proclamation that is impossible to refute. Indeed the success of his efforts appears later from the very different reception Jesus meets on his second visit to the area.

Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Mark by Mary Healy

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Sources and Notes Index   

Scott is hiking in Austria with a friend. Julie is biking in Austria with a friend. Both are looking for a podcast partner! Surely it is fated that they will meet.

 We discuss a surprise favorite in Episode 351: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)! Join us!

The Medium and the Message

A colleague, Joe Keogh, wrote in the Ottawa, Ontario G. K. Chesterton Newsletter of a curious exchange between my father [Marshall McLuhan] and Toronto's then Archbishop Pocock. The good Bishop, it is said, once asked that given John's famous prologue to the fourth gospel, did this not indicate that Christ Himself is the archetypal example of the medium as message? He readily assented.

Introduction to The Medium and the Light by Marshall McLuhan

Isn't that just the best? I love the way this guy (and that bishop) thought. And the McLuhan book is excellent.

Aurochs, Horses, and Deer

Depiction of aurochs, horses and deer; Lascaux

I just love cave art. To get a truer sense of the art, go to the official Lascaux website.

Self portrait of the 13th-century illuminator Claricia

Self portrait of the 13th-century illuminator Claricia
Via J.R.'s Art Place

I love Claricia's playful spirit in making herself the tail of the Q!

For fellow lovers of The Pickwick Papers

Pickwick is in Dickens’s career the mere mass of light before the creation of sun or moon. It is the splendid, shapeless substance of which all his stars were ultimately made. You might split up Pickwick into innumerable novels as you could split up that primeval light into innumerable solar systems. The Pickwick Papers constitute first and foremost a kind of wild promise, a pre-natal vision of all the children of Dickens. ... Dickens, like every other honest and effective writer, came at last to some degree of care and self-restraint. He learned how to make his dramatis personæ assist his drama; he learned how to write stories which were full of rambling and perversity, but which were stories. But before he wrote a single real story, he had a kind of vision. It was a vision of the Dickens world—a maze of white roads, a map full of fantastic towns, thundering coaches, clamorous market-places, uproarious inns, strange and swaggering figures. That vision was Pickwick.

G.K. Chesterton, Appreciations and Criticisms
of the Works of Charles Dickens

I avoided The Pickwick Papers for a long time because I heard how they weren't really a good book, not really Dickens as he was in his other works. Once I tried them, I loved them. And then I felt a little shame-faced to admit it. It made me glad to see G.K. Chesterton championing them.

Julie and Scott are servants in a small medieval Italian castle on the Mediterranean. They don't understand the latest tenants at all.

 Listen as we try to suss it out in Episode 350 of A Good Story is Hard to Find: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Portrait of Don Miguel de Castro, Emissary of Congo

Portrait of Don Miguel de Castro, Emissary of Congo, by Jaspar Beckx, 1643.

I wonder what Don Miguel thought of the European clothing he was wearing so as to fit in diplomatically. Beautiful? Uncomfortable? Strange? Maybe all those things at once.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Four women who need to get away from their regular lives and get their heads together rent an Italian castle with the promise of sunshine and wisteria. They don't realize why they so desperately need a change when they flee gray, raining London for sunny San Salvatore Castello in Italy. However, as they are surrounded by beauty their eyes are gradually opened.

This is one of those books that has a seemingly simple story but presents a lot on the layers of the story, much like The Feast or Miss Buncle's Book. I loved that having four such different women together (and one suddenly blessed with profound insights) helped show them all the truth about themselves ...which was badly needed so they could choose to improve their lives by making course corrections.

This book richly rewards rereading. Thinking of it in Catholic terms, one can hardly miss that the women travel in darkness up the mountain to San Salvatore (Holy Savior) with Easter coming up. They discover immense beauty that changes them all simply from being in its presence. And this change begins to spread to others. It put me in mind of the Transfiguration.

As I said, sweetly done and yet seeming very modern in the problems they all faced.

Sharing Their Pleasures

Sharing Their Pleasures by Eugenio Zampighi, via J.R.'s Art Place

This is Tom and me as Lent draws closer, living the good life before we get serious about our souls.

Tarzan at the Earth's Core

Via Books and Art

 Since we've been reading what Ray Bradbury and Rudyard Kipling think of the author, let's get a book cover in to remind us of what they were praising.

Lagniappe — Rudyard Kipling on Edgar Rice Burroughs

On Tuesday we saw Ray Bradbury's tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughts.

Here's another, and perhaps more surprising, author going on the record about Edgar Rice Burroughs. I like his generous attitude.

