Sarah Reinhard’s giving away a copy of The Rite by Matt Baglio. I recommend this book, and review it here. Go over to her blog, put your name in the combox for a chance to win. I don’t think her contests are huge, so your odds are decent, in light of the 30 seconds it’ll take you enter.
Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has exceeded himself once again. Go look!
1.
On Tuesday mornings we’ve been watching Fr. Barron’s Catholicism DVD’s at the nearby parish (not ours) that has the most convenient times. Excellent. BUT, episode three is a little a lot abstract for the kids. I’m hoping it goes back to more concrete story-telling type episodes in the weeks ahead.
2.
I could tell my 3rd-grader was not fully paying attention, because her feet were in the air. You know how you raise your hand to ask a question in class? Or you raise two hands in air to communicate secret messages from referee to fans, or from evangelical praise-and-worshiper to God? It was just like that, only with feet.
3.
I’d told the group leader we’d be slipping out right after the DVD, and not staying for the group discussion, so that we could get home and get started on school work. Kids and I discussed the Problem of Evil (subject of episode 3) on the way, and curiously, the boy proposed “God testing us” as one of the possible explanations for evil things in the world.
I challenged that notion, but I’ll tell you I do think it’s one of the explanations for good things in the world. Because as we pulled in, our shy-but-friendly bachelor neighbor, who never comes over, was poking around our entry way, looking for us. Because he’d found this:
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The contention, then, that the civil government should at its option intrude into and exercise intimate control over the family and the household is a great and pernicious error.
True, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress, utterly deprived of the counsel of friends, and without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth.
In like manner, if within the precincts of the household there occur grave disturbance of mutual rights, public authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the other its proper due; for this is not to deprive citizens of their rights, but justly and properly to safeguard and strengthen them.
But the rulers of the commonwealth must go no further; here, nature bids them stop.
(Paragraph breaks added for legibility in blog format. See the source here.)
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I see that I’ve hit my deadline for sidebar updating, so I guess I’ll officially slide that onto my to-do list. But I’m open to suggestions as long as the work in is progress. And of course, Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself. Entirely optional.
Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who’s also doing a time-travel edition today.
1.
Blogging Popes. That’s my topic for today. Not the kind you’re thinking of, though.
2.
See, here’s what happened: Saturday night I was bored, tired, and itching for something to read. Something fun and relaxing and novel. Meaning, new-to-me. I usually grab one of my daughter’s library books for this purpose — just enough entertainment to get me through a non-digital Sunday, but not so much that I’ll be out of service, glued to a book, for 10,000 hours waiting for Br. Cadfael to tell me who did it. But I needed novelty.
So I went to Papal Encyclicals Online. I’m sure that’s what you do, too. But before you get too impressed, keep in mind that the three reasons this was a possible source of reading material were:
And the thing is, they tend to cover that same juicy ground as your average Catholic blogger, only you get bonus credit for not being stuck to the computer all day while you work up your angry frenzy at the injustice in the world. Of course, no Star Trek screen shots for illustrations, but look, I was desperate for entertainment.
3.
And the one I picked was Rerum Novarum. Which is basically a series of blog posts on economics. Perfect.
(Let me just say right now, JPII’s follow-up work is not blog-genre. Waaay more wordy. Waaay more. I haven’t finished it yet. But I’m half thinking, “What more is there to say? Leo.Encyclicalpress.com already covered the whole territory. But you know how it is, people need to explain the obvious. Or maybe people needed the obvious re-explained.)
Here’s a sample snippet of the Leonine goodness:
Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition.
And this:
The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men.
Followed by this:
To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
See? I spent my weekend reading 64 Cath-Econ-blog posts, 19th century edition.
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And although I could pretty much shut my eyes and point my finger anywhere in the document to find a good quotable quote, one of my underlined favorites is
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Well that’s all for today. Still accepting suggestions for additions to the sidebar, so tell me who to add. But do just one link per comment, because otherwise the robotic spam-dragon will consume the whole lot of them. Thanks!
As I’m writing this on Monday and getting it scheduled for Tuesday, it’s occurred to me that Sept. 11th is a serious day. Also my niece’s birthday. Please feel free to commemorate more solemn matters, and come back here to my trivial comedy of a life some other day.
Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has never made me laugh during Mass, but often at other times.
1.
You know those movies where the lead characters acquire the run-down house/school/shop/bus/crematorium, and with the help of a fast-forward film sequence and a peppy soundtrack, they all pitch in and get the place cleaned up in about 2.5 minutes? Complete with a spunky sign to announce their new venture?
I walked through my yard Sunday afternoon, and confirmed I am living in the “before” scene.
So now I just need some colorfully-dressed teenagers and a singing nun to descend on the place and fix it up. Preferably before the Tinkerbell-themed birthday party this weekend.
2.
I’m not winning the holiness award. Because if your group stands up at the start of Mass and warms-up by chanting “Yellow Leather Red Leather”? Yes. I’m going to bust out laughing. In church.
