The Summa Domestica — a giveaway of two sets!
I have a lot of New Year’s resolutions and I bet you do too, but right now I’m huddled in my house against the cold, hoping I can get some dough rising next to the wood stove, so I can turn on the oven!
But let’s talk about the book, shall we — and the giveaway! The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is now quite available at Sophia, even if it’s still not in stock at Amazon; but maybe this is providential. I mean, I know the people at Sophia personally! They have all worked really hard to bring this set of books to life. There’s no question that ordering directly from them (or buying at a bookstore) helps their company thrive.
Anyway, I wanted to show you some of the features. For one thing, it is so beautifully designed! The stock photos actually don’t do it justice, not at all! The colors are richer. I had an excruciatingly specific vision in mind for the colors (as the designer will attest, poor thing), and they nailed it — but I don’t think it comes through in the photos on the site, whereas in person it does. Deirdre did a whole passel of charming and inspiring drawings to complement the text. And the quality of the printing is so high.
Did you realize that each volume has a ribbon? This was a surprise to me! Ribbons are to books what pockets are to skirts, I think!
Did you know that there is an index in each volume?
I don’t know if you remember, back in the day, when I was asking whether it should be one big tome or three volumes; one factor that was often mentioned was, “Make it so we can read it while we are nursing the baby!” So three volumes it is, and each one opens so nicely (I just can’t stand it when a book is trying to close itself.)
I have poured out just about all everything I know into these books. And today Sophia is allowing me to give away a copy to two lucky readers! Just leave a comment here below and you will be entered to win one! (To win you must have a US address for shipping.)
bits & piecesYou can still bless your home if you haven’t had a chance up until now. Rosie shared this blessing, so moving, with this prayer:O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need charity and companionship, narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and strife. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the Tempter’s power.
O God, make the door of this house the gateway to Thy eternal Kingdom, I ask these things in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, Amen
See if you can procure some blessed chalk and Epiphany holy water from your church (if not, try the nearest Traditional Latin Mass church or Eastern rite one). As the linked guide says, the father of the house chalks the lintel of each doorway with these marks: 20 + C + B + M + 22.
Let’s recover the kind of education that can resonate with and at least strive for the level of that of C. S. Lewis and his best and most perceptive explicator, Michael Ward! An education that tucks Dickens, Chaucer, medieval astronomy, and Herodotus in its corners, to be savored at the right time. Well, anyway, I’m not very well educated, but I found Ward’s essay on names in Prince Caspian, Return to Planet Narnia, exciting and mind-expanding.As I say in my post about whether having babies is a problem, one of the biggest dupes in history is everyone acting like contraception works and is not harmful — that it is a sort of magical remedy (for what? for being a normal person with a healthy body?) that some people unaccountably oppose, against all reason, because they are superstitious religious fanatics. I try to point out as often as I can that the types of birth control that work (although they do not by any means always work) endanger women who use them and are often fatal to the babies that come about anyway. Here is a site that seems really useful to provide information about IUDs and their threats. (Personally, I cannot imagine the decision-making process that goes into inserting a metal object into your body indefinitely, for the purpose of releasing said metal into your system. Sometimes I think people have lost their minds.)If you are interested in the case before the Supreme Court on vaccine mandates, please read this article on the 1905 case that will be most referenced, Jacobson v. Massachusetts. The author, Gerard Bradley, is Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s mentor from Notre Dame. (I recently wrote about her shaky jurisprudence on the matter of mandates in another case here.) Prof. Bradley makes a strong case for rejecting the “Jacobson test,” reflexively referenced by those who have really not examined it in light of our current situation. It’s a long but informative article and I recommend it.I was thrilled to see my friend Pascal’s Instagram discussed in this article — she helps people find childhood books they’ve lost even the names of, and NPR took notice! Our Lady as doula and Patroness of Doulas! (Don’t miss Pope Pius XII’s moving and deep Allocution [Address] to Midwives!)I love reading about the movie It’s A Wonderful Life, don’t you?from the archivesYou know by now that I’m going to say that the most important resolutions are to get dinner under control and to sort out the laundry! I have some extra thoughts about laundry embedded in the posts in the form of what I call worksheets — a lot of words that I had decided to put into documents so that my posts wouldn’t be too long. Over the years those documents’ URL sharing gets mixed up, but I’ve gone back and fixed them, so click away. Good news — all of that is now incorporated in Volume 3 of The Summa Domestica! liturgical livingContinuing the Epiphany celebrations! Tomorrow is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord!
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