My Jungle Books begat zoos of [imitators]. But the genius of all the genii was one who wrote a series called Tarzan of the Apes. I read it, but regret I never saw it on the films, where it rages ost successfully. He had "jazzed" the motif of the Jungle Books and, I imagine, had thoroughly enjoyed himself. He was reported to have said that he wanted to find out how bad a book he could write and "get away with," which is a legitimate ambition.

Rudyard Kipling

Scene in Ft. Worth Stockyards, 1955

Via Traces of Texas where he astutely observes, "The young man's expression pretty much tells you all you need to know!"

Psalm 45 — A Wedding Hymn

Well aware that the Word is the Son of God, the psalmist sings in 45 in the voice of the Father, "My heart has uttered a good Word."

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

This psalm is unique in that it is a royal wedding song. The first part addresses, the bridegroom who is also the king. The second part addresses the bride, of course the queen. Jewish tradition read the paslm as a prophecy of the Messiah. The Church took up that thinking and applied it to Jesus, the Messiah, with the Church being his bride.

David Foresees the Mystic Marriage of Christ and the Church

There is so much excellent commentary from the Church Fathers on this psalm that it is difficult to know what to share here. I have picked one that mostly talks about how this psalm calls Jesus fairest of humankind while Isaiah (53:2-3) talking about the Suffering Servant (also understood to be about Christ the Messiah) says that he had no beauty of majesty. It reconciles the two passages by looking to the inner meaning. I found it really interesting. 

45:2 The Fairest of Humankind

His Form. Chrysostom: How, then, does another inspired author say, "We saw him: he had no form or beauty; instead, his form was dishonorable, of no importance beside human beings. He is not speaking about deformity—God forbid—but about an object of scorn. You see, once having deigned to become human, he went through every demeaning experience, not choosing a queen for his mother, not placed in a bed of gold at the time of swaddling clothers but in a manger, not reared in an affluent home but in an artisan's humble dwelling. Again, when he picked disciples, he did not pick orators and philosophers and kings but fishermen and tax collectors. He shared this simple life, not owning a house or clad in rich clothing or enjoying similar a similar fate, but nourished at others' expense, insulted, scorned, driven out, pursued. Now he did this to trample underfoot human conceit in fine style. So, since he did not fit himself out in any pomp or circumstance or attach to himself hangers on or bodyguards, but went about at times alone, like any ordinary person, thus that suthor said, "We saw him, and he had no form or beauty," whereas the psalmist sayd, "Comely to behold beyond all human beings," suggesting grace, wisdom, teaching, miracles. Then to underline the comeliness he says, "Grace streamed out on your lips."

Chrysostom's Commentary on the Psalms 45
Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

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An index of psalm posts is here.

Lagniappe — Ray Bradbury on Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs never would have looked upon himself as a social mover and shaker with social obligations. But as it turns out — and I love to say it because it upsets everyone terribly — Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world. ... By giving romance and adventure to a whole generation of boys, Burroughs caused them to go out and decide to become special.

Ray Bradbury

This tickles me. And I agree!

Man Feeding a Child

Ivory carving of a man feeding a child, Edo period, Japan.

 

Dogma

In truth there are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it and those who accept dogmas and don't know it.

G.K. Chesterton

Ain't that the truth!

Presidents' Day

Which used to be a day for George Washington and a day for Abraham Lincoln.

Washington-Franklin Issues
of 1908 - 1923, 5c
via Wikipedia

Abraham Lincoln
Issue of 1866
Also via Wikipedia

Something Romantic for Valentine's Day

This was shot in Iceland, starring one of Bollywood's most famous pairs for romantic movies - Shah Rukh Kahn and Kajol. It is breathtakingly beautiful (I love those scarves) and it even has a translation so you can get all the nuances!

When we watched the movie, the translation was "color me the color of saffron" which I took to be the symbolic color of love. One of the things I love about Indian culture is the symbolism color holds (in the same way that I love the Catholic liturgical color symbolism — it adds depth to everything). It turns out that "gerua" actually is an old fashioned term for a color. From Quora:

I have heard this colour described so many different ways....reddish pink, yellowish red, saffron, orange--it seems that every media outlet has taken a shot at what the actual meaning of "gerua" is.

When producers were first explaining it and talking about the writing of the song "Gerua", they talked about the ambivalence of opinion on this particular colour and that that was one of the things they liked. The word "gerua" is actual a very old word which was (until Dilwale) almost lost to common use. SRK himself said he like the idea that it was an old-fashioned word because it fit with the film.

