The unwearied sun from day to day does his Creator’s power display

The spacious firmament on high,
with all the blue ethereal sky,
and spangled heavens, a shining frame,
their great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun from day to day
does his Creator’s power display,
and publishes to every land
the work of an almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
the moon takes up the wondrous tale,
and nightly, to the listening earth,
repeats the story of her birth;
whilst all the stars that round her burn,
and all the planets in their turn,
confirm the tidings as they roll,
and spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all
move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though nor real voice nor sound
amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
and utter forth a glorious voice,
forever singing as they shine,
“The hand that made us is divine!”

Joseph Addison, 1712
(after Psalm 19)

Psalm 19 is one of my very favorite psalms. And some time ago I discovered that Psalm 19 was one of C.S. Lewis's favorites also. It creates an extra little bit of fellow feeling with him.

St. Martin's Summer by Rafael Sabatini

The life of an heiress is in jeopardy and her only hope is to place her trust in the wiles of a middle-aged swordsman with no use for "women's troubles." As the plots of the conspirators converge it will take all the wiles and accumulated wisdom of Martin Marie Rigobert de Garnache uncover their identity, to save Valerie de La Vauvraye and keep his promise to his Queen.

What a fun swashbuckler this was, truly one of Sabatini's better books and surely an homage to Alexandre Dumas's adventures.

As mentioned in the summary above, Garnache is wily, wise, and an accomplished swordsman but the bane of his career has been his unbridled temper. Watching him struggle to overcome it and the result of his ill-timed explosions is a lot of fun because we can sympathize with his frustration.

He despises the fairer sex, "Let me tell you that this is the first time in my life that I have been concerned in anything that had to do with women." This makes it more ironic when the main players in the story are all women: the Queen of France, the girl he must rescue (who turns out to be completely admirable) and the wicked, willful Marquise de Condillac is his equal, foiling his attempts repeatedly. Poor Garnache does nothing but deal with women, except when he's sword fighting, of course.

Definitely recommended for light reading.

Omkara — Othello, Indian-style

Half-caste bandit Omkara Shukla abducts his lady love, Dolly Mishra, from her family. Thanks to his cleverness, he gets away with the kidnapping. A conspiracy, however, forms against him when he denies his right-hand man, Langda Tyagi, a promotion. Ultimately, this plot threatens not only his relationship with Dolly, but their lives and those of their associates as well.

This is a simply wonderful Indian film adaptation of Othello as a gangster story. Not only is the film pretty faithful to the story and to the Indian environment in Uttar Pradesh, but the acting, shots and production were arresting. If you've seen it, I'm thinking especially of a particular shot in the rain in front of the train and, of course, the film's last shot. I also loved the use of specific color associations with specific characters. (Hint - in India, the color for marriage is red.)

It is, as the film says, an adaptation, but often there were lines that seemed almost lifted directly from the original. This line, in particular, was key to this production.

Shakespeare/Desdemona's father: "Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father and may thee."

Omkara/Dolly's father: "The girl who can betray her own father, how can she be trusted by anyone else."

We were especially interested to see Saif Ali Khan's take on Iago since he first came to our attention as a lovable rogue in Tashan. Khan gave an impressive portrayal of a man consumed by envy and evil. He's truly versatile.

It's Bollywood so of course there are a couple of song and dance numbers but they are worked in realistically as Kesu's (Cassio's) girlfriend is an entertainer whose performances provide key moments for the story's action.

Vishal Bhardwa is a director I will be looking for more from. I'm especially eager to see his adaptations of Macbeth and Hamlet.

Rating — for advanced viewers. (You've got to be willing to let this one wash over you, enjoying the ride for what it is ... and that means you've got to have seen enough other Indian movies to not worry about some dead space or romantic side trips. Or gangster shootings ... )

Scott and I discuss Omkara on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. 

Hannah and Rose talk about it on episode 42 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

President of USCCB: Scores of beloved children of God were abandoned to face an abuse of power alone.

