And the Winner Is — 1938

 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.

This year's movies had another delightfully mixed bag ranging from drama to screwball comedy. There are some treasures in the bunch but some real duds too.

Nominees not viewed: One Hundred Men and a Girl wasn't available, Dead End which we'd seen as part of our William Wyler viewing, A Star is Born which story we just don't like after having seen so many other versions.

WINNER

A fictionalized account of famous French writer Emile Zola and his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair.

What a dud. Boring, staid, and clearly an "important cause" movie. Almost every other nomination should have beat this. This has become code in our household for a boring movie — "It's no Life of Emile Zola." 

 NOMINEES

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other’s attempts to find new romance.

The movie that got Cary Grant noticed. It was funny with a clever screenplay but the chemistry between Irene Dunne and Grant was the real bit that made it sparkle.

The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel.

In some ways it was like a light-hearted version of All About Eve. I liked the boarding house environment, seeing so many people who would go on to be stars, and the dialogue. I LOVED Andrea Leeds as Kay. It was well acted and entertaining.

British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash land in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-la.

Who knew Shangri-La could be so boring? The beginning and end were great but the middle dragged it down to the bottom with The Life of Emile Zola.

The O’Leary brothers – honest Jack and roguish Dion – become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

Not bad, but not as good as the previous year's nominee San Francisco, which it was clearly patterned on. It's a real Cain and Abel story set in a fictional story of the O'Leary family (yes, Mrs. O'Leary and the cow that start the Chicago fire). 

China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.

This should have won. We left it for last because this sort of movie doesn't usually appeal to me - long dramatic sagas of families struggling to survive, especially since I'd read the book long ago and hadn't liked it much. How wrong we were. By the end we were loving it. (My full review is here.)

The arrogant, spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. The ship is at sea for several months and can't return to port. His experiences as part of the crew and especially under Manuel's tutelege, turns him into a mature, considerate young man.

As with every other movie this year, this was head and shoulders above the actual winner.

I found it engaging in a way that few coming-of-age movies do for me.  I also really loved the view into the fishing community — the good-natured rivalries, the shipboard culture, the way the fishermen come back together with their families after months at sea. Definitely recommended.

=======

All the Oscar viewing is here.

Tulips

Tulpen, Edward B. Gordon

We're way past tulip season here in Dallas but I love seeing this reminder that spring is coming around the world.

We are like men fighting a fire ...

We Catholics, in our effort to convert England, are not like furniture removers, paid by the hour, slowly and gingerly piling things onto a van. We are like men fighting a fire, desperately keeping at bay, here and there, the flames of unbelief and social disorder, while we hurriedly rescue all that we have time to rescue. The fire will get ahead of us if we stop to contemplate our work.

Ronald Knox, Captive Flames

Boy oh boy, do I know how he feels. Our whole culture feels as if it is on fire while we dart in and out trying to rescue all we can.

Cartoon Bookplate

Via Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie

Doesn't every book lover need this book plate? I know I do!

Conflicting Bargain Sales

She turned hurriedly, it seemed to Tillizinni, to introduce her mother — a lady dressed in the abrupt fashion which was suggestive of conflicting bargain sales.

Edgar Wallace, The Tomb of T'Sin

I read Edgar Wallace for the adventure and clever mysteries. I forget that he can be slyly funny at the same time.

Helen Louise Taylor Bookplate

The Library of Congress, Bookplate of Helen Louise Taylor

I can't lie on the floor that gracefully but this bookplate makes me want to try!

The surprising effect of an American pope

By Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar

It was really strange to watch the evening news and see the interviews with Leo XIV's brother and friends in the Augustinian order in Chicago. He'd taught at a local Chicago high school. All were overjoyed and also rather dumbfounded at knowing the pope so personally.

I've read similar stories about the two popes previously elected in my Catholic lifetime — Benedict and Francis. All were nice but left me relatively untouched. 

The stories from the news last night somehow made it more immediate to me. As if I knew him too. Then I realized this Leo XIV is just a couple of years older than I am. We have the same cultural touchstones in growing up in the Midwest (Kansas and Missouri for me). He's gone to 4th of July parades, eaten hot dogs and hamburgers (what does he like on his Chicago style dog?), had favorite sports teams, saw Star Wars at the movies, watched Bewitched on TV.  Or many similar points of connection. 

It is a distinctly odd feeling to have such things in common with Our Holy Father.

Bookplate of Charles P Searle

Bookplate of Charles P. Searle (1904). Sidney Lawton Smith, 1845-1929, engraver.
Etching with engraving. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

We all want this bookplate, don't we? I know I want that library. I also love that the reader's book is engraved with a large CPS. Click on the image to see the details better.

Habemus Papam! Leo XIV.

