For their short pithy brilliant whimsical way of saying things, I love to collect Twitter and other Quality Quintessential quips, quotes, questions, musings and maxims from the furthest reaches of the internet to the obscure book hidden in the dusty corner of some long forgotten book store and save them for a rainy day post. I just might need some wonderful wordful beauty to express a sentiment or idea in what I’m writing so I created this particular post with that purpose in mine.

Tweeting to the Choir: A Collection of Tweets

Janet@Mystagogy1013: Tweeting to the choir gives us all support and encouragement, which is much needed in these days.

This peculiarly particular post is the offspring of that larger post with a more specific focus in mind from a topic listed in that larger post. It is also but one of the many children of that post. You can go big or go home to this shorter post and pluck what you need from the collected treasure of the Broad Chorus of Catholic Thinkers and similar like minded individuals and insert it into whatever it is your working on at the moment. Or perhaps you just might want to read a short something that will put a chuckle, a prayer or a nifty thought into your brain. And perhaps any truth beauty or goodness may leak into your soul making you a more loving, faithful and hopeful person and draw you closer to Christ.

In this post were Tweeting to the Choir about…

The Rite of Right Writing

Karen Swallow Prior (Notorious KSP)@KSPrior:

Writing is hard.

That’s the tweet.

Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: Corollary: thinking clearly is hard

J.R.R. Tolkien@JRRTolkien: “I write…because I find it easier so to say such things as I really want to say. If they are foolish or seem so, I am not present when they fall flat. My whispering asides are most often due to sheer pusillanimity, & a fear of being laughed at by the general company.” #Tolkien

“I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears…” —J.R.R. #Tolkien #Easter

In Libro Veritas@InlibroV: “Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human condition.”Graham Greene New York Times (January 8, 1981)

Beata Productions@beataproduction: “I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.“ Flannery O’Connor #FlanneryOConnor

R Bratten Weiss@Prof_RBW: Odd when random individuals assume that because one has a writing career, one doesn’t know what work is.

As though writing isn’t work.

As though writers don’t often have other jobs.

As though the ability to write couldn’t be compatible with the ability to do physical labor.

Meg Hunter-Kilmer@MegHunterKilmer: Look, I just think that if you’re going to write an Amazon review of a book criticizing the writer’s grammar and saying it’s bad writing, you should be required to show your work. Because if you don’t understand that sentence fragments can be stylistic, I can’t help you.

4TJ Burdick@tjburdick: I know a guy who has only 2 chapters left in his novel but delays writing them because he low-key doesn’t want to end the story and high-key doesn’t feel like he has the energy to write book 2 in the series because of the three years of effort he put into book

It me. I’m guy.

Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: Over half my recent reviews were written after two or more viewings. I watched Cyrano, Dune, and Midnight Mass twice, Tragedy of Macbeth and Green Knight three times. It makes a difference. We try to get it right the first time. but a second viewing can be almost as important.

The Rite of Writing Invitation

KarinaFabian@KarinaFabian: If you are a Catholic writer looking for a writing home, check it out.

Membership | Catholic Writers Guild

How Right Writers Write

JD Flynn@jdflynn:
National Catholic Reporter: After Will Smith slap, women priests oppose misogyny, clericalism EWTN: How Biden caused Will Smith slap
Pillar: Nerdy slap facts
CNS: Bishops, USCCB do only good things after slap
Lifesite: Vigano says slap sign of diabolical Novus Ordo
Church Militant: Pathetic, fake Catholic media won’t report on Lavender Mafia slap
YouTube Guy: Why slap wasn’t valid

(This is joke. Take it in spirit of joke)

The Rite of Wright Writing

Mike Cook@MikeCookAuthor: “It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.”-Steven Wright

James Scott Bell@jamesscottbell: I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography. – Steven Wright #writing

Library School Dropout: Instead of *another* book about Frank Lloyd Wright why doesn’t someone write a book about the people who obsess & waste so much time talking & writing about him? The Wright groupies* as I call them.

