Friday Miscellany

It is Candlemas, the feast of the Presentation:

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;

your word has been fulfilled:

my own eyes have seen the salvation

which you have prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your people Israel.

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Quotes:

There is a story about Newman that I like very much. In his room he had a picture – I think his landlady had given it to him – of the Blessed in Paradise praising God, and every time he came in and out, he used to smile at it and say, 'What! Still at it?'"

- In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden.

I was late in finding the Rosary, and it has been in addition a great delight to know that others whose virtue and learning is far above mine are companions. I began to use it only after hearing [Ronald] Knox (on a private occasion) say: ‘Personally I do not like the Rosary, but I have a suspicion that Our Lady does.’ Very Knox. 

- JRR Tolkien in a letter to Austin and Katharine Farrer

Reading:

Splintered light : logos and language in Tolkien's world by Verlyn Flieger.

Essay on the Development of Doctrine by JH Newman

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly (just finished).