 Like most people I know next to nothing about this new pope except that he is American! That stunned me and my friends because, like many American Catholics, we figured that it wouldn't happen in our lifetimes!

I am praying for him as he shepherds the Church.

Offering what will cost you something

Virginity is an ideal which the pagans had no right to misunderstand. For, in theory, they too, honoured it; and it should have commended itself to their heathen instinct for sacrifice. For the point os a sacrifice is that the victim should be spotless, the best of its kind. You must not offer what you can well afford to spare, but what will cost you something. ... In order to give up something to God, we forego not the sinful pleasures whch we have no right to in any case, but the lawful pleasures which he has given us to enjoy if we will.

Ronald Knox, Captive Flames

Talk about setting modern ideas on their ear with an argument that is completely logical.

Katz Bookplate

Louis Katz
Punning bookplate dated 1922 , artist's initials EK

The only thing better than a classic bookplate is one that contains a pun on the book owner's name! This is from Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie where you will find many more cat bookplates on display.

Let There Be Light - At My Price Per Gallon

Bookplate of John D. Rockefeller. Artist: GETZ. Pratt Institute.
via Books and Art

Yikes! This strikes me as the definition of hubris.

Mary: As Marvelous as a Day in May

May is Mary's month and what better way to celebrate it than getting a better understanding of Our Blessed Mother? This excerpt from chapter 6 of Adventures in Orthodoxy discusses the common idea of "virgin" versus the real meaning as applied to "Virgin Mary." As a bonus, this explains something I always wondered: why didn't Mary and Jesus (and possibly Joseph) stand out as unusual? The comments in brackets are my own for clarification of points the author discussed earlier in the chapter.

"... born of the Virgin Mary"

...Mary, the mother of Jesus, is an icon of beauty and purity because she is a virgin. But I'm aware that this term, too, [like the term "purity"] has been misunderstood and maligned. We think of a virgin simply as a person who hasn't had sexual intercourse. This is the shallowest of definitions. Defining a "virgin" as someone who hasn't had sexual intercourse is like defining a person from Idaho as "a person who has never been to Paris." It may be true that most Idahoans haven't been to Paris, but to define an untraveled Idahoan by that simple negative definition is too small. Even the most stay-at-home fellow from Idaho is bigger than a negative definition.

What were the early Christians thinking when they honored the Virgin Mary? Was it simply their form of goddess worship? [as some nonbelievers would say] If so, why the emphasis on virginity? When you look at what they believed about Mary, it turns out that they were honoring her for far more than the biological fact that a maiden remained intact. For them the Virgin wasn't just an untouched woman. Her physical virginity was a sign of something far more. It was an indication of her whole character. In her they sensed a kind of virginity that was a positive and powerful virtue. Mary represented all that was natural, abundant, positive, and free. Mary was a virgin in the same way that we call a forest "virgin": she was fresh and natural, majestic and mysterious. Mary's virginity wasn't simply the natural beauty and innocence of a teenage girl. It held the primeval purity of Eden and the awesome innocence of Eve...

You might imagine that such total innocence and goodness would make Mary a sort of Galilean wonderwoman. It's true that her innocence was extraordinary, but it was also very ordinary. That is to say that while it was momentous, it didn't seem remarkable at the same time. There is a curious twist to real goodness. It's summed up by the observation that what is natural isn't unusual. If a person is really good, he is humble; and if he is humble, he is simply who he should be. There is nothing bizarre or egotistical or eccentric about him. There is therefore nothing about him that calls attention to him. Truly good people blend in. They are at home with themselves, and no one is out of place when they are at home. In the same way, Mary wasn't noticed in Nazareth. Because she was natural, she didn't stand out. Mary fit in because she was simply and wholly who she was created to be. Because she was perfectly natural, she was perfectly ordinary. Therefore, she was both as marvelous and as unremarkable as a morning in May.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), The Madonna of the Roses
via Wikipedia

Julie and Scott try to interrogate the bad guy. Julie comes out with a permanent hand injury, and Scott endures a very long story and a headlock.

 In Episode 355 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, Scott and I discuss the Tamil action thriller Vikram Vedha (2017)

Japanese Bookplates

Via Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie

These are adorable.

Heresies - past, present, and future

The Church is not merely armed against the heresies of the past or even of the present, but equally against those of the future.

G.K. Chesterton

That's what divine planning will get you — total coverage.

Automobile Bookplate

Automobile Bookplate from the Antioch Company
via Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie
where you may find a 2-part series on car bookplates

Edward Penfield, His Book

Bookplate of Edward Penfield

I really love bookplates. I don't use them myself (so many books, so few bookplates) but I love the feeling they communicate that people have for their books.

