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.)
Phil's book Lost Shepherd came out last week. We were in DC for an event, and Phil was being interviewed by Raymond Arroyo on The World Over. I think if you watch that interview (the part with Phil starts at around the 20-minute mark) you will get a good idea of how he reluctantly came to the realization that the book had to be written. There have been a plethora of radio interviews and book reviews — be sure to read this one.
I had the pleasure of getting together with the St. Greg's Pocket that Sukie had started when she lived in the area. What a fantastic group of ladies! And about a bajillion little kids!
These women understand the importance of sharing good reading and discussion as well as taking care of each other in neighborly ways — bringing each other meals, watching each other's kids when there's a doctor's appointment, and helping each other live the Liturgical Year. Even though their group is probably more in flux than others, due to the area, they will find in ten or fifteen years' time that they are very grateful for the community they will have made.
Awhile back I explained about the St. Gregory Pocket:
You need friends — a good solid community — for the future.
So, maybe we [here at LMLD] can’t meet all of you [although we'd love to!], but we can help you meet each other!
You don’t want to have to join a club or drive an hour or go to a conference just to meet someone who shares your faith and your desire to live differently. You definitely don’t want to make all your friends online.
You want to find the women in your area who share your goals and your philosophy.
The St. Gregory’s Pockets are just that — little “pockets” of people in a given geographical area. Pockets of people who would like to get together naturally, to share the seasons together, to help out when a mom has a new baby or someone is sick, to have kids who can play together, to have picnics where men can talk to other men who care about raising strong families in a counter-cultural way.
One of the links below is about a Czech dissident, Václav Benda, who noted that totalitarianism is resisted primarily by two means: the family and the small societies and groups of friends that build up the bonds of solidarity without the taint of politicization or commodification.
But — it will be much better to nurture such bonds before we find ourselves under the cloud of some sort of tyranny, for perhaps then we may stave it off and spare ourselves and society a desperate fate.
At our other event we had a lovely conversation with John Cuddeback of Bacon from Acorns fame, and his wife Sofia. When I mentioned my devotion to John Henry Newman, he brought up Newman's gift for friendship, which I'm sure Václav Benda would agree is the virtue that makes us whole in our relations with each other and helps us resist overwhelming power. You can read a short essay by Fr. Juan R. Vélez on Newman and Friendship here.
On to (more!) links:
- Jane Austen demonstrates that marriage gives sexual love its meaning! And frankly, the marriage plot is what makes for a great novel! If it were me I'd make my teenagers read this article, but of course, they first have to read dear Jane, because there are spoilers. (I am the object of laughter in my family because I had no idea of how either Pride and Prejudice or Emma would end! Totally did not see either of those matches coming! So I feel protective of your possibly equally clueless — but probably not — offspring.)
- A good article about chant in liturgy My thought about chant and polyphony is that neither is so very difficult if the culture supports them. Children can be taught both. Search this blog for our many posts about “garage scholas” and chant. And then those children who love it and are good at it will be the music leaders in about ten years, which isn't so very long after all.
- Lost art of bending over. It is a good idea not to be droopy, posture-wise. This is a challenge for me.
“And so Mayor Hidalgo’s first high-rise, the Triangle Tower, will be built in the 15th arrondissement. Shaped like an enormous, flattened pyramid, it will challenge the Eiffel Tower for dominance of the skyline. Neighborhood residents violently oppose it. The project’s Swiss architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, are thrilled. ‘This evocation of the urban fabric of Paris,' they offer, ‘at once classic and coherent in its entirety and varied and intriguing in its details, is encountered in the facade of the Triangle. Like a classical building, this one features two levels of interpretation: an easily recognizable overall form; and a fine, crystalline silhouette of its facade, which allows it to be perceived variously.'
“Like so much else written about new architecture, this is nonsense. The building does not evoke the urban fabric of Paris. To the contrary, as NKM correctly observed, the urban fabric of Paris is low and classical. The triangle is neither a classical building nor is it ‘like one'; it is antithetical in shape, scale, proportion, texture, material, and ornament to the principles of classical architecture, to say nothing of height. Not one such structure existed in antiquity.”
- Where are the poor? asks Dominicana Journal. A 2009 study makes “a quizzical suggestion: ‘the social atmosphere of many parishes may no longer be inviting to low-income Catholics.'” Catholics who attend Mass after Vatican II have become of one social stratum only, and the poor have dropped away.
“The Church teaches that the “preferential option for the poor” must prioritize the spiritual dimension of the person…” The article references a piece by Matthew Schmitz,in which he says:
“Mary Douglas, a great anthropologist and devout Catholic, saw this coming. When the bishops of England and Wales lifted the obligation for Friday abstinence, they suggested there was something untoward in the gusto with which Irish labourers observed the fast. Surely, the bishops believed, such outward observance would be better replaced by the more careful and thoughtful cultivation of an interior state of penitence and sorrow, perhaps complemented by a charitable gift?”
