Leila Marie Lawler's Blog, page 34

{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

I accidentally had a pretty nice breakfast today, due to this conversation last night:

 

 

Is the struggle not real?

They go on sale, you buy a certain quantity (in my case, three, which is wildly optimistic because there are three of us here and we don’t eat a ton of anything, and with avocados, you just can’t tell).

One of them gets deployed in a salad and is lovely, so the other two are deemed “just right” and get put in the fridge as a hedge against what you know will happen, which is that they will otherwise over-ripen.

But you know that if the fridge is too cold, they will become as unto tasteless sludge.

But you hope. And you try to make a mental note as to their presence there.

And they get moved around.

And then, they get found.

 

 

This morning:

 

 

Reader, it was appealing. (Yes, I did take a bite before I thought to take the pictures! And no, I don’t think I’ve ever had avocado toast before, in a stunning failure of cultural participation, and despite the fact that I just squeak under the Millennial wire, age-wise):

 

 

In even more wandering chitchat, my husband gave me that book for Christmas — part of the autobiography of Josef Pieper, a great favorite of mine. (It has a positively atrocious cover, chosen seemingly at random, for it is indeed a photo of an oil rig at sea — the image that certainly comes to my mind when I think of a kindly German scholar of Thomas Aquinas from the middle part of the last century, but whatever. It’s also not translated or edited very well. But I love him so.)

I had posted this excerpt on Facebook and thought I’d share it here too. He’s musing on the kind of life he himself chose — the simple life that doesn’t seek after honors or accolades from the public — and the death of his father:

The unusual modesty of his life style, for example, was, when you look back, nothing but the reverse side of his concern for the future of his sons and daughters. When he returned from a visit they made together to a colleague who maybe had a particularly nice house, he used to say to my mother comfortingly, “Our possessions are not dead things. They are alive.” After the death of my father the thought came to me with a new intensity, and perhaps for the first time, about what I may have meant to him, in terms of both joys and sorrows.

 

On to our links:

Deirdre’s husband, John Folley aka The Artist, has illustrated a book with his friend Matthew Mehan: Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Animals. This is a remarkable venture — it’s an alphabet book with rhymes and pictures very much in the tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear — “nonsense” that is grounded deep in the cultural memory. These two have put an incredible amount of work into this book — there are 50 illustrations — with 26 oil paintings of the highest quality — and a whimsical, thoughtful poem for each of the letters. There’s even a lullaby that’s really beautiful!

The creators are asking for pre-orders, which is basically a go-fund-me for a new classic in the making. So they realize that this is unusual, to ask for money before the product has been made. But the truth is that publishing today is a matter of conventional expectations; something different is hard to market unless popular demand can be demonstrated! So… :)

What causes young people to convert? The answer may surprise you.


The most remote parish on earth and the faith of the one woman at its heart.


Truth can sting. An essay about the less than honest representation of moral duty in Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation that has been causing so much turmoil — with some personal notes, from Matthew Schmitz, editor of First Things. I wonder how many of us find ourselves in this situation:

I assumed that she knew my moral views, which I have enough trouble imposing on myself, let alone anyone else. So I thought it best to show my solidarity by listening to her without any trace of judgment. A word of warning might risk her anger, reveal that our friendship was weaker than we wanted it to be.

This article is about oral tradition in liturgy, but I think it has good insights about how we learn — and how children learn and become persons with a store of songs, poems, and other wise expressions in their minds but ready at any moment to burst forth in community life. In Pieper’s autobiography he mentions many times how he and an often new-found friend would find themselves reciting favorite poems to each other! This article suggests to us that we depend too much on the written word (although of course, things must be written down, and we must have rules about worship) and don’t commit enough to memory. As I was reading, I was thinking about how as a child — not a Christian child! — I did somehow know all the verses to many Christmas carols, for instance (I don’t really know them now). When the singing began, we all just sang — we didn’t resort to booklets. Same with patriotic songs. Perhaps this observation can help with priorities in the home school and enrich family life in general.


Fr. Schall “On Them Pearly Gates” — a Thomist looks at a Gospel hymn. “We have intimation here of Chesterton’s remark on the strangeness of our life on earth. It is that, especially if we live it well, we begin most poignantly to feel ‘homesick even at home. We have here no lasting city.”


A long and important essay from Cardinal Müller (former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office held by Cardinal Ratzinger under John Paul II): Is There a Saving Truth? 

Vattimo’s advice to the Catholic Church contains a diabolical temptation that promises a success that is but apparent: If you want to reach out to people and be loved by all, do as Pilate did, leave truth aside and avoid the Cross! Jesus could have averted death if only he had stayed focused on his message about the unconditional love of his heavenly Father.

Black beekeepers are transforming vacant lots into apiaries in Detroit. A pair of Detroit natives have decided to combat neighborhood blight in a pretty sweet way — by transforming abandoned vacant lots in their city into honeybee farms.

 

From the archives:

The secret to planning menus when you think my menu-planning ideas won’t work for you.


Hope for when you regret the past.

 

Happy feast of Glorious St. Patrick! Tomorrow is our Will’s birthday and the Fifth Sunday of Lent. And Monday is the feast of Glorious St. Joseph! It’s what I call our family’s “Lenten Triduum” — a beautiful and holy break from penitence.

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

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The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

Phil’s book Lost Shepherd came out last week. We were in DC for an event, and Phil was being interviewed by Raymond Arroyo on The World Over. I think if you watch that interview you will get a good idea of how Phil reluctantly came to the realization that the book had to be written. There have been a plethora of radio interviews and book reviews — be sure to read this one.

I had the pleasure of getting together with the St. Greg’s Pocket that Sukie had started when she lived in the area. What a fantastic group of ladies! And about a bajillion little kids!

These women understand the importance of sharing good reading and discussion as well as taking care of each other in neighborly ways — bringing each other meals, watching each other’s kids when there’s a doctor’s appointment, and helping each other live the Liturgical Year. Even though their group is probably more in flux than others, due to the area, they will find in ten or fifteen years’ time that they are very grateful for the community they will have made.

