7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Good morning from Not Birmingham. We are not at our final destination, but very, very close:

We’re in Covington – just because I didn’t feel like going all the way last night, and hotels are half to a third the cost (depending on where you stay.)

Last night we popped up to St. Joseph’s Abbey for Compline – did not quite make it in time for Vespers.

We were the only people not in the choir stalls – I can’t say we were the only non-monks, because there were several young men not wearing monastic robes in choir. Retreatants, I suppose. But for sure I was the only woman.

I wish we’d gotten there early, because although I have been to the monastery grounds – to find Walker Percy’s grave in the cemetery – I had never been in the chapel before, and it’s beautiful with those magnificent murals.

— 2 —

So no, the plan didn’t quite work out, a plan which had involved getting there early enough to explore, visit Percy’s grave, and then participate in monastic prayer.

We only got the prayer part, with a glimpse at the saints, and that was enough.

—3–

Go to Instagram for a bit of video and more on the coming weekend.

–4––

Today’s the memorial of St. Frances of Rome. She’s in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints:

–5 —

From the Catholic Herald: Now you can access a map of England’s Catholic Martyrs:

I also soon became aware of what are known as the Howdenshire Martyrs and, for the first time, two things started to dawn on me; how much the ordinary English people loved their Catholic Faith and the huge scale of suffering they endured from the Dissolution of the Monasteries onwards.

The problem when looking at lists of those martyred for their faith is the difficulty of grasping the enormous scale. I decided to try to plot these names on a map, to see how far and wide they ranged. It quickly became clear it truly was nationwide, with particular ‘epicentres’ such as Lancashire, Yorkshire, Glastonbury, Oxford and London. I was trying to see them as real people, not just lists. This was greatly helped by using the internet to find out more about each. It is quite remarkable, really, how much we can still discover about so many of them, although a huge number more will never be identified.

–— 6 —

Please read Emily Stimpson Chapman’s series on adoption here, at her blog The Catholic Table. It’s in three parts, and she finished it up today (Friday). 

— 7 —

If you’re not scared enough about the internet, social media and your kids, please read this.

My daughter is ten. She wants me to download the Musical.ly app on my phone so she can make funny lip-sync videos. Everyone has it, she whines, even the kid whose mom is an FBI agent/social worker/pediatrician/nun.

Wow. Well. In that case…

I download the app while she’s at school but it won’t let me explore without an account. I create a profile under Chardonaynay47, only to delete that and opt for something less momish — gummibear9.

One word sums up my experience: Nowayismykidgettingthisapp.

One of the points I appreciate in the article is something I’ve been pounding on for years. It’s not just the porn and the objectification and the grossness and the bullying. It’s this:

If your child does not maintain an online self, chances are her social circle is small — friends from school, neighbors, family. If she has a rough day at school, a bell sets her free each afternoon. The jerks who taunted her at lunch aren’t coming home with her for the night. She has space to think, to be with you, to read, to hug her dog, to recover, to get brave. Online, there is no school bell, there is no escape; she exists globally, and so do her mistakes. The ridicule is permanent. Puberty is harrowing enough in physical form, asking a child to also manage an online ego is like asking them to thread a needle while the plane is going down.

And perhaps this very pointed question will give a nudge, too:

Question: do you want my kid to have access to your kid 24/7?

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum!