Worth a Thousand Words: The Virginian cover

Via mardecortésbaja.com's post about the novel

Faith Under Fire by Matthew Archbold

Faith Under Fire
Dramatic Stories of Christian Courage by Matthew Archbold

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The stories in this book reveal a world that can seem increasingly dark, and I fear that things will grow darker still in the years to come. And yet these stories also reveal what happens when darkness encounters light: The light is not extinguished at all. It just appears brighter in the advancing darkness. ...

This is not a book about a gunman who attacked a schoolhouse; it's about the little girl who sacrificed herself for her classmates. This book isn't about abortion, but about the doctor who dedicated his life to helping women with crisis pregnancies. And this isn't about the radical terrorists who kill, but about those who choose love over life.

This is a book about hope and faith and light, and while it includes some terrible events, in the end it is, I believe, a hopeful book about love in a world that's often surprised and sometimes even opposed to those who show it.

Part of what attracted me to this book was the fact that these are modern people, not canonized saints but saints-in-training as we might say. It has not only the dramatic stories mentioned above but those about a man who prays the rosary, a baker who loves his work, and a basketball player getting to play her first NCAA game. Some stories made me cry and some seemed all too familiar, but all of them inspired me.

Matthew Archbold has a real talent for telling these stories with sincerity but without pathos. He helps us see how these stories connect with our own lives, whether through his introductions or the three discussion questions that close each chapter. And that makes us realize that we too are saints-in-training, called to stand up for our faith under fire, even if just in the very small ways that present themselves in everyday life.

Faith Under Fire is everything the author mentions in his introduction quoted above. Read it.

"Voting third party is the most effective way for you to bring about a change of regime."

If there were a morally acceptable candidate offered by either major party, of course you could vote for that person in clear conscience. There isn’t, and therefore many people are settling for choosing the least-bad candidate.

Don’t do this.

Vote third party.

Why?

Voting third party is the most effective way for you to bring about a change of regime.

...

When you vote third party, you send a clear, unequivocal message that is formally recorded and measured. You indicate to the major parties, and to the rest of the citizenry, which way the reform needs to go in order to field a winning candidate.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Read it all at Sticking the Corners. No one can lay out a well reasoned, reasonable, Catholic argument like Jen Fitz.

My husband, Tom, points out that when we voted for Ross Perot, Bill Clinton received a clear message. When he won the presidency he didn't do it with a majority. Tom feels that was a major factor contributing to Clinton's consensus building.

Plus, the more I read about my third party candidate of choice, the more he reminds me of Calvin Coolidge. I love me some Silent Cal.

It's nice to be excited about a candidate again ... even if I know he won't win.

In which we meet Jules and Madame Verne ...

... avoid an international incident over a compliment,and take a risk to send a message. More of Around the World in Seventy-Two Days by that intrepid reporter, Nellie Bly, at Forgotten Classics podcast.

The Movie I Want to See: Hacksaw Ridge

“Hacksaw Ridge” tells the true story of Desmond Doss, a devout Seventh-day Adventist who became the first conscientious objector to win the Medal of Honor. See the cross in the smoke? Nice.

This movie is directed by Mel Gibson who isn't mentioned by name, such is Hollywood's memory (and possibly, I guess, that of the general public). They do say from the director of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ.

Via Deacon Greg Kandra, read more about Desmond Doss here.

Here's the trailer, which will have to hold us until the movie comes out in November.

Blogging Around: Democrats and the Ideology of Death

The Week I Left the Democratic Party

A lifelong Democrat with a powerful story about what his child would have heard on TV from the Democratic convention. And why it made him quit the party.

But remember, politics are about stories. And this week, I watched as Ms. Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America stood before the convention assembly describing her own decision to have an abortion. She wanted a family but the child came at the wrong time. So she sought out an abortion. And she acknowledged that now she is the mother of two beautiful children. ...

I was reading the story online next to my three-year old son, who is adopted. I couldn’t help but put myself in his very small shoes and begin to wonder what he would have heard from this speech. Children who come at the wrong time are best disposed of. Only children who come into our lives when we want should be kept. It’s the beautiful children who are planned. In the midst of a speech that talked about unplanned pregnancies, no mention was made of adoption. The Democratic Party’s pro-choice politics have blinded it from the dignity of this little creature of mine, who though “unplanned,” has also transformed the life of every adult he’s met. No suggestion was made that instead of funding abortion, let’s make adoption part and parcel of our social culture—where every human person, no matter his or her size, has the opportunity for human flourishing. If anyone can be president, as this convention has said again and again, shouldn’t it also be the case that unplanned children may also occupy this office?