Awhile back I explained about the St. Gregory Pocket:

You need friends — a good solid community — for the future.

So, maybe we [here at LMLD] can’t meet all of you [although we’d love to!], but we can help you meet each other!

You don’t want to have to join a club or drive an hour or go to a conference just to meet someone who shares your faith and your desire to live differently. You definitely don’t want to make all your friends online.

You want to find the women in your area who share your goals and your philosophy.

The St. Gregory’s Pockets are just that — little “pockets” of people in a given geographical area. Pockets of people who would like to get together naturally, to share the seasons together, to help out when a mom has a new baby or someone is sick, to have kids who can play together, to have picnics where men can talk to other men who care about raising strong families in a counter-cultural way.

One of the links below is about a Czech dissident, Václav Benda, who noted that totalitarianism is resisted primarily by two means: the family and the small societies and groups of friends that build up the bonds of solidarity without the taint of politicization or commodification.

But — it will be much better to nurture such bonds before we find ourselves under the cloud of some sort of tyranny, for perhaps then we may stave it off and spare ourselves and society a desperate fate.

At our other event we had a lovely conversation with John Cuddeback of Bacon from Acorns fame, and his wife Sofia. When I mentioned my devotion to John Henry Newman, he brought up Newman’s gift for friendship, which I’m sure Václav Benda would agree is the virtue that makes us whole in our relations with each other and helps us resist overwhelming power. You can read a short essay by Fr. Juan R. Vélez on Newman and Friendship here.

On to (more!) links:

Jane Austen demonstrates that marriage gives sexual love its meaning! And frankly, the marriage plot is what makes for a great novel! If it were me I’d make my teenagers read this article, but of course, they first have to read dear Jane, because there are spoilers. (I am the object of laughter in my family because I had no idea of how either Pride and Prejudice or Emma would end! Totally did not see either of those matches coming! So I feel protective of your possibly equally clueless — but probably not — offspring.)


A good article about chant in liturgy My thought about chant and polyphony is that neither is so very difficult if the culture supports them. Children can be taught both. Search this blog for our many posts about “garage scholas” and chant. And then those children who love it and are good at it will be the music leaders in about ten years, which isn’t so very long after all.


Self-demonstrating grammar rules. Fun.


Lost art of bending over. It is a good idea not to be droopy, posture-wise. This is a challenge for me.


The Architectural Sacking of Paris.

“And so Mayor Hidalgo’s first high-rise, the Triangle Tower, will be built in the 15th arrondissement. Shaped like an enormous, flattened pyramid, it will challenge the Eiffel Tower for dominance of the skyline. Neighborhood residents violently oppose it. The project’s Swiss architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, are thrilled. ‘This evocation of the urban fabric of Paris,’ they offer, ‘at once classic and coherent in its entirety and varied and intriguing in its details, is encountered in the facade of the Triangle. Like a classical building, this one features two levels of interpretation: an easily recognizable overall form; and a fine, crystalline silhouette of its facade, which allows it to be perceived variously.’

“Like so much else written about new architecture, this is nonsense. The building does not evoke the urban fabric of Paris. To the contrary, as NKM correctly observed, the urban fabric of Paris is low and classical. The triangle is neither a classical building nor is it ‘like one’; it is antithetical in shape, scale, proportion, texture, material, and ornament to the principles of classical architecture, to say nothing of height. Not one such structure existed in antiquity.”

Where are the poor? asks Dominicana Journal. A 2009 study makes “a quizzical suggestion: ‘the social atmosphere of many parishes may no longer be inviting to low-income Catholics.'” Catholics who attend Mass after Vatican II have become of one social stratum only, and the poor have dropped away.

“The Church teaches that the “preferential option for the poor” must prioritize the spiritual dimension of the person…” The article references a piece by Matthew Schmitz,in which he says:

“Mary Douglas, a great anthropologist and devout Catholic, saw this coming. When the bishops of England and Wales lifted the obligation for Friday abstinence, they suggested there was something untoward in the gusto with which Irish labourers observed the fast. Surely, the bishops believed, such outward observance would be better replaced by the more careful and thoughtful cultivation of an interior state of penitence and sorrow, perhaps complemented by a charitable gift?”

A long read, but a good one to go along with thinking about the St. Gregory Pocket — an interview with Flagg Taylor, author of a book about Václav Benda, a Czech dissident. As Taylor says, “The totalitarian temptation is very much with us in a variety of forms so his experience and thoughts are more relevant for us than we might think. He was particularly thoughtful about what we might call the theory and practice of dissent.”

“Like Kolakowski, Benda understood that the means for achieving the fictive totalitarian unity directed by the state included the breaking down of social bonds developed freely and naturally, from below, by the people themselves.

“Benda thought that people needed to be reminded of what they had lost with communism, that the Charter could help foster the rediscovery of meaningful social life. This is what he called the parallel polis. The Charter community ought to dedicate itself to developing parallel social structures to the official ones. This would reactivate people’s social natures. They could rediscover the deep rewards of friendship and devotion.

From the archives:

Recovering a sense of satisfaction by making time to be creative. (In this case it was quilting, but it could be anything!)


Early distant warning: Easter babka must be thought about soon.

 

Today is the commemoration of various saints and martyrs. Tomorrow we observe Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent in which a bit of celebration can take place! Maybe a little cake?

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

 

 

I’m stash-busting and apparently my stash consists of very colorful sock yarn!

Today I am highlighting one of the bits and pieces because I think it sheds a light on something I am always trying to say here, that  you can and should protect your children from what we call, using a shorthand that has Biblical echoes, “the world.” By this I mean not the all-good creation that God has given us, but the side of life that increasingly threatens even the innocence of a child — and sometimes his life.

I get criticized because I say that it can be done — not perfectly, but with God’s grace, well enough. And that it should be done — that we should try! Maybe there was a time, when there were simply more children, that society as a whole did a pretty good job of giving them their chance to grow according to their development, without burdening them with adult problems and evils. No more. So it’s entirely up to us — help is not on the way.

“We lived a miracle, where grown-ups preserved our childhood.”

