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!
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