The Fourth Cup by Scott Hahn

Dr. Scott Hahn explains Christ's Paschal sacrifice on the cross as the fulfillment of the traditional fourth cup used in the celebration of Passover, drawing symbolic parallels to the Last Supper and Christ's death on Calvary. Through his scholarly insights and important biblical connections, Mass will come alive for you as never before.

I first encountered Scott Hahn's writing not long before I entered the Church. My godmother had given me Rome, Sweet Home which was co-written with his wife, Kimberly, and is their joint conversion story.

After that, I picked up A Father Who Keeps His Promises which traces, as the subtitle tells us, God's covenant love in scripture. I didn't know what that meant. I just wanted something more by that author. It proved formational as I was pulled into a new world where the Bible had layer upon layer of deeper meaning than I'd encountered before. It was not only formational in my faith life, but in my reading and movie viewing. I learned to dig deeper and find meaning everywhere.

I bring these experiences up because The Fourth Cup is something like a synthesis of both of those books, plus a little extra. Sparked by a teacher's question which seeming had no answer, Scott Hahn began trying to find out the meaning of Jesus's final words on the cross, "It is finished." What was the "it" which was finished? This sent him on a long journey which ended in Hahn's entering the Catholic church and digging deep into the meaning of Passover and Christ's death on the cross.

The Fourth Cup is part detective story, part memoir, part conversion story, and partly linking the Catholic faith back to Jewish roots. The entire mix is very easy to read and thought provoking. I found it inspirational and during Lent I have been very aware of the real meaning of "The Lamb" every time he is mentioned during Mass. Definitely recommended.

Well Said: God employs several translators in our life

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again, for that library where every book shall lie open to one another ...

John Donne, Meditation XVII

This comes from the famous "ask not for whom the bell tolls ... no man is an island" meditation. As you can see from the excerpt above there is richness throughout the whole thing, which is fairly short. Do go read the it all.

Worth a Thousand Words: Katsushika

Katsushika by Takahashi Shōtei

Well Said: Predestination

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

Stephen Hawking

Lagniappe: A little meal of peace

Sometimes I rather like noise. The testosterone-fuelled roar of a football match heard from my back garden; the tired and blissfully happy sounds of a crowd singing along at a festival; the swoosh of a barista's steam wand. But most times I prefer peace and quiet. The sound of snow falling in a forest os more my style — something I have yet to hear this year.

There is quiet food also. The tastes of peace and quiet, of gentleness and calm. The solitary observance of a bowl of white rice; the peacefulness of a dish of pearl barley; running your fingers through couscous. The thing these have in common is that they are grains or something of that ilk. What is it about these ingredients that makes them so calming? Could it just be that they bring us gastronomically down to earth, show us how pure and simple good eating can be? This is food pretty much stripped of its trappings. This is, after all, the food that many people survive upon.

Nigel Slater, February 26, The kitchen diaries II

After reading so much from The Power of Silence it was interesting to come upon a meditation on silence from a completely different source.

Podcast Review: In Our Time

The show is beloved in the U.K.; for American podcast enthusiasts, it might be experienced as a refreshing change of pace. It’s nothing like the “This American Life” style of audio entertainment, marked by self-effacing narrative authority, inventive sound design, human intimacy of various kinds, and artfully revealed narrative surprises. It is not organized into themed seasons or arcs. Nor is it an NPR-style show about current events, scientific discoveries, or new books, satisfying a need to keep up with the cultural conversation. It’s just four intelligent people in a studio, discussing complex topics that are, as a friend of mine once said of Bragg’s openers, aggressively uncommercial.

Escape the News with the British Podcast "In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg"

There is really nothing like the eclectic selection of topics that are covered in In Our Time. Each week, host Melvyn Bragg and three experts delve into things I'd often never thought about, but am always glad I was exposed to by the end of the episode. Art, science, personalities, history, religion, philosophy, culture, and more are all grist for their mill. Moby Dick, The Bronze Age Collapse, Cephalopods (squid, octopus, etc.), The Congress of Vienna, and Frederick Douglass have all recently streamed through my iPod.

The experts vary with the topics so Bragg is the only constant, other than the endearing producer who ends each episode by bringing in the tea trolley. The conversation is unfailingly polite, even when there are basic disagreements, a la the manners we've seen in The Great British Baking Show. And Bragg's questions and observations bring everyone back on point when they stray from the path.

For more, do read the article linked above. It is a love letter with which I heartily agree.

In Our Time website

In Our Time iTunes

Worth a Thousand Words: Desdemona

Desdemona, Frederic Leighton

Black Panther

T'Challa, the King of Wakanda, rises to the throne in the isolated, technologically advanced African nation, but his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider who was a childhood victim of T'Challa's father's mistake.

I remember seeing the Black Panther superhero show up in Captain America: Civil War, about which I remember only the basic details (plus many too-long fight scenes). However, I did remember Black Panther and the glowing reviews piqued my interest. Then a friend animatedly talked not only about the expected Marvel elements but about the fascinating point of the conflict between the hero and villain. And that piqued Tom's interest and fanned the flame of mine even hotter.