One of our readers, dear Helen, told me about this podcast episode, “Cookies and Monsters.”

It is like a “Life is Beautiful” story but for real, told by a man who discovers just how serious the determination to live out their motto, “be cheerful and sing,” was for some girl scouts who ended up in a Japanese concentration camp in WWII. It’s a story of how simple standards and the knowledge that “God is nigh” saved them.

But as you listen, I hope you will not consider their spirit a quaint relic of the past. Consider what these teachers, women also under a duress the extremity of which they were keenly aware, gave their girls.

Today, while not the time of Japan-occupied China, we live in what is becoming a spiritual concentration camp of sorts, where, true, children aren’t forced to keep warm by means of laboriously collected coal shavings, hauled bucket by bucket from behind the guard house. If anything, our children are so comfortable and warm that we can congratulate ourselves on a job well done and think we’re doing well by them.

Nevertheless, our children are hard put to make some sort of interior life for themselves, if they can escape the screens and the scheduling and the relentless assault on their very nature. Many of our children find that they may, if they are lucky, only warm their hearts by means of the shavings of reality that they glean from what has been left in the dust — the reality of boy and girl, of beauty, of harmony and order, of the possibility of a sweet life that isn’t a war of all against all. Children today are increasingly left in a state of spiritual starvation.

Let’s be that other kind of grown-up — the kind who give them the miracle of preserving their childhood.

(Note: I’m only vouching for “Cookies and Monsters,” not the other portions of the podcast, and it’s only a half an hour, though it looks like it will be an hour when you queue it up.)

On to our other links:

An interview with Edward Short, author of Newman and History.

“I am often reminded of poor Ray Monk choosing to write the life of Bertrand Russell and finding halfway through that he actually loathed the man. The great thing about Newman is that one never tires of him. He was such a force in his own time that there is an unsurpassably rich mine of information from which to draw.”

It’s time, if you haven’t already, to get informed about the “transgender” epidemic and its causes and drivers. This article looks at how it is growing and why:

“Elliott was suggesting that it is possible that our culture is not just revealing transgender individuals, it is creating them. If so, we can expect tremendous growth, as an entire industry is emerging to meet the growing need.”

And this one reveals the incentives for the medical establishment to go ahead and fuel the craze to mutilate healthy bodies rather than treat hurting psyches (or intervene in cases of abuse).

In homeschooling thoughts:

Board games can really teach history well. (And don’t involve screens.) There are some embedded links that take you to suggestions.


When you get to the part of school where you discuss churches, watch this series of videos on Sacred Architecture by Denis McNamara. Each one is short (under 10 minutes) and examines a different aspect of what makes a church a church, including what Scripture tells us. Prof. McNamara’s delivery is lively and to the point — I learned a lot! (These videos are also a great companion to my Spirit of the Liturgy posts which are here and here — the last posts in each series with the others linked within.)

Here is the first in the video series — I’ve embedded it here for you, and if you don’t see it, you can use the link in the previous paragraph:

Have you seen the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature? It has digitized versions of thousands of 19th century children’s books. You can find more children’s resources here.

Elsewhere:

Will it work to try to make suburbs more family-friendly, new-urbanism style?


I just thought this hidden spring on Rt. 66 was charming. (I haven’t seen it in person — have you?)

From the archives:

My series on the moral life of the child and how to nurture it (the links to all the posts are in this one.) Remember: The family is the “school of virtue” and “the domestic Church.”


A good soup for Lent: Butternut Apple Quinoa.

I had a great time talking to Mary Ellen Barrett on her Refresh virtual conference. This post gives you some idea of how I tried to avoid that late-winter burned out feeling in our homeschool, if you are interested in more practical advice from me. And I’m pretty sure you can register with her and hear the recordings, even if you missed the live version.

Tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Lent — don’t forget your St. Joseph prayers. How can it only be the Second Sunday?? Sukie’s Freddie (age 3), with a sigh: “I need a break from Lent.” haha Freddie! Remember: Just live your Lent along with the Church. The desert is… a desert… (not to be confused with dessert, which, no.)


But! Thursday is the feast of St. David of Wales! A nice treat is to go ahead and buy those daffodils at the grocery store if there are none in your yard (which, if you live at my latitude, there are not), and make a nice dish with leeks in it!

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

{bits & pieces}

 

For our new readers — welcome! Start here! And — there is plenty for you in the archives (on the sidebar, you will find the chronological archive as well as categories to search; on the menu bar up top, things are somewhat organized for you as well).

We are not posting as much as we used to — the girls as I like to call them have lots of littles to chase after now, and I am writing my book. But do drop in on old posts!

This feature, {bits & pieces}, is my little way of having a conversation of sorts with you about what I’m reading and thinking about this week; sometimes I come across something online that I think I would have enjoyed using or discussing in my home school and/or at the dinner table. Feel free to join in the comments!

What’s on my mind right now is that I have been striving to learn to make sourdough bread from my own starter. If you look at my Instagram you can see some of my efforts.

I’ve been making pizza for 35 years or so, and I think I had a pretty good system going and some pretty good crust — until the sourdough thing… After weeks and weeks of fairly good bread but not great pizza, last night I just decided to make it my old way, no starter involved, and it was yummy. This loaf was from the dough that I had left after making three big pizzas.

Sometimes you just have to do what you do best! I’ll try again another time!

 

On to our links!

In upcoming events:

Are you nearby, or do you have a handy jet or something? Come to the Thomas More College Open House this weekend. Tomorrow (Sunday) evening, Phil and I will be at the banquet and poetry contest (always a blast, with our very own LMLD Bridget representing the senior class in the “serious” poem category). Then Monday there’s a great lineup of events. Do come!


Join me (and a nice line-up of speakers, including William Fahey, president of Thomas More College, speaking about the importance of a liberal arts education) on Friday for Refresh, which is “the Annual Midwinter Virtual Conference for you to get inspired – with 100% free content – provided online by Homeschool Connections to grow your ideas and grow your family’s strength.”

The schedule is in that link — see if something interests you! My episode is on at 12:45. Let me know in the comments here if there is anything in particular you’d love me to talk about!