This statement from Cardinal DiNardo seems sincere. Certainly the wording is less like that of a CEO and more like that of a priest. Read it all ... this snippet is the conclusion.

I have no illusions about the degree to which trust in the bishops has been damaged by these past sins and failures. It will take work to rebuild that trust. What I have outlined here is only the beginning; other steps will follow. I will keep you informed of our progress toward these goals.

Let me ask you to hold us to all of these resolutions. Let me also ask you to pray for us, that we will take this time to reflect, repent, and recommit ourselves to holiness of life and to conform our lives even more to Christ, the Good Shepherd.

Miss Monroe, 1925

1925 photo of Miss Monroe on the beach at a Galveston beauty pageant.

There's more and a link to a bathing beauty video she was in at Traces of Texas.

Hannah & Rose discuss the wonders of gravity ...

... why everything should be on fire, and how to properly segregate your workforce as they watch Upside Down (2012) at More is More, the bad movie podcast.

Breathless encounters with the classics

Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities.
With Illustrations by H. K. Browne. 1859. First edition

For of all my discoveries, nearly the most breathless was Dickens, himself. How many of the educated can ever suspect the delight of such a delayed encounter? I think we owned a Collected Works when I was a child. But I had tried David Copperfield too early and had believed all my life that he was not for me. One night last winter I was sleepless and somehow without a book. From our own shelves I took down Little Dorrit, which people tell me now is one of the least beguiling of the lot. But Keats first looking on Homer could have been no more dazzled than I first poring on my Boz. I felt as a treasure-hunter might feel had he tripped over the locked chest that belonged to Captain Kidd.

Phyllis McGinley

I found this quote in a good piece about not being able to understand the classics until we are adults by Tod Worner at Word on Fire. Phyllis McGinley, whose wonderful book Saint-Watching I have loved for some time, echoes precisely my own adult encounter with Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. I still remember how thrilled I was to see how many of his books were there for me to discover. I went on to read all of them.

It is interesting to think about the classics that I've grown to love as an adult since Uncle Tom's Cabin awoke me to the possibility that maybe classics weren't boring. That was in 2006. From there I went to the afore-mentioned A Tale of Two Cities, The Lord of the Rings, Dante's Divine Comedy, C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, and Kim. All are books that I approached with the trepidation borne of early failed attempts. Some I had to approach with audio, print, and commentaries. But I kept going and there was something very worthwhile in them all.

The latest in that struggle was Brideshead Revisited which my book club just discussed this Monday. I do not yet love it, but I now appreciate a book I had cast away twice earlier with distaste. I know I will reread it and can foresee a future where I might love that work. Once I was finished, I appreciated the struggle itself and the fruit it yielded. There was a real sense of satisfaction in working through a challenge successfully. What I found in each was something that enriched my life and mind in new and exciting ways.

All of this is to say that when I feel a book challenge circling my mind I no longer duck and weave to avoid it. I wait to see if it will settle and then approach the book with a certain anticipation, both of the struggle and of the achievement.

Next up? Well, I have been thinking about Augustine's City of God an awful lot over the past few months ... and also Crime and Punishment. We shall see if either of them settles down to roost.

Morning Sun

Morning sun, Joaquín Sorolla

In the Midst of Clerical Misdeeds, a Crucial Moment for the Laity

Just when I think I've shared the last piece I need to about this McCarrick scandal, another comes up. This one from Msgr. Charles Pope, urges us to write a physical letter to our bishop so they really understand this is a scandal that will not go away.

Here's a bit of it:

I am not sure how many of the bishops realize just how angry, disheartened and disturbed God’s people really are. ...

I have never seen people so serious and determined to take actions of their own....

As a Church hierarchy, we have worn on folks’ last nerve. We have come to a point where only penance and a complete housecleaning can restore credibility and trust. As a lower-ranking priest I cannot issue demands or send binding norms to those in wider and upper ranks of the hierarchy, but I do want to say to God’s faithful how powerfully aware I am of their justified anger and agree with their insistence that something more than symbolic action or promises of future reform is necessary.