The best explanation I have seen is that the colour in Kajol's dupatta when she and SRK are on top of the deserted plane is the colour of "gerua".

Bollynook points out:

This colour is significant here as it defines the purity and sanctity of love and it is compared to Godliness. Hence in a way, it is pointing out that how deep and meaningful love is to the pair.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Gifted Versus Believing

A man may be profoundly gifted, have a strong consciousness of self, undergo deep natural-religious experiences — until he has more than these, compared to the inwardness under discussion, he remains superficial. On the other hand, the man of strictly commpnplace natural gifts has that "dimension" in him when he believes in the God of revelation and loves Him. The point is such that interiority is not psychologically deeper, or spiritually nobler, but essentially different from any natural interiority; it is a gift of grace from the Spirit.

Romano Guardini, The Conversion of Augustine

So true.

A Sister of Charity rescuing a child during the Siege of Paris

Gustav Dore, A Sister of Charity rescuing a child during the Seige of Paris.

It seems that Dore based this on an incident he himself witnessed as a member of the National Guard.

Girl with a Cat

Girl with a cat by Jeanna Bauck, via J.R.'s Art Place

Any bets on whether she's just pulled that blanket off of the cat or is getting ready to throw it on the cat?

From Nathaniel Hawthorne to Flannery O'Connor. And Back Again.

I first published this in 2009 but was thinking about Mother Alphonsa (aka Rose Hawthorne) and was pleased to find this in my archives. I've updated it to include an insight into the Hawthorne family's attitude toward Catholicism — which speaks to Mother Alphonsa's openness to the faith.

I am continually surprised at the way people and events are connected both in the big wide world and in my personal experience. My own Rose has a passion for Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing which, combined with her and Hannah's love of The Scarlet Letter, made me pick up and read that book which high school English had taught me to despise.

I found it a complex and interesting book which made me admire Hawthorne's character as much as his writing. Additionally, I found new depths when Heather Ordover at the CraftLit podcast recently featured the book read aloud by her listeners as well as including her enlightening commentary. Much was made there of Hawthorne's understanding of women as people. I wrote to Heather about his daughter, Rose Hawthorne, and how his influence must have contributed greatly to her character. Rose converted to Catholicism and in 1900 founded an order to care for inoperable cancer patients.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is an American religious community, founded on December 8, 1900 by two extraordinary women. Rose Hawthorne, daughter of American novelist Nathanial Hawthorne, began the work at age 45. She moved into a tenement in the poorest area of New York City, and began nursing incurable cancer patients. Rose, later to become Mother Alphonsa, was a convert to Catholicism. This work was the practical fulfillment of her conversion. —(Concordma.com, link no longer works.)

Recently, reading How the Church Has Changed the World (Vol. III) — I found further insights into Rose Hawthorne's rearing and how that influenced her life. (Read the whole essay here.) Here's a quote from her about that influence.

In art, Catholicity was utterly bowed down to by my relatives and their friends, because without it this great art would not have been. For, as scientists and dreamers have proved that gold cannot be made until we know as much as the earth, so uninspired artists have proved that religious art can only grow under conditions known solely to the heart that is Catholic. Every religious school of art which has departed from imitation of the Old Masters has forfeited holiness in depicting the Holy Family.

About halfway through the excellent The Abbess of Andalusia: Flannery O'Connor's Spiritual Journey, I discovered with pleasure that Flannery O'Connor put her finger on a specific moment of influence. O'Connor had agreed to edit and write the introduction for a book about a terribly deformed little girl (Mary Ann) who nonetheless lived a life of joy, written by an Atlanta chapter of the order who approached her. There is much food for thought in "The Abbess" about the role of "innocent suffering" in the life of the Christian and the life of the Church, prompted by O'Connor's own thoughts and writings while working on the book. In considering the Hawthorne connection, which I find interesting for all the threads I see converging as well as for the reminder that we often do not realize the good we are doing, I include this excerpt:

It is true that Mary Ann suffered, but Flannery did not believe she suffered in vain. Rather her suffering was a thread woven within the larger fabric of believers called the Communion of Saints. In the introduction, Flannery described the Communion of Saints as "the action by which charity grows invisibly among us, entwining the living and the dead."