*They act like he’s the only architect who ever lived and I want to scream!

Rite of Right Writing Poetry

William C. Michael (CLAA)@wcmclaa: The poet’s task is to lead us to something virtuous by some excellent description”. -St. Thomas Aquinas

G. K.Chesterton@GKChestertonian:“Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain.”— GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908).

Billy Collins Poetry@PLBillyCollins: I watched my poem fly down to the front Of the bar and hover there Until the next customer walked in– Then I watched it fly out the door

CatholicBard@BardCatholic: Poetry fills me with the urge to write poetry, to sit in the dark and wait for a little flame to appear at the tip of my pencil. And along with that, the longing to steal, to break into the poems of others with a flashlight and a ski mask. Billy Collins, The Trouble with Poetry:

As it governs our everyday life

And when it doesn’t function properly

It can cause turmoil and strife.

But when crosses pop up

For us to carry along

They can inspire A Poem or a Song.

The Rite of Fairy(ly) Right Writing

Alix E. Harrow@AlixEHarrow: i respect that fantasy as a genre has simply refused to standardize the spelling of “fairy.” faerie. fae. fay. fair folk. fayrie. just an F followed by whatever vowels you have in your heart

Morgan Nic Somhairle-Daimler@MorganDaimler: I know some people argue mansplaining isn’t a thing, but I just had a guy in a folklore group claim “most” fairies are male & when I disagreed & gave examples he suggested if I just read “loads of folktales” like him I’d know he was right.

Spoiler: he is not

Anonymous Carmelite: This is hilarious because fairies are not even real.

The Right Patron Saint of Editors

Michael Lichens, editor of @cathexchange: Today is the feast of St. John Bosco. He’s the patron saint of editors, children, and magicians. That may seem a strange combination, but as an editor it makes perfect sense to me.—

The Rite of Right Reading

Steve Skojec@SteveSkojec: I wish I could get people to stop sending me huge walls of text. I get so many messages and emails. When I see a huge block of text my brain runs screaming. Make paragraphs. Separate out single, important sentences. Cut needless filler. I’m riddled with ADD. I beg you.

Owl! at the Library ��‍♀️@SketchesbyBoze: stop shaming people for reading kids’ books. adult books are about sad people having affairs while kids’ books have a magic tree house or a worm driving an apple. you tell me who’s winning

Mark Brumley@mabrumley: As you get older and take to heart that there are fewer days ahead than behind, you realize you must choose well what you read or re-read.

Poets lie through their truths and speak truth through their lies.

@CurtJester: Have you ever heard parts of a book quoted so much that you thought you had read it? Tonight I wanted to look up a quote from C.S. Lewis’ “Weight of Glory”, but found that not only did I not have a copy; but had apparently never actually read it.

Mike Lewis@mfjlewis: Going out on a limb to venture that @Where_Peter_is

is the only online Catholic publication in the universe with regular contributions from a cloistered nun, a former SSPX priest, and a hermit who lives in Spain with four mules. Are you reading it?

Stefan Bachmann@Stefan_Bachmann:

*buys ten books*

*reads three of them*

*sees how many awesom enew books are out and buys eight more*

*reat forever until house explodes*

William Hemsworth@w_hemsworth: I feel attacked.

The Library is Right

David@schaalfan: Today a woman with developmental disabilities came into the library, and said she was lost. She didn’t know her address, but her phone number was in her pocket on a piece of paper with Elmo on it. She kept saying, “The library is a safe place.”

William Hemsworth@w_hemsworth: My kids are blown away by all the things that the library has available online. They have been reading non-stop for two days. I’m not mad at that.

Book It Bennedict

Scott Eric Alt@ScottEricAlt: Scott Eric Alt Gives A Defence

Somehow I can’t imagine St Benedict approaching Pope Pelagius II and saying, “Holy Father, I’m the author of The Rule of St Benedict.”

