House with a Goat

House with a Goat by Yury Pen, c. 1920s, via J.R.'s Art Place

The Legendary Old-District

The Legendary Old-District, Japan
from Calligraphy and View

The Dog Has Run Off Again by Mary Oliver

The Dog Has Run Off Again by Mary Oliver 

and I should start shouting his name
and clapping my hands,
but it has been raining all night
and the narrow creek has risen
is a tawny turbulence is rushing along
over the mossy stones
is surging forward
with a sweet loopy music
and therefore I don’t want to entangle it
with my own voice
calling summoning
my little dog to hurry back
look the sunlight and the shadows are chasing each other
listen how the wind swirls and leaps and dives up and down
who am I to summon his hard and happy body
his four white feet that love to wheel and pedal
through the dark leaves
to come back to walk by my side, obedient.

Chickens and Park Vase

Albertus Verhoesen, Chickens and Park Vase

Today I shall meet cruel men ...

Today I shall meet cruel men, cowards and liars, the envious and the drunken. They will be like that because they do not know what is good from what is bad. This is an evil which has fallen upon them not upon me. They are to be pitied.

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

Filipino Rooster

“Errrt-uh-errr-uh-errrrrrrrr!
A texturized portrait of a Filipino Fighting Rooster.
Taken by Wayne S. Grazio, some rights reserved.

Psalm 37 — Fret Not Because of Evildoers

If, when evil and lawless people are opposing the lowly, and you wish to admonish the latter not to pay attention or to be provoked to envy—since such evildoers will speedily be destroyed—say to yourself and to the others Psalm 37.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

This is a very long psalm telling us to not worry about the evildoers who are prospering. We've been hearing this our whole lives, haven't we? From the time we've been little there always seems to be someone who's getting away with things and never getting caught. Often they are celebrated and praised. And it drives us crazy. The psalmist says that God sees all and justice will be done. If we struggle with that, then we're not the first and we're not alone. That gives us the opportunity to increase our true trust in God, which may be one of the reasons that God allows the evildoers to flourish.

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 66v - Psalm 37 (Vulgate) / 38 (Hebrew Bible)

A ton of the Church fathers have commented on this one and we'll dip into a few of them below. All are from Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture).

37:7 Wait Patiently for the Lord

God is in Control. Theodoret of Cyr. Even if you see one choosing wickedness and not deviating from his purpose but being borne downstream, do not be worried and concerned that no one is in control of the world. Commentary on the Psalms.

Remember God's Promise. St. Augustine. Did you believe in Christ? Yes? Then why did you believe. What did he promise you? If Christ promised you happiness in this world, then go ahead and complain against him; complain when you see the unbeliever happy. But what sort of happiness did he, in fact, promise you? Nothing else but happiness when the dead rise again. And what did he promise you in this life? Only what he went through himself; yes, I tell you, he promised you a share in his own experience. Do you disdain it, you, a servant and a disciple? Do you disdain what your master and teacher went through? Do you not recall his own words: "A servant is not greater than his master, nor a disciple above his teacher"? (Mt 10:24; Jn 13:16) for your sake he bore painful scourging, insults, the cross and death itself. And how much of this did he deserve, he a just man? And what did you, a sinner, not deserve? Keep a steady eye, and do not let it be deflected by wrath. Expositions of the Psalms.

37:12 The Wicked Plot

Conviction. Cassiodorus. When the wicked person sees the just person cultivating good manners, he believes that he himself is being particularly indicted. He gnashes his teeth and rages in mind. He at once tries to take the very life of him whose manners he cannot corrupt. Explanation of the Psalms.

37:15 Their Bows Broken

They Hurt Themselves St. Augustine. What do you think: does the scoundrel's wickedness harm you without harming himself? Of course not. How is it possible that the malice which springs form his ill will and hatred and lashes out to do you harm should not devastate him within before making its attempt outwardly on you? Hostility rides roughshod over your body; iniquity rots his soul. Whatever he launches against you recoils on him. His persecution purifies you but leaves him guilty. Who comes off worse then? ... Clearly, then, all who persecute the just are more severely damaged and more gravely wounded themselves, because in their case it is the soul itself that is laid waste. Expositions of the Psalms.

An index of psalm posts is here.

Origami Chicken

Modular Origami
by Jacek Halicki

A Movie You Might Have Missed #79 — The Heiress

It's been 12 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. 

 

 

When a Woman Loves a Man . . . She Doesn't Want to Know the Truth About Him !