Remembering

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

Romano Guardini, The Conversion of Augustine

Wow. Blew my mind and yet it is such a simple idea. Body and soul working together.

An Unwelcome Guest

Vittorio Reggianini, An Unwelcome Guest

A Movie You Might Have Missed #103 — One Life

Based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, the film alternates between following 79-year old Winton reminiscing on his past, and Winton at 29 who makes it his mission to help predominantly Jewish children in Czechoslovakia to flee in 1938–39, just before Hitler invades.

A really well done movie about an incident in WWII which should be known better. It really emphasized for me the cost of war to the innocent. As Nicky says, "That bloody Hitler."

Most of all, we realize the power of good to make a difference. And that's the point we should live by.

May is Mary's Month

William Bouguereau (1825-1905)
L'innocence [Innocence]

The May Magnificat

May is Mary's month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:

Her feasts follow reason, Dated due to season --

Candlemas, Lady Day;

But the Lady Month, May,

Why fasten that upon her, With a feasting in her honour

Is it only its being brighter

Than the most are must delight her?

Is it opportunest And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother;

Her reply puts this other

Question: What is Spring? -- Growth in everything --

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather

Grass and green world all together;

Star-eyed strawberry breasted Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within;

And bird and blossom swell In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathising

With that world of good Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored Magnify the Lord

Well but there was more than this:

Spring's universal bliss

Much, had much to say To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-apple

And thicket and thorp are merry With silver-surféd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

And magic cuckoo call Caps, clears, and clinches all --

This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth

To remember and exultation In God who was her salvation.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus, Guido Reni
via WikiPaintings

We celebrate two feast days for Joseph: March 19 for Joseph the Husband of Mary and May 1 for Joseph the Worker.

There is much we wish we could know about Joseph -- where and when he was born, how he spent his days, when and how he died. But Scripture has left us with the most important knowledge: who he was -- "a righteous man" (Matthew 1:18).

Catholic Online

I love St. Joseph. He was the quiet man of action. Those are my kind of guys.

Happy Birthday, Dear Tom

This doodle looks like it would be the scene for a wonderfully romantic birthday evening, doesn't it?

Perfect for Tom (and me) then!

Tom has chosen Strawberry Shortcake. Ok. To be honest, I suggested it (knowing his tastes) and he liked the idea so much that he never bothered trying to think of anything else.

I have taken to baking the cake from Tres Leches Cake in 9" pans. Then you horizontally cut the layers so that you've got four thin layers of cake. Macerate 48 ounces of strawberries with plenty of sugar. Construct with layers of strawberries, syrup, and freshly whipped cream. Delicious.

Perhaps I should say the above Google looks perfect for a celebratory evening since we will not be alone.

We've got a wonderfully participatory family with babies and 4-year-olds and grown kids and so forth and so on. It will be a real party!

Notes on Mark: Witnesses and Death Customs

Resurrection of Jairus's daughter.
Etching by E.F. Mohn after G.C. von Max.

MARK 5:35-39
The number of witnesses that Jewish law considered to be necessary for legal purposes was three. Jesus always used Peter, James and John ... those closest to him.

Jesus did not want more than these three Apostles to be present: three was the number of witnesses laid down by the Law (Deut 19:15). "For Jesus, being humble, never acted in an ostentatious way" (Theophilactus, Enarratio in Evangelium Marci, in loc.). Besides these were the three disciples closest to Jesus: later, only they will be with him at the Transfiguration (cf. 9:2) and at his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. 14:33).

The Navarre Bible: St. Mark

The scene of unrestrained grief that would have greeted Jesus and his disciples as they entered really would have been an uproar. Here are a few of the details about mourning customs at the time.

Jewish mourning customs were vivid and detailed, and practically all of them were designed to stress the desolation and the final separation of death. The triumphant victorious hope of the Christian faith was totally absent.

Immediately death had taken place a loud wailing was set up so that all might know death had struck. The wailing was repeated at the grave side. The mourners hung over the dead body, begging for a response from the silent lips. They beat their breasts; they tore their hair; and they rent their garments...

Flute players were essential. Throughout most of the ancient world, in Rome, in Greece, in Phoenicia, in Assyria and in Palestine, the wailing of the flute was inseparably connected with death and tragedy....

When death came, a mourner was forbidden to work, to annoint himself or to wear shoes. Even the poorest man must cease from work for three days. He must not travel with goods; and the prohibition of work extended even to his servants ... It was the custom not to eat at a table, but to eat sitting on the floor, using a chair as a table. It was the custom, which still survives, to eat eggs dipped in ashes and salt.

There was one curious custom. All water from the house, and from the three houses on each side, was emptied out, because it was said that the Angel of Death procured death with a sword dipped in water taken from close at hand. There was one peculiarly pathetic custom. In the case of a young life cut off too soon, if the young person had never been married, a form of marriage service was part of the burial rites. For the time of mourning the mourner was exempt from the keeping of the law, because he was supposed to be beside himself, mad with grief.

