7 Quick Takes

May 31, 2019 by Amy Welborn

— 1 —

Lots and lots of new readers, thanks to a link from New Advent. Thanks, Kevin!

A note to those new readers: I blog almost every day, in some form or another. Most of what I write here is inspired by things I read, watch or just see. My main purpose here is to share (hopefully) interesting information that might help readers see a slightly bigger and broader chunk of the world and perhaps even make sense of it.

If you look at the row of tabs up there, you can see links to pages on which I’ve collected some of my thoughts on a few topics.

You might want to make a point of keeping up with this blog through the month of June, as in a few days, we are heading to Spain!

— 2 —

Today is the feast of the Visitation. I wrote about it in my book, Mary and the Christian Life. Here’s an excerpt from the chapter:

For centuries, the disciples of Jesus have easily and joyfully
incorporated Mary into their spiritual lives. With the angel, we
greet Mary. With Elizabeth, we call her blessed.
Why? Because we sense that in greeting Mary, we welcome the
Christ she bears.
In greeting her, we offer indirect but powerful praise to God,
for it is God who has done this. God has entered creation in this
most ordinary moment, in this most ordinary way.
In the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, so much resonates and
gently gestates outside the women’s wombs. Mary has traveled
so far, in haste, to meet the older woman whom, we are told, had
been living in seclusion herself.
One travels, one welcomes, and in their meeting, in this visitation,
we see the heart of hospitality, welcome, and friendship.
One way to look at it is this: these two women recognize
the action of God in each other’s lives. They have listened and
heard good news about each other, and they bring it all into their
encounter. They treasure each other. They treasure the new lives
growing within. They are attentive to those little lives as well.

**In honor of the Feast of the Visitation, Mary and the Christian Life will be available for free all day Friday and Saturday. It’s normally only .99 anyway, but still!**

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Source

-4–

An interesting find from Melanie Bettinelli: The Moby Dick Big Read

In the spring of 2011, artist Angela Cockayne and writer Philip Hoare convened and curated a unique whale symposium and exhibition at The Levinsky Gallery, the dedicated contemporary art space at The Arts Institute (formerly Peninsula Arts), University of Plymouth, under the title, Dominion. Inspired by their mutual obsession with Moby-Dick and with the overarching subject of the whale, they invited artists, writers, musicians, scientists and academics to respond to the theme. The result was an enthusiastic response which evidently could not be contained within the physical restrictions of a gallery space and a three-day symposium.

‘I have written a wicked book’, said Melville when his novel was first published in 1851, ‘and I feel as spotless as the lamb’. Deeply subversive, in almost every way imaginable, Moby-Dick is a virtual, alternative bible – and as such, ripe for reinterpretation in this new world of new media. Out of Dominion was born its bastard child – or perhaps its immaculate conception – the Moby-Dick Big Read: an online version of Melville’s magisterial tome: each of its 135 chapters read out aloud, by a mixture of the celebrated and the unknown, to be broadcast online in a sequence of 135 downloads, publicly and freely accessible.

–5 —

From C.C. Pecknold at the Catholic Herald:

By some miracle, in the midst of this cultural devastation, St. John’s has gone from 50 sporadic parishioners to over 300 every Sunday. The friars just began celebrating Mass ad orientem, and so I asked if the native parishioners objected. He said that once he explained that “this is how it used to be done,” that facing Christ together was one of “the old ways,” they immediately embraced it as something hopeful, and something their ancestors would have known when they were converted hundreds of years ago by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries. It struck me as a fitting response.

It’s tragic to see the devastation. It’s like the trail of tears has never ended. But I saw the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit love these people. With the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit I saw a glimpse of hope for these people. Not material hope mind you, since the tribe is immensely wealthy while the people still live in true material and cultural destruction — a lot like the so-called post-Christian West. What I did glimpse, though, was a greater interior hope. Seeing the Eucharistic sacrifice at the heart of the mission, and faithful friars radiating God’s presence in the midst of their suffering, I suddenly felt joy that the image of God, so beaten down, could find a sanctuary, an oasis, life-giving water, even in the desert of desolation. I had hope that these people could be raised up, not by their tribe, but by the City of God in their midst.

— 6 —

Pentecost is coming to town – we missed it last year – I think because the boys had to serve at the convent – but we will not miss it this year – the Descent of the Rose Petals at the Cathedral of St. Paul here in Birmingham! (Inspired by the same event at the Pantheon in Rome)

You can see what the music will be – thanks to our fantastic Sacred Music program – here.

— 7 —

A couple of other writing notes – mine and other’s:

Since it’s the Visitation, check out related excerpts from The Words We Pray (the chapter on the Hail Mary) and The Loyola Kids Book of Bible Stories. The stories in the latter are arranged according to when in the liturgical year a Catholic child would most likely hear it in the context of the Mass – so Advent for this one. The narrative ends by pointing out specifically Catholic ties to the story, as well as recollection and reflection questions. Click on images to see a clearer, readable version.