I recently wrote elsewhere that Happy Catholic is run by a woman who seems to breathe in books and art and who has has a remarkable capacity for zeroing in on one sentence and bringing it to the fore, for the benefit of many.
I stop in at Julie’s every day, even just for a peek, because I know there will be something there to help me breathe through the day.
Like this bit of Flannery O’ Connor–something I’d read before, but needed to read again:
… All your dissatisfaction with the Church seems to me to come from an incomplete understanding of’ sin. … what you seem actually to demand is that the Church put the kingdom of heaven on earth right here now, that the Holy Ghost be translated at once into all flesh. The Holy Spirit very rarely shows Himself on the surface of anything. You are asking that man return at once to the state God created him in, you are leaving out the terrible radical human pride that causes death. Christ was crucified on earth and the Church is crucified in time. … The Church is founded on Peter who denied Christ three times and couldn’t walk on the water by himself. You are expecting his successors to walk on the water. All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful. Priests resist it as well as others. To have the Church be what you want it to be would require the continuous miraculous meddling of God in human affairs …
–Flannery O’Connor, from one of her letters
No one reads enough O’Connor, and reading Flannery, even in small doses makes one a better writer and a better thinker. Thanks, Julie.
Flannery and Peacocks, shamelessly cribbed from here
UPDATE:
By happy coincidence the NY Times is today discussing Flannery. Interesting read. Thanks to reader Frances.
Is this centered text thing new? I find it way harder to read than left justified.
Oh how I needed a Flannery fix tonight. Thank you! I was just in that dour mood that only she could understand. She is like a butcher. She, WHAM, brings down her cleaver, cuts through the cr*p, and gets to the meat of the thing, bringing out the best bits. That woman was amazing. I do not think America or even the Church truly appreciates her for what she was…but, I could be wrong. I feel like emailing that bit to my siblings fallen out of the nest of the Church.
I think key is that people recognize their own sinfulness, their own weakness. That makes it a lot harder to judge the failures of others. While we can condemn the sin, only God can judge the sinner.
Just finished the “Abbess of Andalusia” (excellent!) and went right into her short stories in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” She’s so good that you wish you could relive reading her stories for the first time. A “real” saint.
I went from Flannery O’Connor’s short stories to Graham Greene’s “The Power and the Glory.” He, too, shows grace begotten from the weak and grotesque.
“It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and corrupt.” —Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
I would like to say to those who have never read a single work by O’Connor: if you want to read just one story, make it “Parker’s Back.”
It’ll leave you in tears.
Maybe all of you good people can help me. I’ve read Flannery O’Connor and I like her style. But I just don’t understand her stories. Maybe she was too – aware – and I’m reading below her meaning. I don’t know. Any suggestions? (I’m eager to warm up to all the Catholic fiction writers that I can find!)
Wow – this is my first exposure to her and it’s breathtaking! I would like to read more, but I don’t like fiction.
Suggestions?
I agree that grace is painful. Renouncing my 2.5 decades as an atheist was so hard. I know that none of us are converted against our will, but I think I came pretty close. The Hound of Heaven would NOT leave me alone.
[If you don't like fiction, pick up The Habit of Being, her collected letters. It's great. admin]
What about those of us who like fiction and are new to O’Connor? Where to start? (And maybe something that won’t leave me in tears, a la Newton recommendation.)
[Go to the library and get her collected short stories. Try A Good Man is Hard to Find or A Temple of the Holy Ghost. You'll be hooked. - admin]
I first read Flannery O’Connor in college and was amazed and grateful at how well she captured the ethos of the Southern Baptist. When The Habit of Being was published I was shocked to discover she was Catholic. The surprise reflects my own ignorance, but also points to a truly transcendent writer. Our traditions are about as far apart as possible but she spoke to me with a familiar spirituality.
Flannery O’Connor was a great writer and thinker.
I read this latest priest misbehavior scandal today. Then I read this post. Puts it in perspective. Yeah, of course we all fall off the wagon (well not exactly like those three priests, but in our own ways).