Eucatastrophe

 “Was and will make me ill, I take a gram and only am." In Brave New World, the drug called soma was something like the Matrix's "blue pill" .   It takes the edges off reality (which was depicted as intolerable in its exploitative dehumanization of people). "Swallowing half an hour before closing time, that second dose of soma had raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds."  "I don't understand anything," she said with decision, determined to preserve her incomprehension intact. "Nothing. Least of all," she continued in another tone "why you don't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You'd forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you'd be jolly. So jolly," In the last week, because of the political (re-election) news and various Catholic-related rumors and events (notably the Vigano excommunication), I've been checking social media more of...

 If you go into the cultural/religious/public square by way of social media, which is probably the most accessible way to do it nowadays, you find a superfluity not only of dumb comments, but also of very acute, well-informed, perceptive commentary by people who have spent a lifetime studying their specific niche and writing about it.  Then there is that middle ground of the people who have strong opinions and can communicate fairly well, but are idiosyncratic and controversial.    There is, of course, everything in between as well.   There is no way a person could read and thoroughly digest everything that comes through, let alone comment on it wisely.    But on the other hand, if you don't try, how do you know you aren't missing the next crucially important thing?    My working solution is to stay out of the foamy edge of the wave, most of the time.   By that I mean I don't read about things as they are happening unless they ...

 He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” Before I started this blog, I read a lot of books on the Vatican II Council.    What started the reading project was  (1) the Covid shutdown that included the closing of all the churches, at least in my state, and pretty much all the sacraments  (2) the promulgation and implementation of the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes .     There were some other things going on at the same time:  social, political, personal, familial.   Everyone probably has their own memories of the last 4 years.     During the time, I tried to keep notes on the books I was reading, and some of the posts I've put on this blog are from those notes.   In the end I decided I didn't want to write a blog that was only about the Council and its ...

 On the topic of Faith and Fidelity , I like Pietro de Marco's term christifidelis .   He is responding to Andrea Grillo's interview in the Italian magazine Messainlatino.   As he said, he was asked to respond, as a colleague and previous debater with Grillo; this is what he says of himself: I do not intervene as a “traditionalist faithful to Rome,” as  MiL  legitimately expresses itself. Since I have been writing, and particularly, since I have felt it my duty to show disagreement with the communicative and governing acts of the reigning pontiff—I, who have always been pro-Roman!—I have spoken as a common  christifidelis , endowed with some capacity for judgment, but first and foremost filled with concern for the Church, which since childhood, by God’s gift, I have truly felt to be my Mother.  In a commentary on Traditionis Custodes , from 2021, the author uses the same term: The writer does not belong to any ecclesial group.  Remote me...

 "Two series of texts have exercised a decisive, constant, and universal influence on the origin and development of medieval monastic culture in the West, and they contain in germ and two essential components of this culture:  grammar and spirituality.   These two groups of texts are those connected with St Benedict, and those of a Doctor of the Church who was very close to him in all respects, St Gregory the Great.   These texts must be examined in succession and they will afford an opportunity to define terms and to recall ideas which are essential to an understanding of all that follows.  We begin to follow the sublime path pointed out by St Bernard in a humble and austere fashion:  angusto initio ." The Love of Learning and the Desire for God  This is the beginning of Chapter 1 of the book and bridges from the Introduction where Leclercq talked about scholastic and monastic theology in the 12th century.  Now we are tracing monasticis...

 I receive the Thomas Aquinas College quarterly newsletter, since 2 of my kids graduated from TAC (and quite a few of my friends and acquaintances and their children); and today I went to the new issue of their Aquinas Review , which is a scholarly journal, published by the college on a semi-annual basis.   On its front matter section I find this:  Consistent with the nature of the College, The Aquinas Review is marked by fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and a respect for the great tradition of liberal learning, which is our common heritage.  It's not that this statement is odd or remarkable; but it struck me suddenly because the bolded part in particular seems like something all Catholic publications should abide by but not all do nowadays.  At least, if you don't plan to do so, it would be good to warn your readers that this is not your plan.   Now that I am thinking about it, I am going to check whenever I am reading an artic...

The Shibboleth of Fëanor is the eleventh chapter of The Peoples of Middle-earth. It primarily concerns the titular essay by J.R.R. Tolkien, which discusses the shift from þ (as in English 'thing') to s in the spoken 'Exilic' dialect of Quenya, and how this phonological change was intimately connected to historical and political circumstances. Also included however are lengthy 'excursuses' from this essay regarding Elven 'mother-names', the parentage of Gil-galad, the westward migration of the Edain, and the names of various prominent Noldor.  Tolkien Gateway I came across the word Shibboleth  in a sociological context.   Apparently it has a robust variety of meanings, from the use of code language or words to mark insiders from outsiders, to a connotation of an outdated but obstinately held convention or belief.   There is even an infotech meaning, where you have a community password that lets people log in automatically.  Or something like that. ...