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

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Sources and Notes Index   

Christ and St. Mary Magdalen at the Tomb

Rembrandt (1606–1669)
Christ and St Mary Magdalen at the Tomb
via Wikipedia

I really felt as if I'd featured enough religious art lately. But I just couldn't resist it for a couple of reasons.

Why did Mary Magdalene mistake Jesus for a gardener? The hat and trowel, of course! And the angels lounging around look like high schoolers on break. What a wonderful way to exercise one's imagination on both scriptural accounts and the actual historical event.

TV You Might Have Missed #13 — Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey)

A stylish urban fantasy about the Monkey King, a powerful immortal banished to the human world, and a young woman who can see ghosts and spirits. Their intertwined destinies and a contract made years ago lead them to clash and become allies, battling evil and exploring themes of fate, love, and redemption.

This urban fantasy was tons of fun. We really grew to love these characters. I especially enjoyed watching Son O Gong (Monkey) behaving in such a monkey-like fashion as he ignored what anyone wanted but himself and acted on whichever whimsy occurred to him. 

This is a very loose riff on the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West about a Buddhist monk on pilgrimage accompanied by protecting deities atoning for their sins. It  certainly broadened my horizons as I wound up reading The Monkey King, Vol. I and 2, graphic novels by  Chaiko Tsai looking for a few clues as to the characters or symbols from that story. You don't have to know anything about Journey to watch the show, but it does make it more fun to be able to identify a few things such as the Geumganggo.

The female lead was the weakest actress and her story was also the weakest but the engaging side stories more than made up for that problem. Of course, we were invested in the main romance/fighting evil story but you just can't resist the sweet and zany cast of demon characters masquerading as humans —  including an octopus prince in a pop star's body, a friendly and sweet zombie who willingly lives in the fridge, the loyal dog secretary, or a winter deity who runs (of course) an ice cream stand.

And there was plenty of romance. With Monkey wearing funky fur coats.  Of course.

I enjoyed this as much as Tale of the 9 Tailed, even though in some ways they are very different.

Four Footed Lovers

Via Bumble Button

My little children in Christ, my joy and my crown

Masaccio. Baptism of the Neophytes

I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, proof of Mother Church's fruitfulness. All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown. ...

St. Augustine, Sermo 8

I love how tenderly this is expressed.

Remember, Easter continues until Pentecost, which is June 8 this year. Keep the celebration going!

Feast of Divine Mercy

Sunday After Easter Sunday

During the course of Jesus' revelations to Saint Faustina on the Divine Mercy He asked on numerous occasions that a feast day be dedicated to the Divine Mercy and that this feast be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter...

Concerning the Feast of Mercy Jesus said:

Whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day will be granted complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. (Diary 300)

I want the image solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated publicly so that every soul may know about it. (Diary 341)

This Feast emerged from the very depths of My mercy, and it is confirmed in the vast depths of my tender mercies. (Diary 420)

On one occasion, I heard these words: My daughter, tell the whole world about My Inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.* [our emphasis] On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will I contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy. (Diary 699)

Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to our neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to absolve yourself from it. (Diary 742)

I want to grant complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My mercy. (Diary 1109)

As you can see the Lord's desire for the Feast includes the solemn, public veneration of the Image of Divine Mercy by the Church, as well as personal acts of veneration and mercy. The great promise for the individual soul is that a devotional act of sacramental penance and Communion will obtain for that soul the plenitude of the divine mercy on the Feast.

More about this feast day

Easter Friday: Here are the beginnings of creatures newly formed

Icon of the Resurrection

Here, then, is the grace conferred by these heavenly mysteries, the gift which Easter brings, the most longed for feast of the year; here are the beginnings of creatures newly formed: children born from the life giving font of holy Church, born anew with the simplicity of little ones, and crying out with the evidence of a clean conscience. Chaste fathers and inviolate mothers accompany this new family, countless in number, born to new life through faith. As they emerge from the grace giving womb of the font, a blaze of candles burns brightly beneath the tree of faith. The Easter festival brings the grace of holiness from heaven to men. Through the repeated celebration of the sacred mysteries they receive the spiritual nourishment of the sacraments. ...

Easter homily by an ancient author,
via the Liturgy of the Hours

I loved this because it took me back to when I, too, was newly formed and coming into my new life in the Church.

Feast Day — St. Mark the Evangelist

Mark the Evangelist by Il Pordenone

We can get a lot of information about Saint Mark simply by reading the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.

