Well Said: Duties toward parents

I remember when I first read the book of Sirach. I really love the practicality of the advice to fathers never to have a lattice going past their daughter's second floor bedroom. You're just begging for trouble!

I've also never forgotten the advice below, especially the part about honoring your father even if his mind fails in old age ... it shows that humans are the same then as now and we all need those reminders as we go through life. And it spells out just what that the commandment to honor your father and mother really means.

I remember when I realized that commandment actually comes before "thou shalt not kill" which tells you just how important honoring your father and mother is in God's eyes. Kind of blew my mind and helped keep my priorities straight.

Listen to me, your father, O children;
act accordingly, that you may be kept in safety.

For the Lord honors a father above his children,
and he confirms a mother’s right over her children.

Those who honor their father atone for sins,
and those who respect their mother are like those who lay up treasure.

Those who honor their father will have joy in their own children,
and when they pray they will be heard.
...
The glory of one’s father is one’s own glory,
and it is a disgrace for children not to respect their mother.

My child, help your father in his old age,
and do not grieve him as long as he lives;

even if his mind fails, be patient with him;
because you have all your faculties do not despise him.

For kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
and will be credited to you against your sins;

in the day of your distress it will be remembered in your favor;
like frost in fair weather, your sins will melt away.

Whoever forsakes a father is like a blasphemer,
and whoever angers a mother is cursed by the Lord.

Sirach, 3:1-5, 11-16

Worth a Thousand Words: Corner of the Church of San Stae

Corner of the Church of San Stae, Venice; John Singer Sargent

Well Said: Poverty and Freedom

He who is not capable of enduring poverty is not capable of being free.

Victor Hugo

The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne

“What’s a godfather, Bill?” The Youngest Bad Man inquired. “What job does he hold down?”

“You’re an awful ignorant young man, Bob,” replied The Wounded Bad Man reproachfully. “A godfather is a sort of reserve parent who promises to renounce the devil with all his works an’ pomps.”

The Youngest Bad Man smiled wanly. “Well, Bill, all I got to say is that us three’re a lovely bunch o’ godfathers.”

This little novella has inspired at least five movies, two of them from the silent film era. The most famous is 3 Godfathers starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford, which inspired one of my favorite movies, Tokyo Godfathers. So the story has staying power even in modern culture and other lands.

This little story is the backbone of all those films. This is not the story of the Wise Men, it is the story of Bad Men, we are told on the title page. The three Bad Men are on the lam after a bank heist. Searching for water, they come upon a pioneer woman in labor and dying. Her husband is dead and the newborn baby is given into the care of the "three godfathers" who providentially showed up to help it be born. Their journey to get the baby to his relatives is the story of their struggles with their past and their possible redemption. It is heartfelt but also shows flashes of humor which I enjoyed a lot.

It is interesting to see how the films embellished the basics to give their own take and layers of complexity, which are all, nevertheless, still commenting on the basic story. You can get the book free at Project Gutenberg. I'm lucky because my library had it.

• The Three Godfathers free at Project Gutenberg
• My review of Tokyo Godfathers.
• Tokyo Godfathers discussion at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Worth a Thousand Words: Girl at a Sewing Machine

Girl at a Sewing Machine, Edward Hopper

Genesis Notes: Jacob Meets His Brothers Again

GENESIS 42
If my brothers had hated me enough to sell me to traders I am pretty sure I wouldn't have welcomed them with open arms. At first that seems to be Joseph's reaction as he pretends not to know them and questions them. But we then can see there is a reason besides hurt feelings or revenge for Joseph's methods.

Joseph and His Brothers, Gustav Dore

So why does he pretend to be a stranger and question them harshly, if not to punish them? It is clear from his questions that before telling them who he is, Joseph wants to learn more about them and test them. ...

All Joseph's testing aims to bring them to repentance and reconciliation. Three days in prison gave the men real time to worry about their predicament. They were being asked to bring their youngest brother to Egypt, and if they had never sold Joseph, Benjamin would be with them now. They were confined in prison, which may have reminded them that they held Joseph in a pit regardless of his pleas and sold him into the prison of slavery. Their consciences began to accuse them. They realized that they did wrong against Joseph and deserve this punishment, which they see as coming from God. They have acknowledged their sin, which is the first step toward repentance. Evidence of true sorrow and a changed character remain to be seen.

As much as Joseph must have longed to see Benjamin, sending his brothers to get him posed a further test as much as it would bring about a reunion. Were the brothers still jealous, divided against their father's favorite? Had their relationship with their father improved? Would he trust them with Benjamin? These questions remain to be answered.

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: Carnival

Everything being a carnival, there is no carnival left.

