Blue Rider

Wassily Kandinsky, 1903, Blue Rider
via WikiPaintings

WikiPaintings' commentary points out something I hadn't noticed:

The painting’s intentional abstractness had led many art theorists to project their own representations onto the figure, some seeing a child in the arms of the blue rider. Allowing viewers to participate in the representations of the art was a technique that Kandinsky would use to great fruition in his many later works, which became more and more abstract as his career wore on.

This puts me in mind of a large painting my parents had which was very abstract. I looked at it idly all through my youth, sometimes seeing the inside of a cave with stalactites, sometimes seeing a river and waterfall, occasionally wondering what the painter intended and what other people saw in the painting when they looked. I'm not sure but I think it might have been titled Mirage. Why I never asked anyone else in my family what they saw in the painting, I don't know. It was an internal meditation which I never felt needed airing.

In that spirit, is the rider going to something or away? Are the shadows an encroaching threat or receding in the face of the light? Obviously this is a painting which could reward the viewer with something new many times.

Mark Bible Study - Index

MARK

• Sources used
• The Author and Manuscript [Updated]
• Mark the Lion
• 1:1 - The Beginning of the Good News
• 1:4 - Word Study: Repentance
• 1:9-11 - The Baptism of Jesus
• 1:12-14 - Tempted in the Wilderness
• 1:16-20 - Choosing the Disciples
• 1:21-22 - The Synagogue
• 1:21-22 - The Law
• 1:21-22 - The Scribes
• 1:21-28 - Jesus' Assault on the Powers of Darkness
• 1:40-45 - Leprosy
• 2:1-12 - The Paralyzed Man and His Four Friends
• 2:7 - Forgiveness is Active
• 2:13-14 - Matthew the Tax Collector
• 2:23-28 - About the Sabbath
• 3:1-6 - Healing on the Sabbath
• 3:13-19 - Choosing the Twelve
• 3:28-30 - Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
• 4:1 - Broadcasting Seed Upon the Soil
• 4:1-20 - Plowing the Soil
• 4:10-12 - They See But Do Not Perceive
• 4:26-29 - Parable About the Seeds
• 4:30-32 - The Mustard Seed
• 4:35-41 - The Storm
• 5:1-20 - Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac
• 5:35-39 - Witnesses and Death Customs
• 5:40-43 - Hearing Jesus' Voice
• Chapter 6 - Unbelief and Power
• 6:1-3 - Degrees of Relationship
• 6:14-16 - John the Baptist's Self-Offering
• 6:16-29 - An Evil Woman's Revenge
• 6:35-44 - Feeding the Five Thousand
• 6:45-52 - Rowing Against the Wind
• 6:53-56 - Running to Jesus
• 7:14-23 - Real Defilement Comes From Within
• 7:14-23 - What Makes a Man Unclean
• 7:24-30 - Table Scraps
• 7:32-33 - The Deaf and Dumb Man
• 8:1-10 - Understanding the Second Miracle of Loaves
• 8:14-21 - Only One Loaf
• 8:22-26 -  Gradual Journeys
• 8:34-35 - The Cost of Discipleship
• 8:38-9:1 - When the King Comes Into His Own
• 9:2-8 - Transfiguration as Suspension of Miracle
• 9:2-8 - On the Mountaintop
• 9:2-8 - Radiant Glory and the Cloud
• 9:2-8 - Transfiguration and the Disciples
• 9:2-8 - Transfiguration and Jesus
• 9:14-29 - Foreshadowing the Resurrection
• 9:32-35 - True Ambition
• 9:38-40 - He Who Is Not Against Us Is For Us
• 9:41-42 - The Millstone
• 9:42-48 - Hell
• 9:49-10:1 - Salt, Salt, and More Salt
• 10:46-52 - Healing is a Sign of the New World
• 11:11-12 - Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
• 14:10-11 - Judas' Motivation
• 14:22, 24 - This is My Body. This is My Blood.