The thing I'm most interested in is that the gospel he wrote actually comes from having been St. Peter's interpreter and going on the road with him. The people asked him to record St. Peter's teachings. No wonder there are such vivid details in it. This is as close as you can get to being straight from the horse's mouth.

.. we find Mark in Rome, this time helping Peter, who refers to him as my son Mark, thereby testifying to a long-standing close relationship. At that time Mark was acting as interpreter for the Prince of the Apostles, and this provided him with a privileged vantage-point which we see reflected in the Gospel he wrote a few years later. Although Saint Mark doesn't provide us with a record of the Master's great discourses, he makes up for it by giving us a particularly vivid description of the events of Jesus' life with his disciples. In his accounts we find ourselves once more in those little towns on the shores of the Sea of Galilee; we can sense the hubbub of the crowds of that follow Jesus, we can almost converse iwth the inhabitants of those places and can contemplate Christ's wonderful deeds and the spontaneous reactions of the Twelve. In a word, we find ourselves witnessing the events of the gospel as if we were actually there in the throng. Though his vivid descriptions the Evangelist manages to imprint on our souls something of the irresistible yet reassuring fascination that Jesus exercised on people, and which the Apostles themselves experienced in their life with the Master. Saint Mark in effect gives us a faithful account of Saint Peter's most intimate recollections of his Master: with the passage of the years his memories had not grown dim, but became ever more profound and perceptive, more penetrating and more fond. It can be said that Mark's message is the living mirror of Saint Peter's preaching.

Saint Jerome tells us that Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, wrote down his gospel at the request of the brethren living in Rome, according to what he had heard Peter preach. And Peter himself, having heard it, approved it with his authority to be read in the Church. This was without doubt Mark's principal mission in life — to transmit Peter's teachings faithfully.

In Conversation with God, Francis Fernandez,
Special Feasts: January - June

Easter Thursday: Litany for the Easter Season

Resurrection of Jesus, by Anton von Werner, Berlin Cathedral

 

A beautiful litany full of praise and joy. And, not too long. What could be better?

Litany for the Easter Season

Father of life, we give you praise and glory.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

You have given Jesus victory over sin.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

You have raised him from the dead.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

You have made his cross a sign of glory.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

You have made us sharers in your life.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

With Christ, you have buried us in death to sin.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

With him you have raised us to new life.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

He is seated with you in glory.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

He sends his Spirit to guide our lives.
Christ is risen, alleluia!

Jesus will come again in glory.
Christ is risen, alleluia!
Source

Russian icon, 15th century

Easter Wednesday: Via Lucis - Stations of the Resurrection for Easter

Nikolay Koshelev, Harrowing of Hell, 1900

 Via Lucis, The Way of Light substitutes meditations on the Stations of the Resurrection for the Stations of the Cross.

As with the Stations of the Cross, the devotion takes no fixed form, but typically includes for each Station a reading from Scripture, a short meditation, and a prayer. Where a series of pictures is used to aid the devotion, it takes the form of a procession, with movement from one Station to the next sometimes being accompanied by the singing of one or more verses of a hymn. (Wikipedia)

I first came across this practice in Magnificat, which typically features a version in their Easter edition.

For Easter meditation, this devotion parallels the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary just as the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) complements the Sorrowful Mysteries.

If you check the Wikipedia link there are a couple of different lists of meditative stations. As with the original Stations of the Cross, it is evolving as the practice is taken up by growing numbers of people. I like getting to see that happen, actually.

Note on the art
Just to keep that fluid Via Lucis meditation going, one of my favorite things to contemplate is when Christ brought salvation to the righteous who had already died but were waiting for this moment.  That is not part of any of the Via Lucis lists that you'll find but, hey, I don't always stick to the "assigned" mysteries when praying the rosary either.

Maybe it's because in the Divine Comedy. In Hell, Dante has several spots where the architecture and ground were ruined by Christ's coming and the resultant earthquake. I love that so much. (The Harrowing of Hell is complicated. You can read more here.)

 Harrowing of Hell

There is a lovely ancient homily for Holy Saturday which provides more food for thought on the Harrowing of Hell — since I wound up walking down that bit of road. It is what Christ says to Adam and is so moving. I love that Jesus essentially got there as fast as he could. 

Here's a little and you can read it all here if you scroll down to the second reading.

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in Hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I in you; together we form one person and cannot be separated.

Easter Tuesday: Living Under Enemy Occupation in the Light of Victory

Why Seek Ye the Living in the Place of the Dead - Howard Pyle

I've been posting this one since waaaay back in 2007. It is still as valid now and I, personally, need the  reminder.

Now think of the cross and resurrection of Jesus as breaking the power of sin. But if the power of sin, death and evil has been broken, how can we make sense of the fact that it still continues to plague us? Human history and Christian experience tell us of a constant struggle against sin and evil in our own lives, even as Christians. There is a real danger, it would seem, that talking about "the victory of faith" will become nothing more than empty words, masking a contradiction between faith and experience. How can we handle this problem?

