Daikon-gashi, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tōkyō (Tōkyō jūnidai)

Hasui Kawase, Daikon-gashi,
from Twelve Scenes of Tōkyō (Tōkyō jūnidai)

The Cross is Our Glory Given by God

The Cross was his Glory. Jesus did not speak of being crucified; he spoke of being glorified. Therefore, first and foremost, a Christian's glory is the cross that he must bear.. It is an honor to suffer for Jesus Christ. We just never think of our cross as a penalty; we must think of it as our glory. The harder the task a knight was given, the greater he considered its glory. The harder the task we give a student, the more we honor him. In effect, we say that we believe that nobody but he could attempt that task at all. So when it is hard to be a Christian, we must regard it as our glory given to us by God.

William Barclay, John, vol. 2

Typing this up to share here, I suddenly thought of an "assignment" from God that I've been dodging. I got an odd lurch in my stomach thinking of the fact that it is an honor, that nobody but me could attempt that task at all, as Barclay says above. I've got new motivation now!

Tommaso di Folco Portinari and Maria Portinari

Tommaso di Folco Portinari (1428–1501); Maria Portinari (Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, born 1456)
painted by Hans Memling, location The Met

Click through on the link above to see this extraordinary art up close. It is just amazing in the beauty and realism. Originally these were part of a triptych which had a painting of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus in the middle, so each would have been facing that painting in prayerful devotion.

I discovered this via Lines and Colors, where we are told:

Look at the superb rendition of the couple’s eyes, the subtle modeling of the faces, the delicate variation of color in the skin, as well as the intricate attention paid to the woman’s jewelry, both of their rings, and the woman’s fingernails.

As if that wasn’t enough to wow the viewer, Memling has added a bit of trompe l’oeil trickery with a faux inner frame, overlapped subtly by the man’s cloak and the shadow of the woman’s praying hands, and more overtly by the veil of her headdress.

The Lines and Colors post features several parts of the paintings enlarged so you can get a great look at the details.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #70: Obit

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

An inside look at life on the New York Times obituaries desk.

How do you put a life into 500 words? Ask the staff obituary writers at the New York Times. OBIT is a first-ever glimpse into the daily rituals, joys and existential angst of the Times obit writers, as they chronicle life after death on the front lines of history.

A charming piece that looks at obituary writers for the New York Times. Inevitably one begins thinking, however tangentially, not only about the mechanics of the thing but about people and history and one's own life. Well done and we all enjoyed it.

Golden sunrise at the wetland delta

Golden sunrise at the wetland delta, Remo Savisaar

So What?

The more you say, "I must not worry," the more you will. I think it better simply to offer the worrying to God. ...

I have the temperament which just has to face the worst possibility, and I think, when one does, one realizes that the very worst can be accepted. My way is to say in every emergency, "Now what is the worst that can happen?" and then, "So what?" That works with me.

Caryll Houselander

This has become my habit. When faced with imaginings of the worst things I finally had to face the fact that I have almost no control over a lot of my life.

If I have no control, I know who does and to whom I must turn — Jesus. And so I imagine the worst, turn it over to Jesus to help me if it should happen and then can say, "So what?"

Everyday life calls for the equipment provided by daily Scripture reading

What are you saying, man? It's not your business to pay attention to the Bible because you are distracted by thousands of concerns? Then Bible reading belongs more to you than to the monks! For they do not make as much use of the help of the divine Scriptures as those who always have a great many things to do. ... But you are always standing in the line of battle and are constantly being hit, so you need more medicine. For not only does your spouse irritate you, but your son annoys you, and a servant makes you lose your temper. An enemy schemes against you, a friend envies you, a neighbor insults you, a colleague trips you up. Often a lawsuit impends, poverty distresses, loss of possessions brings sorrow. At one moment success puffs you up; at another failure deflates you. Numerous powerful inducements to anger and anxiety, to discouragement and grief, to vanity and loss of sense surround us on every side. A thousand missiles rain down from every direction. And so we constantly need the whole range of equipment supplied by Scripture. ...

Since many things of this kind besiege our soul, we need the divine medicines, so that we might treat the wounds we already have, and so that we might check beforehand the wounds that are not yet, but are going to be, from afar extinguishing the missiles of the devil and repelling them through the constant reading of the divine Scriptures. for it is not possible, not possible for anyone to be saved who does not constantly have the benefit of spiritual reading.

St. John Chrysostom
via The New Jerusalem Bible Saints Devotional Edition

This quote above is only part of a longer piece. It is down to earth, pithy, and full of common sense. I always like seeing things that show our lives are not as different in the basic as we think they are. This one's full of reminders.

