The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
On Epiphany, we chalked our door. The Chief led us in prayer as we shivered in our warmest coats. (More on this custom below from our friend Alice — the chalking, not the shivering!) It's not too late to do yours! You simply need blessed chalk (just get ordinary chalk, even a small piece, and ask a priest to bless it) and the prayers, which you can find here. Auntie Leila says you have until February 2, Candlemas.
I'm probably the only person on the interwebs lame enough to show you Christmas decorations now, but while I was out taking a picture of the door, I had to do it. Bridget arranged everything, using my pinecones that I smuggled home from Sukie's house in Georgia (and then Rosie sent me a box of them too, so I have almost all the giant pinecones a girl could want).
I'm working on my book — which will be this blog, but you know, in book form. I chug along pretty well and then I come to the sort of post in which I show one (funky) way to go about mending a hole in a good blanket. Is any detail too small to include in this book? Or do inquiring minds want to know? (Spoiler: it's going in.) (Unless an editor takes it out.)
On to our links!
- A fabulous 18th century dress, found in perfect condition after many years in a box, worth more than £40,000, according to Antiques Roadshow.
- Against the Universal Basic Income — a short article that points out the flaws of an idea that is gaining ground with many of our social engineers. Mainly, I think it's a mistake ever to cheerfully assume that human nature is not going to continue to be what it has been! “Despite its rising profile among many sharp thinkers, however, this particular approach to welfare reform would create many more problems than it would solve.”
- I'm sharing this exasperating article from the Wall Street Journal about giving a smart phone to kids (I think you will be able to read it the first time you open it, and then it's behind the paywall) so that you are equipped to talk about it with your friends. By the time you get to the end of it, how refreshing is Felice Ahn, with her simple “we're happy to be different”?
- We think of Handel's Messiah as Christmas music, I guess, but it's really a musical recapitulation of Salvation History. Here's a fun article with some things you might not know about it.
- An interesting article questioning the underlying assumptions about how we treat depression as a chemical imbalance to be treated with drugs. The author says:
“If you are depressed and anxious, you are not a machine with malfunctioning parts. You are a human being with unmet needs. The only real way out of our epidemic of despair is for all of us, together, to begin to meet those human needs – for deep connection, to the things that really matter in life.”
I would add to this to take it further: Man is a moral creature. Sometimes our needs are moral! We can be depressed because we need repentance and reconnection with grace. Sometimes the needs are emotional; often they are moral and spiritual.
In the “spiritual musings” category:
- I don't know why the fighting side of Our Lady has been on my mind — perhaps it's the borderline headache-inducing saccharine prose I sometimes come across as relates to Mary, the Mother of God. This post, though not liturgically timely, gave me the bracing tonic I needed: “Mighty Conquering Warrior”: The Queenship of Mary.
“The fact that Our Lady stood under the cross when nearly everyone else fled, and in the darkness of faith offered up her most precious treasure, her own flesh and blood, to the heavenly Father, means that she must have had the strongest human heart in the history of the world, with the greatest supernatural heroism.”
- If you read my “readings” on the two “Spirit of the Liturgy” books, you will know why I loved this short article by Taylor Marshall on St. Athanasius on the Word: The Son of God pervades the Whole of Reality. A beautiful meditation on transcendent reality.
In the “still thinking about Epiphany” category:
- Our favorite medievalist's inquiry into the custom of chalking one's door on the Epiphany: Chalk on the Door.
- Some art notes on the Wise Men.
- The Epiphany scene from the incredible “Great Hours of Anne of Brittany.”
From the archives:
- Standards and Solidarity — make friends now with people in real life, in your community. Talk to them about your hopes and dreams for the future. Share articles and posts (like this one) and encourage each other. In a few years, you will be glad to have a group of parents who kind of hold each other up — and believe me, when the coach says “your kid has to have a phone because I need to text him” you will be happy that your friends are going to agree with you that such an idea is nonsense.
- How to go about making friends? Try a St. Gregory Pocket. There might be one near you!
Today is the feast of St. Hilary of Poitiers! “He could not tolerate that the specious plea of safeguarding peace and unity should be allowed to dim the light of Gospel teaching.”
While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!
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).
Sibyl says
I read the link about chalk on the door, and was so glad. It is a practice that, to me, smacks of superstition. Yet it has always appealed, because I love the idea of asking the Wise Men to pray for our household and all who enter.
By the way, she mentions books to help Catholic parents live the liturgical year, and one of them, Cooking With Christ, is being republished! I have helped edit the revised manuscript and can heartily recommend it. It can be ordered on the Catholic Rural Life website and should be out this month.
Candice says
So looking forward to your book! And yes! Those posts you wrote about the simple things of home have some of the most valuable nuggets of wisdom in them. Find a way to keep them in the book!
Theresa says
Thank you, Leila! I also found this article about smartphone usage, you might find it interesting (it is no surprise to me):
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/17/571443683/the-call-in-teens-and-depression
I look forward to enjoying your links when there is time this weekend for reading – can’t wait for your book!
Theresa
Emily says
I can’t wait for the book!
Yes, it drives me nuts that people think Messiah is only Christmas music. The Lent/Easter section is some of the most gorgeous music I’ve ever heard, especially the setting of Isaiah 53. And of course, “Hallelujah” is the EASTER bit–not the Christmas bit. I try to educate the populace, but alas….