I also would like to say to God’s faithful that this is a critical hour for you. I have learned from Church history that reform almost never comes from the top; it comes from religious life and from the grass roots, from among God’s people. ...

Read it all here.

Bishop Barron on The McCarrick Mess

While I have been disillusioned and saddened by the silence of  bishops and cardinals I really admired, one bishop's silence especially had me on tenterhooks. I admire Bishop Robert Barron and his Word on Fire ministry so much that to see time go by with no commentary was really worrying.

I told myself that he is an auxiliary bishop and probably had to wait until his own bishop gave permission. If that was not the reason ... well, I knew it would be a heartbreaking admission of how far the entire hierarchy had fallen. So you can imagine how happy I was to see this piece. Here's a bit but go read it all for yourself.

Now I can hear people saying, “So Bishop Barron is blaming it all on the devil.” Not at all. The devil works through temptation, suggestion, and insinuation—and he accomplishes nothing without our cooperation. If you want to see the principle illustrated, Google Luca Signorelli’s image of the Antichrist in the Orvieto Cathedral. You’ll see what I mean. Archbishop McCarrick did wicked things and so did those, it appears, who enabled him. And we have to come to terms with these sins.

Noh Dance Prelude

Noh Dance Prelude, Uemura Shōen

Isn't this gown gorgeous? I especially love the bottom because it makes it look as if she is standing among the clouds.

A Gaelic Blessing

May those who love us, love us.
And those who don't love us
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn't turn their hearts
May He turn their ankles
So we'll know them by their limping.

Traditional Gaelic Blessing

This just works on so many levels!

Larry's Whereabouts

My heart went out to Larry as I scented adventure, and I wished him with me; but speculations as to Larry’s whereabouts were always profitless, and quite likely he was in jail somewhere.

Meredith Nicholson, The House of a Thousand Candles

This is a mystery but it has a lot of funny little bits like this.

All the Things I Never Knew About Uncle Tom's Cabin

This is the original review from when I first read Uncle Tom's Cabin, way back in 2006. Since then I've read it several more times, even going so far as to narrate it with commentary on my Forgotten Classics podcast.

I'm a little more than halfway through yet another time and have been struck anew by how many psychological types Stowe worked into this exciting cliffhanger. It is also my current inspirational reading as you are never going to get more discussion of Christianity in a novel than in this one.

As always, I want to share something that's brought me so much pleasure, so I'm rerunning my original review below.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

I never knew that it was such a page turner! About halfway through the pace picked up so that I was avidly reading whenever I had a chance to see if George and Eliza would shake off their trackers, Uncle Tom would make it back to his family, what it would take to make Topsy reform and much more. How about that crazy Cassy, hmm? And poor Emmaline ... would someone save her before Simon Legree got his filthy hands on her? Wow!

I never knew that Uncle Tom actually was a Christ-figure, a living saint. No wonder he is misunderstood by so many. They are not getting the whole picture.

I never knew that so many sorts of people were represented throughout the book. The language can be rather stilted due to the style of the times but Stowe did a good job showing many different attitudes toward slavery and how people excused themselves under the flimsiest of excuses. One expects the broadly painted very good and very evil owners but not the more shaded in-between characters.

It was fascinating toward the end of the book to see where many of the slaves wound up. One could discern what Stowe's ideas of a solution for the slavery problem were and, indeed, it was even more interesting to read her afterward where she discusses it specifically.

I thought that Stowe included herself in the book as the maiden aunt from New England who thought she understood the problem until she came up against Topsy who demanded that she put her whole heart and soul into realizing that the slaves were real people. Rose saw her as Mrs. Shelby, the kindly wife of Uncle Tom's original owner, who as soon as she got a chance absolutely did the right thing.

I am quite grateful that Rose read this book and pushed it on me. Highly recommended.

