The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
I'm finally being a good Daughter and getting around to reading Casti Connubii, the encyclical that my mother has been on a mission to get everyone to read for several years now. Actually, I'm reading it along with the ladies from my St. Greg's Pocket reading group (fondly dubbed the Pocketbook Club).
Thanks, among other factors, to this club, I've picked up my reading habit in a big way over the past couple of years. But as 2016 came to a close, I realized that I didn't have a solid list of what I had recently read. In fact, I have no record at all of the many, various books I've read over my lifetime! You know me and how I like to keep records.
This needed to be remedied.
Hence the Commonplace book, pictured above (under the encyclical). So yes, I've now added to my stack of active journals. Oh and don't forget the other recent addition of Chickapee's baby journal.
Please note: 1) the series on Casti Connubii was originally written as a Lenten series/reflection (now available as a book). 2) The beginning of Lent is approaching – about a month away. 3) You really should go ahead and start forming that Pocket you've been thinking about or get your Pocket to do that reading together! There's time if you want to have this particular Lenten reading be a goal!
In case you needed another little nudge, consider yourself nudged. {mwah!}
On to this week's links!
- For anyone interested in Monsignor Ronald Knox, there is a new collection of his essays out and a little review of it here.
- An absolutely beautiful piece reflecting on the importance of the sacraments, conscience, and the question of Communion for the divorced and remarried (from someone who's been there): A Response to Archbishop Victor Fernandez from First Things. I actually caught my breath at the following bit:
“Because if a man can divorce his wife, or if a wife can divorce her husband, then Christ can divorce the Church. Which means that Christ can divorce Man. And that is a lie. It is the anti-Gospel.”
- Speaking of marriage, what some activists are calling a “spreading of hate” in Virginia is actually just a proposed bill to protect from coercion or civil punishment those who maintain the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman (HB 2025) — just in case there are Virginians among us who should know.
- A friend brought this to my attention: a little report claiming that No One Cooks Anymore. Actually, people may be cooking very intensely or at a very advanced level (the cooks are certainly working hard in restaurants, for one thing) — just not on a regular basis, for their families, at home. The article questions whether this is a bad thing and can only respond by venturing that it's perhaps not good for folks' health. How about for their hearts and souls? How about for their communities? How does it feel – for the work-weary and those in the rat race and the children – that there's no plan to come home and sit down at the dinner table with loved ones on a routine basis? I submit that it is a kind of homelessness and that, for the majority of people experiencing it (that is to say, not necessarily the affluent [although probably for many of the affluent] but the average singleton or family) it's very, very sad.
And that's why we do what we do here at LMLD! The collective memory for homemaking and family-feeding has not been totally lost and can be revived! (Relevant links below in the ‘From the Archives' section.)
- An actually rather spot-on post from Apartment Therapy about how to make your home more sophisticated; well, just nicer, maybe!
In the Liturgical Year:
- Today is the feast of the great and awesome philosopher, theologian, Doctor of the Church, poet, traveler: St. Thomas Aquinas! I love him. How could you not? Light a candle today to celebrate the Angelic Doctor.
From the Archives:
- What we do “in here” – a post about homemaking, wrapping up the series on Casti Connubii.
- Ask Auntie Leila: I feel guilty not working! Always worth a re-read as a reminder of the function and importance of homemaking.
- Dinner Every Day.
~We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).~
Cordelia says
We’re cooking! Every day, at home, we are cooking! It’s one of the perks of being cash-poor: we can’t afford to do it any other way. Perhaps America is still too wealthy for its own good: give current trends a few more years, and we’ll all be cooking at home 😉
DeirdreLMLD says
Cash-poor, family time-rich. 🙂 Love it.
Mrs. B. says
At the last library sale I went, I got a little book of letters Monsignor Knox wrote back to people who had written to him – strangers to him, really, and who in most cases wrote to him only once. Sometimes it’s a Protestant, challenging him on some Catholic point of faith, sometimes it’s a Catholic undergoing a period of doubt. But anyway, he takes the time to read their letters, he takes them seriously, and he answers! I find this not simply charming, but true charitable and missionary work. We have so few priests now that their work load is staggering – I am afraid to approach my own pastor, for fear of adding to his load. And yet I hope many of them still get the chance to touch the lives of complete strangers like Msgr. Knox.
I was shocked to see that “eating out spending” is now higher than “grocery store spending”, especially considering how many groceries you can buy with the same money you pay for one meal out: if my family goes out for a good pizza, that can be the equivalent of a week of groceries… And perhaps this hits on another sad note: if you live alone, or just with your “partner”, as we say these days, then perhaps eating out seems cheap enough, very doable, and so tempting. It’s when you start adding all those children that the cost of eating out really makes you think twice before heading out to any kind of restaurant!! So, in a way, it’s not terribly surprising that in a world of shrinking families people end up eating out more on average.
Today is and isn’t the feast of St Thomas: the 1962 calendar celebrates him on the day of his death, March 7th. It’s kind of schizophrenic to try to live by two calendars at the same time, but I can’t let go… Yesterday was Mozart’s birthday. We learned a while ago, I think from a Classical Kids CD, that at his baptism he was also given the name of John Chrysostom (and Theophilus, too, for good measure!) It was only yesterday, glancing at the FSSP calendar, that I saw the reason: the Church used to celebrate St. John Chrysostom on January 27. I hate to miss connections of any kind or bits of history, so two calendars it is for us…
DeirdreLMLD says
I know, that’s the hardest thing about eating out: when you can’t help but think, “I could have made a whole week’s worth of food for this amount of $$!” It has to be REALLY good. 🙂
Jenny says
Mrs. B., that is so interesting about the names and calendars. And yes, about the eating out, too.
Katie says
Deirdre, speaking of your lifetime list of books, I recall that A Girl of the Limberlost is a favorite around LMLD. Well, last week I spied it at my local Goodwill, where the title caught my eye as I scanned the hodgepodge of genres (in with cookbooks and self-help, go figure). I brought it home for pennies, and just finished reading last night. I wouldn’t have known to pick it up had it not been for y’all. Delightful!
I also scored some excellent-condition copies of some excellent children’s books– I almost didn’t even go to the non-picture-book shelves because I didn’t want to ruin my streak; so I almost missed Limberlost! And my local library’s big annual book sale is coming up soon too. Exciting . . .
DeirdreLMLD says
Ahhh that is awesome! Good for you! ‘A Girl of the Limberlost’ is the BEST!