Around the web:

Attention, gardeners! My grandmother would take her kitchen waste outside after she cleaned up in the evening and, digging a hole with a trowel, would bury it in her flower garden. Which was amazing. Here is a little article about this and other composting practices that seem pretty simple!


For the homeschool or for you: This article about the great physicist Richard Feynman’s approach to learning anything at all, the “notebook technique,” might spark something. I suggest just letting your young ‘un read it and mull it over during these dragging days of late winter. And maybe have an appealing stack of new notebooks on a shelf…


For your student who is doing macrobiology, an in-depth article about C. S. Lewis’ objections to the creative power of natural selection (in other words, evolution as an explanation for the origins of species, as a philosophy of man). His thoughts are in turn based on those of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, and the objections have never been answered. (This is a long series, as a commenter below points out — the whole thing is linked in the last one, here.)


A great wedding sermon (scroll down for the full text).


Fr. Schall on basically how we come to know everything: A Short Catechesis. (For those of you who haven’t been introduced to him yet, Fr. Schall is a Jesuit priest who used to be a professor at Georgetown University, but don’t let that fool you. He is a veritable fount of wisdom, all delivered in a dryly witty and accessible way.)


If you are interested in what’s happening to free inquiry and truth in our universities, this book review sheds some light.


For the medieval buffs among us, one professor’s quest to reunite the separated pages of “book of hours” manuscripts. Apparently the individual pages net the owner more than the intact book, so, sadly, this is the new practice, to sell them off.

From the archives:

Do you need to get your meals under control, both organizationally and spending-wise? I have a complete plan for you. Here’s the theory (scroll down for all the posts) and here’s the worksheets to put it all into practice.


What we do “in here” — in the family, in the home, and why it matters for the wider world.

Today is the feast of the Seven Founders of the Order of Servites.

Don’t forget the Seven Sundays devotion to St. Joseph — it’s not too late to get to know this great saint in the weeks before his glorious feast!

The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

A little Ask Auntie Leila with your {bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

Re: the Giveaway: If you would like to order a copy of A Mind at Peace by Christopher Blum and Joshua Hochschild for 30% off, use the code Mind30 at Sophia Institute Press for the next week.

 

 

If you need to sneak in a cake before Lent begins, I recommend this four-egg cake, my favorite fancy cake (you know, the kind that does require whipping and folding whites, alternating ingredients, etc). This time I made it with orange peel in the batter and a simple orange sauce/glaze, boiling and reducing a bit 1 1/2 cups of orange juice with 1/2 cup of sugar and pouring it over the cake. And the difference fresh eggs from a friend’s hens make! These whites whipped up like a dream… the whole cake was burgeoning out of the pan…

 

I wasn’t going to comment on what has already been exhaustively explored in Catholic social media, namely the coincidence of Valentine’s Day with Ash Wednesday. But a reader asked:

How should we manage Ash Wednesday falling on what is normally the feast for St. Valentine? I am struggling with children who last year were exposed for the first time to the commercial and mainstream celebrations of Valentine’s Day. I would like to know how you imagine celebrating this feast in future years. Thank you!

So, really, two questions here which I will address briefly.

First, how do we manage expectations this year? Think of it as a great opportunity! We are always asking how we can help our children resist all the terrible temptations we know they will face when they leave our loving, safe, innocent environment and stand without us against the world.

Well, they will have had a lot of practice in little things!

Every day, they wait a little for their snack. They hand their little sibling the first cup of water. They go to bed when told with prompt obedience. They try not to bawl when they get a cut. They don’t complain about their dress clothes as they get ready for Church.

And tomorrow, at Sunday dinner (or whenever you gather for your cozy family talks), their father is going to explain lovingly that Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray because He knew that ultimately He would sacrifice His life for our sins on the cross; that Wednesday is the beginning of the time we go on that journey with Him; and that we are going to give up all thoughts of candy and pink cards because we love Him and need some way to show our love. Even if everyone around us is all in on Valentine’s Day, we are going to stand apart because as Christians, we do things differently. (Notice how absurd it sounds when we put it this way — how very, very little we are actually doing here. But still, we do what we can… )

This is called penance and “offering it up” — we’ve talked about it before. You learn to “offer up” precisely by “offering up” — by making sacrifices in little things, not only because he did tell us that “he who is faithful in little things will be faithful in much” (Luke 16:10), but because love in action involves sacrifice.

Believe me, your children will absolutely rise to this occasion. They will gladly give up anything for Jesus’ sake when it is put to them this way — your challenge may be that you will have to caution them against condemning as miserable sinners bound for the nether world anyone who dares to so much as sneak a piece of dry toast, let alone dream of candy hearts, and you may find that you are hard put to get them to eat anything at all (which of course you must, or they will faint).

We are sad, sorry excuses for parents when we fail gently to teach them all this — and only deprive ourselves of the gladness of seeing them respond to the call of sacrifice.

The second point in the question is basically, “but how ought we to celebrate this day, when it’s not happening to fall on a day of penance and fasting?” And to that I say, make it into a real, not just sentimental, occasion of expressing affection to everyone — in family life, just take out the romantic part of it.

There’s nothing wrong with sending pretty cards and giving chocolates to those you love best, keeping in mind of course that dear St. Valentine was a martyr for the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he wants us to contemplate our own mortality with holy fear!

But if we think about it for a second, it’s exactly that contemplation that makes it possible for us to express true love to each other, even once a year by means of a frivolous be-ribboned greeting and some treats. In our family each person got a little pile of Valentines and candy at his plate at the dinner table — maybe a little verse or message of love — maybe a nice heart-shaped dessert.

That is fine for other years — do try to keep it fairly simple and homey. It’s not really actually a feast, you know? (And again, insofar as it is, it’s the commemoration of a martyr, not some sort of Cupid-as-monk or something).

The day is actually meant to honor Sts. Cyril and Methodius, if the truth be told. If we do go along, it’s just our way of taking something secular and making it our own family/close friends expression of affection in the light of the New Testament kind of thing. That’s fine — as Bertie Wooster says, “if you like that sort of thing, well, it’s the sort of thing you like.”  This year, we just pass on it…

On to our links!