With Design This Good I Almost Don't Care About a Story: S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst

S. by J.J. Abrams, Doug Dorst



I can't rate this book yet because I just got it home from the library and took a good look at it.

That "good look" took me 15 delighted minutes.

Why so long? Because this "1949" book, perfectly designed in the style of the time, has a correspondence going on in the sides of the pages, between two biblophiles who discuss the author and learn about each other by leaving notes in the library book.

Flipping carefully through to see a few of the postcards, newspaper articles, and photographs left in the pages of the book (as part of the reading experience, of course) made me even more excited.

Based on reviews, people either love the story or find it disappointing. All give full credit for the amazing book design. Obviously, I am so hoping I'm one of the people who loves the story because the layout and design are enough to make me give it 5 stars without reading more than the title page and two pages of the introduction.

It is so authentic looking that when I showed it to one of my favorite librarians (yes, I have favorite librarians. It happens when you visit your library at least once a week for years), she opened it, saw the library stamp and the "Book for Loan" stamp and said, "When was this written?" She looked it up on her database before believing it was new.

Now, if there is one thing I know about J.J. Abrams it is that he can be more style than substance. (Yes, Lost, I gave you three seasons of my life before quitting.)

If there is a second thing I know, it is that he can tell a helluva good story sometimes (Alias, Person of Interest, Almost Human, the Star Trek reboot). All while maintaining that nice, shiny style that is so alluring.

This book is going to take a while to read, as most reviewers have remarked. But I am already intrigued enough to make this a "slow read" commitment and work my way through it.

One thing is definite. This is a love letter to books, turning pages, writing notes, and tucking reminders between the leaves. You couldn't do this with a Kindle, folks. All the postcards would fall out every time you turned it on!

Here's a video that shows the inside of the book.

Notes on Mark: Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

MARK 11:11-26
The whole incident of the cursed fig tree has never really made sense to me, seeming quite out of character for Jesus. This sheds a little light at least in terms of examining that fig tree in my own life.

Jesus' cursing of the fig tree has always been a difficult text for Bible commentators, especially in view of Mark's comment that "it was not the season for figs." It seems odd that Jesus would curse the fig tree when it was not the time to bear fruit...

The barrenness condemned by Jesus can cause us problems as well. We are called to bear fruit; Jesus wants that fruit. If we are willing to be satisfied with legalistic observances, we will remain barren. We can never plead that it is not the proper season to bear fruit, that we have no time for prayer, no need for repentance, no reason for faith. We can argue that we go to church on Sunday, that people call us Christians, that we observe certain religious rituals. God, however, wants faith that bears fruit.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary
(The Word Among Us)

Note: the link above goes to Word Among Us's book store. For some reason it gives a security certificate warning, but when I bravely went ahead, there I was ... where I could buy a book if I liked. Be not afraid!

Happy Feast Day, St. Francis De Sales!

Scott and I read this saint's classic book for everyday people, Introduction to the Devout Life. We discussed it a year ago on his feast day on our podcast. (Coincidence? I think now!)

Today Scott sent me a couple of beautiful quotes from his notes. Naturally, these are too good to keep to myself so I'm sharing them with you:

It is an error, nay more, a very heresy, to seek to banish the devout life from the soldier’s guardroom, the mechanic’s workshop, the prince’s court, or the domestic hearth.

+ + + + + + + + +

Day is continually turning to night, spring to summer, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, winter to spring; no two days are ever exactly alike. Some are foggy, rainy, some dry or windy; and this endless variety greatly enhances the beauty of the universe. And even so precisely is it with man (who, as ancient writers have said, is a miniature of the world), for he is never long in any one condition, and his life on earth flows by like the mighty waters, heaving and tossing with an endless variety of motion; one while raising him on high with hope, another plunging him low in fear; now turning him to the right with rejoicing, then driving him to the left with sorrows; and no single day, no, not even one hour, is entirely the same as any other of his life.

