Girl with a Cat

Girl with a cat by Jeanna Bauck, via J.R.'s Art Place

Any bets on whether she's just pulled that blanket off of the cat or is getting ready to throw it on the cat?

From Nathaniel Hawthorne to Flannery O'Connor. And Back Again.

I first published this in 2009 but was thinking about Mother Alphonsa (aka Rose Hawthorne) and was pleased to find this in my archives. I've updated it to include an insight into the Hawthorne family's attitude toward Catholicism — which speaks to Mother Alphonsa's openness to the faith.

I am continually surprised at the way people and events are connected both in the big wide world and in my personal experience. My own Rose has a passion for Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing which, combined with her and Hannah's love of The Scarlet Letter, made me pick up and read that book which high school English had taught me to despise.

I found it a complex and interesting book which made me admire Hawthorne's character as much as his writing. Additionally, I found new depths when Heather Ordover at the CraftLit podcast recently featured the book read aloud by her listeners as well as including her enlightening commentary. Much was made there of Hawthorne's understanding of women as people. I wrote to Heather about his daughter, Rose Hawthorne, and how his influence must have contributed greatly to her character. Rose converted to Catholicism and in 1900 founded an order to care for inoperable cancer patients.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is an American religious community, founded on December 8, 1900 by two extraordinary women. Rose Hawthorne, daughter of American novelist Nathanial Hawthorne, began the work at age 45. She moved into a tenement in the poorest area of New York City, and began nursing incurable cancer patients. Rose, later to become Mother Alphonsa, was a convert to Catholicism. This work was the practical fulfillment of her conversion. —(Concordma.com, link no longer works.)

Recently, reading How the Church Has Changed the World (Vol. III) — I found further insights into Rose Hawthorne's rearing and how that influenced her life. (Read the whole essay here.) Here's a quote from her about that influence.

In art, Catholicity was utterly bowed down to by my relatives and their friends, because without it this great art would not have been. For, as scientists and dreamers have proved that gold cannot be made until we know as much as the earth, so uninspired artists have proved that religious art can only grow under conditions known solely to the heart that is Catholic. Every religious school of art which has departed from imitation of the Old Masters has forfeited holiness in depicting the Holy Family.

About halfway through the excellent The Abbess of Andalusia: Flannery O'Connor's Spiritual Journey, I discovered with pleasure that Flannery O'Connor put her finger on a specific moment of influence. O'Connor had agreed to edit and write the introduction for a book about a terribly deformed little girl (Mary Ann) who nonetheless lived a life of joy, written by an Atlanta chapter of the order who approached her. There is much food for thought in "The Abbess" about the role of "innocent suffering" in the life of the Christian and the life of the Church, prompted by O'Connor's own thoughts and writings while working on the book. In considering the Hawthorne connection, which I find interesting for all the threads I see converging as well as for the reminder that we often do not realize the good we are doing, I include this excerpt:

It is true that Mary Ann suffered, but Flannery did not believe she suffered in vain. Rather her suffering was a thread woven within the larger fabric of believers called the Communion of Saints. In the introduction, Flannery described the Communion of Saints as "the action by which charity grows invisibly among us, entwining the living and the dead."

On May 14, 1961, she explained to a friend that "the living and the dead" referred to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was her inspiration for the introduction. Long before Mary Ann was born, Hawthorne had written about visiting the children's ward in a Liverpool workhouse. There, according to his description, he met a "wretched, pale, half-torpid child of indeterminate sex, about six years old." Hawthorne admitted that he found the child repulsive, but for some mysterious reason, the child took a liking to him. The child insisted that Hawthorne pick him up. Despite his aversion, Hawthorne did what the child wanted: I should never have forgiven myself if I had repelled its advances."

According to Flannery, Mother Alphonsa believed that these were the greatest words her father ever wrote. And many years after Mother Alphonsa had died, Flannery perceived a mystical connection existing between Hawthorne's picking up the child, his daughter working among the dying and the sisters caring for a little girl with a disfigured face.

There is a direct line between the incident in the Liverpool workhouse, the work of Hawthorne's daughter, and Mary Ann -- who stands not only for herself but for all the other examples of human imperfection and grotesquerie which the Sisters of Rose Hawthorne's order spend their lives caring for. Their work is the tree sprung from Hawthorne's small act of Christlikeness and Mary Ann its flower.

Flannery O'Connor dedicated the book to the memory of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

For the big family party, Julie learned to make balloon animals. Scott left because he had a big deal brewing in Argentina.

 We discuss that modern classic, Parenthood, in episode 349 of A Good Story is Hard to Find. Join us!

Memory and the Physical World

Is not remembering precisely the retaiing of corporeal things in an incorporeal manner?

Romano Guardini, The Conversion of Augustine

Um — hey, it is! So simple but so deep also!

Scene from Act III of Lohengrin

 

Scene from Act III of Lohengrin, Heinrich Lefler

No particular reason except it is beautiful.

The Father of Football

Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", in 1878
when Camp was captain of Yale University's football team

Who Would have thought that a sport which began looking like this, would eventually look like this?

For one thing I'm not sure Mahomes could grow such a fine mustache!

Placing ourselves voluntarity in God's truth

God's knowing is judicial. It is the act by which He measures His creature by the norm of the essential truth which He has established for it. His gaze judges, discards, and confirms. If this is so, confession is the act by which the creature places himself voluntarily in God's truth. Now not only is it known by Hm whose view is boundless, but it also deserves to be known by Him. It allies itself with the all-perceiving power of God's truth against its own shame and self-assertion.

Romano Guardini, The Conversion of Augustine

This is a really great book with many deep insights that seem to spring right into my heart. What an elegant way to say what I've often been told — God already knows everything you have done. Confession is for your benefit, not His.

2nd Sunday of Saint Joseph

 Reflecting on St. Joseph on the seven Sundays leading up to his solemnity is an old tradition.

Christ in the House of his Parents, John Everett Millais

The Virtues of St. Joseph

The Humility of the Holy Patriarch

Joseph the honest man, seeks God. Joseph, the selfless man, finds God. Joseph, the hidden man, delights in God's presence. (Bossuet, Second panegyric on St. Joseph) We need to follow the Holy Patriarch's presence in the course of our ordinary work. ...

The life of the Holy Patriarch was full of work from his time in Nazareth and Bethlehem, in Egypt and then once again in Nazareth. Everyone knew of Joseph because he was such a hard worker. He probably gave great importance to the development of a manly character, the type of character that sines through the episodes of the Gospels. Saint Matthew repeatedly shows us how promptly Joseph responded to whatever God was asking of him.

During those times in Palestine the job of a "carpenter required dexterity and wide-ranging talents. This tradesman was therefore well-respected in the community. He was responsible for the most varied manufacturing projects, from constructing farming implements to making home furniture. He needed to be adept with any number of tools and implements. He also had to be familiar with the properties of the various materials, their strengths, their endurance, their proper uses. ...

Although the Gospels have not recorded anything Saint Joseph ever said, they do nevertheless give us a clear picture of his life and works. This record should serve as a point of reference for us in our efforts to achieve sanctity in ordinary life. What is crucially important here is the sanctification of daily life, a sanctification which each person must acquire according to his or her own state, and one which can be promoted according to a model accessible to all people. (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Redemptoris custos.

In Conversation with God,
Volume Six: Special Feasts: January - June

Saint Josephine Bakhita — Sor Moretta ("little brown sister") or Madre Moretta ("black mother")

“If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today.”

St. Josephine Bakhita is the patron saint of the Sudan, human trafficking survivors and of our foundation. You can see from the quote above that she truly saw things from a different point of view than the average person, certainly that I myself would have. In this she puts me in mind of Joseph from Genesis, although we are given many more details of her sufferings as a slave.

Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.

Historians believe that sometime in February 1877, Josephine was kidnapped by Arab slave traders. Although she was just a child, she was forced to walk barefoot over 600 miles to a slave market in El Obeid. She was bought and sold at least twice during the grueling journey.

For the next 12 years she would be bought, sold and given away over a dozen times. She spent so much time in captivity that she forgot her original name.

... when her mistress decided to travel to Sudan without Josephine, she placed her in the custody of the Canossian Sisters in Venice.

While she was in the custody of the sisters, she came to learn about God. According to Josephine, she had always known about God, who created all things, but she did not know who He was. The sisters answered her questions. She was deeply moved by her time with the sisters and discerned a call to follow Christ.

Catholic.org

I remember I heard this inspiring saint's story some time ago on a daily saint podcast that is now defunct. I was especially surprised to hear that she died as recently as 1947, making the story of her tortures under slavery even more vivid as they were in what I think of as modern times.