On May 14, 1961, she explained to a friend that "the living and the dead" referred to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was her inspiration for the introduction. Long before Mary Ann was born, Hawthorne had written about visiting the children's ward in a Liverpool workhouse. There, according to his description, he met a "wretched, pale, half-torpid child of indeterminate sex, about six years old." Hawthorne admitted that he found the child repulsive, but for some mysterious reason, the child took a liking to him. The child insisted that Hawthorne pick him up. Despite his aversion, Hawthorne did what the child wanted: I should never have forgiven myself if I had repelled its advances."

According to Flannery, Mother Alphonsa believed that these were the greatest words her father ever wrote. And many years after Mother Alphonsa had died, Flannery perceived a mystical connection existing between Hawthorne's picking up the child, his daughter working among the dying and the sisters caring for a little girl with a disfigured face.

There is a direct line between the incident in the Liverpool workhouse, the work of Hawthorne's daughter, and Mary Ann -- who stands not only for herself but for all the other examples of human imperfection and grotesquerie which the Sisters of Rose Hawthorne's order spend their lives caring for. Their work is the tree sprung from Hawthorne's small act of Christlikeness and Mary Ann its flower.

Flannery O'Connor dedicated the book to the memory of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

For the big family party, Julie learned to make balloon animals. Scott left because he had a big deal brewing in Argentina.

 We discuss that modern classic, Parenthood, in episode 349 of A Good Story is Hard to Find. Join us!

Memory and the Physical World

Is not remembering precisely the retaiing of corporeal things in an incorporeal manner?

Romano Guardini, The Conversion of Augustine

Um — hey, it is! So simple but so deep also!

Scene from Act III of Lohengrin

 

Scene from Act III of Lohengrin, Heinrich Lefler

No particular reason except it is beautiful.

The Father of Football

Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", in 1878
when Camp was captain of Yale University's football team

Who Would have thought that a sport which began looking like this, would eventually look like this?

For one thing I'm not sure Mahomes could grow such a fine mustache!

Placing ourselves voluntarity in God's truth

God's knowing is judicial. It is the act by which He measures His creature by the norm of the essential truth which He has established for it. His gaze judges, discards, and confirms. If this is so, confession is the act by which the creature places himself voluntarily in God's truth. Now not only is it known by Hm whose view is boundless, but it also deserves to be known by Him. It allies itself with the all-perceiving power of God's truth against its own shame and self-assertion.

Romano Guardini, The Conversion of Augustine

This is a really great book with many deep insights that seem to spring right into my heart. What an elegant way to say what I've often been told — God already knows everything you have done. Confession is for your benefit, not His.

I have sent — you. Will you turn aside?

“You want something. The gods’ tongues can grow quite honeyed, when they want something. When I wanted something—when I prayed on my face, arms out flung, in tears and abject terror—for years—where were You then? Where were the gods the night Teidez died?” [Ista said.]

“The Son of Autumn dispatched many men in answer to your prayers, sweet Ista. They turned aside upon their roads, and did not arrive. For He could not bend their wills, nor their steps. And so they scattered to the winds as leaves do.”

His lips curved up, in a smile more deathly serious than any scowl Ista had ever seen. “Now another prays, in despair as dark as yours. One as dear to me as Teidez was to my Brother of Autumn. And I have sent—you. Will you turn aside? As Teidez’s deliverance did? At the last, with so few steps left to travel?”

Silence fell between them.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls

Am I one of those who turn aside? Or who go the last few steps, even when it is brutally difficult?

Sweet Evening Light

Sweet Evening Light
taken by Remo Savisaar

Masks and what is behind them

Having given up God so as to be self-sufficient, man has lost track of his soul. He looks in vain for himself. He finds masks, and behind masks, death.

Jacques Mauritain

There could hardly be a better summary of the modern condition. This, too, is one that is worthy of meditation during Lent. The path to the Cross is hard, no doubt. But what lies beyond is not death, but life.

Where do we cling to masks, where do we eschew the Cross, which is to say Christ's own sacrifice for us? It is these realizations that send us to Confession, which helps us see ourselves and God as masks are stripped away and soothing, healing light is let in.

One in the Hole

One in the Hole, Valerie, Ucumari Photography
some rights reserved

God and dentists

What do people mean when they say, "I am not afraid of God because I know He is good. Have they never even been to a dentist?

C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Spectacled Mouse Reading Newspaper

Spectacled Mouse Reading Newspaper (1890). Beatrix Potter.

I could just look at this all day. I'm not kidding. All. Day.

And the Winner Is — 1936

 Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since these early films continued to be hard to find.

None of the movies really grabbed us this year but all were good enough! We weren't able to get our hands on at least half of the nominated movies and had already seen Top Hat numerous times

WINNER

First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.