Day of the Little Way ... St. Therese and Twitter

Here's an initiative which seems like a good way to use Twitter, which I admit I largely use just for links in case anyone there is interested in what I do here with many more than 140 characters at a time.

The Day of the Little Way will marry the ideas behind the New Evangelization and the life changing power of St. Therese’s little way. On Feb. 4, we’re inviting Catholics everywhere to share their faith through 140 little characters on Twitter by tweeting about the ways St. Therese has impacted your faith and life and by using the hastag #LittleWay.

Will you please consider joining us for the Day of the Little Way movement and help us demonstrate the enormous power of simple faith?

Check the link above for more info.

In which we track a semi-naked woman, dodge nefarious Russians, and make a surprising discovery.

Yes, the second part of Warrior Queen of Mars awaits your listening pleasure at Forgotten Classics!

Today is a Day of Prayer and Penance in the United States

Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world’s rejection. And every elderly person…even if he is ill or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded, as the ‘culture of waste’ suggests!

Pope Francis, Sept. 20, 2013

Today marks the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the U.S.

Since that decision, more than 55 million children's lives have been lost to abortion. That doesn't count those who suffer the loss after they are gone.

Hence the Church's establishment of today as a national day of penance for abortion.

“In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass 'For Peace and Justice' (no. 22 of the 'Masses for Various Needs') should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.”

– General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

My prayers are with those marching in Washington D.C. today as a visible sign . Someday I would love to be able to attend that March.

Actually, someday I'd really love to not have to have a March because our hearts have all changed enough that we value life itself for the precious thing it is, without having to "be" or "do" anything special. Just for itself.

Until that day, we work and pray.

The Dallas March for Life was this weekend and we were heartened by the huge crowds and the media coverage. Once again I cast my mind back to the first March for Life we attended when the organizers were ecstatic because they'd doubled the usual number ... to 1,000. How ashamed we were at that moment that we'd never come before. We haven't missed a March since then and have been blessed to see God's goodness reflected in the thousands who now march for life. I think there must have been something like 8,000 people there.

Whoever handles the media has stepped up their game and was able to get all the local television stations' attention, except for CBS. Extra kudos to WFAA, channel 8, for being respectful enough to call us "pro-life" marchers instead of "anti-abortion" marchers, the way the other stations did. We had lovely weather, in the 60s, unlike most of the country where it is freezing today as they march for life.

Notes on Mark: Healing is a Sign of the New World

Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus,
by Johann Heinrich Stöver, 1861

MARK 10:46-52

46 Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus

50 Throwing his cloak to the side and getting on his feet, he went to Jesus.

Mark gives his name and patronymic because he joins the disciples (verse 52) and becomes known to the Christian community in this way. This is the story of how he became a disciple. There is also an implied contrast with the unnamed rich young man, who did not follow Our Lord. This blind beggar, who had nothing to add, did. ...

Here is another of Mark's memorable "picture details," showing that this beggar, unlike the rich young man, immediately leaves behind everything that he has. He leaves his cloak behind without thought.

The Memoirs of St. Peter by Mark Pakaluk

I never thought about how the above detail fits into the whole chapter. I always just took it as part of an isolated incident as Jesus headed toward Jerusalem. Once again, this shows how Mark is telling a more complex story than he is often given credit for.

On another front, I do tend to forget this, that the healing is not an end in itself but a sign of the new world and of the internal changes taking place within us.

The healing of Bartimaeus occurs, in the structure of Mark's Gospel, in the section recounting Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. The context is important to keep in mind. Bartimaeus' healing was the last reported incident prior to Jesus' entry into the city. There, he would suffer his passion, lay down his life and take it up again. There, he would complete his ministry on earth. Just before the final act of this drama, in which Jesus accomplished the mission set by his father, we have an account of a miracle. Like all of Jesus' miracles, it is a sign that the Messiah is present. It is a sign that God saves his people...