Montgomery Clift and Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress, 1949

A young naive woman falls for a handsome young man who her controlling father suspects is a fortune hunter.

It comes down to — is he or isn't he after her money? And if he is, is that such a bad thing?

This isn't at all the sort of film I usually like. I have steadfastly avoided Henry James in books and film so when I saw this was loosely based on his novel Washington Square I cringed. However, it was next in our family's journey through William Wyler's work so I settled in. 

What a delightful surprise it was to be so riveted by everything - the direction, acting, dialogue - and to be actively interested in the story. I was genuinely surprised to find two hours had flown by. It felt short and quick. This was practically perfect in every way, especially with the star turns from Olivia de Haviland and Ralph Richardson as her father.

Wyler, you've done it again!

Japanese Bantam

Japanese Bantam, Himmapaan

In honor of Hannah's chickens which are now laying 4 tiny eggs today. The ladies have newly achieved their maturity. We are well supplied and I really love cooking a couple of them for my mother in the morning.

Pope Benedict's Most Accessible Books

People have been asking what they should read of Pope Benedict's works now that he is gone so I'm rerunning this review from 2019. If you want to see the heart of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, look no further than the ones below.

Recently my Catholic women's book club read Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Pope Benedict XVI. Reaction divided fairly evenly into three groups: some found it too easy, some found it too hard, and the rest of us thought it was just right. I was one of the "just right" group but had been surprised, upon rereading, to discover that the book occasionally got more complex than I remembered.

That made me remember that Pope Benedict had a series of books which were intended to be very accessible by everyone and which I really loved. That's because they were collections of a series of teaching homilies that the Pope would give every Wednesday in the general audience. When I mentioned them to my group, a lot of people weren't aware of them ... so I'm doing an overview here for all of us.

First, of course, was The Apostles which began with three discussions of community. With that in mind, the life of each of the apostles was examined and then used as a springboard for each of us to examine our own lives in Christ and our relationship to God. These are good whether you want to know the background and life of each person or are looking for something deeper.

Eventually he proceeded to discuss the Church Fathers, Saint Paul, various saints, and prayer. One of the things that may surprise the reader of this series of homilies given by Pope Benedict XVI is just how much pertinent information can be packed into a short piece. And it isn't just about the history. These are homilies in which Benedict often speaks very directly and simply about what it means to be a regular Christian in search of God.

One of my favorites is the book on prayer. Beginning with ancient civilizations concurrent with Old Testament events, we look at how people have prayed throughout time. It is then brought closer and closer to our own time and to prayer as expressed by and through Jesus Christ. This is not only a superb series of easy-to-digest lessons, it is inspirational and mind opening.

For those of us who like pictures in our books, there are three illustrated versions: The Apostles and the two volumes on The Fathers.

You don't have to read these collections in any particular order. Any of these are good for devotional reading. Just find a topic and begin. Each homily works as a free-standing piece, as they would naturally have needed to when they were first delivered. You are never going to find an easier way to read Pope Benedict's writing.

The fundamental sacrifice is that of the will.

The fundamental sacrifice in Judaism is that of the will. Since freedom of the will is the highest gift of God to man, the way that we acknowledge that it is a gift is periodically to give some of it back. …

What matters in sacrifice is the act of renunciation. We give up something of ourselves offering it to God in recognition of the gifts He has given us. It is remarkable how readily the sages found substitutes for [animal] sacrifices, most notably in the form of prayer, … charity, and hospitality.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Leviticus

Of course, this applies to Christianity as well.

Woman with a Snowman

Woman with a snowman, early 20th century.
Collotype with hand coloring.

Death of Pope Benedict XVI: Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

I always appreciate John Allen's even handed, common sense take on the Vatican.  He's got a good piece in his Last Week in the Church podcast on Pope Benedict's funeral and other issues that have been swirling around his death. 

Items covered:

• Benedict XVI’s funeral: why it was “a simple, sober affair”
• Pope criticized for downplaying Benedict XVI’s death
• Culture Wars: Pope Benedict’s death fuel for the fire?
• Archbishop Georg Gänswein: new book taking digs at the Pope?
• Benedict XVI’s legacy

Beef-Sauced Hot Lettuce Salad

Here's an unusual dish — a warm salad from Inner Mongolia. The sauce is literally a ground beef dressing which is delicious. Fear not, it is surprisingly simple and extremely good. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Human freedom exists because of divine self-limitation.

