{bits & pieces}
We have three pear trees. The one with red fruit usually yields about a bucketful of pears that I think we never pick quite early enough — did you know that pears need to be picked unripe? I have taken to trying to think about them on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15), but maybe the red one needs to be attended to a week or so earlier. If they are left on the tree they get mushy.
But the other two are ready at that time and wait for a couple of weeks afterwards. Their pears are green, and the one is so reliably prolific that what you see here was only about half, despite having been strictly pruned in the late winter.
This year, I think because of the chickens ranging around them, they are amazingly unblemished. I didn’t spray or do anything else, and the majority are sound and quite large. Today I will try to rally the troops to help me sort through them — we will give the little wormy ones to the chickens and most we will make into pear sauce (like applesauce) and maybe spiced pears. They keep in the fridge too — just take them out to ripen a bit and they are good to go.
I am hopeful about our little apricot that we planted last year — maybe next year it will bear fruit! One of the cherries made it, the other didn’t. I’ll have to plant another soon.
My word to you young people: Plant your fruit trees now… just plant them! In 20 years you’ll thank me!
And thank you for all your suggestions about posts you remember and want to see in the book. I think we have them all covered (but will keep the comments handy to be sure). You’re the best!
bits & pieces
Phil and I were grieved and shocked this past week to receive the news that our close friend Fr. Paul Mankowski SJ was suddenly stricken with a brain aneurism. He was 66. Below I will post what I wrote at his passing. Please pray for his soul — that is what he would have asked from you — a quick prayer for him!
He was good and kind — and mercilessly sharp towards anything that was evil and wrong. He did not spare the wicked the edge of his wit. This satirical talent of his caused him much searching of his conscience — he feared leading anyone astray. But I know concretely that many were saved by his willingness to serve charity with truth, truth like a burning fire. He considered himself a surgeon, not a nutritionist (this observation is elaborated on in a reflection published in my husband’s obituary, linked below).
Yet, his intellect, comprising both native and academic brilliance, offered vast nourishment for anyone encountering it. I told him that the best book reviews give the reader the benefit of the reviewer’s expertise and wisdom as well as the author’s, and his always deliver. I hope you will dip into some of his writings linked below.
My husband’s farewell to Fr. M — at the end he links to three classic Mankowski pieces.
Kenneth Craycraft’s Memorium — I did not know the detail about his belongings fitting into a medium-sized suitcase, but I suspected as much.
Mankowski: Waugh on the Merits — this book review reveals Father’s attitude about satire, his own tool of choice after he had made ample use of the sharp but more straightforward ones of scholarship and refutation in his own toolbox. He knew that sometimes (more and more often in our era), the evils we are confronting don’t arise from a defect of understanding and are not offered in good will — he strongly held that the devil must be mocked if we want to regain ground, all the way up to the gates of hell.
Mankowski: What Went Wrong — a must-read to understand the issue of clerical abuse. No one — no one — was quicker to understand the issues confronting the Church in the matter of sexual laxity and the concomitant structures supporting and abetting it.
Fr. M offers a reading list re: Communism.
Mankowski on one manifestation of our obsession with “playing church”.
Other links I wanted to share with you, not Mankowski-related:
The fatal Lambeth Conference on allowing contraception, 90 years later. I urge you to read the encyclical Casti Connubii yourself. You owe it to yourself! If you would like to read it in a group or would just like help reading it by yourself, I have a guided reading for you — here on the blog or in a more edited form in my e-book, available on Kindle. (affiliate link — and if you have read it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon! Thank you!)
A beautiful and ancient Kyrie chant, predating the Gregorian form we are more used to.
Could bee venom cure breast (and other) cancers?
Dedication of the church that honors the Coptic martyrs. So joyful and inspiring.
The riddle of Bach’s “Lutheran” Mass
from the archives
Start thinking about how to keep your house warm in winter, thriftily
Easy — really easy — and good — really good — pot roast
liturgical year
St. Teresa of Calcutta (Novus Ordo)
St. Lawrence Justinian (Traditional)
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my reflection on the passing of Fr. M
Fr. Paul Mankowski SJ passed away today. It was very sudden, shockingly sudden (he suffered a brain aneurysm and was gone) — but he would be the first to emphasize the Gospel warning that you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
I thought it could happen to me, with the usual amount of denial in practice, but wasn’t ready for it to happen to a friend whom I expected to be there for a long time yet. That hurts.
He would also be the first to ask for prayers for his soul. Please spare a prayer for him.
But I believe that we will find out soon how this soul of granite really lived. His academic and intellectual achievements were vast, and he never let a wrong go unrighted or a pretension unmocked (you really must read his verse play The Tragedy of MacDeth). He defended the doctrine of the Church with precision — you did not want him to detect any falseness in you.
Since for a long time he was silenced by his superiors, we don’t even know the extent of his work, I believe. Perhaps it will come to light now.
At the same time, there was no condescension or arrogance in his manner (even to enemies of God); he graciously acknowledged those crossing his path with a courteous and gentle interest. Without a shred of sentimentality (I remember him warning me not to give the gypsies in Rome even a glance, much less money), he served Truth and the poor alike. He really lived the Evangelical counsels — I know that we will find out that he possessed not too much more than his threadbare shirts.
Phil Lawler and I are sad to be left behind without his cheerful fighting spirit to encourage us.
The executioner is relentless, it seems; but “We may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together, to our everlasting salvation.”
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