Rev. Kirk and the Little People

And happy it is in these forlorn days of drab materialism that one such as I should chance upon a charming blather of blarney regarding the strange mishaps and disappearance of the Rev. Robert Kirk, scholar and naturalist, so to speak, of the hidden realm by one of our favorite Orthodox writers, David Bentley Hart. Herein are recorded these important matters as we draw near unto the important day of All Hallows' Eve. I give you, gentle reader: The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies.

Haiku U

Patrick Madrid presents Catholic Haiku from Envoy insiders. Kind of tame, if you ask me. So I tried my hand at it, coming with nine years of teaching Catholic sixth-graders the gentle art:

Indifferent kids
Long to surf the internet
My CCD class

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Empty stomach growls
Long lines trapse toward Altar
Final blessing, pah!

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Ora pro nobis
I enter teachers' bathroom
No toilet paper

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3:30 Vigils
Monks blow noses just like me
But I'm back to bed

What Apocalypse? - MSM

Jim Rutenberg of the NYT thinks that all those critics of Big-O are hemming and hawing now that the man is in direct line for the Oval Office, with a few notable exceptions promising ”intense” oversight.

The truly interesting feat to be carried out by the smarmy MSM will be how aptly they will paint the continued fraying of western civilization at its ragged edges and sizable tears. It will resemble, in my humble opinion, the jaunty adventures of the denizens of Terry Gilliams' prescient Brazil (1985), with its exurbite mavens ignoring a nearby terrorist bomb explosion a few tables away while they're "enjoying" their lunch.

I think I'll curl up with Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins. Wake me when 2012 comes round...

Great Post from Amy - You have a task, soul

Link to her original post HERE.

Amy Welborn quotes Pope Benedict XVI below as an example of how he speaks pastoral more so than as a theologian during his General Audiences in which he teaches on the Church Fathers.

In prayer, we must turn our hearts to God, to consign ourselves to him as an offering to be purified and transformed. In prayer we see all things in the light of Christ, we let our masks fall and immerse ourselves in the truth and in listening to God, feeding the fire of love.

In a poem which is at the same time a meditation on the purpose of life and an implicit invocation to God, Gregory writes: "You have a task, my soul, a great task if you so desire. Scrutinize yourself seriously, your being, your destiny; where you come from and where you must rest; seek to know whether it is life that you are living or if it is something more. You have a task, my soul, so purify your life: Please consider God and his mysteries, investigate what existed before this universe and what it is for you, where you come from and what your destiny will be. This is your task, my soul; therefore, purify your life" (Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 78: PG 37, 1425-1426).

The holy Bishop continuously asked Christ for help, to be raised and set on his way: "I have been let down, O my Christ, by my excessive presumption: from the heights, I have fallen very low. But lift me now again so that I may see that I have deceived myself; if again I trust too much in myself, I shall fall immediately and the fall will be fatal" (Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 67: PG 37, 1408).

So it was that Gregory felt the need to draw close to God in order to overcome his own weariness. He experienced the impetus of the soul, the vivacity of a sensitive spirit and the instability of transient happiness.

For him, in the drama of a life burdened by the knowledge of his own weakness and wretchedness, the experience of God's love always gained the upper hand.

You have a task, soul, St Gregory also says to us, the task of finding the true light, of finding the true nobility of your life. And your life is encountering God, who thirsts for our thirst.

Amy's reflection here is a reflection I regularly need to keep mind of as I so often plow through my day's chores with no thought but that the world revolves around me.

News of Other Bloggers

Daniel Mitsui at The Lion and the Cardinal has big news: she said yes. Congrats!

Meanwhile, our gal around town and author of Thrill of the Chaste, Dawn Eden, continues to recover from a thyroidectomy. Dawn gives us her brave brush with the big C in Gland All Over.

The Grace of Faith Transforms Our Reasoned Certitude

Monsignor Ronald A. Knox out of the Magnificat by way of the Doctors of the Catholic Church.

“Your faith has saved you”

We don’t, strictly speaking, lead people a certain way by proving that our religion is probable and then invite them to take a jump, which jump we call faith. No, we claim to establish more than a probability; we claim to establish a moral certainty. Moral certainty is not inescapably evident to the mind, like mathematical certainty, but it is certainly still; sufficient reason on which to base a decision that is to alter the whole of our lives and the whole of our attitude toward life – if we will let it have its way with us…In the process of making the act of faith, we attain certitude …

The office of grace is not to provide a substitute for our natural operations, but to perfect our natural operations. It is the same power that manifest itself at Cana of Galilee, turning water into wine. When we are confirmed , we resolve to be good soldiers of Christ, and the grace of the sacrament transforms that resolve into something stronger than our natural powers could ever achieve…The grace of faith is not a substitute for reasoned certitude; it transforms our reasoned certitude and elevates it to a supernatural level.

Monsignor Ronald A. Knox ( + 1957) was a British Catholic apologist and translator of the Bible.

Madeleine L'Engle - A Thinker's Writer

The death of Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time (hardly only a book for children, but one that will propel them into the biblical faith quite nicely), feels to me like the passing of a grand old aunt, the likes of whom I always assumed would die one day, but one I'd hoped would accompany my own adult years for as many as possible.

Her multitude of books bolstered my younger adult years through pastoral ministry (an arid affair), assuring me of a wider, bolder, less parochial world of reality than ducking into the office, seeing to next Sunday's bulletin and the monthly newsletter, attending the local ministerial association meetings, and talking with a high-maintenance member about the incredible importance of their rather meaningless life.

I am the first to admit that my description of the (Protestant) pastoral ministry tells more about me than about the importance of the vocation, but L'Engle's assurance of the vitality of a sacramental faith (she was a life-long Episcopalian) as well as my enduring yearning for a deeper experience of Transcendence drove me inextricably into the arms of the Catholic Church and the fullness of the faith. If any are looking for someone to blame for my conversion, Ms. L'Engle is a co-conspirator, albeit completely unbeknownst to her.
An interview (2006) with mentions of Harry Potter. The NYT obituary.
My dear Ms. L'Engle, Requiescat in Pace +