Human freedom exists because of divine self-limitation. So Adam and Eve found they were able to sin, and Cain even to commit murder, without God stepping in to intervene. Through voluntary self-restraint God makes space for man. …

Just as God had to practice self-restraint to make space for the finite, so human beings have to practice self-restraint for the infinite. The holy, in short, is where human beings renounce their independence and self-sufficiency, the very things that are the mark of their humanity, and for a moment acknowledge their utter dependence on He who spoke and brought the universe into being.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Leviticus

Snow-covered Fir Trees

Snow-covered trees in Kuusamo, Finland

Living the Word: Catholic Women's Bible - with promotional discount

"Women's Bible" usually makes me roll my eyes — they're not my cup of tea. I've never been very "girlie" and my experience with the "women's" label has resulted in a lot of emotional, sentimental interpretations accompanied by a lot of pictures of flowers. That's not how I roll.

However, this women's Bible is something special. It is solid and realistically written — not sappy — and just looking at the samples gave me a few moments of stopping to think about different perspectives than I usually come across for scripture. The few contributors' names I recognizes are really good Biblical scholars — as well as being women.

It was too expensive for them to send the entire book but I asked for the Book of Genesis as a pdf so I could properly look at the extras. I liked what I saw. There is an emphasis on lectio divina (divine reading) throughout.  Readers are given several ways to begin prayerful scripture reading. There are a few essays explaining how to do it as well as several well interesting reading plans and a scriptural rosary guideline. Also, each essay has an interesting point or question for meditation. For example, the essay on Sarah in Genesis turns a major plot point of her laughing at God into a question for the reader: "When was the last time God made you laugh?" (Answer — all the time.) It's a great way to start that  conversation with God.

A variety of essays both focus on women of the Bible in prayer and their lives while other series cover topics like the sacraments, Catholic practices and life with God. Most of these  feature ideas for further reading, both inside and outside the Bible. The scripture itself doesn't have many notes, except for cross-referencing with the Catechism and occasional points of clarification about context to make the text more understandable. Each biblical book has a specially written, theologically sound introduction.

I especially liked the fact that there are women highlighted who I've never seen anyone focus on. For example Lot's wife is examined as an example of spiritual sloth and then contrasted with Martha and Jesus' parable of the talents. Potiphar's wife, who tries to seduce Joseph when he's a slave in Egypt, leads to a discussion of  virtues and vices. Then her story is contrasted with Susanna from the Book of Daniel. These are discussions that are pertinent to our times and also lead the reader to think more deeply about scripture as a whole. All of it opens the door to conversation with God.

This Bible is practically perfect although I do wish they'd have included brief bios of the quoted saints in the back. Also the script used for quotes is very pretty but also occasionally extremely hard to read. These are very minor points but perhaps a second edition will pick up these elements.

The art throughout is nice, the colors are pleasing, the paper is not wafer-thin as in some Bibles, and the format leaves generous margins for note taking. There are flowers but I liked the art so ... it worked for me.

You may recall that I said at the beginning of this review that I roll my eyes at "Women's Bibles." Not this time. 

Reader, I bought one.

Go forth and do likewise.

===================

PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNT for ordering from Ave Maria

LIVINGWORD23: $59.95 + Free shipping on the women's Bible. Exp. 2.28.23.

Love of Winter

Love of Winter, George Bellows

A Movie You Might Have Missed #78 — The Little Foxes

It's been 12 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.

Bette Davis in The Little Foxes

Regina Hubbard Giddens (Bette Davis) and her scheming brothers plan to get rich from a cotton mill, but first they must tap into the wealth of Regina's sickly husband, Horace (Herbert Marshall). When that plan fails, their schemes devolve into theft and blackmail, driving an irreparable wedge between family members.

Bette Davis killed it in this one. To be fair, so did Herbert Marshall who wowed us by having to do all his acting while in a chair or bed due to his character's bad heart.

This was part of our William Wyler series where we are slowly working our way through his movies. I'd been putting off watching this one because I don't usually like melodramas and I certainly don't like venomous family arguments. However, this one grabbed me and didn't let up to the very end. I was very worried about how sweet Zan (daughter of the family) would turn out. I have to admit that I was also captivated by Davis's costumes and hair. The photo above captures the style of this film which is set in the South in 1900.

Throughout Wyler used all his skill with light and shadow, positions on staircases or balconies and all the other trademark moves. That last shot of Davis looking out the window framed by two bars and withdrawing behind lace curtains should be required on film school tests about effective symbolism.