3.
But I’ll try do it quietly. At least until I get to the parking lot. Then I’m going to laugh very loudly. And probably use the Lord’s name in vain, but then quickly convert it into a prayer of some nature, to do a kind of retroactive-save on that decidedly un-holy verbal reflex.
My son is 98% holier than me, or at least 1 chromosome better suited for the priesthood (we knew that), because he kept a straight face the whole mass, and afterwards. I was amazed.
3.5
. . . the Spanish Mass. [Where they do not do tongue-twister warm-ups — we’ve changed scenes completely.] We have a new Spanish priest now, and he does not use the words “Jesus-Christo” and “Salvacion” as often as the previous one. Which means I can no longer understand 5% of the homily, like I used to do under the old regime. I do still like the mariachi mass, though. So perky.
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Still accepting suggestions for additions to the sidebar, so tell me who to add. But do just one link per comment, because otherwise the robotic spam-dragon will consume the whole lot of them. Thanks!
Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who persuades me to write whether I ought to or not.
1.
I’m enjoying being home again. No more book-craziness for a while, kids are back to school and so far it’s going well, and I’m 10% less jet-lagged every day. If life stays normal, I might be a civilized person as soon as 2014.
2.
This past week, Julie Davis kept using the word “economics” in sentences directed at me. I remembered vaguely something about having studied these topics in school, and maybe even having some marginal qualifications, and that I had initially started this blog to be about economics and history . . . sheesh.
But the weird thing: All the whole time I was writing the catechist book, I was thinking, “I just need to knock this thing out so I can get back to my *real* project,” which is the homeschooling book.”
And here’s what . . . I realized this weekend that now the homeschooling book has become the “gotta get this outta the way” project. ‘Cause yes. I wanna write about some Christian money issues. So maybe I give myself a week or two to breathe, then do the homeschooling book and just get it done, and then maybe, maybe?, Julie can have an economics blog back?
I dunno. I don’t predict the future with any reliability.
3.
Over at AmazingCatechists.com, I posted about using Christian LeBlanc’s new book as teaching resource for catechists. (Some people were asking when I’d post the catechist-version of that review, so now you know. I cover different topics than I did here.)
I came home with a pile of review materials from the Giant Catholic Conference Thing-y, so it’ll be review-city for a while here. Or there. Somewhere. Did I mention how much I love getting new books? Love it. Love it.
3.5
I was tooling around the Pauline Media booth, and found this book, which looks very handy to keep in stock at crisis pregnancy centers and the like.
And I was thinking, “Wow, my Spanish has gotten much better, because I can read the whole back cover pretty easily.” Also, I considered the fact that I could read it to be a reliable signal that the reading level was very accessible, which is always a plus in my book. But then my plane was very very late getting home Saturday night, so Sunday I went to
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Oh, hey, about those links: It came to my attention that my sidebar is due for some updating. If you read here, leave your link in the combox. I’m going to set a goal of doing the update, let’s say . . . September 23rd? Nope, that’s a Sunday, make it the 24th.
–> FYI I’d love to include not just your personal link, but any recommended sites you think fit with the multitude of themes here. But do just one link per comment, because otherwise the robotic spam-dragon will consume the whole lot of them. Thanks!
Thanks once again to our host, Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who is the picture of patience with his minions. (And he prays for them too. If you’re going to have an overlord, that’s the sort you want.)
1.
My daughter recommends using frozen blueberries instead of ice cubes in your limeade.
We own limeade concentrate because it makes the best margaritas. Cup of ice, one scoop limeade slush, tequila, jiggle it around, done. Best ever.
But apparently the blueberries go over big with the under-21 crowd.
2.
Look, the Darwins have school plans. So do I, but I’m saving my enthusiasm for the first week of September. We did two weeks of remedial Latin at the beginning of this month, then I cancelled class until I was satisfied I was ready for the conference next week, so that I wouldn’t have terrible nightmares about running to the airport and forgetting my shoes, or trying to give out business cards but I forget to get them printed — you know the drill.
What the Darwins do is what I’d do, if I were the Darwins. You know what I mean. They have a good approach. I like it.
3.
Book department update 1.0: I learned last week how important it is to have a book deadline. (Mine is 8/27, approximately 28,000 words.) Because otherwise, I’ll never stop writing. There’s always one more little thing to say. I made myself stop before I hit 30,000, and this week [yes, this week, because even last week, new words kept sneaking in despite my resolve to be done adding anything else, forever and ever amen] I’m using the delete key to clean out the dust.
3.5
Book department update 1.5: My half of the contract is signed. Waiting to get back the copy from the publisher with both signatures on it. Then we’ll be legal, and I’ll have to resist the urge to post something in ALL CAPS because I’ll be SO EXCITED. As you knew I would be. Accountants are never happy until the lines are all properly filled.
***
And with that, I’m back to regular life. I’ll keep y’all in my prayers, and I’m trying to work through my blogging backlog in addition to doing all the other stuff I need to do, so look for me to pop in with this or that, time permitting. Have a great week!