Read the whole thing here.

Is There Such a Thing as Pro-Life Democrat?

Sure enough. Here's an interview with the Executive Director of Democrats for Life. Here's a sample.

Q: Hillary Clinton’s running mate is Tim Kaine, who describes himself as a “traditional Catholic” but a “strong supporter of abortion.” Isn’t that a contradiction?

While we cannot comment on Mr. Kaine’s belief system, we have seen others who regret accepting the Democratic “party line” on abortion.

John Kerry reflected on this after he lost the 2004 election. At a speech at Pepperdine University. He said,

How will we protect the weakest in our midst—innocent unborn children? How will our nation resist what Pope John Paul II calls a “culture of death”? How can we keep our nation from turning to violence to solve some of its most difficult problems—abortion to deal with difficult pregnancies; the death penalty to combat crime; euthanasia and assisted suicide to deal with the burdens of age, illness, and disability; and war to address international disputes?”

It was a few years after his presidential campaign that he understood the contradiction of failing to let your faith guide your decisions. If he had presented those thoughts during his run for office, the outcome might have been very different.

In addition, in an interview years after he served, Democratic President Jimmy Carter expressed regret that he had not embraced a pro-life position while in office. It was one of the few troubling positions he later felt remorse over.

Well Said: Choosing between two philosophies

Never forget that there are only two philosophies to rule your life: the one of the cross, which starts with the fast and ends with the feast. the other of Satan, which starts with the feast and ends with the headache.

Fulton Sheen

Worth a Thousand Words: Kim Novak Reads

Kim Novak reads
via Awesome People Reading

Worth a Thousand Words: La Siesta

La Siesta, 1841, Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Well Said: What is serious to men ...

What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as “play” is perhaps what he Himself takes most seriously. …

When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash – at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.

Thomas Merton

A helpful antidote to the politics, terrorism, and whatever else is weighing us down at the moment.

Like Coloring Books? Like the Rosary? You're Gonna Love This!

This unique coloring book contains thirty illustrations—fifteen full-page drawings of the mysteries of the Rosary, each one beautifully bordered by traditional images of animals and flowers; twelve vignettes featuring prophets, evangelists, and Fathers of the Church; and three larger drawings with the artist’s commentary. It also contains descriptive copy written by the author for the three sets of Mysteries.

I've been a fan of Daniel Mitsui's art for a long time and I know he's got coloring pages at his website. The Mysteries of the Rosary book seems like the natural next step, what with the adult coloring trend.

Honestly, I don't think you need to be an adult to enjoy these. I recall in the 1970s there was a similar craze, with huge, intricate pictures to color. Everyone of all ages did them.

His The Saints coloring book will be out in November. Just in case you want to preorder a great Christmas gift.

The Virginian by Owen Wister

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this when I was a teenager and recall liking it well enough. Having just watched High Noon and Rio Bravo , I wanted more Westerns. The Virginian is often mentioned in connection with High Noon, believe it or not, AND Gary Cooper starred in that movie also. So that impetus carried me into downloading the free Kindle version from Amazon.

What I was unprepared for is how marvelous this book is. It is, strictly speaking, a Western but it didn't feel like any Zane Gray or Louis L'Amour story I've read. There are cow-boys (love that spelling), guns, horses and the hauntingly beautiful isolation of the Wyoming range. But amidst those trappings is a wonderful character study told in surprisingly contemporary writing.

Initially told by a tenderfoot who reappears periodically, the story is held together by the Virginian's wooing of schoolteacher Molly Wood. Molly comes from Vermont, so between the two newcomers, we gradually learn the Virginian's character and life lessons which it does us all good to remember. All done in a whopping good tale. Highly recommended.

Worth a Thousand Words: Moonlight on the Water

Moonlight on the Waters, Frank Weston Benson

This makes me think of those glorious days when Tom's parents would rent a beach house at Galveston and hold open house for the family for a month. I was continually renewed by the sound of the waves, the glint of light on the water, the life in and around the ocean.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church - Tertullian

Father Jacques Hamel (Photo: AFP)

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Jacques Hamel, pray for us.