 

Do you not hear good preaching very often? Here is a 20-minute sermon, The Hierarchy of Heaven, highly recommended. Fr. David Nix uses the day’s readings to say something that we find in perennial Catholic teaching —  that the primary field in which the lay person evangelizes is the family, and the harvest is his children. This truth is why I entitled my book about God’s plan for salvation “God Has No Grandchildren” — the original plan for saving people is not to convert them but to raise children for Him.

And not to turn this into an Auntie Leila infomercial, but if you need a guide to do what Father says in his sermon, well, there’s The Little Oratory, which will help you make your own family traditions in union with the liturgical life of the Church. But really, family culture is what this whole blog is about.

A review I wish I had written (but would not have done as good a job) is this one about the (older) children’s book The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum. It’s a honorary Library Project post for sure. Remember when I said not to read The Penderwicks? I was gratified to see this in Maura Roan McKeegan’s review here:

While an increasing number of children’s books and shows seem to promote dishonesty and deceit, this book reminds young readers of the importance of honesty and trust in a family.

See also her article, Why Young Readers Need Real Books.


My husband’s book is coming out soon– it’s available for pre-order now!


Department of Why Can’t We Have Nice Things: Inside England’s Medieval Cathedrals.


Monks kept the art of illumination alive.


Lent is coming (I know you know but we have to keep reminding ourselves, we who do not think even a week ahead). My best round-up post is here. You can print a sweet Lenten calendar from Pondered in My Heart blog (made by dear Lydia). The children can color it and keep track of where they are and what the significance of the days are. Don’t forget the Ember Days, which connect the cosmic or natural season with the liturgical one.

From the archives:

My Lenten round-up of posts, with everything from Scripture to soup.


Building family culture. (To go along with Father’s podcast, above — choosing a family motto!)


Children need actual books on shelves.

 

St. Scholastica — Bridget’s birthday!

Ash Wednesday, coming up!

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).

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Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
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A giveaway and a note with your {bits & pieces}!

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

Okay, long post coming up here with a giveaway and a then… little note on the argle-bargle…

Now that the Christmas season is well and truly over, it is of course time to begin preparing for Lent in that Trying Not To Be In Denial way some of us may or may not have to muster.

In Lent, we begin again.

We follow the Lord’s footsteps through the desert. Committing to read a good, meaty, challenging book that nourishes our spirit and intellect has been a time-honored way of seeking renewal. I’m giving you almost two whole weeks to line up that reading right here and now!

 

 

Sophia Institute Press is graciously offering three copies to lucky readers, of A Mind at Peace by Christopher O. Blum and Joshua P. Hochschild. (This is an affiliate link.)

I immediately thought of this book as Lenten reading because it combines tip-top philosophical insight with common sense and readability. It’s perfect for Lent!

Professor Blum is a friend whose writing I have admired. I don’t know Professor Hochschild but I am assuming he is a stand-up gentleman with smarts as well. He must be, because the authors have written a book of classical, ancient wisdom on the virtues necessary for “the discipline of the mind itself” — in an age of extreme distraction and relentless appeal to the emotions and the will. To be at peace is to be ordered to reality, to see things as God sees them, to know the truth and have the habits of virtue to follow it.

The book is divided into short chapters that deftly combine the theoretical with the practical regarding the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance (the classical Four Cardinal Virtues necessary for a good life). Without getting bogged down in difficult vocabulary or technicalities, the book is a well grounded guide for thinking about and acting on the virtues necessary for finding peace.

Each short and readable chapter ends with a meditation from a saint or a reading from Scripture and three questions that would be perfect for your reading group. I immediately thought about what a good offering this would be for a St. Gregory Pocket reading club!

Just leave a comment on this post to be entered in the giveaway! We will give away a copy each to three readers! (After the giveaway ends maybe on Thursday, I will have a code for you to use if you were not a winner and want to order the book!)

 

Now, just a note…

I have read every comment on last week’s post. I am truly grateful for the loving support and kind (and wise) messages offered by readers who realized what was happening with the reaction out in other places, and how that reaction went beyond mere disagreement with me well into the territory of defamation, twisting my words in a way that would get a reporter fired. You simply cannot imagine how consoling it was to have those comments as well as the emails and other communications that poured in all week.

I am also grateful for respectful disagreement and/or questions. I always have been ready to engage and have no problem with it — it helps me consider my thoughts and expression. I have learned so much from these discussions we’ve had here.

The sheer number of comments, taken along with the fact that I have written extensively here in more precise and detailed ways on the subjects they addressed, made it advisable to refrain from continuing to respond. It became clear that the well of understanding had been poisoned by unjust characterizations of my actual words.

In fact, once people came here and found that I had not said what was imputed to me, some of them turned to the accusation that I had heavily edited the post! I reiterate what I put in my update: I had not changed anything. (There was a comma that bothered me and I played around with it once or twice, full disclosure.)

So I remained silent. I had, after all, introduced my post as a meditation — ruminative words on a Saturday morning, hardly an essay, much less a dissertation, and of course assuming good will as we always do here — and normally people do not argue contentiously about something like that.

That said, my email is on the sidebar. If you want to talk more (in the spirit of a friendly search for truth on both sides), feel free to email me.

In any case, let me make explicit, by way of explaining why a comment might not have appeared, what the criteria are for contributing to the discussion. If we feel that a comment is aggressive or willfully misinterprets something that was said, or is abusive towards another commenter, the comment will not appear (or if it does get through the moderation queue, it will be deleted). If a commenter suddenly feels the need to respond angrily to multiple comments, then we do feel that he or she needs a break. It’s just not good manners to suddenly submit five or ten challenges! How can they be answered with patience and good will?

In short, try to imagine (as virtually all of you do! and we love you for it!) that you are actually in the room with us and each other. Would you say what you are about to say, in the manner in which you are going to say it?

Very rarely in the ten years we have been here have we ever trashed a comment. It has happened literally a handful of times (until last week, sadly). So thank you for that.

On to our links!