I was really taken by her story and can't believe that I haven't mentioned her here before. Her story has much more to it and there are a variety of sources to draw from. Here are a few:

• Pope Benedict tells her story and puts her witness in perspective of hope in paragraph 3 of his encyclical letter Spe Salvi. (This is just a bit so do click through and read the whole paragraph. In fact, this is a good inspiration to read the encyclical.)
  

  She too was loved, and by none other than the supreme “Paron”, before whom all other masters are themselves no more than lowly servants. She was known and loved and she was awaited. What is more, this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now he was waiting for her “at the Father's right hand”. Now she had “hope” —no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope: “I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”

• A good short telling of her life is at the link above to Catholic.org.
• A more indepth life story is at Wikipedia. 

Saint Josephine, pray for us! 

Here's an easy way to celebrate St. Josephine Bakhita's day, Make a dish that is found all over Africa — Palaver Chicken. It is delicious, easy, and (as is often the case in African dishes) peanutty! Tell her story while you eat. It is one that too few people know, including some in our own household!

I have sent — you. Will you turn aside?

“You want something. The gods’ tongues can grow quite honeyed, when they want something. When I wanted something—when I prayed on my face, arms out flung, in tears and abject terror—for years—where were You then? Where were the gods the night Teidez died?” [Ista said.]

“The Son of Autumn dispatched many men in answer to your prayers, sweet Ista. They turned aside upon their roads, and did not arrive. For He could not bend their wills, nor their steps. And so they scattered to the winds as leaves do.”

His lips curved up, in a smile more deathly serious than any scowl Ista had ever seen. “Now another prays, in despair as dark as yours. One as dear to me as Teidez was to my Brother of Autumn. And I have sent—you. Will you turn aside? As Teidez’s deliverance did? At the last, with so few steps left to travel?”

Silence fell between them.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls

Am I one of those who turn aside? Or who go the last few steps, even when it is brutally difficult?

Sweet Evening Light

Sweet Evening Light
taken by Remo Savisaar

Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions

I was always fascinated by the Asian martyrs, specifically in China and Japan since those were the ones I usually could find info about. After becoming more interested in Takashi Nagai (here and here), I have even more of an attachment to St. Paul Miki and his companions since they formed the foundation of the Christian community that Nagai belonged to later in history.

The description below is from Bert Ghezzi's Voices of the Saints which I read from every day. It is followed by an eyewitness account which is very moving and inspirational.

St. Paul Miki, SJ ((1564? - 1597)

Christianity spread like wildfire in sixteenth-century Japan. By the 1580s, less than forty years after Francis Xavier introduced the faith, the church counted two hundred thousand converts. The growth had proceeded despite the opposition of Buddhist priests and many petty rulers. However, in 1587, Emperor Hideyoshi ordered the banishment of all Catholics, forcing the Jesuit missionaries to operate from hiding. But outright persecution did not break out until late 1596, when Hideyoshi rounded up twenty-six Jesuits, Franciscans, and laypeople and prepared to martyr them.

Among the victims was St. Paul Miki, a Jesuit novice who had just completed eleven years of training. Paul’s noble family was converted when he was a child and at age five he was baptized. Educated by Jesuits, the gifted youth joined their novitiate at age twenty-two. He had studied intensively the teachings of the Buddhists so as to be able to debate their priests. He welcomed his chance at martyrdom, but may have wished just a little that it would be delayed long enough for him to be ordained a priest.

Hideyoshi had the left ears of the twenty-six martyrs severed as a sign of disrespect and paraded them through Kyoto. Dressed in his simple black cassock, Paul stood out among them. Most onlookers realized that this noble young man could have worn the samurai’s costume with two swords on his belt. The whole display had the unexpected effect of evoking compassion from the crowd, some of whom later became converts.

The martyrs were then taken to Nagasaki. They were tied to crosses with their necks held in place by iron rings. Beside each was an executioner with his spear ready to strike.  ... As they awaited death the entire group sang the canticle of Zachary (see Luke 1:67–79). The executioners stood by respectfully until they had intoned the last verse. Then at a given signal they thrust their spears into the victims’ sides. On that day, February 5, 1597, the church of Japan welcomed its first martyrs.

Here is the reading from today's Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours. I love the way that we are told the eyewitness account of all the martyrs' bravery, trust, and love.

