Conscience and Prudence; Moving on to Plain Sourdough; Links!
Conscience
I wrote a piece about conscience. It is my belief that we are losing our understanding of what it is, in part because some forces want us to act against that inner voice telling us we are wrong; in part, ironically, because those who strive to defeat those forces, moved by moral panic, want to replace conscience with an external authority that amounts to a talmudic descent into legalism.
It’s so important for parents to ponder the question, responsible as we are for our children’s moral formation. And it’s not an easy one. If you go rummaging in the writings of St. Thomas or the other Fathers and Doctors of the Church, you find they are not as clear about it as they are on other matters.
Perhaps it’s because they, unlike us, took conscience for granted as an integral part of being man.
Certainly, if you look at very old catechisms such as the one promulgated by the Council of Trent, no real definition of conscience is undertaken — it’s simply spoken of as “good” or “bad” or “clean” or “in need of rectifying.” It’s a kind of “let the reader understand” situation.
They really don’t talk about “a well formed conscience” as we do today, with its implication of some outside authority that can substitute for it. They assumed everyone knew they have to know and study and pass on the 10 Commandments; they took a basic moral landscape as a given.
I’m working through the Four Cardinal Virtues over at The School for Housewives — I’m up to Justice and getting ready to post on Temperance. We wives and mothers, like everyone in every walk of life, have to ponder how to grow in virtues, and these are the cornerstones.
As always, I dove back into my much-thumbed copy of Josef Pieper’s The Four Cardinal Virtues and came across this passage that, long ago, entered my consciousness and has motivated everything I write and say about the topic of conscience:
It’s so funny that it’s in the section on Temperance that Pieper connects conscience with Prudence. That’s what made it so hard for me to find it when I went looking for it some time ago.
But it makes sense.
St. Thomas succinctly defines Prudence as “right reason in action” and Conscience as an action (as opposed to a faculty, technically, but even here, I believe, there is some blurring of lines).
Taking all that into consideration and remembering how faithfully Pieper follows St. Thomas, Pieper’s statement that “prudence is the perfection of conscience” reveals the paramount importance of being able to put into action the things we see we ought to do.
Prudence really connects our knowledge of right and wrong with who we end up being (not the person in our heads but the real person others encounter and God sees). Thus, Pieper: prudence as the perfection of conscience is “the innermost source-region of the moral person.”
Dear Cardinal Carlo Caffarra left just this observation as his “Final Testimony” before he died, in a talk he was meant to give on how taking away conscience takes away what makes us man — not animals, not computers, not angels, but creatures willed by God in His image. Its title is The Restoration of Man.
As I periodically do, I urge you to read it.
Sourdough Bread Corner
How are things going with your sandwich bread? The milk, butter or oil, and sugar or honey in that recipe make it so your technique in handling the dough and baking it is forgivable — you don’t have to be super particular in the details. If you let it rise well, don’t let it overproof, and bake it to doneness (test each loaf with the thermometer — it should be 200°F), it will be good.
Have you tried making larger quantities? I am incapable of measuring my ingredients, but I know that if I fill my 5 qt Kitchenaid with starter, flour, water, and the other ingredients proportionately, I will have enough dough for 4 sandwich loaves or 2 pullman loaves and one regular (8 x 4 x 4) sandwich loaf.
In meme terms:
Readers: Auntie Leila, can you give us your exact recipe for four loaves?
Me: Best I can do is vague hand-waving.
The good news: if you put your good strong starter in there, you will end up with bread!
Would you like to try to move on to some loaves of classic simple sourdough, if you haven’t gone ahead already?
Here’s the King Arthur recipe.
Give it a go!
Here are my suggestions, though — also here and here — (those loaves look really fab, so maybe I will revisit the diastatic malt situation!)
Make sure the whole wheat flour is quite fresh. If you’re not storing your whole grain flour in the freezer, I have my doubts and it would be better to leave it out.If you’re getting good at seeing how much your mixing bowl holds, try just adding that amount of flour and a proportional amount of water — plus a bit more salt. See how much dough you have and divide it into however many loaves it yields (if they weigh somewhere between 700 and 900 g you’re good — I think, more or less… ).