Kristin Du Mez@kkdumez: There is an abbey where monks living under the rule of St Benedict read books during the silence of communal meals and recently their book of choice was JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE and all I can think about really is those chapter titles. �

Matt Swaim@mattswaim: “Every day, remind yourself that you are going to die.”
The Rule of St. Benedict #MementoMori

Book It Dickens

Shemaiah Gonzalez@shemaiahng: My 11 yr old has put a post it note on my desk requesting that in July (he knows a due date of mine and a trip planned) we have a Mother and Son Book Club where we read Dickens together.

Ben Uticone@BenUticone: Ayn Rand novels are just Charles Dickens books rewritten from the point of view of the villain.

Book It Dostoevsky

Alessandra@alessabocchi: Italy’s main University in Milan just banned teaching Fyodor Dostoevsky because he’s a Russian writer. Dostoevsky was sent to a Siberian labour camp for reading banned books in Tsarist Russia. We are reaching levels of hatred and stupidity that I thought were never possible.

Gabriel Syme@gabrielsyme08: Arguably, Catholics have the best poet (Dante), Anglicans the best playwright (Shakespeare), Lutherans the best composer (Bach), and Orthos the best novelist (Dostoevsky). What do Calvinists have?

LibrarianVee@LibrarianVee: Maybe John Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim Progress?

LaughLoveLive, identifies as Deplorable Patriot@LaughLoveLive1: The best composer was Mozart, and it is pretty much a given that Shakespeare was still Catholic when he was writing.

J. Maximus Coriolanus: No it isn’t, cope harder papist.

Book It Sayers

Emily, praying for peace ��@EmilyKath319: Reading the life story of Dorothy Sayers is WILD.

You’d think from how homeschool moms enshrine her that she was really conservative or something but she had an affair with a married man, got pregnant, & then befriended his wife after he was discovered with yet *another* woman.

Jon M. Sweeney@jonmsweeney: Most good writers have also had other jobs, to make ends meet. Dorothy Sayers, for instance, worked in advertising. One of her accounts was Guinness. She’s credited with coining the phrase, “It pays to advertise.”

Book It Shakespeare

Shower Thoughts@TheWeirdWorld: Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. It’s a 3-day relationship between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old that cause 6 deaths.

David M. Wagner@david_m_wagner: True, the “great tragedies” (Coleridge’s term) are remarkably non-attached to a Christian order. Lear is the most radical. It has a pre-Xn setting, but even so, Gloucester’s remark about gods and flies seems to sum it up – and that’s a long long way from cheerful agnosticism.

In Othello, references to God and holy things turn up in ppls’ oaths, mainly Iago’s, and ofc there’s Iago’s “faith of man.” Also refs to Othello’s baptism.

Macbeth is interesting here bc it brings in a supernatural order – just not a Xn one; tho there is M’s tantalizing ref to having given his “eternal jewel” (usually parsed as soul) to “the common enemy of man” (usually parsed as the prince of the Bad Place).

But Hamlet, the 1st of this artificially defined tetralogy, brings the big exceptions, w the Ghost’s adventures in Purgatory, Hamlet’s speech on Claudius’s fate if killed at prayer, and the priest at Ophelia’s funeral.

Book It Tolkien

Mark@fom4life: The great works of literature are works of enchantment which have the power to re-enchant the most weary of souls. This side of the grave, there is no better company apart from the saints themselves. Like the lembas which sustained Frodo and Sam on their journey through Mordor to Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings, great literature is manna for the mind and food for the soul. -Joseph Pearce

tea with tolkien@TeawithTolkien:

my grandpa: i was born in 1937

me, nodding sagely: the year The Hobbit was published

grandpa: the what now

me talking to my relatives: if you watch the superbowl tomorrow you will see a commercial for the lord of the rings tv series that is coming out

relatives: the lord of the what

Catholic Bard’s Guide to Public Domain Literature

The Rites of Write(ing)