Victor Hugo

Worth a Thousand Words: Persian Calligraphy

Persian calligraphy, Mir Ali Tabrizi

Well Said: Forgiveness or Excuses?

I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says "Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it agains you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before." But excusing says "I see that you couldn't help it or didn't mean it; you weren't really to blame." If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgiven. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. ...

C.S. Lewis, "On Forgiveness," The Weight of Glory

Thank You for A History of the World in 100 Objects! Updated!

A very kind person plucked this off my Amazon wish list and it was a wonderful surprise when it appeared on my doorstep. Thank you!

The history of the Church didn't take place shrouded in the mists of time. It actually happened and continues to happen through things that we can see and sometimes hold in our hand.

The Christian answer to Neil MacGregor's New York Times bestseller A History of the World in 100 Objects, Mike and Grace Aquilina's A History of the Church in 100 Objects introduces you to:

• The Cave of the Nativity (the importance of history, memory, and all things tangible)
• Catacomb niches (the importance of Rome, bones, and relics of the faith)
• Ancient Map of the World (the undoing of myths about medieval science)
• Stained Glass (representative of Gothic cathedrals)
• The Holy Grail (Romance literature and the emergence of writing for the laity)
• Loaves and fish (a link from Jesus to the sacrament of the Eucharist)
• The Wittenberg Door (Martin Luther and the onset of the Reformation)

UPDATE
My take as of Oct. 20:

I'm about halfway through and wanted to encourage anyone who might be on the fence about this book. It is a brief history of the Church, complete with pictures of the items which serve as touchstones for bringing up important historical events. The items include the Christian things you might expect but also range into seemingly non-Christian things like Islamic coins, an Egyptian boy's math notebook, and a medieval science beaker. 

Two or three pages of brief yet comprehensive commentary accompany each item. It is easy to read and even-handed, yet never dumbs it down. I am really loving it.

Well Said: I have noticed something that is really, really cool.

You may also have noticed a lack of critical detachment. I am talking about books because I love books. I'm not standing on a mountain peak holding them at arm's length and issuing Olympian pronouncements about them. I'm reading them in the bath and shouting with excitement because I have noticed something really, really cool.

Jo Walton, What Makes This Book So Great

I can relate.

As you may have noticed here from time to time.

Worth a Thousand Words: Eye Contact

Eye Contact, Remo Savisaar

Well Said: Developing from within

Our being is not constructed from without like a clay mode; it develops from within, as a tree grows and blossoms with the rising of the sap. In us, the sap is the Spirit of Christ. Prayer stimulates its rise.

A. Sertillanges

And just this morning, reading the Gospel of John I read this which, of course, could not fail to call the above quote to mind.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.

John 15:4-5

Chronological Bible Reading - Update

But how shall I speak of the glories I have since discovered in the Bible? For years I have read it with an ever-broadening sense of joy and inspiration; and I love it as I love no other book. Still there is much in the Bible against which every instinct of my being rebels, so much that I regret the necessity which has compelled me to read it through from beginning to end.

Helen Keller

I'd never have thought this in my younger days, but Helen Keller's words resonate with me: "I love it as I love no other book." Reading the Bible daily — sometimes eagerly, sometimes grudgingly, but always reading it — has made me love it. The Word speaks to me through it and provides riches, consolation, inspiration, and surprise.

As I mentioned a while back, I have been reading the Bible in chronological order. This really has given me more of a sense of how God's relationship with his people has progressed, to how history has had a hand in bringing about our salvation.

And it has increased my love for this incomparable book. I'm not quite done but I'm within five books of the end — at which point I'll start over again.

I eventually came up with my own chronological list because the one I began with was set up to get you through in a year. (See post linked to above.) To that end and, as they explained, to alleviate possible boredom, they'd jiggered things a little. Things like moving Chronicles to way after Kings. This confused me no end, by the way, when I was reading along in their order and suddenly thought, "What is David doing this far into the timeline? He died long ago."

Boredom is not my problem as much as wanting to feel the flow of history. I loved the way their timeline placed prophets in the timeline so you could feel history and prophecy together. So I used their order as a timeline template and started putting the out-of-order elements back where they belonged. The result is below as a jpg that you can download or straight text that you can copy or print.

The Old Testament is in the order in which it happened (as nearly as one can ascertain). Job is the most problematic, probably, but once I saw some people placing it during the Genesis timeline it made the book fall into place for me better because of Job's relationship to God. (Knowing it is a fictional examination of Truth, and so forth.)

The New Testament is in the order in which it was written. That is because I was interested in seeing what order the Church experienced these things being written down and distributed. Kind of a "being there" experience because we know the oral stories were circulating from the beginning.