Leila says
Well, Emily, it’s okay — the medievals knew (and Ratzinger teaches in The Spirit of the Liturgy) that every “moment” of Christ’s redemption (every individual moment but also pre-eminently the Moments of Incarnation, Suffering/Death, and Resurrection) contains within it all the others and in art, this fact must somehow be revealed.
So it is fitting that at Christmas we contemplate the WHOLE of Salvation History, as indeed the season helps us to do — especially Epiphany!
How beautiful it all is!
Emily says
Thanks for talking me off my Crazy Music Ledge, Leila. 🙂
Kate says
We’ve been chalking our doors since we married 30 years ago; but we do it on the INSIDE frame above the door. (So, I was really puzzled at first why you were shivering. Is her house that cold? Then I saw your photo.) This year, we only had white blessed chalk which showed up well on the unpainted front door frame, but not on the the painted back door. I voiced my concern that it could not be seen to my husband and suggested we used colored chalk even if it wasn’t blessed. He continued with the chalking in white and dryly said, “The devil will know it’s there.” Yes, indeed. It probably does seem superstitious to people who don’t understand sacramentals. Sometimes, it does seem like Catholicism is one step away from paganism – which is what makes it great and so very human. For a wedding gift, my parents (Benedictine oblates) gave me a large, beautiful St. Benedict’s medal to hang over our front door. It’s a very powerful sacramental against the devil. It’s the first thing I’ve hung whenever we moved into a new house.
AnnyM says
Here in Germany, blessing of the door is a pretty serious custom- regardless of faith-
many times by children carolers dressed up as wise men! I think it’s very sweet, although I feel like most of the charm is lost without the “community” of it. Wouldn’t it be nice to organize a “blessing” day with friends and family and do everyones house together- complete with carols!? Maybe an idea to stash away for down the road when we no longer live here… 🙂
methylethyl says
The cure for saccharine prose is ancient poetry: St. Nektarios of Aegina gives us one of the most spectacular hymns ever written to the Mother of God: the Agni Parthene: There are prettier recordings of it, but this one’s in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV_AJlNcEUo . The words are listed under the video if you click “see more”. “Commanding chief of heavenly hosts, O holiest of holies…” And there’s always the kontakion of the Annunciation (“To thee our captain, queen of war…”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joe5xv29Nqg, and the Akathist hymn to the Theotokos, which can sound really quite strange to the modern ear, but could never be described as saccharine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2IYzQ2Ava4
methylethyl says
PS: The chalking is delightful! I have never seen that before. In the Orthodox church, after Epiphany/Theophany is the time to get the priest to come by and bless the house. But we just use holy water 😉
Annalisa Dunning says
Yes! The Akathist hymn to the Theotokos is amazing. And it is a blessing to me to know some of the chanters in this recording, but I didn’t realize it was available online. Now I can pass it along to others without needing to send a CD. Lovely! Rejoice Flashing symbol of the Resurrection! Rejoice All Holy Chariot of Him who rides on the Cherubim! Rejoice Unwedded Bride!
Cristina Reintjes says
I was really irritated when I read that WSJ article in the paper this morning. I couldn’t figure out the point of it all. To paraphrase, “Cell phones are really bad for children but pretty much everyone is going to give them to their children anyway despite agreeing that they are awful and ruining their lives. Except this one lady.” Um, okay?
BridgetAnn says
Although, that one lady did get the last word. And she highlights that the family should be the center of gravity!
Barbara Juneau says
I could only read a short bit of the cell phone article on NYT before it told me to Subscribe or Sign in..can I get the piece without subscribing to the paper? I would like to read it. Thanks, Barbara
Maya Andrews says
I found it here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/iphones-vs-parents-the-tug-of-war-over-americas-children/ar-AAuBx0N
Barbara Juneau says
Sorry, I meant to put Wall Street Journal, not NYT in my comment above
Catie H says
That article on smartphones is haunting! Is this really how it is now? I am all the more grateful that we are homeschooling.
I had a hard time reading it on WSJ’s page without paying (even on the first click!), but if you google the title you can find and read it through MSN. Is that sneaky? I hope not.
God bless and thank you! I needed to be strengthened in that conviction as my oldest turns 12 today. And it also encourages me to maintain good boundaries with my own smartphone. Any tips, Aunti Leila?
Catie
Elizabeth says
Ah! You answered my question, thank you :). Should have read the comments before asking. I don’t have a smartphone but I find that for me facebook is the biggest source of clicking away and wasting time. So I log out now and try to check facebook only every few days. I know now what my weakness online is and it helps me keep things at bay. If my kids see us parents present and not behind screens, I hope we can lead them better by good example.
Elizabeth says
Is there some sneaky way I can read that Wallstreet Journal article? It is behind a paywall upon first click and this is a topic I think about a lot. Internet is something so new and these children are the first to grow up with smartphones. We haven’t got a clue what all these screens are doing to their still developing brains. It seems to me it’s a giant experiment and the results aren’t looking well…
Toni Graham says
I am so, so, so glad you are writing a book, Leila! Thank you for your work on this!
❤️
Stephanie L Forbes says
So I tried something new this year and I collected my greens from outside to bring in. I went outside armed with my clippers and found the greenery I wanted! I was tired of packing away fake garland, and my whole family really liked it…it just felt more festive. Thank you for sharing your Christmas decor and giving us all the ok to keep it up until Candlemas! I love your joy in the simple and beautiful, like getting excited over giant pinecones. Yes, when we are being intentional with our space for our people, pinecones are something to be excited about. God Bless