After seeing it last weekend I can say this is the only Marvel movie that I'd be interested in seeing more than once. Not only are the ideological points worth discussing, but the design and style are fresh and exciting. I really loved the used of so many African elements for architecture, clothing, and ceremonies. This movie is a visual feast.

For once, I wasn't bored during long fight scenes, largely because the action is broken up between four very different simultaneous fights. Also I loved the blending of classic superhero movie with James Bond elements. There is an inventor coming up with amazing tech, there is a counterpart to Felix from the CIA who helped James Bond (in this case the token white, instead of Felix's being the token black), and the scene in Busan screamed Bond movie. All very cleverly done.

Above all, the basic storyline is one which we all recognize but which is put forth in interesting, compelling terms. Black Panther rises above other Marvel films, however enjoyable they may be. Wakanda forever!

Weekend Joke

A man calls home to his wife and says, "Honey I have been asked to go fishing at a big lake up in Canada with my boss and several of his friends. We'll be gone for a week. This is a good opportunity for me to get that promotion I've been wanting, so would you please pack me enough clothes for a week and set out my rod and tackle box. We're leaving from the office and I will swing by the house to pick my things up. Oh! And please pack my new blue silk pajamas."

The wife thinks this sounds a little fishy but being a good wife she does exactly what her husband asked. The following weekend he comes home a little tired but otherwise looking good.

The wife welcomes him home and asks if he caught many fish. He says, "Yes! Lots of Walleye, some Blue gill, and a few Pike. But why didn't you pack my new blue silk pajamas like I asked you to do?"

The wife replies, "I did, they were in your tackle box."

Well Said: Listening as a gift of self

The silence of listening is a form of attention, a gift of self to the other, and a mark of moral generosity. It should manifest an awareness of our humility so as to agree to receive from another person a gift that God is giving us. For the other person is always a treasure and a precious gift that God offers to help us grow in humility, humanity, and nobility.

I think that the most defective human relationship is precisely one in which the silence of attention is absent.

Cardinal Sarah, The Power of Silence

I struggle with this. It is so hard to not be thinking of what one wants to say in response instead of simply listening and giving the person one's full attention. And yet when I do, it is rewarding.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Cutest Dog in the World

Zoe

This is Rose's dog Zoe and though she is a bit grayer now than when this was taken, she is just as cute.

Well Said: Joining a Resistance Movement

Mankind must join a sort of resistance movement. What will become of our world if it does not look for intervals of silence? Interior rest and harmony can flow only from silence. Without it, life does not exist. The greatest mysteries of the world are born and unfold in silence. How does nature develop? In the greatest silence. A tree grows in silence, and springs of water flow at first in the silence of the ground. The sun that rises over the earth in its splendor and grandeur warms us in silence. What is extraordinary is always silent.

In his mother's womb, an infant grows in silence. When a newborn is sleeping in his crib, his parents love to gaze at him in silence, so as not to awaken him; this spectacle can be contemplated only in silence, in wonder at the mystery of man in his original purity.

Cardinal Sarah, The Power of Silence

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

When Noel Bostock—aged ten, no family—is evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vee—a thirty-six-year old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she’s unscrupulous about how she gets it.

Wise beyond his years and raised with a disdain for authority, Noel has little in common with the impulsive Vee, who hurtles from one self-made crisis to the next. The war’s provided unprecedented opportunities for making money, but what Vee needs—and what she’s never had—is a cool head and the ability to make a plan.

On her own, she’s a disaster. With Noel, she’s a team.

Together, they cook up a scheme. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war—and some of them are dangerous. ...

I really enjoyed this book, having come across it after watching Their Finest which was based on a book also written by Lissa Evans. The teaming of Noel and Vee has been compared by more than one reviewer as having a Paper Moon vibe and that's fair.

I really enjoyed the way the author could set a sense of place and time, seemingly effortlessly. It was a different take on wartime England during the Blitz and yet absolutely recognizable.

I was thoroughly invested in Noel's and Vee's separate dilemmas and enjoyed the way the plot set me up for various predictable events and then took completely unexpected turns. It has serious issues but they're handled with a light enough hand that I never felt dragged down. In that way it reminded me of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

If you're looking for a light but absorbing story, this is one to try.

Worth a Thousand Words: Redpolls

Redpolls, Remo Savisaar

Well Said: What the desert teaches us

Great things begin in the desert, in silence, in poverty, in abandonment. Look at Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and Jesus himself. The desert is where God leads us in order to speak to us in a heart-to-heart conversation (cd. Hos 2:16-23). But the desert is not only the place where men can experience the physical test of hunger, thirst, and total destitution. It is also the land of temptation, where Satan's power is manifested. The devil often leads us there to hold out to us the prospect of all the world's splendors and to persuade us that we would be wrong to give them up. By going into the desert, Jesus exposed himself to Satan's seductive power and firmly opposed it, thus prolonging the event of his baptism and his Incarnation. he is not content to descend into the deep waters of the Jordan. christ descends also to the very depths of human misery, to the regions of broken hearts and ruined relationships, to the most depraved carnal dictatorships and the desolate places of a world marred by sin. The desert teaches us to fight against evil and all our evil inclinations so as to regain our dignity as children of God. It is impossible to enter into the mystery of God without entering into the solitude and silence of our interior desert.

