Saints Joachim and Anne

I love the point that is made by our focus on this married couple, these parents and grandparents. 

Here we celebrate Mary's parents, Jesus' grandparents — Joachim and Anne.

I am including the summary from Catholic Online because it was the best (and most succinct) I found. Also — I absolutely love the point made about the way they raised Mary that helped to form her faith and trust to become the Mother of God. It is a good way to recall that we can't foresee the ripples our own actions cause in our marriages and families.

Emphasis added is mine.

By tradition Joachim and Anne are considered to be the names of the parents of Mary, the Mother of God. We have no historical evidence, however, of any elements of their lives, including their names. Any stories about Mary's father and mother come to us through legend and tradition.

We get the oldest story from a document called the Gospel of James, though in no way should this document be trusted to be factual, historical, or the Word of God. The legend told in this document says that after years of childlessness, an angel appeared to tell Anne and Joachim that they would have a child. Anne promised to dedicate this child to God (much the way that Samuel was dedicated by his mother Hannah -- Anne -- in 1 Kings).

For those who wonder what we can learn from people we know nothing about and how we can honor them, we must focus on why they are honored by the church. Whatever their names or the facts of their lives, the truth is that it was the parents of Mary who nurtured Mary, taught her, brought her up to be a worthy Mother of God. It was their teaching that led her to respond to God's request with faith, "Let it be done to me as you will." It was their example of parenting that Mary must have followed as she brought up her own son, Jesus. It was their faith that laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed her to stand by the cross as her son was crucified and still believe.

Peshawar

Peshawar by Charles W. Bartlett

If you are inspired to take on a worthy project, don't hesitate.

I would not hesitate to do anything the Beloved [God] asks, regardless of its difficulty. Experience has taught me that when I accept a challenge for his sake, a gnawing doubt regarding my ability to perform will bless me. When the work is finished, the reward is high satisfaction This is a reward we receive her and now rather than in heaven.

The only ones who can understand what I am saying are those who have also tasted these sweet pleasures. I have been through this many times.

Sometimes an assignment has far-reaching implications. In such cases, I will give you my best advice: If you are inspired to take on a worthy project, don't hesitate. Have no fear that you may not be able to accomplish it. Turn yourself over to God. Take yourself out of it. You need not be afraid you can't do the job. God can do all things.

St. Teresa of Avila

This has also been my experience since I came to know the Lord.

The children and Aunt Enid

I am sorry that the first thing you should hear about the children should be that they did not care about their Aunt Enid, but this was unfortunately the case. And if you think this was not nice of them I can only remind you that you do not know their Aunt Enid.

E. Nesbit, Wet Magic

E. Nesbit is so funny and this sense of humor is strewn through all her children's stories.

The Golden Temple, Amritsar

The Golden Temple, Amritsar by Charles W. Bartlett

Taj Majal, Sunset

Taj Mahal, Sunset, woodblock by Charles W. Bartlett

More exotic beauty from Charles Bartlett!

An affectionate letter from a bishop must surely be the most disagreeable missive which a parish clergyman can receive.

His state became still worse when he received an affectionate but solemn letter from the Bishop warning him of his danger. An affectionate letter from a bishop must surely be the most disagreeable missive which a parish clergyman can receive. Affection from one man to another is not natural in letters. A bishop never writes affectionately unless he means to reprove severely. When he calls a clergyman his "dear brother in Christ," he is sure to go on to show that the man so called is altogether unworthy of the name.

Anthony Trollope, Dr. Wortle's School

Trollope is just so funny. He understands human nature and exploits for his humorous storytelling.

Hanalei Fishermen, Hawaii

Hanalei Fishermen, Hawaii , hand colored etching by Charles W. Bartlett

Charles Bartlett had so many works featuring Hawaiian and Indian scenes that I wound up looking him up. Wikipedia says:

In 1913, with financial backing from his wife's well-to-do family, the Bartletts traveled to India, Ceylon, Indonesia, China, and Japan. He arrived in Japan in 1915, where he met woodblock print publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885–1962), who was a major force in early 20th-century Japanese art (shin-hanga). In 1916 Watanabe published 21 woodblocks from Bartlett's designs, including six prints of Japanese landscapes. In 1917, Bartlett and his second wife left Japan for England; however, they stopped off in Hawaii, where they remained—never returning to England. He did visit Japan in 1919, where he created sixteen shin-hanga prints for Watanabe.

We'll have his art for the rest of the week.