From an account of the martyrdom of Saint Paul Miki and his companions, by a contemporary writer. (Cap. 14, 109-110: Acta Sanctorum Febr. 1, 769)

You shall be my witnesses

The crosses were set in place. Father Pasio and Father Rodriguez took turns encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated: “Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life.” Brother Francis Branco also thanked God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our Father and Hail Mary.

Our brother, Paul Miki, saw himself standing now in the noblest pulpit he had ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a Japanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks to God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words: “As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves.”

Then he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their final struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces, and in Louis’ most of all. When a Christian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven, his hands, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed on him.

Anthony, hanging at Louis’ side, looked toward heaven and called upon the holy names—“Jesus, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “Praise the Lord, you children!” (He learned it in catechism class in Nagasaki. They take care there to teach the children some psalms to help them learn their catechism.)

Others kept repeating “Jesus, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some of them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives. In these and other ways they showed their readiness to die.

Then, according to Japanese custom, the four executioners began to unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight, all the Christians cried out, “Jesus, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very skies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear, then a second blow. It was over in a very short time.

RESPONSORY
See Galatians 6:14; Philippians 1:29

We must glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ;
in him is our salvation, life and resurrection.
– Through him we are saved and set free.

This grace has been given to you,
not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his sake.
– Through him we are saved and set free.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

God our Father,
source of strength for all your saints,
you led Paul Miki and his companions
through the suffering of the cross
to the joy of eternal life.
May their prayers give us the courage
to be loyal until death in professing our faith.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

St. Dorothy's Day

Saint Dorothy and the Infant Christ, Francesco di Giorgio

Dorothy was born in Caesarea, where her Christian parents had fled to escape the persecutions taking place in Rome. The Roman emperor Diocletian stepped up his harassment of the Christian communities around the time that Dorothy was a young woman of marriageable age. When marriage to the roman prefect Fabricius was arranged for her, Dorothy refused, saying that she wanted to remain a virgin. To compound her insults to the Roman authorities, she also refused to take part in the ceremonies to the old gods. She was thrown into prison [where she was was tortured]...

Along the route to her place of execution, Dorothy met a young clerk in the legal network, named Theophilus, who made fun of her belief that when she was dead, she would be transported to a heavenly garden filled with flowers and fruit. "Send me fruit and flowers, then, when you are dead," he mocked. In one version, the young man watched Dorothy kneel down before she was executed, and while she was praying there, an angel appeared to him carrying three roses and three apples. In another version, after her death a strange boy appeared at Theophilus's door in the dead of winter, carring a basket with three red roses and three red apples.

Theophilus was converted and later martyred by being beheaded, after which his body was thrown to wild animals...

DEVOTIONAL PRACTICE

During the winter months, place on your altar or in a special area in your home three apples and three roses., See them as reminders of the eternal garden that exists within you even in the dead of winter. Thank God for allowing you to have faith in this vision.

The Way of the Saints by Tom Cowan

St. Dorothy is Rose's patron saint and after she moved out on her own we let the devotional practice drop. However, for anyone who is interested here's what we did.

We put the apples and roses on the "Mary" table. This is an end table in our living room where we have a cross, a statue of Mary, a statue of the holy family, and a little jar containing the dried rose petals from our "miraculous rose." Why? Because of those dried rose petals. They are our physical evidence of the miraculous and it is only right for this memorial to Dorothy to be placed there alongside them.

Masks and what is behind them

Having given up God so as to be self-sufficient, man has lost track of his soul. He looks in vain for himself. He finds masks, and behind masks, death.

Jacques Mauritain

There could hardly be a better summary of the modern condition. This, too, is one that is worthy of meditation during Lent. The path to the Cross is hard, no doubt. But what lies beyond is not death, but life.

Where do we cling to masks, where do we eschew the Cross, which is to say Christ's own sacrifice for us? It is these realizations that send us to Confession, which helps us see ourselves and God as masks are stripped away and soothing, healing light is let in.

One in the Hole

One in the Hole, Valerie, Ucumari Photography
some rights reserved

God and dentists

What do people mean when they say, "I am not afraid of God because I know He is good. Have they never even been to a dentist?

C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Spectacled Mouse Reading Newspaper

Spectacled Mouse Reading Newspaper (1890). Beatrix Potter.

I could just look at this all day. I'm not kidding. All. Day.