... Faith is a gift of God. It was Bartimaeus' faith that led him to cry out to Jesus, to persist in the face of opposition, and come to Jesus when called. His faith opened him up to the work of Jesus in him, and that is an important message for us as well.

As we see the work of Jesus in Bartimaeus and in our own lives, we must remember that the healing we see is not an end or goal in itself. Rather, it is a sign of the new world that emerged from the coming of Jesus and his passion, death, and resurrection, a new world that we will know in fullness when Jesus comes again. Jesus is the door to a whole new existence for us, as he was for Bartimaeus. As great as it was for Bartimaeus to be able to see, he knew this was a sign, a call from Jesus, and he "followed him on the way" (Mark 10:52). As great as any healing is, it should be seen as a call into the new existence that Christ has won for us.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary
(The Word Among Us)

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index 

Worth a Thousand Words: Grilled Pork, Saigon Style

Grilled Pork, Saigon Edition
from EatingAsia, taken by David Hagerman

I don't know about you but my mouth is watering. I'm so happy that the EatingAsia folks have a cookbook contract. Will I cook from it? Maybe. Hopefully. Will I read it and look at those photos over and over? Oh yeah.

Well Said: The End of Rome and the Catholic Church

I love H.V. Morton's talent for weaving his current-day travel commentary with the history of each place he visits. In this case, I was riveted by his tale of how Rome declined, the barbarians came in several waves, and the measures taken to try to shore things up. You'll know why I like this bit especially after you read it. It's a little lengthy but worth it.

Every expedient was tried by Diocletian to stave off the crash. He froze wages and prices in 301, and created a bureaucracy animated by the spirit of a century of extortion. The tax collector became the terror of the countryside. Men fled their homes rather than meet him and revenged themselves on the state by becoming brigands. Wealthy landowners, developing a technique of tax evasion, managed to exist on their estates, surrounded by serfs and armed men--a forecast of the Middle Ages--defying and bribing the Treasury.

Perhaps the worst aspect of state control was the decision to freeze men as well as prices and wages. It became illegal for a man to change his employment, and a son was obliged to follow his father's calling. All trades, occupations and professions became hereditary. A man who fled from a baker's shop, wishing to become a silversmith, would be hunted down and brought back like an escaped criminal. ...

In this grim caricature of Plato's Republic, the only place where a man ceased to be a tax-producing unit, and became a human being with an immortal soul, was the Church. The bishops were truly the shepherds of their flocks and had the courage to stand up to authority. St. Basil once offended a Praetorian Prefect by his plain words and was told that no one had ever dared to speak in such terms to him. "No doubt," replied St. Basil, "you have never met a bishop." ...

H.V. Morton, A Traveller in Rome, 1957

The Difference Between Dogs and Cats

As Deacon Greg said at his blog, which is where I saw this adorable video, it becomes obvious in how they teach their young to go down the stairs. Hilarious and adorable.



And we all knew what the cat's teaching method would be, right?

Notes on Mark: Salt, Salt, and More Salt

MARK 9:49-10:1
Salt is taken for granted in these times but not back when Jesus was speaking. Just to mention salt meant a multitude of things to the people who heard what he said.

Salt also functions as a preservative, something that was especially important to people living in a hot, dry climate without the benefit of refrigeration. The Old Testament referred to a "covenant of salt" that the Lord made with the people of Israel as a permanent condition (Numbers 18:19). Thus, salt, the preservative, signified the everlasting contract between the Lord and his people.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary
(The Word Among Us)

The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai

The Bells Of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After reading A Song For Nagasaki about Takashi Nagai, I thought it would be good to at least try Nagai's first and most famous book.

It begins on the morning that the bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. I was interested to see it told not only from his point of view but also from that of various other people in the countryside and from different vantage points at the teaching hospital where Nagai was dean. After helping all those they can from the immediate university area, the small band of survivors heads to the countryside to help the many people who are being sheltered by farmers and villages.

I was surprised to find myself laughing at one point. After American planes drop leaflets informing the Japanese that they dropped an atom bomb (so surrender already), Nagai instantly whirls into thought about the implications, both scientifically and to the victims. He comes out to hear the few remaining hospital staff, doctors, and students in a fevered discussion about which scientists were involved ("Einstein?"), how it would have worked ("they couldn't have had a cyclotron on a plane" "fission! it must have been fission!" "Ahhh"), and so forth. Despite the circumstances, as Nagai himself comments after reporting this exchange, they are all scientists first and deeply interested in the development.

We were members of a research group with a great interest in nuclear physics and totally devoted to this branch of science--and ironically we ourselves had become victims of th atom bomb which was the very core of the theory we were studying. Here we lay, helpless in a dugout!

And yet it was a precious experience for us. Placed on the experimentation table, we could watch the whole process in a most intimate way. We could observe the changes that where taking place and that would take place in the future. Crushed with grief because of the defeat of Japan, filled with anger and resentment, we nevertheless felt rising within us a new drive and a new motivation in our search for truth. In this devastated atomic desert, fresh and vigorous scientific life began to flourish.

I'm really glad that I read A Song For Nagasaki first so I have the context of Nagai's life in which to put this story. I think without that it could be desperately depressing. However, there are always very human moments to which we all can relate, such as when the little team is on the road back to a farmer's house and a fart starts a series of jokes, with each person capping the next.

I'd think this would be the mandatory companion to A Song For Nagasaki because I was surprised to find how much Paul Glynn soft-pedaled Nagai's reaction to Japan's unconditional surrender. Nagai in this book tells us how stunned everyone was when the news came, how he cried for 20 minutes, and how devastated everyone felt. I completely understand Glynn's overview of Nagai's overall feeling about war in general, but it did ring very true to me that one would feel a gut-punch to learn one's country had to completely surrender. For a Japanese person it would have been such a part of their very identity that it would be very hard to take. And, the way that Nagai rallied everyone would have less impact if he hadn't honestly told of his own reactions. The conclusions he drew later would be much less powerful, such as what happens after Nagai's sense of overwhelming defeat leads him to reject a man seeking medical help.

In a flash I had a change of heart. Even one precious life was worth saving. Japan was defeated; but the wounded were still alive. The war was over; but the work of our relief team remained. Our country was destroyed; but medical science still existed. Wasn't our work only beginning? Irrespective of the rise and fall of our country, wasn't our main duty to attend to the life and death of each single person? The very basis of the Red Cross was to attend to the wounded, be they friend or foe. Precisely because we Japanese had treated human life so simply and so carelessly--precisely for this reason we were reduced to our present miserable plight. Respect for the life of every person--this must be the foundation stone on which we would built a new society.

Our people had been told that they must suffer these terrible wounds to win the war; but in fact they had suffered in order to lose. Now they were thrown into the most pitiable and desperate situation. And there was no one to console them, no one to help them except us. We must stand and come to their aid. I stood there unsteadily on my tottering legs. And then the whole group stood up beside me. Our courage came back. The determination to continue our work gave us strength and joy.

There is precious little moralizing of the sort that many might expect. In fact, I saw a review somewhere where a person refused to read the book because they found out that Nagai was Roman Catholic. Nagai rarely mentions his faith other than in passing so that person's innate prejudices stopped them from experiencing a very inspirational and thought provoking book about the innate heights to which the human spirit can soar. Highly recommended.

Lagniappe: The Worst Thing I've Ever Heard Of

That's the worst thing I've ever heard. And I've heard of Nazis.

Hannah's friend Alex

This just makes me laugh every time.