I really love this Saints Devotional Bible. It's got quotes that I haven't seen elsewhere but which are perfectly matched to the scripture being commented upon. I also really love Saint John Chrysostom. Every time I read something he's written, no matter where I come across it, I can see why he's called "Golden Tongue." I'm going to have to find a longer work and settle down to taking in his writing.

From the Terrace (The Boston State House in the Distance)

Abbott Fuller Graves - From the Terrace (The Boston State House in the Distance)
via Gandalf's Gallery

Click the link above to see the picture full screen. It's just lovely.

Sin can't completely obliterate the image of God in man

Sin has not been so powerful that it could completely obliterate the image of God in man, but only "soil it, deform it and weaken it. It was able to wound his soul but not annihilate it. It was able to darken his intellect but not destroy it. Sin managed to open a way for hatred, but not to eliminate man's capacity for loving. It twisted man's will, but not to such an extent as to make rectification impossible" (F. Suarez). This is why, although man tends towards evil when he lets himself be led by his fallen nature, he can nevertheless, with the help of grace, overcome those disordered passions and possess and communicate to others the peace Christ won for us.

Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God, vol. 4

This is a great reminder that to never give up, never surrender!

Divan Japonaise, Duckomenta

VOLKER SCHÖNWART (interDuck): Le Divan Japonais

This art is one of the Duckomenta paintings (see the book below for more background.) I love them so much.

Here's the original painting for comparison.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Divan Japonais

Here is where I discovered Duckomenta.


Die Duckomenta by interDuck

I received this as a gift long ago and looking through it recently I fell in love all over again. The only flaw is that I can't read German, but the art speaks for itself.

Classic art, from caveman days forward, documents a mysterious tribe of ducks known as the interDucks who once lived very public lives in a society parallel to that of mankind. (I picked this up from the website.)

My letter to the Wall Street Journal - published today

 Last week there was an opinion piece "The Human Cost of Restricting Abortion" in which the author asserted that unwanted children  are "prone to" social and emotional disorders. Therefore, they are better off never having been born because of the difficulties they will face in life. 

Her final summary of the cost of abortion took into account only one of the two people actively involved:

None of this is to suggest that abortion should be taken lightly. It can pose its own emotional burden on women, and I recommend that women considering it take the time to process their feelings and conflicts before making a decision.

This attitude haunted me and the lapse in considering both sides of the story was upsetting. Therefore, I wrote a letter and was surprised and happy when it was published today.

All the other letters make great points. I liked that mine appears at the end, as a sort of overall punctuation point.

 

Here's the text:

Whether children are wanted or unwanted, we cannot predict their future for good or ill. Each of us experiences pain, suffering and darkness at some time in our lives. Likewise, all of us experience wonder, joy, friendship and love. We all deserve the chance to see how to overcome our challenges and exult in life’s wonders.

Julie Davis
Dallas, Texas

Note: the links above give access to all the letters and the entire op-ed. You just have to wait a minute or two or swat away a "subscribe" offer before they show the whole thing.

Monks Playing Bowls

Monks Playing Bowls, Charles Hermans

Or, as we'd say, "playing ball." Of a sort because bowls is not really like any ball game we have.

I learned of this delightful painting at J.R.'s Art Place which you should definitely check out for all sorts of good art.

Barred Owl Chick and Mother

A Barred Owl chick nuzzles its mother after leaving its nest.

We were inspired to set up an "owl cam" near our birdbath after seeing a viral video of someone who discovered they had many owls stopping by for refreshment at night.

Lo and behold, we actually have a Barred Owl who stops by once or twice a night for a drink and to dip its feet. Great joy resounded through the household. It was made all the greater when last night a juvenile Barred Owl took a nervous dip and drink.

We knew we'd heard Barred Owl calls ("Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all") and figured there was a nest nearby, but this clinched it.

The bonus was that we haven't been seeing much rat activity. (The "owl cam" has been repurposed from one of our two "rat cams.") During the pandemic lockdowns, when restaurants were closed, we were inundated with huge rat populations that destroyed our tomato plants and so forth. It was crazy.

Now things are much more back to normal, but once the owls began taking evening refreshment in our yard the numbers have dropped to almost nil.

The photo above is from Wikipedia but we like to think it mirrors the reality outside our house at night.

Breakfast Still Life

Breakfast Still Life, Cornelis de Heem

 Considering our quote for the day, this seemed perfect!

The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind by Jason M. Baxter

What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world. Here, readers will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.