Take 1/4 cup of the WW or if you’re not using it, cornmeal, oats, or semolina. Semolina gives a wonderful lift and taste to sourdough! Place it in a bowl and take 1/2 cup of the water from the recipe, boil it, and pour it over the grain, whisking. Let it stand for a few minutes, then whisk in another 1/2 cup of the recipe’s (cold) water over that mixture. (You can also use leftover porridge, up to about 3/4 cup.) Add it to your dough.
Let the dough rest for 25 minutes or more (not 15 as called for in the recipe) after you mix it. Then proceed with the recipe, making sure the dough is in the temperature range of about 75°F.
You can use bowls or random baskets of the right size and shape to rest your shaped dough in, if you don’t have those bannetons. I lay an old and spotlessly clean cloth napkin in whatever I’m using. I long ago threw away the cloths the bannetons came with.
I never pre-heat my dutch oven, if I’m using it.
I usually bake two loaves together, on a cookie sheet with parchment, leaving the other one or two loaves in the fridge. I put a pan of boiling water on the top shelf of my oven and a handful of ice cubes strewn about the loaves. Take the tray of water out after about 18 minutes. It’s helpful to put another sheet under the one you’re baking on, to prevent burning the bottoms of your loaves.
Make sure the final loaf is 200°F or even a bit more. The “extra” gadget I find quite essential is the instant-read thermometer (affiliate link) — I really use it nearly every day and always note to myself the frequency with which loaves would have tricked me into thinking they were done had I not had it.
Let me also note that the bread is much tastier if it has a darker crust and has baked to a bit over 200°F. If your loaves are looking anemic, try going for it. Since there’s no added sugar, it’s really not going to burn. I’ve (mistakenly) left loaves in the oven for so much longer than is reasonable and really thought they were burned, but honestly, they had much more of an “artisan bakery” taste than my normal loaves!
They also last longer if the crust is thicker. It’s not great for little kids, of course. But I just discovered that in Austria, mothers (grandmothers, probably) cut into the crust for their littles. This makes much more sense than cutting them off entirely!
Try the sourdough bread if you are feeling adventurous. I will try in the coming week to take pictures of my process and to note quantities — thoughts and prayers!
bits & piecesIf, on the other hand, you want loaves with thin, crackly crusts, here is a method. I will try it next time (and it’s close to how I do it anyway).
A short video from scientists in Greenland, of interest to your kids too: “What do ice cores tell us about the history of climate change and the present trend? This video explains one perspective – arguably the most accurate one. And if you skip to 2:25, you will see the huge error we have made and the assumptions and extrapolations based on that error.”
I can’t believe I didn’t know about this monument! Auntie Therese just told me about it — it’s right here in Massachusetts. I’ve lived here for 37 years!
“Thought to be the largest solid granite monument in the United States, this 81-foot-tall granite statue was built to honor the passengers of the Mayflower. Boston sculptor Hammatt Billings designed the monument which features allegorical figures depicting the virtues of Faith, Morality, Education, Law, and Liberty. On the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of “Faith” with her right hand pointing toward heaven and her left hand clutching the Bible. A dedication on the monument reads, “National Monument to the Forefathers.Erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty.” The original design called for the monument to be nearly twice as tall at 150 feet (just under the Statue of Liberty’s height of 151 feet).
A Priest Reveals the Dramatic Last Words of Cardinal Caffarra. (The Cardinal I mentioned above in the first section.) “He was dressed like a simple priest. He also went to greet everyone who was sick, as well as their relatives. A true man of God.”
from the archivesLearn to live liturgically — simply, without doing that thing everyone does of turning good ways into stressful dead ends. Living liturgically simplifies everything — it doesn’t complicate. It’s the complication antidote! The key is the Little Oratory and living along with the Church. She has set it all out for you.
10 Survival Tactics for Rescuing a Bad Day.
How to set the family table — important in these next days, so we don’t just spring the holiday table on our young’uns! They need practice.
liturgical living
St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Gertrude
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