--------------------------------------------

Sohrab Amari is an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal. 

Welcome, brother.

Worth a Thousand Words: Proud Mother and Her Babies

Proud Mother and Her Babies
taken by Remo Savisaar

2016 Politics and Heaven on Earth

We can't control politicians, Facebook commenters, our friends, or our family. We can only control ourselves. And actions speak louder than words. Are we, as Christians, shedding light or heat, creating heaven or hell on earth?

Krassotkin

The thing to remember is he was your dad and your children’s grandpa before he was a Trump supporter. Politicians come and go but your dad will always be your dad. ...

You want peace? Initiate it. Call up your dad right now and tell him you love him and hate the tense situation between you two. Tell him you miss him and that his grandkids miss him and you want him over for dinner. Just dinner. No ulterior motives like trying to “change his mind about Trump.” Just dinner.

Really good advice from Katrina Fernandez in response to a letter from a divided family.  Be sure to read the whole thing.

If they can follow that advice it will be like a little bit of heaven on earth. There is so much that divides us, makes us angry, makes us fear, makes us treat each other as less than human. To celebrate what unites us is truly heavenly.

Here's how naive I am. I thought that posting this sensible advice on Facebook would be welcome. People would be happy for this little reminder of the important things in life.

Instead comments became a one-note judgment of people who support a "hate talker" like Donald Trump. If that meant cutting off family or friends, well, they earned it.

How can you say, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye?  (Luke 6:42)

I was truly stunned at this response. In vain did I quote Jesus on judging your brother. I'm just sayin' - we all have faults and there is no perfect candidate or party. The advice does say to eschew political talk so this was just about tolerating the presence of the person, not their political views.

Worst of all, to me, was watching people assume a candidate was supported only because of the lowest common denominator. Because this person saw Trump as promoting hate, she assumed that everyone supporting him is tolerant of hate speech. That assumption resulted in her endorsement of summary judgment and shunning of anyone who didn't agree.

That's equivalent to saying that the only reason women support Hillary is because they want to see a woman become president. Girl power, yeah! I've actually been told that.

And they'll all fight to the death to prove themselves right.

This is such a temptation that the author of that very good advice couldn't resist stopping by for a few  political statements. Which served to rile up everything again.

(Do we all remember that I am either not voting or voting for someone else entirely?)

Eventually I removed the post from Facebook.

Both sides want to make the world a better place, dare I say a "heaven on earth," but this is about as opposite as you can get. Welcome to hell, people. 

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

None of us are immune. I discovered I'm just as bad thanks to the Democratic "taco bowl" email.

This looks incredibly racist and many have jumped on it as such.

To my great shame, I myself really enjoyed the idea of how the "no tolerance" for  Trump supporters person would react to this news.

However, it turns out we probably don't have the proper context. Donald Trump posed with a taco bowl on Cinco de Mayo — the day before that email was dated. So the "taco bowl" comment probably was about trying to get Latino votes through the Trump photo.

Context is everything. I sure am glad I didn't give into that literally unholy desire to one-up someone for a cheap victory. I don't want to add to the ugliness of the world or to my own soul.

And that is my point.

Few things are as simple as one thinks. People are complex. Their reasons for voting are likely based on something you don't have any notion about, especially if they are voting for someone you dislike.

Your actions speak so loudly, I can not hear what you are saying. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

These days, we don't have a culture any more of keeping our mouths shut if we disagree with each other. And it's not enough to simply state one's view. We keep pounding away until everyone agrees with us. And the other side pounds back. That's a never ending cycle.

Let's look at this political season as a chance to relearn a little discipline.  And maybe create a little heaven on earth.

Silence is golden.

Politics are fleeting.

Family and friends are forever.

What are our actions saying to those around us? What does it say about us to advocate the rightness of a political party while casting off  family and friends? Especially what does it say about those of us who are Christians? Are we following in the footsteps of our Lord who ate with sinners?

There is no heaven on earth without human contact and connection.

What sort of place will we create with our actions?