I can see why this won. It was a big movie with big stars based on the true story told in the trilogy written by Nordhoff and Hall. I read the story several times in college and afterwards and this seemed a good retelling of the first book with the essence of other two books nicely conveyed. It wasn't really my cup of tea but was a good start to our 1936 viewing.

 NOMINEES

When British valet Ruggles is won in a poker game by a couple from the American West he imagines a world full of Indian attacks and stagecoaches. What he finds is a country where he is valued for himself by all but a few snobs. 

It is light but sweet. I've never seen Charles Laughton in a role like this and he had a deft comedic style and a real sincerity at the end after he was allowed to drop the stiff valet mannerisms. I also loved Zasu Pitts whose name is famous but who I never have seen before. I can see why it lost to Mutiny on the Bounty which, funnily enough, also starred Charles Laughton albeit in a very different role. However, I can also see why this was nominated.

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

This was surprisingly faithful to the book, eliminating only one subplot in order to keep the story swashbuckling along in fine style. I never realized just how pretty Olivia de Haviland was in her young days. Certainly, it made me understand why director Michael Curtiz and composer Erich Korngold both almost won their Oscar categories by strength of write-ins (not nominations). My favorite of the movies we watched.

Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of an ordinary young man who lives an extraordinary life, filled with people who help and hinder him.

I don't love the novel and didn't love the movie but they did a good enough job of covering the book in a year where none of the movies really grabbed us.

Showman Jerry Travers  demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in a hotel room, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for a married man.

This is light, frothy fun as one would expect from Astaire and Rogers. I liked thinking about how much Depression era audiences would have enjoyed escaping into this movie. And it was still funny even today almost a hundred years later.

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All the Oscar viewing is here.

The Veil Lifts

The Veil Lifts, Himmapaan Illustration

Tea and Objectionable Practice

I have understood that it was, to the last, her proudest boast, that she never had been on the water in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she, to the last, expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and others, who had the presumption to go 'meandering' about the world. It was in vain to represent to her that some conveniences, tea perhaps included, resulted from this objectionable practice.

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

I always forget just how funny Dickens can be and how well he slips his jokes into the main narrative.

Portrait of a Cat

Henriette Ronner-Knip (1821-1909), Portrait of a Cat
Via Arts Everyday Living

You can't shut out the world

Everything that happens ... shows beyond mistake that you can't shut out the world; that you are in it, to be of it; that you get into a false position the moment you try to sever yourself from it; and that you must mingle with it, and make the best of it, and make the best of yourself into the bargain.

Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins,

September 6, 1858

Amen. Amen.

Rapp and Johan

Rapp and Johan, Bruno Liljefors

This is just plain sweet.

Notes on Mark: The Storm

Calming the Storm, Rembrandt
Look for Rembrandt in the picture. He's holding his hat and looking out at us.

MARK 4:35-41
A few basics to put us in the scene. I like the detail of Jesus being asleep upon a pillow. It definitely is eye witness information when it is at that level.

The Lake of Galilee was notorious for its storms. They came literally out of the blue with shattering and terrifying suddenness. A writer describes them like this: " It is not unusual to see terrible squalls hurl themselves, even when the sky is perfectly clear, upon these waters which are ordinarily so calm. The numerous ravines which to the north-east and east debauch upon the upper part of the lake operate as to many dangerous defiles in which the winds from the heights of Hauran, the plateaus of Trachonitis, and the summit of Mount Hermon are caught and compressed in such a way than, rushing with tremendous force through a narrow space and then being suddenly released, they agitate the little Lake of Gennesaret in the most frightful fashion." The voyager across the lake was always liable to encounter just such sudden storms as this.

Jesus was in the boat in the position in which any distinguished guest would be conveyed. We are told that, "In these boats ... the place for any distinguished stranger is on the little seat placed at the stern, where a carpet and cushion are arranged. The helmsman stands a little farther forward on the deck, though near the stern, in order to have a better look-out ahead."

It is interesting to note that the words Jesus addressed to the wind and the waves are exactly the same as he addressed to the demon-possessed man in Mark 1:25. Just as an evil demon possessed that man, so the destructive power of the storm was, so people in Palestine believed in those days, the evil power of the demons at work in the realm of nature.

The Gospel of Mark (The Daily Bible Series, rev. ed.)

In the Catholic Church, this gospel story is read during Year B, the 12 Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is carefully matched with a reading from Job, 2 Corinthians, and Psalm 107. I love the way that the psalm makes us feel what the disciples were experiencing, with the boat mounting to heaven and sinking to the depths.