- A long read, but a good one to go along with thinking about the St. Gregory Pocket — an interview with Flagg Taylor, author of a book about Václav Benda, a Czech dissident. As Taylor says, “The totalitarian temptation is very much with us in a variety of forms so his experience and thoughts are more relevant for us than we might think. He was particularly thoughtful about what we might call the theory and practice of dissent.”
“Like Kolakowski, Benda understood that the means for achieving the fictive totalitarian unity directed by the state included the breaking down of social bonds developed freely and naturally, from below, by the people themselves.
“Benda thought that people needed to be reminded of what they had lost with communism, that the Charter could help foster the rediscovery of meaningful social life. This is what he called the parallel polis. The Charter community ought to dedicate itself to developing parallel social structures to the official ones. This would reactivate people’s social natures. They could rediscover the deep rewards of friendship and devotion.
From the archives:
- Recovering a sense of satisfaction by making time to be creative. (In this case it was quilting, but it could be anything!)
Today is the commemoration of various saints and martyrs. Tomorrow we observe Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent in which a bit of celebration can take place! Maybe a little cake?
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).
Janet says
Leila,
Right before I clicked here on LMLD to check in for a new post, I came from the Amazon site where I just-this-minute ordered “Lost Shepherd”! I saw your husband with Raymond Arroyo and knew I had to read his book. I am heartsick over some of the things I am hearing coming out of Rome these days – fuzzy, confusing grey-area statements. I am involved in religious education and always look at such matters as, “how would I teach or explain this?” Increasingly, I am at a loss to explain what I read, particularly when the issue is marriage. When I talk about this to my Presbyterian husband, he always says, “What would JPII or Benedict say?” Indeed.
Leila says
Janet, thanks for buying the book. I hope you — I won’t say enjoy it, but find it helpful and thought-provoking. There is so much confusion right now — Christianity is being tested and the world is spiraling out of control. May God come to our aid!
Stephanie says
So…I wonder about the fruit that will come from a book like this with this particular title or the fruit that will come from an interview such as that. I am one of those unlearned ones Raymond speaks about, I can’t wrap my head around the doctrine at times, so Im starting to get the feeling I’m sometimes not Catholic enough? Am I naive to see a Pope who wants us to invite the mess and dirty and spiritually starving to our table? The only place this Pope has truly made me uncomfortable is that he has asked me time and again to go to the periphery…he wants me to stink of fish like the fisherman…and I wonder do I truly seek the lost? You said it in your beautiful book Leila..we are beggars who know where the warm bread is!! Maybe I will order a copy to write a better comment, but I can certainly agree with one thing…your husband invites us to pray for our Pope! Yes!
Leila says
Stephanie, the way of being Christian that you are talking about is simply THE WAY. It’s not particular to Pope Francis. However, what good does it do to our neighbor if we do not bring him the essential message of Our Lord, “Repent, and believe the Gospel”? Our Lord accompanied those who were his friends. Those who were lost He called to Himself, or went and found — and brought back. Read the Gospel to correct the idea of a following Jesus by renouncing Him.
This is what is in my husband’s book: the duty to speak up, to save the lost.
In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ problematic exhortation on the family, this from St. Thomas Aquinas was quoted:
“Everyone is bound to live agreeably with those around him.”
But the rest of the quote was left out:
“… unless it should be necessary for him for some reason to cause them profitable sadness at some time.”
Diana says
WOW, I didn’t even know your husband wrote books! And am I reading correctly that he is also the founder of Crisis Magazine, one of my all-time-favorite sites on the web?? Oh, boy – so exciting on both accounts! Congrats – I can’t wait to read the book!!
Diana says
Since I’m seeing some criticism here over criticizing the Pope, I thought I’d chime in: As a Protestant who admires many Catholic positions, I have been deeply, deeply disappointed in Pope Francis. He is leading millions astray. I am so thankful that there are Catholics willing to admit this and write about it openly. Yes, love your leaders and pray for your leaders, but don’t follow them blindly.
Kimberlee says
The Benda article provides much to chew on. A couple of lines really jumped out at me: “the Bendas thought that one must always distinguish between truth and lies. They wanted their children to be able to make such distinctions.” Imagine that! Recent surveys suggest young people today are still enamored with communism, and the article notes “it survives in the hearts and minds of many people who have neither experience of the phenomenon nor familiarity with its history,” which frighteningly gets coupled with students’ “lack of knowledge and genuine understanding about our country’s principles, its institutions, and its past.” All the more reason to pursue home/private education.
I think it’s delightful to read Jane Austen without a clue to the plots developments, and my high school student notes “the reason all the best stories are about love and marriage is because marriage is the most romantic thing, because it has worst consequences when you do it wrong (to paraphrase GKC).”
Oh, and I can’t imagine an American bending over in public like that video. Thank you, as always for all the links! PS Of course we are thinking about babka already – doesn’t everyone spend Lent thinking about food? 😉
Leila says
Kimberlee, thanks for these comments — and yes, I agree about the bending — it seems really awkward!! But no doubt better for one’s health of course (isn’t that the way). As to food, um, yes, I’m personally also planning all the cheeseburgers haha!