Worth a Thousand Words: Siberian Jay

Siberian Jay
taken by the incomparable Remo Savisaar

I Don't Want to be a Hoo-er by Elizabeth Scalia

I Don't Want to be a Hoo-er: Essays on Faith, Family and Foolishness by Elizabeth Scalia

I enjoyed this little book and read it in one evening. It is a collection of Elizabeth Scalia's favorite blog posts and columns from over the years. As such, it is a good representation of her writing, including some of my favorite pieces including the one written shortly before her brother died. I appreciated the brief introduction that Scalia gives for each piece which helped provide context for inclusion, or in my case a reminder of when I had read many of these before.

I feel about this book the way I do about her blog The Anchoress: I love the inspirational pieces, I relate to the life experience pieces (except baseball - let's face it, I'm a football lover), and I care nothing about the political pieces. This book is a good mix of all those things and I'm glad I have it on my shelf.

It made me want to go back through my own blog posts and pull some of my favorites for rereading.

Lagniappe: In this choose-your-own-adventure ...

In this choose-your-own-adventure we call life, would you rather have me dry the dishes or fold the laundry?

Rose Davis when home for Christmas this year

It's both funny and insightful. It never occurred to me to think of my daily choices as a choose-your-own-adventure story ... but that is exactly what it is.

Notes on Mark: Hell

MARK 9:42-48
Jesus talked about hell a lot more than many people realize. Here we see the associations that would have come to mind for his listeners.

Word Study
Hell

Geenna (Gk.): "Gehenna", the valley directly southwest of Jerusalem. Jesus refers to it 11 times in the Gospels as a dreadful symbol of hell. Two associations are made with Gehanna, one drawn from the OT and the other from Jesus' contemporary setting.

1. Gehenna is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew place-name "Valley of the sons of Hinnom". It was the site of a frightful Canaanite cult that worshipped the idols of Molech and Baal by burning children in sacrifice (Jer 7:30; 19:1; 32:35).
2. In the NT period, Gehenna served as a smoldering garbage dump where refuse burned continually. Jesus evokes these associations to teach us that hell is not a place of purgation or purification, but one of fiery punishment (Mt 5:22; 18:9; 23:33). In the afterlife, the bodies and souls of the wicked will suffer in hell for eternity (Mt 10:28; 25:41; 46). Other biblical passages corroborate this horrifying prospect (Is 33:14; 66:24; Jude 7; Rev 20:10).

The Gospel Of Mark
(The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

Let's face it, Hell as it seems to have been traditionally taught seems old-fashioned, unrealistic, and a lot of us don't like to talk about because it is embarrassing if non-Christians are around. They hold up Hell as an indictment of a loving God.The truth is, Hell is actually God's tribute to our own free will. If we don't want to be in His company, He won't force us. Mary Healy makes it a bit clearer.

Some may be struggling with the question of how a good god could send someone to hell. But the truth conveyed in jesus' teaching is that we choose our own destiny. With every decision and action over the course of a lifetime we orient ourselves either to heaven or to hell, and at the moment of death we embrace what has truly become our choice. C.S. Lewis expresses it well: "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' all that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell." But God never ceases to hold out his unfathomable mercy, even at the very moment when a person steps over the threshold into eternity.

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

Note to Google: You're Not Helping Google Plus. You're Hurting Google.

I swung by YouTube yesterday to look at something. A rare occurrence.

So when they asked if I wanted to sign in as Happy Catholic or Julie Davis, I didn't think about it. Happy Catholic. What difference did it make?

I certainly didn't think about it when they asked if this was how I always wanted to sign in. At YouTube? Sure. Why not?

I didn't realize they meant ... sign in everywhere, for everyplace Google had its little fingers in a pie, even with different passwords.

So this morning, sending off an email to Denmark, from our office's Google email, having it come from "Happy Catholic" really undercut the whole business tone I was trying to set.

Whisking off to my profile settings, I see they offer me more ways than ever to enjoy Google Plus, but ... surprise, surprise ... I can't change my profile to the way it was just yesterday.

Look, Google, I know you're desperate. It's little stunts like this that illustrate the point.

I want to love you but you're making it harder and harder.

Cut it out.