A helpful way of understanding this difficulty was developed by a group of distinguished writers, such as C.S. Lewis in England and Anders Nygren in Sweden. They noticed important parallels between the new Testament and the situation during the Second World War. The victory won over sin through the death of Christ was like the liberation of an occupied country from Nazi rule. We need to allow our imaginations to take in the sinister and menacing idea of an occupying power. Life has to be lived under the shadow of this foreign presence. And part of the poignancy of the situation is its utter hopelessness. Nothing can be done about it. No one can defeat it.

Then comes the electrifying news. There has been a far-off battle. And somehow, it has turned the tide of the war. A new phase has developed, and the occupying power is in disarray. Its backbone has been broken. In the course of time, the Nazis will be driven out of every corner of Europe. But they are still present in the occupied country.

In one sense, the situation has not changed, but in another, more important sense, the situation has changed totally. The scent of victory and liberation is in the air. A total change in the psychological climate results. I remember once meeting a man who had been held prisoner in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore. He told me of the astonishing change in the camp atmosphere which came about when one of the prisoners (who owned a shortwave radio) learned of the collapse of the Japanese war effort in the middle of 1945. Although all in the camp still remained prisoners, they knew that their enemy had been beaten. It would only be a matter of time before they were released. And those prisoners, I was told, began to laugh and cry, as if they were free already.

... And so with us now. In one sense, victory has not come; in another, it has. The resurrection declares in advance of the event God's total victory over all evil and oppressive forces -- such as death, evil and sin. Their backbone has been broken, and we may begin to live now in the light of that victory, knowing that the long night of their oppression will end.

Alister E. McGrath, quoted in Bread and Wine: Readings For Lent And Easter

This is a point of view that hadn't occurred to me. I especially like it for those times when the world is too much with us and the cynicism of modern times begins to get us down. The deciding battle is over, the victory won, but there remain all the small skirmishes (which are not at all small to those caught up in them ... like us) that go on afterwards in any war. By virtue of simply being human and alive we are caught up in the skirmishes of resistance to the enemy occupation. Even when fighting, though, we know ...

The strife is o'er the battle done;
Now is the Victor's triumph won:
Now be the song of praise begun: Alleluia!

Give Your Servant Francis Eternal Peace, O Lord

 I opened my print newspaper this morning to see a nice photo of Pope Francis making a surprise visit in the Popemobile on Easter Day in Rome. I read of his chat with J.D. Vance.

So, naturally, like most of us, I was really stunned to hear that he died in Rome early Easter Monday.

He served with his utmost to the very end which is something I hope that can be said of me. I am praying for his soul. 

Give your servant Francis 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.

For those who would like to know more about Pope Francis's life and ministry, The Pillar has a very good article.

I am also praying for the College of Cardinals who are traveling to Rome now to vote in the upcoming conclave. I pray they will be open to the Holy Spirit as our next Holy Father is chosen.

For those wondering what is happening now and what will happen during the voting, here's another good piece from The Pillar. It's funny to me to recognize Cardinal Farrell's face so easily. He was bishop of Dallas before being called to serve at The Vatican.

San Jacinto Day! Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!

Veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto at a meeting of the Texas Veterans' Association in Galveston circa 1880. Center row, third from left: Valentine Ignatius Burch of Tyler County, Texas. Center row, second from left: Valentine Burch. Front row, second from right: George Petty of Washington County.

Courtesy the Star of the Republic Museum via the Portal to Texas History.

Via Traces of Texas.

My friend Don never forgets this ... he's the one always reminding me it is San Jacinto Day He has told me many a time:

I try to remember all of these good Texas holidays. They really bring home how unique the state –and future Republic?—truly is. This one is a real holiday, not like Cinco de Mayo. I mean, if you have a holiday to celebrate beating the French, then every day would be a holiday!

Ha! No kidding!

Let's all lift a margarita high to the Texian heroes of the decisive battle of the Texas revolution!

During the Triduum the Strangest Thing Will Occur ...

A friend sent me this piece a few years ago and it moves me every time I come across it. Here's a sample and then you can go read the whole thing.

During the Sacred Triduum — the days of Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday — the strangest thing will occur. Millions of Christians throughout the world will gather to honor the humiliation, torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In a global culture that usually celebrates power, strength and beauty, this public veneration of something so horrible is always a little shocking. Could it be that what people find so absolutely compelling about the Passion narrative is the vulnerability of God?

Tankard

Tankard, 1574-75, The Clark

I could look at these elegant details all day. It certainly looks almost too fine to drink from! Almost!

Christianity starts by ...