Cardinal Sarah, The Power of Silence

Lagniappe: Texts from Don Quixote

Dulcinea
DULCINEA
BESTIR YOURSELF
dragons-
dragons everywhere

where are the dragons?

where are you?

I am beset by dragons my love!
There has been perfidy
in this strange land of iron islands
and wraiths that drape themselves in steam

are you in the kitchen?

no kitchen could produce a bellow so terrifying
nor a stench so foul
as that of these steel dragons

I think you are in the kitchen

they perch upon nests of flame

yes

you are absolutely in the kitchen

that is the tea kettle

I WILL SLAY THEM ALL

please do not stab my tea kettle

ah, dear one
your concern for my safety does you credit
but a man must be brave
where is my steed
where is Rocinante
I REQUIRE SWIFTNESS

Mallory Ortberg, Texts From Jane Eyre:

And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters

This is such a fun frippery of a book. It didn't always hit the mark, but when it did I couldn't help laughing. Out loud, of course!

Well Said: Embracing the Future

To have a child is to embrace a future you can't control.

Radio Lab, Tom French, 23 Weeks 6 Days episode

We tend to think of what we can't control in terms of dread, of the worst that could happen. But what if we turn it around and think of the times joy or happiness has surprised us? That is something we can't control either. And a child brings those in measures overflowing, in unpredictable ways.

Worth a Thousand Words: Bouquet of Flowers

Henri Rousseau, Bouquet of Flowers, 1909-1910
via Arts Everyday Living

Lagniappe: Roman Libraries

I do not know whether any lending-libraries existed in Rome, but there were reference libraries, not only in Rome, but also in the country towns. Aulus Gellius says that once, when staying with a distinguished man at his villa near Tivoli, an argument rose among the guests on the danger of drinking iced water in hot weather. Those who considered the habit harmless doubted certain quotations made by a fellow guest, who, to prove his point, ran out to the public library and returned with a quotation from Aristotle strongly denouncing iced water as dangerous to health. Gellius adds that the guests were so much impressed by the quotation that they all decided to give up iced water in future. What interests me is not their decision, but whether the man who ran to the library was allowed to return with a copy of Aristotle, or whether he just wrote out the quotation; and this Gellius leaves in doubt.

H.V. Morton's A Traveller in Rome (1957)

Funnily enough, what interests me is just the opposite from Morton. I find it fascinating, and also hilarious, that all it takes is a quote from one famous philosopher and everyone decides to change their habits. Then, as now, food fads require very little traction to become authoritative and have everyone jumping to adjust their lifestyles. Human nature really doesn't change from age to age.

Praying for the victims and their families in Florida

I was horrified, as were we all, to hear about the shootings in Florida. And when I read Archbishop Chaput's response, it echoed my own.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia issued a Feb. 15 statement in wake of the shooting in light of his past experience as shepherd of Denver.

“Nineteen years ago, I sat with the parents of children murdered in the Columbine High School massacre and buried some of their dead. Nothing seems to change, no matter how brutal the cost. Terrible things happen; pious statements are released, and the nation goes back to its self-absorbed distractions.

“The latest massacre in south Florida requires two things from all of us. We need to pray for the victims and their families because, as I witnessed firsthand at Columbine, their suffering is intense and long lasting. And we need to be angry: angry at our lawmakers for doing so little to prevent these catastrophes; angry at our news and entertainment media for simultaneously feeding off these tragedies and fueling them with a steady stream of sensationalism and moral incoherence; angry at ourselves for perversely tolerating these things, and then forgetting them until the next round of violence.

“This is Lent. As a people, we have a lot to repent and confess. And let's not lie to ourselves that tighter gun restrictions — as vital and urgent as they now are — will solve the problem. We've lost our respect for human life on a much broader scale, and this is the utterly predictable result.”

National Catholic Register

We talk and talk and what is being done? Little. We point our fingers and argue and settle back down into thinking it won't happen again. We fail both the victims and the perpetrators who, if they were in their right minds, would be horrified at what they have wrought.

Dearest Lord, have mercy on us. Show us the way. Help the suffering victims and grieving families and friends. Heal us all.

I can do little right now except pray. And yet, I am also helping prepare for our parish's semi-annual marriage retreat. It is our bit, the entire team's effort, to help make this world a better place. One where the goodness can ripple out and affect a broken world.

Doubtless there is more I can do, but for right now I am thankful to have this event to throw myself into.

Please, dear Lord, use us all to restore respect for human life so we may love one another as you love us.