NOTE: The first time through I've been reading without notes or commentary. When I begin again I'll probably be supplementing my reading with a few of those.

OLD TESTAMENT
(Order in which happened)

• Genesis
• Job
• Exodus
• Leviticus
• Numbers
• Deuteronomy
• Psalms
• Joshua
• Judges
• Ruth
• Song of Songs
• Proverbs
• Ecclesiastes
• 1 Samuel
• 2 Samuel
• 1 Kings
• 2 Kings: 1-17
• 1 Chronicles
• 2 Chronicles: 1-28
• Amos
• Jonah
• Hosea
• Micah
• Isaiah: 1-39
• Tobit
• Nahum
• Zephaniah
• Habakkuk
• Judith
• 2 Kings: 18-25
• 2 Chronicles: 29-36
• Jeremiah
• Lamentations
• Baruch
• Ezekiel
• Obadiah
• Daniel: 1-12 (minus prayer in 3:24–90)
• Isaiah: 40-55
• Joel
• Ezra: 1-6
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Esther
• Ezra: 7-10
• Nehemiah
• Isaiah: 56-66
• Malachi
• Daniel: 13
• Sirach
• Daniel: 14
• Daniel: 3:24–90
• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees
• Wisdom

NEW TESTAMENT
(Order in which written)

• 1 Thessalonians
• 2 Thessssalonians
• Galatians
• 1 Corinthians
• 2 Corinthians
• Romans
• Mark
• Philippians
• Colossians
• Philemon
• Ephesians
• Matthew
• 1 Timothy
• Titus
• 2 Timothy
• Luke
• Acts
• Hebrews
• James
• 1 Peter
• 2 Peter
• John
• 1 John
• 2 John
• 3 John
• Jude
• Revelations

Genesis Notes: Pharaoh's Dreams and Layers of Meaning

GENESIS 41
One of the things that I love so much about the Catholic approach to Scripture is the acceptance that there are layers upon layers of meaning to be found. This is very well illustrated when Joseph is needed to interpret Pharaoh's dreams. Until I read this I never would have connected the famine in Pharaoh's dreams with man's condition waiting for Jesus, the "Living Bread" but it makes a definite connection.

James Tissot, Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dream

Pharaoh's dreams are given in great detail and repeated several times in chapter 41. The net effect of the repetition is to focus our attention on them. "Notice the details!" it fairly shouts.

But why? What is there to notice, other than the fact that the dreams warned Pharaoh of an economic downturn that would wipe out all memory of prosperity and potentially wipe out the population? Wasn't it just a setup, so Joseph could be brought into power?

This is a good time to remember that there are layers of meaning in Scripture, and that understanding the literal meaning can be a springboard to illuminating a deeper spiritual sense. In this case, Pharaoh's dreams and the state of Egypt they represent gain significance when we realize that they are in microcosm a picture of the condition of mankind after the fall. We gain profound insight into the way Joseph saves Egypt by seeing it as sign of the way Christ will come to change that condition.

[...]

Returning to Pharaoh's dreams, it is significant that other than the account of the flood, which signifies baptism, all the major pictures of man's condition and the solution to come (the fruit in the Garden; the famine and grain; and later manna in the wilderness, bread from heaven, the feeding of the 5,000; etc.) are couched in terms of food. For what is it that gives us life but the food that Jesus provides, His Body and Blood? As we read in St. John's gospel: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." (John 6:51). As Catholics we take in this new life every time we eat the host at Mass. As the Catechism so aptly says,

"... when the faithful receive the Body of the Son, they proclaim to one another the Good News that the first fruits of life have been given.' Now too are life and resurrection conferred on whoever receives Christ." What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh -- given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit, "preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism." (1391-2)

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: Adversity and prosperity

Adversity makes men and prosperity makes monsters.

Victor Hugo

Worth a Thousand Words: Winter Geraniums

Winter Geraniums, Belinda Del Pesco

Chai-Spiced Pound Cake

I've never liked chai-spiced drinks but then I saw this recipe in the King Arthur Flour catalog which looked so enticing that I bought their chai spice so I could make it. Of course, I don't love to drink chai but I might like to eat it in a dessert.

The cake was straight-up fantastic. I've got it at at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Well Said: The advantage of front and back views

Mrs. Glegg had both a front and a back parlour in her excellent house of St. Ogg's, so that she had two points of view from which she could observe the weakness of her fellow beings and reinforce her thankfulness for her own exceptional strength of mind.

George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

She's got a way with words, you've gotta admit it.

Worth a Thousand Words: Double Date

Double Date, Karin Jurick