They who sailed the sea in ships,
trading on the deep waters,
These saw the works of the LORD
and his wonders in the abyss.

His command raised up a storm wind
which tossed its waves on high.
They mounted up to heaven; they sank to the depths;
their hearts melted away in their plight.

They cried to the LORD in their distress;
from their straits he rescued them,
He hushed the storm to a gentle breeze,
and the billows of the sea were stilled.

They rejoiced that they were calmed,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his kindness
and his wondrous deeds to the children of men.

Psalm 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31

An interesting point of how this Scripture speaks to the Church.

From ancient times, this Gospel has been understood also as a parable of the Church, for good reason. Peter's fishing boat often quite literally held the entire Church at this stage in its development: Jesus and his disciples. 

John Bergsma, The Word of the Lord, Year B

And a further reflection to remind us that Scripture speaks to you and me today in the Church.

Mark narrates this story not only to recount the memorable event of the storm, but also to reflect the experience of the early Christians. ... How often have [Jesus'] disciples through the ages felt that way in the midst of "storms" of persecution, natural disasters, or personal troubles? But Jesus' authority is without limit and though he allows trials in the end nothing can truly harm those who trust in him. His reproach in verse 40 is an invitation for all Christians to awaken their faith in his presence and in his absolute authority over the cosmos.... Indeed, the most repeated command in Scripture is "Do not fear!" Why? Because to refuse to give in to fear disables the enemy's strategy, which is to dissuade Jesus' followers from their mission. When we have no fear, the enemy trembles in fear.

The Gospel of Mark: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture

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Sources and Notes Index  

Scott's on the outside of the dome. Julie is inside. But they can still toss the football around, and later Scott will deliver calzones.

In Episode 348 we discuss All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D. Simak, a science fiction book that should be better known.

Two Cats

Suzanne Valadon, Two Cats, 1918

Looking at books

... and he glanced at the backs of the books, with an awakened curiosity that went below the binding. No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on the shelf, like one who cannot.

Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

I was really surprised to see the emphasis on reading and books in the early chapters of Our Mutual Friend. The way some people yearn after reading, like Mr. Boffin and Lizzie, mades me realize afresh what a blessing it is to have such a literate population. Even if much of it rarely cracks a book, they don't have to have someone else read them street signs.

A Consummate Rascal

This just goes to show that human nature never changes. Dickens shows the danger signals to Little Dorrit readers far ahead of the market crash that moves many of his characters from riches to poverty, so I don't feel as if I'm spoiling the book for anyone who hasn't read it. 

Ferdinand Barnacle sums up very neatly here as he discusses the person who caused the market crash.

"He must have been an exceedingly clever fellow," said Ferdinand Barnacle.

Arthur ... was silent.

"A consummate rascal of course," said Ferdinand, "but remarkably clever! One cannot help admiring the fellow. Must have been such a master of humbug. Knew people so well—got over them so completely—did so much with them!"

In his easy way, he was really moved to genuine admiration.

"I hope," said Arthur, "that he and his dupes may be a warning to people not to have so much to do with them again."

"My dear Mr. Clennam," returned Ferdinand, laughing, "have you really such a verdant hope? The next man who has as large a capacity and as genuine a taste for swindling, will succeed as well. Pardon me, but I think you really have no idea how the human bees will swarm to the beating of any old tin kettle; in that fact lies the complete manual of governing them. When they can be got to believe that the kettle is made of the precious metals, in that fact lies the whole power of men like our late lamented. No doubt there are here and there," said Ferdinand politely, "exceptional cases, where people have been taken in for what appeared to them to be much better reasons; and I need not go far to find such a case; but, they don't invalidate the rule."

Rooftop Cat

 

A rooftop cat painted by Hermann Anschütz, 1837

Hygieia (Gustav Klimt)

Gustav Klimt, Hygieia (from Medicine mural), 1899-1907,
University of Vienna ceiling, destroyed, 1945

I don't usually love Klimt, but I totally love this.

Goat Versus Tree

Goat Versus Tree

When we watched Jagga Jasoos, our heroes went on an African road trip seeking clues to a missing person and wound up sitting under a tree full of goats. Which was crazy. Had to be wrong. Right?

Nope, there is such a thing as the tree goats of Morocco. They love the fruit of a certain tree and their dung is later harvested and processed to get out the tree's kernels after they've handily digested the outer covering. You can read more here.

Life is This Simple

Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.