Flagg Taylor says
Thanks for reading and linking to the Benda article!! I’m glad people are founding out about their courage!
Helena says
I am so very disappointed, what a shame.
Elizabeth says
I don’t follow church news to be honest… so I am one uneducated little Catholic. But I do believe the Holy Father was chosen by God, or at least, that his election was lead by God. So that’s why I want to love my pope and pray for him, no matter who he is. During my lifetime I’ve seen two other popes at work and both of them rubbed people the wrong way. I just prefer to think (and trust) that God gave the world this particular Holy Father for a reason.
Leila says
Elizabeth, we love the pope and pray for him as well.
You don’t have to read the book of course.
You might be interested in what Pope Benedict had to say about the idea that God chooses the Pope directly in the sense you seem to mean, that he can do no wrong or can never be corrected: Ironically, one of the most famous comments about the actions of the Spirit in a conclave came from the person who is now the Pope Emeritus. In 1997, when asked on Bavarian television whether or not the Spirit chooses the pope, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger answered:
“I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope…I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”
Then the German theologian got to the heart of the matter: “There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit obviously would not have picked!”
http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/11/does-the-holy-spirit-choose-the-pope/
Consider also that in the time of the Arian heresy, Blessed John Henry Newman reminds us that it was the ordinary baptized layman who called the bishops to defend the faith. The difference, I would suggest to you, between critics of Saint John Paul and Pope Benedict and those of Pope Francis is that the former welcomed doctrinal change (and even change about human nature itself, as in the case of contraception) and the latter seek to defend the words of Jesus in the Gospel, doctrine, and the nature of reality.
Mary says
I am so very disappointed to see this open criticism of our dear Holy Father, even when I understand that it comes from a place of affection and prayer. I am similarly troubled by many of the things I hear coming from the Vatican, and I know that addressing these issues is very delicate. However, it seems to me that those saints who have found it necessary to correct the Pope in the past have done so by addressing him directly, rather than by fomenting division and discontent within the Church as a whole. Perhaps this idea–writing to the Pope directly–will appear antiquated and ineffectual, but I merely counter that many notions championed by the Church (and by this blog) bear the same objections.
St Thomas More, pray for us!
St Catherine of Siena, pray for us!
Rita Helen says
Many people I believe have written Pope Francis, including bishops, asking for clarification or offering respectful correction. As far as I am aware it has done no good.
If the Pope is giveing a bad example or causing confusion sometimes it is necessary to warn people so to speak.
The Pope is a person too and capable of failing or being misled.
Janet says
Writing to the Pope is absolutely not antiquated but it seems to be ineffectual. Four cardinals did just that in November of 2016 due to “deep pastoral concerns” to clear up the “grave disorientation and great confusion” caused by the apostolic exhortation about remarriage and reception of the Holy Eucharist, “Amoris Laetitia”. Pope Francis was presented with 5 questions, or “dubia” (doubts) that many people besides these churchmen had after reading the document. As of this date, the dubia have not been answered and there doesn’t appear to be any plan to do so. You can read more about it at the National Catholic Register:
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/four-cardinals-formally-ask-pope-for-clarity-on-amoris-laetitia
This is just one example of statements or comments that have caused more confusion than clarity. I don’t anyone expressing concern about these manners without great deliberation and some sorrow.
Rebecca says
I’m so happy to see the Crisis Mag article on polyphony and chant making the rounds! John Paul Meenan (the author) was a beloved professor of my husband and I and still a dear friend. We also really enjoyed Phil’s interview with Raymond Arroyo. We greatly admire them both!
hayley says
Thank you to your husband for daring to speak out .. He has put into words what so many of us are thinking.
Josie says
I thought the interview was excellent. I’m thankful for it and for Mr. Lawler’s courage! And I love the Pope and have always tried to defend him, but as soon as I say the words I get this sinking feeling that I’m pretending, being cheap somehow. Yet I honestly can’t figure out what his aims are, which is most definitely confusing. Bringing things to the light is our duty. I actually often think I’m shirking my duty when I shy away from those conversations in an attempt “not to criticize”. To not bring this stuff up seems dishonest, like a sin of omission. The Pope is the leader of a flock made up of the world not a family of four. He’s a big boy, he is ready to accept constructive criticism. I would suggest Mr. Lawler loves the Pope more than many of us say we do.
Anamaria says
Really loved the NPR article on bending! I do that when I’m too lazy/it’s inappropriate to squat, but never have read any affirmation of this.
Lisa Beth W. says
I am one very concerned Protestant with regard to Pope Francis. It seems quite obvious to me that he is being used as an agent of satan in the church. To me, this is one of the problematic areas in Catholicism, when a mere fallible human being is allowed to have so much influence over so many people, even when it’s blatantly obvious that he is going contrary to Scripture. I’m glad your husband is willing to point out error and I hope that God leads him to clarification on many more issues within Roman Catholicism.