The House of a Thousand Candles - in German

I knew that The House of a Thousand Candles was a best seller back in the day but I had no idea that it was a big seller outside the United States. The proof is in the book cover, however!

Social adventure with nothing to equal it

“Morgan, you are an infernal blackguard. You have tried twice to kill me—”

“We’ll call it that, if you like,”—and he grinned. “But you’d better cut off one for this.”

He lifted the gray fedora hat from his head, and poked his finger through a hole in the top.

“You’re a pretty fair shot, Mr. Glenarm. The fact about me is,”—and he winked,—”the honest truth is, I’m all out of practice. Why, sir, when I saw you paddling out on the lake this afternoon I sighted you from the casino half a dozen times with my gun, but I was afraid to risk it.” He seemed to be shaken with inner mirth. “If I’d missed, I wasn’t sure you’d be scared to death!”

For a novel diversion I heartily recommend a meeting with the assassin who has, only a few days or hours before, tried to murder you. I know of nothing in the way of social adventure that is quite equal to it.

Meredith Nicholson, The House of a Thousand Candles

Laity are "Essential," Must Lead Any Investigation

In reference to former Cardinal McCarrick and his abuses which apparently were an open secret among his fellow bishops, Cardinal Weurl proposed having a national panel of bishops investigate complaints against bishops. Talk about tone deaf.

Jeff Miller at The Curt Jester does a nice summing up of where we are at this moment. And I give all tribute to Bishop Scharfenberger who does understand the problem and what must happen for reform. It is the way I myself feel. As Jeff says, "May his tribe increase."

Statement by Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany

August 6, 2018

While I am heartened by my brother bishops proposing ways for our Church to take action in light of recent revelations – and I agree that a national panel should be commissioned, duly approved by the Holy See – I think we have reached a point where bishops alone investigating bishops is not the answer. To have credibility, a panel would have to be separated from any source of power whose trustworthiness might potentially be compromised.

It is time for us, I believe, to call forth the talents and charisms of our lay faithful, by virtue of their baptismal priesthood. Our lay people are not only willing to take on this much-needed role, but they are eager to help us make lasting reforms that will restore a level of trust that has been shattered yet again. In speaking with them, we all hear their passion for our universal Church, their devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and their hunger for the truth. They are essential to the solution we seek.

What is needed now is an independent commission led by well-respected, faithful lay leaders who are beyond reproach, people whose role on such a panel will not serve to benefit them financially, politically, or personally. These will be people with a deep understanding of the Catholic faith, but without an axe to grind or an agenda to push. It will not be easy, but it will be worth every ounce of effort, energy, and candor we can muster.

We bishops want to rise to this challenge, which may well be our last opportunity considering all that has happened. We must get this right. I am confident we can find a way to look outside ourselves, to put this in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and to entrust our very capable lay people, who have stood with us through very difficult times, to help us do the right thing. We need an investigation — the scope of which is not yet defined but must be defined — and it must be timely, transparent and credible.

Extra tidbit: I've been in a couple of recent conversations about this with other faithful, distressed Catholics and Simcha Fisher echoes many of our conclusions about how this state of affairs happened.

McCarrick and the Deafening Silence

Former Cardinal McCarrick forced his attentions on seminarians for years. Though complaints were made as long as two decades ago, they were turned away until recently when it was admitted that the evidence was credible. I explain this because if I hadn't mentioned it to my husband he'd never have heard about it. He doesn't seek out Catholic news and the newspaper and TV news we frequent hadn't mentioned it.

First I was horrified and furious that the complaints were shoved under the carpet even after we'd been assured the sex scandals were a thing of the past, that victims were being heard, that new policies were in place to prevent reoccurrence — even as one of the biggest movers and shakers (McCarrick) was an offender whose sins were apparently an open secret among his fellow bishops. And that is the most horrifying of all. Some of the bishops who'd received information are those who I respect and trust the most. And their silence has been deafening. Those whited sepulchers.