Materialism is the prevailing theory of reality. It denies the existence of something beyond what can be measured and observed, which is fairly easy to refute, because a theory can’t be measured or observed, but only exists in the mind. If the mind is only matter, then of what use is the theory? However, in their determination to exclude God and mind from the argument from the outset (which of course predetermines their conclusions, which claim to be based, on the contrary, on evidence guided by no presumptions), the proponents of materialism argue in circles. This review of an influential new book, coming soon, that claims to explain consciousness using a materialist philosophy, elegantly demolishes its premise and conclusions. Well worth a read and discussion for you and your interested high school student. (I think a quick search would bring up the best of the materialist argument for you examine first, if you are not familiar with it.)


A fun article on searching the vast archives of the Morgan Library and Museum’s online collection.


Someday, even if you don’t necessarily do sidewalk counseling for abortion-minded women (and their partners), you may need this information that the abortion pill can sometimes be reversed. 


Britian’s oldest known lullaby, beautifully sung (but a little weird as to subject matter if you ask me!) (note to my favorite fiddlers *you know who you are*: learn this tune!):

I cannot wrap my mind around what we touched on a couple of weeks ago, that many parents (perhaps due to the stresses on their own lives, but sorry, no excuse there) are making their peace with letting their young children have access to the internet, with all the immediate dangers thereto. Here is a lovely reflection from Sean Fitzpatrick on the way pornography destroys wonder in a child.


My offspring love the band Scythian. Check out their indiegogo for their new children’s album! 

From the archives:

Give your children the gift of purity. Yes, this will take sacrifice.


Start or join a St. Gregory Pocket this Lent — start a community now, for the sake of your children ten years from now! The sacrifices involved in raising children are easy and light when you bear them with friends.
Don’t miss Deirdre’s update about Samaritan Ministries, the “non-insurance” option for family health care.

 

Today is the feast of St. Blaise! 

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

 

The post A giveaway and a note with your {bits & pieces}! appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

Update about Samaritan (that non-insurance option of ours)

In recent months, there have been some interesting changes at Samaritan Ministries, the Christian healthcare sharing network that The Artist and I (and now my mother and sister as well) belong to. I thought I’d give an update!

First of all, if you’re not yet familiar, you can read my previous posts on the topic here:

Why We Love Being Medically Uninsured

Why We Love Being Medically Uninsured, Part 2

So, what’s new at Samaritan?

For one thing, the whole system has been streamlined tremendously thanks to Samaritan moving more of its business — almost all of its business, in fact — online. Whereas I used to have to collect all my bills and physically send them to Samaritan, making sure to make copies for my records, I can now simply upload photos of those bills online. Even opening up the process of opening up a new Need (see links above to know what the heck I’m talking about) can now be done online. It is remarkably easy.

Even the share payment part is becoming simpler, as folks can now opt into a system of using PayPal instead of receiving checks. Your monthly share will only be payable online if the person you’re sending it to has signed up for the PayPal function. As more people do this, more of the process will be online. I still think it’s a good thing to send paper checks along with those caring notes, though!

But, in perhaps bigger news, there is now also a new pricing option at Samaritan called Samaritan Basic. 

Essentially, Samaritan now offers a healthcare sharing plan that costs less and covers less, with a higher “initial unshareable” (equivalent to deductible). So it’s similar to what you’d be doing if you just bought a less expensive health insurance plan; less coverage, but also less cost.

From Samaritan:

“Samaritan Basic will allow those who have been wondering if health care sharing is right for their family to explore the option at a lower monthly share amount,” said Anthony Hopp, Samaritan Ministries’ vice president of external relations. “We hope that current Samaritan members will use this new level of sharing to introduce health care sharing to their friends and extended family members. We know that families have different needs and budgets, and we want to make sure that even more believers come together to bear one another’s burdens through health care sharing.”

You can see what the difference is, and calculate for your own household, here on this cost information page.

Also, I just wanted to share this story about a couple who entered into Samaritan Ministries even though she had a pre-existing condition. Not to say that Samaritan is the answer for everyone (because I know that the pre-existing conditions thing is a major concern and a very reasonable one), but just to say that it can work out if this is what you’re called to do — the five year clause is one that does open up possibilities.

It’s worth considering: If the condition is a chronic ongoing one that involves something that is not catastrophic, consider whether your overall savings when you use a health sharing group offsets the ongoing costs of treatment.

For instance, suppose you save $1500 a month by being a member of Samaritan, and your pre-existing condition would cost you an average of $1000 a month if you paid out of pocket. That cost still represents an overall savings of $6000 a year! Even though $1000 a month sounds scary, the benefit of paying it is clear. Just something to think about, because I know that health insurance is just insanely expensive these days!

 

As always, I’m more than willing to do my best to answer your questions if you have any!

I was not paid to write this post. I am just a huge fan of Samaritan, which has been an enormous blessing for my family the past three+ years (including two babies and multiple other Needs submitted), while The Artist has been studying (after having left his job with a comfortable insurance plan)!

However, if you do decide to sign up, it would be a big help to us if you mention our names – John and Deirdre Folley – in the referral section! We receive a credit that helps us to pay the next month’s share – thank you so much! 

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{bits pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

I’ve been re-purposing quilts to cover cold doors. It seems to help a lot!

 

The following is a little meditation on how difficult it is to hold on to simple convictions.

Like what?

Like the conviction that children need their mother; that it’s ultimately enjoyable, important, and spiritually healthy for a woman — even a woman who could be successful in the world — to devote herself to her family; that when a family does not have the wife and mother (same person!) devoted to it, everyone from the baby to society suffers. It’s just a little meditation, not a whole book (working on it, also there’s this), so don’t expect much.

But it’s sparked by my observation that even so-called conservatives, by and large, have wives who have separate careers or who themselves work (if they are the wife), and that this fact bears on the ability of the rest of us to hold on to our convictions and have confidence in them.

Because of this state of affairs, I’m not sure that even my little meditation can be received at face value. But here it goes anyway…

We are addicted to wanting to find new ways to do things!

Have you ever noticed that?