Thomas Merton

If you remember no other quotes, remember this one. I'm not especially a fan of Thomas Merton one way or t'other but he summed up my Catholic life right there. And when I remember this simple truth, which I can forget in busy everyday life just life everyone else ... when I remember it - my life is better and simpler and truer.

Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children — “Only love fills the empty spaces caused by evil.”

Then [Jesus] said to them, “Is it lawful to do good ... rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent.

Mark 3:4

Once Roe v. Wade  was struck down  the issue moved into more local arenas for decisions. And so our job is to pray and work that the innocent are spared and that we support and care for the women who suffer from the way our culture thinks about unseen life — as something inhuman to be easily discarded.

With that in mind, I share two readings for today. The first I got from Word Among Us in 2023.

And best of all, Jesus continues to pray for us in heaven, where he constantly makes intercession “before God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:24).

On this day when many of us pray for the protection of unborn children, we can draw hope from this passage. Jesus, our compassionate high priest, offered himself for every sin, including abortion. How he must suffer over every lost child! How he must grieve for every woman who feels alone or thinks she has no other option but to end her pregnancy! That’s why he endured the shame of the cross: to win forgiveness for every sin, no matter how grievous.

Even now, Jesus stands before his heavenly Father interceding for us. He is offering mercy and healing to every family wounded by abortion. He is pouring out grace for every man or woman who feels alone as they consider the future of their unborn child. And he is interceding for each of us, that we might meet the needs of every child and every parent. Let’s join him in praying that God’s kingdom would come—so that there will be no more abortion or poverty or hunger or violence. May God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

The second is from Bishop Burbidge's homily at the 2023 National Prayer Vigil in Washington, D.C. The whole thing is excellent. There is an excerpt to give you a flavor.

Dear friends, today we have so much to celebrate. For the first time in the 49-year-history of the March for Life, we can say that Roe vs. Wade, a blight on our nation, our system of justice, and our culture, is no more. This is a moment for joy, and for gratitude; a moment to recall the countless souls who have dedicated themselves to political and social action, to prayer, and to service in the name of this cause. It is a moment to gather before our God to offer praise and thanksgiving for this great, longed for blessing. Today we make the gratitude of today’s Psalm our own: “O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!”

But even as we celebrate, we must remember: this is the beginning, not the end. A new important phase of work in the pro-life movement begins now! ...

While we hold public officials accountable, we must remember that each of us is accountable also. “The secret of Christian living is love,” Pope Francis has said. “Only love fills the empty spaces caused by evil.” That is our task. That is where our words must be matched by our actions. Our work will not be complete until God’s love is felt in every empty space created by abortion.

As we look to the future of the pro-life movement, may we turn our attention to those empty spaces. Into the empty spaces of public discourse on abortion, may we bring clarity and charity in communicating with our opponents. Into the empty space of our wounded politics, may we communicate the need to let go of partisanship and to do what is right and just. Into the empty spaces of culture, may we celebrate truth, beauty, and God’s goodness. Into the empty space of fear and loneliness experienced by women facing an unplanned pregnancy, may we offer God’s peace and hope and our untiring commitment to walk with them at every moment. Into the empty spaces within the lives of mothers and fathers who mourn from children lost to abortion, may we gently voice God’s endless comfort and mercy.

We can accomplish none of this on our own. Indeed, it is only in letting God fill the empty spaces in our own hearts with the warmth of his love that we may begin to fill the spaces around us. ...

The Tall Horse and Mr. Winkle

Now whether the tall horse, in the natural playfulness of his disposition, was desirous of having a little innocent recreation with Mr. Winkle, or whether it occurred to him that he could perform the journey as much to his own satisfaction without a rider as with one, are points upon which, of course, we can arrive at no definite and distinct conclusion. By whatever motives the animal was actuated, certain it is that Mr. Winkle had no sooner touched the reins, than he slipped them over his head, and darted backwards to their full length.

Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

This made me laugh out loud. Dickens can be so very funny and, of course, The Pickwick Papers are loaded with his humor from beginning to end.

Standard of Ur

llustration (detail) above: Standard Of Ur. Sumerian commemorative mosaic, 2550 B.C.

This is via Illustrated History, a fascinating site, where it is featured in their piece, Early Civilization.

Did Abram and Sarai see this?

The quest for religious solace

Seen from the outside, the quest for religious solace looks preposterous. Soren Kierkegaard said that religion has a truth so purely interior that it approaches madness.

Judith Shulevitz, The Sabbath World

Yes. Like being in love, it's almost impossible to explain this to someone who hasn't experienced it.

