Structures and restrictions safeguard the sacred. Part of the role of culture is to protect values that we cherish but that, in our daily lives, we do not experience as urgent. We recognize, for example, that exercise and solitude are important for our physical and emotional well-being, yet seldom is our sense of urgency powerful… Continue reading The protection of culture
Category: Commonplace Book
Nine possible reasons why God is saying “No”
Another great article by Monsignor Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington: Scripture does give some answers as to God’s delay and to his “No.” And while these explanations may not always emotionally satisfy us, they do provide a teaching which can ultimately assist us in not allowing our sorrow, anger or disappointment to interact with… Continue reading Nine possible reasons why God is saying “No”
Sentimentality as a kind of bullying
A review of Theodore Dalrymple’s book on sentimentality: In his new book, he argues that sentimentality is the virus that is eating away at modern life. It destroys the sense of responsibility; it undermines human relationships; and it has a close affinity with aggression and violence. [It] lies, [Dalrymple] says, in the Romantic idea that… Continue reading Sentimentality as a kind of bullying
Skip Expensive Spice Mixes and Make Your Own
Saw this at Lifehacker: Make your own spice blends with what you have instead of paying for a can of Old Bay or pumpkin pie mix or whatever.
The dismal illumination of the Inner Light
Spotted in a combox at Insight Scoop: (emphasis added by me) “Only the other day I saw in an excellent weekly paper of Puritan tone this remark, that Christianity when stripped of its armour of dogma (as who should speak of a man stripped of his armour of bones), turned out to be nothing but… Continue reading The dismal illumination of the Inner Light
Peony’s Seven Quick Takes
Seven Quick Takes is being hosted at Betty Beguiles this week. 1. I love coffee. I love cake. I love coffee and cake. I love coffeecake. I love coffee and coffeecake even more when I’m enjoying it with friends. And doesn’t coffee and cake taste even better when eaten off cute dishes? 2. I never… Continue reading Peony’s Seven Quick Takes
Fr Jacques Philippe on Interior Prayer
For the Staple-to-Forehead file: The life of prayer is much deeper than the intelligence or the senses can perceive. Even when prayer is poor and distracted, provided that it is made with sincerity and faith, God can communicate secretly with the soul. He puts into it the treasures of light and the power of peace… Continue reading Fr Jacques Philippe on Interior Prayer
‘Manners Makyth Man’
When deviancy from the ethos becomes the ethos, calling virtue bourgeois, the servant is deprived of his royal dignity as a child of God, and the king is absolved of his duty to revere those he governs. —Father Rutler