(And yes, you can post links. I am, by the way, reading comments. Oh, about once a week, but I am. And trying to reply as well.)
1.
I would like to thank all of you who have prayed for me. I’m lousy at praying, but I do pray for my benefactors, and that would be you. Because your work has been, thus far, very effective. I would like to double-thank those who have been patient in practical matters as my attendance at this or that has been spotty.
2.
Tuesday morning I learned a friend had been deceiving me for some time. Not lying, not outright. She’d made a (perfectly legitimate) decision that she knew I wouldn’t like. She put off telling me, presumably in the hopes it would simply never become an issue. That I wouldn’t, in the end, need to know after all.
2468 Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
What began as prudence and discretion, looking for the right moment to share the news I needed to know, turned into a lack of candor as the months dragged out. Sometimes I worry about doing the same thing. Is there something I should be saying, and haven’t? It is easy enough to be misunderstood. It is possible to deceive without intending to, without any sin at all.
3.
2469 “Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another.”262 The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, “as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.”263
4.
I should note here that my own fault runs more often the other way — I had already strained our relationship by being quite blunt in a matter where I felt absolute candor trumped sparing of feelings. There are long passages in the catechism about the importance of not saying too much. I stink at that.
Even when I am trying to be prudent, to actually shut up and think for a change, there’s always the wondering. Does someone truly need to know this thing I know? Will I be more guilty for speaking, or for not?
5.
2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
So I was composing this post in my head this morning before mass. After, I had the privilege of being outright lied to, in a mortal-sin kind of way, if my fact-checking turns out to be correct. (Completely different scenario, different people.) It was . . . very strange.
But it happens. People do evil things. People who are kind and generous and pious sometimes do evil things.
6.
Why do Mark Shea and Chris Tollefsen get told off every time they point out lying is wrong? I think it’s because we’re so used to it.*
We have a cultural fear of the truth. Faced with a difficult thing to say about even the most trivial matter, we tend to look for away to skirt the truth. How can I get my girlfriend to purchase a different outfit, without telling her this one she loves makes her look awful / is terribly tacky / is exactly the one I’m wearing to the same event?
We are so used to thinking of deceit as necessary for police work, or some similar situation, that it is unimaginable, truly unthinkable, that it might, possibly, be the wrong thing to do. We so fear harming innocent children or the frail elderly with difficult facts, that I’ve been accused of great cruelty for suggesting that such people can, in fact, be given difficult but necessary news in some sensitive but honest way.
7.
And it cannot be denied: the moral life is not the easier life. The freedom truth brings is bought at a cost. A willingness to risk not nabbing the criminal, of making the little girl cry for the rest of her life, of causing grandma’s heart to fail. Or a boycott by angry customers. Or martyrdom.
Mostly, doing what is right is also doing what feels better. What, in the end, makes like easier. Our conscience is clear, our friendships are solid, people want to work with and help others they know to be decent, honest folk. Mostly.
Not always.
Don’t forget to pray for Allie Hathaway, then go read more takes at the home of our lovely hostess Jen F. at ConversionDiary.com.
*Not telling them off. Lying. Though we’re also getting used to telling them off. Curiously, my Mark Shea link has no negative comments on it, at this writing.
I almost wasn’t going to post today, but the awesomenity of Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy convinced me.
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When someone makes you feel like crawling into a hole? It’s really nice to have other people for friends. Thank you, friendly people, for being out there.
2.
We’ve guessed all summer that there was a hummingbird’s nest in our apple tree, because Mrs. Hummingbird has been especially aggressive about chasing off birds that get to close to her portion of the tree. The little guy has started coming out now, and here’s the funny bit: He sits down to drink.
3.
<insert your item here>. We’re going to Chik-Fil-A.
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Book department update: Good news, hopefully to be announced this time next week?
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And with that, I’m back to regular life. I’ll keep y’all in my prayers, and I’m trying to work through my blogging backlog in addition to doing all the other stuff I need to do, so look for me to pop in with this or that, time permitting. Have a great week!
(And yes, you can post links. I am, by the way, reading comments. Oh, about once a week, but I am. And trying to reply as well.)
Okay so I was exceedingly flattered when Catholic Lane asked if they could reprint my homeschooling post from CatholicMom.com. Which they did, today. I was like, Wow! I’m on Catholic Lane!
(Nothing really to report to you, my faithful readers, who already had heard about it once. But I was going to tell you anyway. Because, you know, anything exciting to me = bloggable.)
Ha, but then, the stupendous part: It was picked up by the Pulp.it.
The rest of you who get featured at the Pulp.it all time, just go ahead and have a laugh at my expense. *I’m* excited. Happy Friday!
Happy feast day to Larry D., Larry L.! And all the other Lawrence-y types, except those of you who’ve taken on one of the dozen or so saints also by that name. Note that martyrdom seems to be the common theme. Just sayin’.
Artwork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lawrence-before-Valerianus.jpg [Public Domain]