Black Bean Tamale Pie

Just in time for Lent and more emphasis on meatless meals — this Black Bean Tamale Pie is really delicious and serves a lot of people! Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Lagniappe: The Thing About New Orleans

That's the thing about New Orleans, now. It's a generous city. Give you what you want before you hardly know to ask for it. Trouble is, acourse, that a man wants a number of things that aren't particularly good for him. And those sort of things are a New Orleans specialty.

Owen Parry, Rebels of Babylon

Worth a Thousand Words: Carnival Keepsake

1892 Mardi Gras Invitation
via Letterology

Do yourself a favor and click through to see some of the simply sumptuous invitations from the Golden Age of Mardi Gras. This one began life folded in pumpkin shape. Go see!

Worth a Thousand Words: Waxwing

Waxwing, Remo Savisaar

Worth a Thousand Words: Frozen Lake

Frozen Lake, Edward B. Gordon

Well Said: Grab Aholt of God

This life is much too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then be asked what you make of it and have to answer, "Scientific humanism." That won’t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore, I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and infinite delight; i.e., God. In fact, I demand it. I refuse to settle for anything less. I don't see why anyone should settle for anything less than Jacob, who actually grabbed aholt of God and wouldn't let go until God identified himself and blessed him.

Walker Percy, Questions They Never Asked Me

That made me giggle. The part about Jacob left me thoughtful though. We ourselves must show determination in the quest to know God.

Dunkirk

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

This was a good look at how it must have felt to be one of the people: soldiers and officers on the beach, on the civilian rescue boat, in the RAF plane ... all with no idea of what else is going on aside from their own positions. Writer/director Christopher Nolan expects you to come to this film knowing what Dunkirk is. He doesn't care about the extraneous elements (if they can be called that). We don't get any views of British or German government or military other than anonymous planes battling to sink or save the soldiers. We get the feelings of helplessness mingled with determination that the characters all must have felt. I think Nolan achieved his goal, stated below.

"The empathy for the characters has nothing to do with their story. I did not want to go through the dialogue, tell the story of my characters... The problem is not who they are, who they pretend to be or where they come from. The only question I was interested in was: Will they get out of it? Will they be killed by the next bomb while trying to join the mole [stone pier]? Or will they be crushed by a boat while crossing?"

— Christopher Nolan

I wish Nolan had had the courage to abandon his trademark fiddling with timelines. The soldiers, the rescue boat, and the RAF pilots all had their own time frames, each beginning at different points in relation to the evacuation.  It was more confusing than anything and once I gave up trying to keep track of them (or most of the soldiers) everything got much clearer. A straightforward telling would have received a much higher rating from me. However, it was still pretty good and from Christopher Nolan that's not bad at all.

Jesse, Paul, Bryan, and Julie hide in plain sight ...

... and discuss a book by a man who, as Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett said in their dedication of Good Omens, "really knew what was going on”.

Yes, it's The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton on SFFaudio.

This book which grabbed me by the throat as I read the humor, intelligence, plot twists, and adventure. At the end I was thrown for a loop and could only agree with Goodreads reviewer Dan Schwent who said, "The Man Who Was Thursday reads like P.G. Wodehouse writing from a Phillip K. Dick plot while on a Nyquil bender. "

See where that takes us in the discussion!

Worth a Thousand Words: Spring Snow

Spring Snow (Shunsetsu), Takeuchi Seihō

Lagniappe: Offending your family

Fledgeby's mother offended her family by marrying Fledgeby's father. It is one of the easiest accomplishments in life to offend your family when your family wants to get rid of you.

Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

Ouch! Funny and true. And, I must add, the eventual effect on Fledgeby was considerable.

Worth a Thousand Words: Maria Magdalena

Mary Magdalene, Carlo Crivelli, via Lines and Colors

Well Said: When it is difficult to smile at my spouse

Because I talk so much of giving with a smile, once a professor from the United States asked me: "Are you married?" And I said: "Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at my spouse, Jesus, because He can be very demanding - sometimes." This is really something true.

And there is where love comes in - when it is demanding, and yet we can give it with joy.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, National Prayer Breakfast 1994

Toyota: One Team Ad

Yes. This is how America does religion. Or should, at any rate.

Weekend Joke: Superbowl Edition

A sports fan was sitting in the top row at the Super Bowl, barely able to see the field. He noticed a vacant seat about 3 rows back on the 50-yard line. It was still vacant when the second quarter started, so he went down and asked the man seated next to it if anyone was sitting there.

The man said “No, have a seat.” A few minutes later he asked the man if he knew whose seat this was and why they weren’t here at such an important event. The man said that for ten years it had been his wife’s seat but that she had passed away.

Feeling sorry for the nice man, the fan asked if he didn’t have a friend or family member that he could have offered the seat to instead of just leaving it vacant. The man said “No, they’re all at the funeral.”

Well Said: The Destiny of the World

The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.

Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vo. 2

Explaining why the Vatican seems so eager for a deal with China

I have to say I was dismayed at the news that Pope Francis was going to finally approve the seven bishops that the Chinese government had appointed for the state-run government church. "What is this," I wondered, "the Middle Ages? Elizabethan England?" So I went looking for an informed perspective. And who better to give that context than John Allen?

The Vatican has its own long history of trying to accommodate Beijing, in an effort to clear the way for establishing diplomatic relations and creating a more stable legal framework for the life of the Church in China.

The debate has always been over how far Rome ought to go in trying to achieve that aim, and at what point compromise becomes appeasement. It has special resonance because we’re talking, in part, about the legacy of martyrs in China who’ve paid the ultimate price for their fidelity to the pope.

Definitely worth reading. Read the whole thing at Crux

Lagniappe: Chopin and Liszt

I write to you without knowing what my pen is scribbling, for Liszt is at this moment playing my Etudes and he transports me out of my proper senses. I should like to steal from him his way of playing my pieces.

Chopin in a letter

I just find this fascinating ... and also endearing.

Spinach and Egg Pie

Wow, so very delicious ... you've got to try it! Get the recipe at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Well Said: The Church is like a tree with complex roots

Erasmus conceived of Christianity as a fundamental core of truth that had unfortunately been obscured by by a layer of abuses. Christianity could only be restored to its natural, pristine simplicity if these centuries of un-Christian accretions were scraped away. essentially, the Church of Erasmus was like a ship encrusted with barnacles. But this view was fundamentally too simplistic; like many others before and since, Erasmus presumed there was a very clear, easily discernible dividing line between the essential "core" of the Christian message and the various traditions and customs that had accumulated over the centuries. He assumed restoring the Faith was as simple as pruning an overgrown bush or scraping off a layer of paint to reveal the original wall beneath.

The truth is much more complex. Not only the Church's essential core, but the broad strands of its historical and cultural development are attributable to Divine Providence as well. For example, Erasmus assumed the primacy of the pope was a historical development due primarily to political factors. Yet centuries after Erasmus, Pope St. Pius X taught that the Roman Church became the head of all the churches, not through political considerations, but from Divine Providence. Yes, there are many human traditions in the Church, but even the human traditions develop in light of divine doctrine, such that to simply hack away all custom simultaneously attacks the divine teaching at the root of these customs. The Church is not like a ship covered in barnacles; rather, it is more like a mature tree with a complex root system. One root might look insignificant or disposable, but to what other roots is it attached? If this root dies, how does it affect the whole organism? Not all root are equally important, but every root nourishes the tree to some degree, such that to chop it off is to inevitably wound the tree. Whether Erasmus himself realized this by the end of his life is known only to God.

Philip Campbell, Heroes & Heretics of the Reformation

I've always heard the "barnacle" comparison but the tree roots concept seems much more accurate, especially considering what I've read about how chaotic Church history has been since the beginning.

Heroes & Heretics of the Reformation by Phillip Campbell

With the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation last year we naturally have seen many books on the subject. I'll be honest, I'm not that interested in the reformation. I was offered a few review copies of books by Protestants who espoused ecumenism but whose samples showed their even-handedness came from embracing Catholics who agreed with them. And you just can't be Catholic and fully agree with the Protestant point of view. There's always that pesky topic of the Eucharist getting in the way for one thing.

So my interest was piqued by this book which says in the introduction that, although every effort is made for historical objectivity, it is written from a Catholic viewpoint and presumes the claims of the Catholic Church are true. I was further interested when reading an Amazon review saying, in part:

Frankly, I was surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. Its publisher, TAN books, is a highly-conservative Catholic publishing company, and I had feared -- especially in light of the title -- a biased, one-sided defense of Rome's handling of the Reformation. Instead, I found a well-written, well-balanced account of the forces that led to the Reformation, the major players in the drama, their beliefs, and the Counter-reformation that followed.

What I found was a well written book that somehow managed to be so interesting I couldn't put it down. That is high praise indeed for a book about a topic I didn't care about in the first place.

This epic, complex ideological struggle is examined first by following the progress of the Protestants who fueled the Reformation (Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc.). The last third of the book looks at major Catholic figures of the Counter-Reformation. Philip Campbell is skilled at untangling the threads so that we can see each person's background, motivations, influence and the historical backdrop for the entire situation.

One of the things that I really liked was the afore mentioned even-handedness. It was often apparent when telling about someone's major objection to Catholicism. Philip Campbell would then clarify what the Catholic teaching was and put the person's objection into context. Perhaps they'd misunderstood the teaching or they'd come across a grievous abuse or any of a number of other possibilities. He doesn't use that moment to judge the person. The history is past. He just uses it to help modern readers gain further context.

The book ends by connecting the Reformation with our world now. Campbell answers a typically modern question, "Why fight over religion?" by examining various aspects of understanding what faith means today and how the 16th century struggle still has relevance. He also considers where subsequent years have taken the Protestant-Catholic relationship.

I've been bending the ear of everyone who would listen to tell them how wonderful this book is. Now it's your turn. Go get it, even if you don't think you'll like the topic. It's fascinating.