When applied to all the ways we must “subdue the earth,” it’s human nature to try to do things better, to be innovative, and to improve technique. I love reading in Belles on Their Toes how the young Frank Gilbreth challenged veteran bricklayers to a masonry contest — just through observation he had noticed inefficiencies that slowed them down. His way really was better, new, and improved — and that’s fine.

But not everything is subject to this kind of improvement, and forcing the issue can lead to vast and unintended consequences. Yet our addiction and our fatal flaw drive us to it. This fatal flaw is to expand on our propensity to be active and to achieve by means of our own will all the greatness we can encompass, and to call it all ours. You can find a little discourse on this flaw in the first letter of John, 2:16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

So naturally, those who do and achieve attract our attention. And we start to listen, in spite of ourselves, to those who (perhaps on account of a need to rationalize choices they didn’t quite think through) claim to have found a new way to do fundamental things — not bricklaying but, for instance, raising children or living as a family.

Over time, we find that we are convinced, against our innermost longings and even fundamental decisions, that we are tempted to affirm something that we intended to reject, or to forget important but hidden things. We aren’t aware that it can be a kind of false humility to let go of our principles. There is nothing praiseworthy in being open to doubt, when we know the good.

For women, especially in our time, this is going to be the constant battle. It’s hard not to be worn down. We will always be unsure that we are right when we’ve committed to devotion to the family. We don’t see or hear any affirmation for what we have chosen — on the contrary, we find only congratulation for worldly honors, even from those who ostensibly value what we value.

I think that social media have increased the volume on the voices telling us that we are only good enough when we have exhibited the right degree of achievement and what the world calls excellence (it’s not the ancient philosophers’ definition, though!). It makes sense, doesn’t it, that in an age of individualism lived in public, individual success — well documented online! —  will be most prized.

It’s just not going to happen that a general outcry will arise, praising the hidden life of devotion that in this journey of ours brings lasting satisfaction. Ultimately that is probably better for the soul, don’t you think? But we’ll have to have fortitude, then. Because — Who will love children from day to day with a love of service, if not their mother? Who will make the home if not the wife? Who would prize financial security, public honors, and prosperity above a happy home? Even the most highly educated and smartest women have realized that all the honor in the world doesn’t make up for a neglected family. Believe me, I have an email folder full of messages from ladies who turned away from the expectations of the world…

Well, even though I’m writing less here these days, I want to remind you that I’m doing my best, little as it is, to help anyone who wants to “live differently” (in the words of Pope Benedict that I have posted on the sidebar). I will always maintain that the family is God’s plan for life in this world of ours, and that any sacrifice we make to fulfill His plan is worth it. And I try to show you how it can be done! In fact, that’s what this blog is about.

 

On to our links!

 

My husband’s book The Lost Shepherd is available for pre-order on Amazon now! (This is an affiliate link.) It will be coming out in a few short weeks, and pre-ordering really helps a book to be better known, as this one deserves to be. So if you are pretty sure you will buy it, we would be very grateful if you did so right now! Thank you!!


In case you are interested and in the area, on March 7 I will be speaking as part of a Lenten Series at St. Patrick’s and St. Raphael’s Parish in Williamstown, MA, which is adjacent to Williams College. My topic will be “The Four Cardinal Virtues: Living the Good in Daily Life.” I really hope to see you there!


In the Department of Homeschooling: This idea of the Morning Basket has been kicking around — probably those of us who are long-time homeschoolers (retired even!) did something like this, but somehow when you give it a nice name, it all seems more possible and easy to explain… here is a nice link from Pam Barnhill with lots of rabbit holes for you to go down. The main thing is to have a little ritual every day (with morning Mass perhaps? a little Lauds from the Liturgy of the Hours?) that is enjoyable and edifying — and most of all, is what you want to do in your home school.


A very serious article about board games.


Fr. Gerald Murray is always worth a read. Here he discusses the Kazakh bishops’ “Profession of the Immutable Truths about Sacramental Marriage.”


Also always worth reading (I’m sure Fr. Murray wouldn’t mind me saying even more) is St. Francis de Sales, whose feast day was last week. This article pulls out his gentle and loving practical advice for the interior life — do read, especially as we begin to head towards Lent!


Speaking of Lent, here is a great post about how the Church used to gently prepare us for that time with the “little mini-liturgical season” of Septuagisima. Many of the thoughts can be pondered and this time can be revived in our own homes. Perhaps eventually our priests will catch on, and then the bishops…


A virtual tour of the Tiffany windows in the Arlington St. Church in Boston.


A YouTube channel devoted to medieval sacred music.

From the archives:

In case you question how important the mother is to the children, I have a series on the moral education of children. This is the last post in the series and you will see that the others are linked in it.


I know that mothers can be driven to distraction when thinking about how to “celebrate” Lent. The fact that it can’t really be done must show us that it’s an interior season, when the seed dies in penance and study, to come to life again at Easter. This is the work of a lifetime, so don’t be impatient. Don’t dig at the ground to see what progress is being made! I have lots of posts about how to live your Lent, which is the best catechesis you can offer your children! Just keep scrolling…


By the way, dear Pam (linked above) interviewed me for a podcast a while back — I spoke with her about Order and Wonder. (You can find other podcasts and interviews I’ve done on the menu bar here, under “Speaking.”)

 

Today is the feast of St. Angela Merici!

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

 

The post {bits pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

Yesterday I had a migraine, and because it started out as a little nausea, I was pretty worried that I was getting the flu. So although I spent the day sacked out on the sofa, I’m grateful it was a headache and not the flu!

 

But it means that not much got done…

I am getting a pull towards the sewing machine, which is in there…

 

The days are getting a wee bit longer, so even though it’s still cold, we are at least thinking about getting up and moving around — no rush though!

 

I have been knitting. I like this Syncopation pattern (even though I lose concentration and it isn’t perfect, but when you do two socks at a time, it’s okay — the extra row you put in one gets put in the other as well!). And it’s free!

I hope you have coziness and stirring thoughts of creativity where you are!

Here are some links!

There really are just two words for tea in the whole world — variations on tea and chai. And here’s why.