January Calendar

This is from Wikipedia which says:

Theodorus van Hoytema, or Hoijtema (18 December 1863, The Hague - 28 August 1917, The Hague) was a Dutch lithographer, illustrator and graphic designer, known for his book covers and calendars; especially those depicting birds.

Thunderball

1961, original dust jacket, via Books and Art

Library books and the power of good stories

It had that comfortably sprung, lived-in look that library books with a lively circulation always get; bent page corners, a dab of mustard on page 331, a whiff of some reader's spilled after-dinner whiskey on page 468. Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us, how good stories abide, unchanged and mutely wise, while we poor humans grow older and slower.

Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot

You'd think this was written by Ray Bradbury instead of Stephen King. Or at least I would've. King tells his vampire story with a prose style that is direct and to the point, for the most part. However, every so often he veers off into a bit of poetic prose like this. Those are gems of captured image.

Pangur Ban: Praise of Cats in Ancient Poetry and Art

You don't have to be a cat lover to love this poem about writing and cats by an anonymous 9th century Irish monk. It's often thought that the monk was working on the Book of Kells when he made this poem.

He describes perfectly the striving and dedication all writers feel, as well our triumph at solving a problem in just the perfect way.

Pangur Bán

I and Pangur Bán, my cat
‘Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
‘Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will,
He too plies his simple skill.

‘Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur’s way:
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Bán, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

Unknown 9th century Irish monk, translation by Robin Flowers

Cat catching mouse, illustration from Book of Kells

Cat Sleeping

Cornelis Visscher, Cat Sleeping, 1657

Don't miss the charming little creature right behind the sleeping cat.

Notes on Mark: The Mustard Seed

Mustard in Bangladesh

MARK 4:30-32
We are all familiar with this because we have heard so many comments on its meaning for us today. But how about what the Jews of Jesus' time would have thought when they heard it? Barclay elucidates.

There are in this parable two pictures which every Jew would readily recognize.

First, in Palestine a grain of mustard seed stood proverbially for the smallest thing possible. For instance, "faith as a grain of mustard seed," means "the smallest conceivable amount of faith." This mustard seed did in fact grow into something very like a tree. A traveler in Palestine speaks of seeing a mustard plant, which, in its height, overtopped a horse and its rider. The birds were very fond of the little black seeds of the tree and a cloud of birds over a mustard plant was a common sight.

Second, in the Old Testament one of the commonest ways to describe a great empire was to describe it as a tree, and the tributary nations within it were said to be like birds finding shelter within the shadow of its branches (Ezekiel 17:22ff; 31:1ff; Daniel 4:10, 21). The figure of a tree with birds in the branches therefore stands for a great empire and the nations who form part of it.

The Gospel of Mark
(The Daily Bible Series, rev. ed.)

The photo above is of a mustard field in Bangladesh which is what I'm used to seeing in Indian movies. It is one of the ultimate romantic places for couples to run toward each other in the movies. It isn't a tree but I love seeing the bright flowers.

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Sources and Notes Index   

Scott and Julie go on an epic adventure encountering a villain who shall not be named, one bad priest, two good priests, a crazy nun, star-crossed lovers, and Gothic castles. ...

 ... Thank goodness Father Stephen is there to guide them! Episode 347: The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni, with special guest Father Stephen from Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey.

Louisia's idea for a TV show

He went to fetch more beers, and by the time he got back Louisa was telling Shirley her idea for a TV show, which would open with a view of Tom Hiddleston walking down a long, long, corridor, shot from behind.

River waited. "Then what?" he asked at last.

But the women had misted over, and didn't hear him.

Mick Herron, London Rules

What? Oh, sorry. I was mentally picturing that view of Tom Hiddleston and misted over.

Chicago Snow

Chicago Snow by Karin Jurick

 Be sure to look at this close up. It is delightful. Or maybe that's just because I'm in Dallas where we don't get much snow.

Fire proves iron and temptation fires the just man

Fire proves iron—that's the kind of point Jesus son of Sirach liked to make (31:26)—and temptation fires the just man.

Often we don't know what we can do until temptation opens us up to what we are.

Stand sentinel in the intellect we must, before temptation strikes. Engage the Enemy at the earliest possible moment. In the chapel. In the dining hall. At the gate. On the road. In the field.

That's how temptation works. A simple thought enters the mind. A vivid imagination goes to work. After that it's a nudge, a wink, and a nod.

Right from the start you should resist strongly. When you don't, the Enemy bearing evils tiptoes in unawares and wins the day. And so it is every day. The slower your response, the quicker the Devil's step.

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis

Transl. William Griffin