So — yet another book about C.S. Lewis. I was largely disinterested but heard enough about this one to make me try the sample. That hooked me. Author Jason M. Baxter has a real talent for showing what Lewis found attractive about the medieval mindset and transporting the reader there, even if only for a few minutes before our modern minds yank control again.

I am interested in the medieval mindset anyway and this book does a great job of showing how different it was, and also how logical which is not something the modern reader expects. Baxter is equally masterful at laying out the argument for how imbued Lewis's work is with medieval concepts and acting as a bridge between that time and our own.

One of the things I enjoyed most were Baxter's examples of how medieval authors would appropriate older works and rework them for their own audience. That was considered clever and if the author did a good enough job he was celebrated. The author then shows how C.S. Lewis did essentially the same thing by taking the essence of a tale's underlying themes and characters but using them as a springboard for an original work. What comes to mind is how I always felt The Great Divorce contains unmistakable themes of Dante's Divine Comedy. That didn't overshadow the story or distract me in any way. The book feels wholly original. 

I loved this book all the way through and can't recommend it highly enough, especially for those who want their Christian world enriched by more than one way of looking at the Truth.

Nordic Summer Evening

Nordic Summer Evening by Richard Bergh

Blogging Around — Persecution in Nigeria, Coach Jim Harbaugh puts it all on the line for life

 A couple of stories that moved me recently.

“How many more shall be killed before we know peace, security, and freedom in our own land?”

This comes from The Pillar where the email newsletter story caught my attention with this:

Calling what is happening to Christians in Nigeria “persecution” doesn’t really capture the reality. Christians there aren’t just being socially marginalized, or discriminated against. They are being killed, with brutal, unrelenting, metronomic regularity.

A week ago today, Fr. John Mark Cheitnum was abducted alongside Fr. Donatus Cleopas. They were taken from the rectory of Christ the King Parish, in the Lere region of Kaduna. On Tuesday, it was announced that Fr. Cleopas had managed to escape.

Fr. Cheitnum did not escape. After the abduction, the kidnappers forced the priests to run with them from the rectory cross country. They were concerned that Fr. Cheitnum was not fast enough, and he might slow the group down enough to be caught. So they shot him.

Read the story here and pray for Christians in Nigeria.

Coach Jim Harbaugh Tells Team Members He Would Help Raise Their Baby in Event of Unplanned Pregnancy

That's something you don't hear everyday, whether you know a sports coach or not. This is an example of living the faith to the fullest. Read the whole thing at National Catholic Register, but here's a bet to get you going.

In an interview with ESPN, Harbaugh shared how he has told his family, players, and staff members that if they found themselves in an unplanned pregnancy and could not take care of the baby then he and his wife would raise the child.

“I‘ve told [them] the same thing I tell my kids, boys, the girls, same thing I tell our players, our staff members. I encourage them if they have a pregnancy that wasn’t planned, to go through with it, go through with it,” Harbaugh said. “Let that unborn child be born and if at that time, you don‘t feel like you can care for it, you don’t have the means or the wherewithal, then Sarah and I will take that baby.”

He added, “Any player on our team, any female staff member or any staff member or anybody in our family or our extended family that doesn‘t feel like after they have a baby they can take care of it, we got a big house. We’ll raise that baby.”

A Movie You Might Have Missed #69: The Women's Balcony

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

The women in an Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem are appalled when their synagogue gets a strict new rabbi. The ladies soon decide to fight back against his ultratraditionalist beliefs, while raising money to repair the "women's balcony" in the synagogue.

This film was a blockbuster in Israel and it isn't hard to see why. It is witty and intelligent while looking at realistic reactions to a complicated subject. Friendships are broken, marriages are stressed, and budding romances are tested as the moderate-extreme, male-female lines are drawn in this battle over something very dear to the hearts of all: how to practice their faith. However, it is all handled lightly and with good-natured humor.

One of the things I liked most was the sense of community and the ways the married couples interacted. It was interesting seeing how many universal themes there when looking at a situation about a foreign culture and different religion. That's because, of course, in the end we aren't all that different under the skin.

Perhaps the best praise I can give is that we all felt it was an equal to another favorite from Israel, Ushpizin. If you've seen that, then you know this is high praise indeed - and the sign of an entertaining film.

An Exciting Scene from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

 

Illustration from p. 10 of Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

Following the trail itself, Whispering Smith rode slowly.

Following the trail itself, Whispering Smith rode slowly.
Frontispiece from "Whispering Smith" by Frank H. Spearman; illustrator N. C. Wyeth