And the Winner Is — 1936

 Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since these early films continued to be hard to find.

None of the movies really grabbed us this year but all were good enough! We weren't able to get our hands on at least half of the nominated movies and had already seen Top Hat numerous times

WINNER

First mate Fletcher Christian leads a revolt against his sadistic commander, Captain Bligh, in this classic seafaring adventure, based on the real-life 1789 mutiny.

I can see why this won. It was a big movie with big stars based on the true story told in the trilogy written by Nordhoff and Hall. I read the story several times in college and afterwards and this seemed a good retelling of the first book with the essence of other two books nicely conveyed. It wasn't really my cup of tea but was a good start to our 1936 viewing.

 NOMINEES

When British valet Ruggles is won in a poker game by a couple from the American West he imagines a world full of Indian attacks and stagecoaches. What he finds is a country where he is valued for himself by all but a few snobs. 

It is light but sweet. I've never seen Charles Laughton in a role like this and he had a deft comedic style and a real sincerity at the end after he was allowed to drop the stiff valet mannerisms. I also loved Zasu Pitts whose name is famous but who I never have seen before. I can see why it lost to Mutiny on the Bounty which, funnily enough, also starred Charles Laughton albeit in a very different role. However, I can also see why this was nominated.

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

This was surprisingly faithful to the book, eliminating only one subplot in order to keep the story swashbuckling along in fine style. I never realized just how pretty Olivia de Haviland was in her young days. Certainly, it made me understand why director Michael Curtiz and composer Erich Korngold both almost won their Oscar categories by strength of write-ins (not nominations). My favorite of the movies we watched.

Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of an ordinary young man who lives an extraordinary life, filled with people who help and hinder him.

I don't love the novel and didn't love the movie but they did a good enough job of covering the book in a year where none of the movies really grabbed us.

Showman Jerry Travers  demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in a hotel room, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for a married man.

This is light, frothy fun as one would expect from Astaire and Rogers. I liked thinking about how much Depression era audiences would have enjoyed escaping into this movie. And it was still funny even today almost a hundred years later.

=======

All the Oscar viewing is here.

1st Sunday of Saint Joseph

There's something about St. Joseph ... I turn to him always for intercession with anything to do with family, work, or prayers for my husband. Reflecting on St. Joseph on the seven Sundays leading up to his solemnity is an old tradition.

Holy Family by Raphael, 1506.

Devotion to Saint Joseph has developed spontaneously from the heart of Christian people. For many people the Holy Patriarch is an excellent model of humility, industriousness and fidelity to one's vocation.

One of the most popular devotions to this saint is the Seven Sundays of Saint Joseph. This is an extended opportunity to meditate about the Holy Patriarch and to pray for his intercession...

Vocation and Sanctity

Saint Bernardine of Siena has taught, following the writings of Saint Thomas, that whenever God chooses someone to do some important work for him, God grants that person the necessary graces. The perfect example of this truth can be seen in the life of Saint Joseph, foster father of Our Lord Jesus Christ and spouse of Mary. Sanctity consists in fulfilling one's vocation. For Saint Joseph, that vocation entailed preserving Mary's commitment to virginity while living in authentic matrimony ... Joseph loved Mary with a love so pure and refined that it is beyond our imagination.

With respect to Jesus, Joseph watched over him, protected him, taught him a trade, helped in his education. Joseph is called "foster father" but words cannot express the intimate and mysterious relationship which he actually enjoyed with the Son of God. In normal circumstances a man becomes a foster father by accident. In the case of Joseph, however, this is no accidental relationship. Joseph was created so as to live out this transcendent responsibility. This was his predestination, the purpose of all the graces which he received. (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Mother of the Saviour)

Saint Joseph is a great saint because he corresponded in a heroic way to the graces given to him. We should contemplate about how well we are corresponding to the grace in our vocation in the middle of the world.

We can never forget the maxim that whenever God chooses someone to do some important work for him, God grants that person the necessary graces. How do we react to difficulties in our life of faith? Do we ever doubt God's support in our struggle to raise a family, to give ourselves generously to God's requests, to live a commitment of apostolic celibacy? Do we firmly believe that because I have a vocation, because I have the grace of God, I can overcome any obstacle? Do I put my trust in God so that difficulties only make me more faithful?

In Conversation With God, Vol 6: Special Feasts: January to June

The Veil Lifts

The Veil Lifts, Himmapaan Illustration