To meddle in the government of society [is], so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows

Citizens assemble with the sole goal of declaring that they disapprove of the course of government. To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows. . . . An American does not know how to converse, but he discusses; he does not discourse, but he holds forth. He always speaks to you as to an assembly.

Alexis de Toqueville

It's so interesting to see that we began as we meant to go on. And we're still obsessed with holding forth about politics to this day.

What do you want me to do for you?

Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"

The blind man said to him, "Master, I want to see."

Mark 10:51

We all relate to the blind man. It's the common condition. Where am I blind? I want to see.

But take a second and look at Jesus' question. That is considerate and gracious. It is the question God asks us, even though we don't stop to think of it. He met us more than halfway by becoming human and dying for us. And here he is, "What do you want me to do for you?"

It's a question I ponder when I begin my morning prayer. Considering the asker makes me both shed the small stuff and yet also bring the small stuff to him. He's asking. He wants to know. What will we say?

Hawaiian Fisherman

Hawaiian Fisherman by Charles William Bartlett,
color woodblock print, 1916. 

I don't usually like wood prints. However, this is in the style of several book covers that my grandparets had. They were my father's old childhood books and when I was a kid I didn't really read them — but I liked the covers. It takes me back to those days.

Lagniappe: I saw no one.

Source

 Holmes: I followed you.

Sterndale: I saw no one.

Holmes: That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

I tend to forget that the Sherlock Holmes stories can have these little bits of humor inserted.

A richness for a people without riches

Soul Food

There is a reason why many black Southerners — and some white ones, like my mother — still call this kind of cooking soul food, because it transcends the pain and struggle of the everyday, a richness for a people without riches.

Rick Bragg, The Best Cook in the World

The End of Reading is Here? Not So Fast.

“In 1958,” Rose Horowitch informs us in a lengthy and grim prognosis of reading habits published in the Atlantic, “the English translation of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was the best-selling novel of the year.” Meanwhile, she says, “last year’s top-selling novel was Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest in the Hunger Games young-adult series.”

The point of the comparison? As a society, we once engaged with serious literature! We read the lofty and the literary, the rigorous and demanding. Today, we settle for the puerile and simplistic.

[...]

We’re talking civilizational disaster here, folks.

Still, resist the impulse to leap into traffic. I’ve written about the reading crisis several times and share many of Horowitch’s concerns. Who wouldn’t? But there are a few things in this piece that rankle, starting with Doctor Zhivago

We used to be so literary and now we're just a bunch of reading schlubs says The Atlantic. I've heard this a thousand times — we used to eat so much better, we used to read so much better, etc. When it's looked at more closely, that turns out not to be the case.

As the subtitle to this great piece says, "It’s Easy to Fear the Future When We Romanticize the Past." Definitely worth reading, as are all the pieces from Miller's Book Review.

Notes on Mark: Only One Loaf

Mark 8:14-21
I have never noticed the discrepancies in this bit of scripture. I guess, like the disciples, I wasn't paying enough attention, especially to this very interesting point about "one loaf" being in the boat.

Mark begins by noting the seemingly irrelevant detail that the disciples had forgotten to bring bread and had only one loaf with them. On one level, this simply means that they have failed to replenish their food supplies. But the two miraculous feedings and the ensuing discussions have prepared us to understand: What is the real "one loaf" (literally, "one bread") with them in the boat? It is Jesus! Mark clarifies in verse 16 that actually they have "no bread"--no earthly bread, that is. Bread will not be mentioned again in the Gospel until Jesus announces that the bread is his own body, to be given up for us on the cross (14:22).

Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Mark

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Sources and Notes Index  

Le Dejeuner

Le Dejeuner, Henri Le Sidaner

I want to go to there.

Julie came to town to record a podcast. Scott was able to participate after convincing her press people that he knew her for reals.

 Join us for our discussion of Billu in episode 383 of A Good Story is Hard to Find.

We ate like we were somebody ...

"It was a hard life," she told me once, "but we ate like we were somebody a good bit of the time."

Rick Braggs, The Best Cook in the World

That's not only nourishing the body. The reality of food is used throughout the Bible to reflect God's spiritual realities. In this case, everybody is somebody worth a good meal and the love that goes into preparing it.

Baking Bread

Baking Bread, Helen Allingham

What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world?

The great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought?

The answer is very simple: God.... He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. Yes indeed, God's power works quietly in this world, but it is the true and the lasting power. Again and again, God's cause seems to be in its death throes. Yet over and over again it proves to be the thing that truly endures and saves.

-- Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth

Amen, amen. And I am grateful.