David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time St. Hildegaard The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, The other day a friend of mine posted on his Facebook page about desiring to liberate apples from a neighbor’s neglected orchard. The idea caused him to consider writing a little something about Aquinas on theft in times of need. I’m hoping to convince him to work with me on a project to that effect for a new journal coming out. In the mean... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time St. Ninian The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, I have some very exciting news. Today, right now, this very moment my first novel On the Edges of Elfland: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups is officially available for purchase! Now it is not available on Wipf and Stock’s website yet (that should come Sunday) and it will be another week or so before it is available on Amazon.com. However, for those who feel... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time St. John Chrysostom The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, Yesterday’s letter about sex, the early church, and allegory, put me in mind of something written by John Cassian. Cassian is an enigmatic figure, as I’ve told you before, but I think many today would be surprised to know he wrote anything more than The Institutes and The Conferences. However, Cassian wrote an entire work on the nature of the Incarnation against Nestorianism.... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 12 September 2016 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, The other day I came across this “provocatively” titled article, “Vagina, Penis, and Being Created as Sexual Beings,” by Daniel D. Lee. If the title wasn’t enough to draw me in, the first line certainly did it: “’Daddy, I have a vagina and you have a penis, because I’m a girl and you are a boy.'” The rest of the article goes on... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 9 September 2016 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, About a week a ago, a fellow Patheos Catholic blogger (Michael Pezzulo of Steel Magnificat fame) brought the article, “Iceland unearths rock to appease angry elves,” to my attention. And I’m quite glad he did. The story is essentially this: A road is being constructed in Iceland, but construction has had to cease. It appears that several mishaps have been happening ever since... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 5 September 2016 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, As part of my research for my upcoming paper on Thomas Aquinas and the Eucharist, I have been re-reading Josef Pieper’s book Leisure the Basis of Culture. It was actually this book that first gave me the idea for my paper about the relationship between the meals we eat and the Eucharist being similar to that of we ourselves as human beings and... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time St. Gregory the Great The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, Sometimes I have trouble sleeping. There’s nothing particularly unusual in this. People everywhere suffer from insomnia, but I’m not an insomniac. But that’s no matter, stress often keeps up, and does me sometimes. But that’s not what I’m talking about either. Sometimes, though it has happened less often since having kids, I am simply terrified. Some nights I have no desire... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 2 September 2016 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, Today is the anniversary of the death of J. R. R. Tolkien. To commemorate this event, I thought it would be good to revisit a theory I’ve posited before: namely, that the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien are largely (though not entirely) connected to one another. This connection is put forth almost entirely on Lewis’s side, so it... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 1 September 2016 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, The other day I wrote to you concerning some initial reflections on the relationship between Elfland, as I often talk and write about it, and Pope Francis’ understanding of creation in his Encyclical Laudato Si’. In that letter I mentioned that I would turn to the Eucharist in a second letter and so today, I sit down to write you that letter. In... Read more
David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 30 August 2016 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dear Readers, Several times now have I mentioned an impending letter discussing Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’. The idea, as well as the start of the title of this letter, were given to me by Jessica Mesman Griffith over at Sick Pilgrim. Well, today, I am happy to say that I am finally sitting down to begin writing on this topic. I hope to do at... Read more
Letters from the Edge of Elfland
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