I've had nothing to say on the topic that others haven't but these are pieces that say particularly well what is in my heart.

If an excerpt catches your eye, be sure to go read the whole piece (links are in the subheads). There's no way I can really capture them with these snippets.

DarwinCatholic: A Moral Crisis
A good summing up, well reasoned, calm and to the point.

Any leader in the church, lay or clerical, who thinks that it is in any way advantageous to the church to keep quiet and allow a bishop to cover up a life of grave sin is a leader that we do not need.

We are all sinners, some may say. Who are we to judge? How can we say that we won't tolerate a sinner as a bishop?

All bishops are sinners. All of us are sinners. But if someone is to be a leader in the church, he should be prepared to admit his sins, repent of them, and resolve not to commit them again.

Elizabeth Scalia: How to Restore a Church in Scandal? Begin With a Collective Confession.
Scalia has already been pointing out that it is now the laity's work to insist on our bishops doing the right thing and holding leadership to a real accounting. She continues with thoughts on just how that works.

Making an address to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in June of 1972, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said something most relevant to our times:

Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious.

[...]

There is a great deal of work to be done, and as I have written elsewhere, the laity must necessarily be part of that work. As we discern how to proceed, we can immediately do two things:

• Pray for our priests, by name when we can, every day and at every Mass.
• Do penance for the sins of our Church, and be willing to suffer a bit for the sake of its restoration to spiritual health.

Ross Douthat: The Truth About Cardinal McCarrick

One of the best things that the bishops of the American Catholic Church did during the great wave of sex abuse revelations 16 years ago — and yes, there’s a low bar for “best” — was to establish a National Review Board, staffed by prominent layman, with the authority to commission an independent report on what exactly had happened in the church.

The result was a careful analysis by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice that detailed the patterns of priestly sex abuse in American Catholicism between 1950 and 2002 ...

Now, unfortunately, it needs to happen again. But what needs to be commissioned this time, by Pope Francis himself if the American bishops can’t or won’t, isn’t a synthetic overview of a systemic problem. Rather, the church needs an inquest, a special prosecutor — you can even call it an inquisition if you want — into the very specific question of who knew what and when about the crimes of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and why exactly they were silent.

Get Religion: Why didn't journalists investigate McCarrick earlier? Because they thought conservatives were out to get him
It turns out that bishops aren't the only ones keeping silent. Journalists saw plenty of smoke, but ignored the fire.

Certain reporters could not lay aside their biases against church conservatives to investigate whether there was a fire behind all the smoke.

Journalism rule #1: Never, never assume that someone is crying wolf.

Journalism rule #2: Never assume the folks – whose viewpoints you disagree with – have nothing of value to say.

I agree a lot of bishops are to blame for not bringing this mess to light a lot earlier. But so are the journalists who heard about this years ago and chose to do nothing.

The tiny thorns of life

All our life is sown with tiny thorns that produce in our hearts a thousand involuntary movements of hatred, envy, fear, impatience, a thousand little fleeting disappointments, a thousand slight worries, a thousand disturbances that momentarily alter our peace of soul. For example, a word escapes that should not have been spoken. Or someone utters another that offends us. A child inconveniences you. A bore stops you. You don’t like the weather. Your work is not going according to plan. A piece of furniture is broken. A dress is torn.

I know that these are not occasions for practicing very heroic virtue. But they would definitely be enough to acquire it if we really wished to.

St. Claude la Colombiére

Christ is the point.

We are not baptized into the hierarchy; do not receive the Cardinals sacramentally; will not spend an eternity in the beatific vision of the pope. Christ is the point. I, myself, admire the present pope, but even if I criticised him as harshly as some do, even if his successor proved to be as bad as some of those who have gone before, even if I find the church, as I have to live with it, a pain in the neck, I should still say that nothing that a pope (or a priest) could do or say would make me wish to leave the church, although I might well wish that they would leave.

Frank Sheed, Christ in Eclipse, 1978