By St. Anselm: St. Mary Magdalene, you came with springing tears to the spring of mercy, Christ; from him your burning thirst was abundantly refreshed; through him your sins were forgiven; by him your bitter sorrow was consoled. ……Most blessed lady, I who am the most evil and sinful of men do not recall your sins as a reproach, but call upon the boundless mercy by which they were blotted out. This is my reassurance, so that I do not... Read more
Friday, in my quick takes, I sat down to write something about the evil in men’s hearts… (Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!) …and wound up spilling forth in one of those fervent acts of writing in which the words fall out, tumble over each other, spill over from an overfull heart until you surprise yourself with the result. Apparently, what I really wanted to write about was dying to self: It will... Read more
— 1 — Happy Independence Day to my friends and relations in the US of A. In honor of the holiday, I’m posting my favorite depiction of Thomas Jefferson drafting the Declaration of Independence. If that were a real band, I’d totally go see them in concert. — 2 — Of course, the US isn’t the only North American country that celebrates a national holiday during the first week of July. This past Tuesday was Canada Day, commemorating... Read more
I bought a copy of the Drawing on the Right Side of your Brain workbook a few months ago, thinking that it would give me a nice mental break from proofreading and editing. I’ve already got the brainless physical labor side of things covered with housework, but sometimes I find myself awake and idle and not able to face any more words. About a week after I finally got around to trying my hand at the first two activities in... Read more
Over at the Personalist Project, I’m talking about a definition of modesty that transcends sexual propriety and occasions of sin. First of all, I want to reject any definition that defines modesty strictly in terms of a negative: “Modesty is avoiding tempting others to lust. Modesty is avoiding drawing attention to your sexual attributes. Modesty is not standing out.” While some of those things might be the effects of a modest wardrobe, a virtue should not be a negative. A virtue... Read more
Laundry is calling my name, and a dozen other things, so this week’s Quick Takes is going to be brief. 1.I’m linking this story about over-reaction making parents’ lives much more difficult because I see the advice “Better call the police. You never know what kind of people you’re dealing with” given far too often–about dealing with noisy neighbors, delinquent kids, people pulled over by the side of the road, seemingly-abandoned cars, and anyone who slows down their car to... Read more
— 1 — I’m not sure if I can come up with 7 takes this week, but I’ll give it a try. I like to get at least a post a week up on the blog, and 7 Quick Takes does that, anyhow. I’ve had a chest cold for the last while, and it’s really just sucking the energy out of me, particularly since it’s at that set-in stage where I can go all day barely coughing, but be woken... Read more
— 1 — Marc has written a lovely reflection on man as a world-creator; specifically, he writes about the home as a world. He does a fine job of dissecting the assumptions that lie behind the modern eagerness to refer to the earth or the universe as “the real world,” dismissing the reality of the human spaces we live in. Do read the piece; it’s shorter than most of Marc’s posts, and well worth the read. — 2 — Marc’s post, although... Read more
1. Yesterday I mentioned “sitting with” pain or suffering (as well as learning to sit with my happiness, when it materializes). Today I saw that Madonna House has a wonderful letter by Caryll Houselander on the topic. Stop trying to think out a solution for the moment; there isn’t one. One day there may be; God will then show it to you. In the meantime, accept it all as being the big thing for God and his Church that he... Read more
This morning, a friend who knows fairly well the ups and downs and trials of my life asked me, “Are you happy?” We had been talking about that realization—which comes on most Christians periodically, I think, because we often need to be reminded—that walking with Christ is going to require denying myself every day of the rest of my life. As my friend put it, we create the world around us every day, whether we want to or not, so... Read more
Peace and Pekoe
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