Why New Urbanism makes sense to a philosophy professor.


News flash! New sin discovered! Fr. Schall, wise as always, on the besetting sin of our age, and why it is new — or at least not what we are used to thinking of when we think of sin.


I don’t know if your family is like ours, but we end up talking about bitcoin quite a lot. The “bitcoin moment” here, now firmly taking its place in family lore, is the Thanksgiving that our Joseph, as he was lifting his first bite of turkey-stuffing-and-gravy to his eager lips, was asked the question, “What is bitcoin anyway?” — and ended up with a cold untouched plate while the rest of us listened and ate, poor fellow! Well, here he is with a helpful primer and view of how the government is or is not dealing with it.


And here is a long but actually very informative article about the technology of bitcoin and how blockchain, maybe even more than bitcoin (and other cryptocurrency) itself, will change how information is used in society. Most importantly, the essay addresses the issue of the role of the government in how we connect with each other.


Chinese Catholics who changed China and the World.

 

From the archives:

What I think will really solve the abortion crisis in our society.


Candlemas is coming… get your household candles ready for a blessing! And after that, the Seven Sundays of St. Joseph. 


Looking for a good novel? Try Elizabeth Goudge.


Are you planning or involved in planning a wedding? We have a series for that!


Creativity is good for the soul!

 

Today is the feast of St. Sebastian!

 

While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!

We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).

Follow us:

Follow us on Twitter.
Like us on Facebook.

Auntie Leila’s Pinterest.
Rosie’s Pinterest.
Sukie’s Pinterest.
Deirdre’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Pinterest.
Bridget’s Pinterest.
Habou’s Blog: Corner Art Studio.
Auntie Leila’s Ravelry.
Auntie Leila’s Instagram.
Rosie’s Instagram.
Sukie’s Instagram.
Deirdre’s Instagram.
Bridget’s Instagram.
Habou’s Instagram.

The post {bits & pieces} appeared first on Like Mother Like Daughter.

{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

On Epiphany, we chalked our door. The Chief led us in prayer as we shivered in our warmest coats. (More on this custom below from our friend Alice — the chalking, not the shivering!) It’s not too late to do yours! You simply need blessed chalk (just get ordinary chalk, even a small piece, and ask a priest to bless it) and the prayers, which you can find here. Auntie Leila says you have until February 2, Candlemas.

 

I’m probably the only person on the interwebs lame enough to show you Christmas decorations now, but while I was out taking a picture of the door, I had to do it. Bridget arranged everything, using my pinecones that I smuggled home from Sukie’s house in Georgia (and then Rosie sent me a box of them too, so I have almost all the giant pinecones a girl could want).

 

I’m working on my book — which will be this blog, but you know, in book form. I chug along pretty well and then I come to the sort of post in which I show one (funky) way to go about mending a hole in a good blanket. Is any detail too small to include in this book? Or do inquiring minds want to know? (Spoiler: it’s going in.) (Unless an editor takes it out.)

 

On to our links!

A fabulous 18th century dress, found in perfect condition after many years in a box, worth more than £40,000, according to Antiques Roadshow.

 

Against the Universal Basic Income — a short article that points out the flaws of an idea that is gaining ground with many of our social engineers. Mainly, I think it’s a mistake ever to cheerfully assume that human nature is not going to continue to be what it has been! “Despite its rising profile among many sharp thinkers, however, this particular approach to welfare reform would create many more problems than it would solve.”

 

I’m sharing this exasperating article from the Wall Street Journal about giving a smart phone to kids (I think you will be able to read it the first time you open it, and then it’s behind the paywall) so that you are equipped to talk about it with your friends. By the time you get to the end of it, how refreshing is Felice Ahn, with her simple “we’re happy to be different”?
We think of Handel’s Messiah as Christmas music, I guess, but it’s really a musical recapitulation of Salvation History. Here’s a fun article with some things you might not know about it.
An interesting article questioning the underlying assumptions about how we treat depression as a chemical imbalance to be treated with drugs. The author says:

“If you are depressed and anxious, you are not a machine with malfunctioning parts. You are a human being with unmet needs. The only real way out of our epidemic of despair is for all of us, together, to begin to meet those human needs – for deep connection, to the things that really matter in life.”

I would add to this to take it further: Man is a moral creature. Sometimes our needs are moral! We can be depressed because we need repentance and reconnection with grace. Sometimes the needs are emotional; often they are moral and spiritual.

In the “spiritual musings” category:

I don’t know why the fighting side of Our Lady has been on my mind — perhaps it’s the borderline headache-inducing saccharine prose I sometimes come across as relates to Mary, the Mother of God. This post, though not liturgically timely, gave me the bracing tonic I needed: “Mighty Conquering Warrior”: The Queenship of Mary.

“The fact that Our Lady stood under the cross when nearly everyone else fled, and in the darkness of faith offered up her most precious treasure, her own flesh and blood, to the heavenly Father, means that she must have had the strongest human heart in the history of the world, with the greatest supernatural heroism.”

If you read my “readings” on the two “Spirit of the Liturgy” books, you will know why I loved this short article by Taylor Marshall on St. Athanasius on the Word: The Son of God pervades the Whole of Reality. A beautiful meditation on transcendent reality.

 

In the “still thinking about Epiphany” category:

Our favorite medievalist’s inquiry into the custom of chalking one’s door on the Epiphany: Chalk on the Door.
Some art notes on the Wise Men.
The Epiphany scene from the incredible “Great Hours of Anne of Brittany.”

From the archives:

Standards and Solidarity — make friends now with people in real life, in your community. Talk to them about your hopes and dreams for the future. Share articles and posts (like this one) and encourage each other. In a few years, you will be glad to have a group of parents who kind of hold each other up — and believe me, when the coach says “your kid has to have a phone because I need to text him” you will be happy that your friends are going to agree with you that such an idea is nonsense.
How to go about making friends? Try a St. Gregory Pocket. There might be one near you!

Today is the feast of St. Hilary of Poitiers! “He could not tolerate that the specious plea of safeguarding peace and unity should be allowed to dim the light of Gospel teaching.”

 

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