Kieran Devine > Recent Status Updates

my man Pippin is back and he’s smokin that Isengard pack

my goodreads fans will be pleased to know that I now have a working phone

It seems clear to me that the world is hurting from a lack of men and women living out their respective gifts well. JP2 says in Familiaris Consortio, "The family is the first and fundamental school of social living."

The book cites a study (p. 88) that says, "A father's [influence] matters more... for faith practice from adolescence to young adulthood." Fathers must delight in leading their families in the faith.

Might have some good advice to build off of the old adage of "just be a man."

if the hunger games were real i'd put my money on joey chestnut

For a story about hobbits, there sure have been many chapters now without hearing about any of them. Chapters without hobbits feel particularly tedious to read and I’m enjoying this second book less because of it.

Does anyone else struggle with appreciating books that are transcribed interviews instead of pieces which were originally written? I’m worried I won’t like Mere Christianity for this reason.

“The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” -Pope Benedict XVI

Theodin takes courage and begins to ascend beyond shackles of his own complacency — exercising virtue of courage and hope in the midst of much uncertainty ahead.

The company experiences their own road to Emmaus: “Beyond all hope you return to us in our need! What veil was over my sight? Gandalf!” (484). Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:32)

Boromir’s life concludes like that of the Penitent Thief. “It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for [his] sake” (485).

This chapter was beautiful. Nowhere is the virtue of meekness displayed better than in the lives of Ents and Treebeard — living in patient humility and eventually using their great strength to combat great injustice.

“[It is] likely enough that we are going to our doom… but if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later… we may help the other peoples before we pass away.”

“We must be ready… to live in total self-abandonment, with no other concern than doing God’s will and being fully available to people and events. We also need to experience in prayer God’s presence within us and listen inwardly to the Holy Spirit so as to follow his suggestions” (93).

“As they walked they compared notes, talking lightly in hobbit-fashion of the things that had happened since their capture. No listener would have guessed from their words that they had suffered cruelly, and had been in dire peril, going without hope towards torment and death..”

This excerpt of Merry and Pippen reminds me much of St. Therese, someone who made such an effort to find joy in the midst of suffering.

O Felix Culpa! “[Recited] in the hymn of the Exultet, which is sung during the most important celebration of the year… the fault was happy because it deserved such a redemption” (43).

Interior Freedom speaks of this as wel. By recognizing our own brokenness with give God the pleasure of being our savior.

“in the part of Christ, God has lived us humanly, so as to render our human hearts capable of loving divinely” (67).

Tolkien this, Tolkien that.
Bro have you tried Tolkien to some women? 😭

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” (339)