Christianity doesn't start by telling people what they must do; it starts by telling people what God has done for them, to save them ... Christianity is a religion of grace.
Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household.

That is so true. It is only once one recognizes God's grace and mercy that you begin to understand, love, and want to please the one who loves you so much.

The House of the British Consul, Damascus

Thomas Allom (1804-1872)
The House of the British Consul, Damascus
Government Art Collection, London

This is via Idle Speculations, accompanying an interesting piece about Syriac Christianity.

On fire to win the prize

Do not be shy of the contest, if you truly love the prize. Let knowledge of the reward set the mind on fire to accomplish the work. What we desire, and wish for, and seek, will be hereafter; but what we are ordered to do, for the sake of that which will be hereafter, must be now.

St. Augustine, Sermon

I like that idea of being ablaze working for a goal. It happens to me now and again, but probably not as often as it should when I am seeking the kingdom of God.

Psalm 46 — God is Our Refuge

When you have fled to God for refuge and are delivered from the afflictins round about you, if you wish to give thanks to God and to recount his kindness toward you, you have Psalm 46.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

I especially like the first stanza which lays out a list of uncontrollable events which we can't control.

God is for us a refuge and strength,
a helper close at hand, in times of distress,
so we shall not fear though the earth should rock,
though the mountains fall into the depths of the sea,
even though its waters rage and foam,
even though the mountains be shaken by its waves.

Right now we might feel that shaken by the works of men also — politics, the economy, and more. But these pale in comparison to the events the psalmist describes.

But the second part of the psalm outlines a world transfigured by God. The Lord hs brought peace and an end to war. This is indeed a joyful and hopeful song to the Lord.

Illustration of verse 9 from the Stuttgart Psalter

Saint John Paul II's discusion of this psalm in his Liturgy of the Hour series points out that Christian tradition sees in the "help" offered to the city of God a prophetic allusion to the Resurrection. Here's the relevant portion but do follow the link to read the whole thing.

5. With this Psalm, Christian tradition has sung the praise of Christ "our peace" (cf. Eph 2: 14) and, through his death and Resurrection, our deliverer from evil. The Christological commentary that St Ambrose wrote on v. 6 of Psalm 46[45] that describes the "help" offered to the city of God, "right early" before daybreak, is evocative. The famous Father of the Church sees in it a prophetic allusion to the Resurrection.

In fact, he explains: "The Resurrection at break of day procures the support of heavenly help for us, the Resurrection that put an end to night has brought us day; as Scripture says: "Awakened and arisen and raised from the dead! And the light of Christ will shine for you'.

Note the mystical significance! At nightfall Christ's passion occurred... at dawn, the Resurrection.... In the evening of the world he is killed, while the light is dying, for this world was shrouded in total darkness and would have been plunged into the horrors of even grimmer shadows had Christ, the light of eternity, not come down from heaven for us to bring the age of innocence back to the human race. The Lord Jesus, therefore, suffered and with his blood he redeemed our sins, the light of a clearer knowledge was radiant, and the day shone with spiritual grace" (cf. Commento a Dodici Salmi: SAEMO, VIII, Milan-Rome, 1980, p. 213).

========

An index of psalm posts is here.

White Wings

White Wings, Duane Keiser

This is so vividly alive! I feel as if I could pluck it from the vase.

Julie and Scott travel to New Mexico to put the sheets out on the clothesline. Oh - and to do some math.

 We discuss Christopher Nolan's movie Oppenheimer in episode 353 of A Good Story is Hard to Find. Join us!

A Movie You Might Have Missed #102 — Blossoms in the Dust

It tells the story of Edna Gladney, who opened a home for foundlings and orphans find homes. She was able to place the children in good homes, despite the opposition of “conservative” citizens, who would condemn illegitimate children for being born out of wedlock. Eventually Edna led a fight in the Texas legislature to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from birth records in that state, while continuing to be an advocate for homeless children.

We watched this as part of our Oscar winner/nominees for 1942. I know this wasn't quite as artfully done as the winner, How Green Was My Valley, but we sure liked it better. Living in Dallas I'd heard of the Edna Gladney home in Fort Worth and I was interested in the story. It did not disappoint.

Greer Garson is a wonderful actress and the story, though told in a straight forward manner, handled several social issues that hadn't occurred to us. We also appreciated the way the story showed major events without drawing out the tragedies. It was inspirational in a way that I didn't expect.

I hadn't realized what a pioneer Gladney was in legislation to protect orphaned children. The film made it clear why this was very important. It was fascinating to realize that her accomplishments happened just a few years before this movie was made, making it a topic of real interest and also education to people at the time.