I Will Fear No Evil

This was sent by a German friend after the attacks in Munich last week. It is almost getting to be a daily event to read about an atrocity committed on innocents, whether in Germany, Libya, France, Japan, or close to home.

THE SECOND COMING
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

No wonder he sent this poem. We all feel the despair it expresses.

I read it out loud to my husband. He responded with: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."

That surprised me because it isn't his way. It was what I needed to hear, so I share it with you.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

It is what we cling to more and more these days. God with us, Christ-Emmanuel, hear our plea.

Genesis Notes — The Woman: Both Blessed and Suffering

GENESIS STUDY
The Annunciation - Luke 1:26-38
The Visitation - Luke 1:39-56
The Presentation in the Temple - Luke 2:22-35
The Wedding at Cana - John 2:1-11
The Crucifixion - John 19:25-27
A Vision of Heaven - Revelation 12:1-7

We are still breaking away from Genesis with Genesis: God and His Creation to look at the answer to the promise that the woman and her seed would defeat God's enemy. I strongly encourage anyone interested to get this study and read Lessons 6 and 7 for themselves. As if these scenes aren't powerful enough on their own, looking at their connection to Genesis adds such depth of meaning that it takes my breath away. This is the sort of thing where I see the "proof" that the Bible is divinely inspired.

Jan de Molder, The Visitation

The Visitation - Luke 1:39-56

Elizabeth "was filled with the Holy Spirit." Her utterance has the power of prophecy. In blessing Mary and the Child in her womb, Elizabeth gives voice to what all creation would want to sing out with "a loud cry" at the coming of the "woman" and her "seed" promised so long ago. Notice that Elizabeth does not separate the Child from His Mother. Her blessing is on both of them together. Her reverence is for both of them when she humbly asks why she should be the glad recipient of a visit from "the mother of my Lord." Even the child in her own womb, John the Baptist, leaps for joy when he hears Mary's voice. So closely are Mother and Child linked in this passage that the sound of Mary's voice is enough to produce rejoicing in the prophet-in-utero. John and his mother, Elizabeth, represent Israel, waiting for Messianic consolation. Jesus and His Mother, Mary, are God's comfort for His people. They are the flesh-and-blood icon of the Woman and her Seed from Genesis.

Menologion of Basil, Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

The Presentation in the Temple - Luke 2:22-35

And now in this passage we learn from Simeon that the Mother will also share in the suffering of the Son ("a sword will pierce through your own soul also"). Were we prepared in Gen. 3:15 for the possibility of suffering?

Yes, we were. We could anticipate a ferocious battle between the serpent and the seed of the woman, both inflicting wounds on the other. The suffering shouldn't surprise us. But how and why would Mary share in this suffering?

We must remember that Jesus opened up to all His followers the possibility of sharing in His suffering for sinners. His call to those who would follow Him to take up their crosses daily represented a call to obedience to God's will, no matter what, AND an invitation to suffer for sinners. That is what the Cross meant to Jesus. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8) He intended to make it possible for all who belong to Him to join Him in that redemptive suffering (see CCC 618) ...

Simeon's prophecy to Mary makes it clear that she was the very first Christian to share in His suffering for sinners. Her place in this is unique, of course, because of her unique relationship to Jesus and to God. It was not simply that His suffering would make her sad. Simeon's unusual words somehow place Mary there with Jesus on the Cross when the solider pierced Him through with a sword to make sure He was dead. She was the first one to be joined to Jesus in her suffering, but not the last. Down through the ages, the Church has called her children to join their human sufferings, in whatever form they experience them, to the perfect suffering of the Lamb of God on the Cross, Who takes away the sins of the world. Ever since the fall, suffering is inevitable. Remember that it is the lens that restores spiritual sight. The Cross teaches us not to shrink in fear from suffering but to actually rejoice-rejoice!!-in it. Why? Because through it we see God and ourselves in truth, through it we cry out to Him for mercy, and through it, the world is won back to Him.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: Statue of Jean Althen

Statue of Jean Althen, Papal Palace Gardens, Avignon, Belinda Del Pesco

Well Said: Next of kin trouble

The young man was maybe in his close family. Nothing cold be worse than next-of-kin trouble. She'd heard that, though secretly she longed for kin of her own. Such trouble must be wonderful. Why did people not know their plights were lovely?

Jonathan Gash, The Year of the Woman