The Pink Dancers, Before the Ballet

Edgar Degas, 1884, The Pink Dancers, Before the Ballet
via WikiPaintings

Of course it is Degas. It's ballet dancers! But I don't recall ever seeing anything so ... pink ... from him before. The vivid color is softened by the painting style but still draws my eye. I can't look away somehow.

Court of Lions

Court of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, is the epicentre of the greatest concentration of high Islamic art, through which runs the perpetual trickle of water that Muslims thought essential to architecture.

 This photo is nowhere near the quality that is featured in Art: A New History, but it gives a flavor of the delight I felt upon seeing the image in the book. I absolutely loved the idea of water being a part of the architecture of a building.

The second feature of the Alhambra is the presence of water, which flows, drips, splashes and spouts in dozens of different ways, and in scores of places, throughout the immense complex of buildings, though it is visible chiefly in the courts. The Patio de los Leones, or Court of the Lions, built in the 1370s, summarises everything the Islamic world had learned about water-architecture. it has a central fountain resting on the backs of twelve white marble lions. The water trickles away in narrow canals between systems of twin-pillared arches, forming arcades on which rest four magnificent reception rooms on the first storey. They overlook the court, but are remarkable also for their starry vaults, lit by great windows which admit and discipline the sunlight. The decoration is provided by Kufic patterning and by poetry in brilliant cursive script, and a poem also adorns the fountain itself. Font and arch, marble and glass mosaic, paint, stone and script, tile and open window, grass and herb, light, shade, and brilliance all combine together to create a sense of airy lightness, reassuringly underwritten by marmoreal solidity. ...

I could keep going but then I'd just have to give you the whole book. Paul Johnson is not a bad artist with words himself as we can see.

My husband has always wanted to see the Alhambra. After reading Johnson's take on it and seeing photos I can understand why. I'd like to see it myself.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #101 — Thelma

When 93-year-old Thelma gets scammed by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.

This was a delight. Thelma being inspired by Tom Cruise to track down the scammers who tricked her into sending cash is just the first level.

It is funny but never at the expense of the elderly, a la "having an old lady swear" which is the sort of unfunny joke that is so often perpetrated in the movies. As the movie goes forward there's a serious side that is interwoven but never heavy-handedly. 

This is the sort of indie, small movie that we get all too rarely these days and it is so welcome!

You like to cook. Making breakfast is fun for you.

[The baby goats] were a lot of work, especially in the beginning. I tried, with moderate success to enlist my human kids to pitch in. One afternoon a few days after school let out for the summer, I heated the milk for the goats and filled their baby bottles. "Would you please take these out and do the feeding?" I asked Owen, who was lying on the floor, drawing a Transformer.

"You do it," he said.

"You do it?" I replied.

"Yes, you do it."

"Did you just say, 'You do it'?"

"I always do it," he said.

"That is not true."

He said, "I did it last night."

"And I did it this morning."

"Because I was sleeping. Besides, you like getting up early."

"I do not like getting up early."

"Then why do you do it?"

"So I can feed the goats! So I can do the laundry! So I can make you breakfast!"

"You like to cook," he said. "Making breakfast is fun for you."

"JUST GO OUTSIDE AND FEED THE GOATS!"

Owen stared at me in shock. He shouted, "You want me to be a SLAVE for you. Summer was not invented so kids could be SLAVES for their parents."

"Actually," I said wearily, "it was."

there were no exchanges like this in the Little House books, ever. Owen went outside. A few minutes later, I heard him singing.

Jennifer Reese; Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

A Highland Breakfast

A Highland Breakfast, Edwin Henry Landseer

Kids' Breakfast

Kids' Breakfast (Kinderfrühstück), Albert Anker

Why is breakfast different from all other things?

I would very much like to know what those who have an answer to everything can say about the food requisite to breakfast? Those great men Marlowe and Jonson, Shakespeare, and Spenser before him, drank beer at rising, and tamed it with a little bread. In the regiment, we used to drink black coffee without sugar, and cut off a great hunk of stale crust, and eat noting more till the halt ... Dogs eat the first thing they come across, cats take a little milk, and gentlemen are accustomed to get up at nine and eat eggs, bacon, kidneys, ham, cold pheasant, toast coffee, tea, scones, and honey, after which they will boast that their race is the hardiest in the world and ready to bear every fatigue in the pursuit of Empire. But what rule governs all this? Why is breakfast different from all other things, so that the Greeks called it the best thing in the world, and so that each of us in a vague way knows that he would eat at breakfast nothing but one special kind of food and that he could not imagine breakfast at any other hour in the day?

Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome

The Path to Rome is such a wonderful book to idly read here and there in your day. It is the story of the pilgrimage Belloc made on foot to Rome in as straight a line as possible order to fulfill a vow he had made. It is a delightful travel book with all sorts of discoveries and musings, such as above!