The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
We have winners of the giveaway of the three liturgical living books — one here, one on Facebook, and one on Instagram! (Be sure to follow there for other opportunities!)
If you won, an email is wending its way to you.
If you didn't win, I have a code for you, just for our readers! Go to Sophia and enter Cooking30. You will receive 30% off your order of the three books, Cooking with the Saints, The Little Oratory, and Around the Year with the von Trapp Family (or any of the three if you don't want all three).
These books make the perfect gift for anyone starting their life as a Christian, wanting to start again, getting married, baptizing a baby… you get the idea. I only wish I had had them when I started out! (Had to write one of them to get it!)
On to our links!
- Expressing, as only Chesterton can, how elites must keep their privilege in mind, lest they destroy life for the rest of us: No Place Like Home.
“For the truth is that to the moderately poor the home is the only place of liberty. Nay, it is the only place of anarchy. It is the only spot on the earth where a man can alter arrangements suddenly, make an experiment or indulge in a whim.”
I would say that the ordinary man actually does not want to be given a home — he wants to earn it! We can make it possible, however, for him to do that, if we hold it as a goal.
- John Cuddeback on Becoming a Better Lover.
- I don't know who among us has the energy to fight public libraries, but they are locally controlled and the scope is there for the ordinary citizen, working with other ordinary citizens, to restore order. Thinking here not only of relentless LGBT-agenda matters, but even of tarot workshops for teens, promotion of YA lit, and general deviation from the true purpose of the institution. What we are up against: Top US library group colludes with local librarians to ‘sneak’ LGBT content to kids and a “toolkit” that might explain some things on the shelves that you have no idea how they could have gotten there. I could see a St. Greg's Pocket mustering up a few people to join a Friends of the Library group or run for library board, though! That could work!
- Peter Kwasniewski unfolds Rublev: This 15th-century Russian icon is a window into the Holy Trinity
I have delved into this icon with my classes of 7-11 year olds, during the season of Pentecost. Children are full of wonder and sit totally absorbed as you speak to them of these mysteries, especially if you read the story of the three men who visit Abraham with them, from Scripture. You can make a stencil of the outlines of the three angels and have them trace onto a nice piece of card stock; then they can embellish with the symbols and colors for themselves — you can get inspiration from this post.
- Speaking of religious instruction, I have always recommended using the Baltimore Catechism with children above the age of reason. In this post, a priest makes a good point for those parents who are trying to make up for the laxity and lack of good doctrine of our age on the subject of scrupulosity. His advice highlights the role of affection in the family. All firmness must be balanced with affection! The fact that God loves us (and loves us right into being and keeps us there) is most exemplified by the love that parents have for their children. Don't fall into the error of coldness when you are trying to confront the lawlessness of our time! Firm and warm.
- The exciting story of Msgr. Flaherty, “The Vatican Pimpernel“! (Sorry, you have to register to read.). Relatedly, make sure you have read the actual story of The Scarlet Pimpernel (affiliate link, but try to find an old hardback copy if you can)! Great read-aloud for your older children. I also love the movie but which one was it?
From the archives:
- I'm suddenly getting a lot of emails about three-year-olds.
- Some of those fancy-shmancy cooking sites try to tell you how to clean your cast-iron pans, but my way is best. (Pro-tip, really, don't use vegetable oil. I get that some people are vegetarian, but vegetable oils won't work to cure your pan — they will simply gunk them up. You could use flaxseed oil.)
Today is the feast of St. Thomas More! This begins the “June Triduum” — the three feasts that beautifully demonstrate the glory of creation and particularly of marriage. This weekend, take a little time to celebrate summer's glory at the solstice with this cosmic spiritual reality!
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).
Michele says
The movie of The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican is called The Scarlet and the Black.The book is better, but the movie is pretty good.
Leila says
I don’t think so — the Scarlet and the Black is another (also awesome!) story about the French Revolution. The movie is the Scarlet Pimpernel but there are several versions and I don’t have the time to look them up right now 🙂
Bernadette says
“The Scarlett and the The Black” is the title of the movie starring Gregory Peck, telling of the life of Monsigneur O’Flaherty. (Peck also makes a great priest in “The Keys of the Kingdom,” based on the novel of the same title by A. J. Cronin!)
Stendhal’s novel, “Le Rouge et le Noir” is variously translated as “The Red and the Black” (this what my copy is titled) or “The Scarlet and the Black.”
Heather says
Our family favorite is the 1980s version with Jane Seymour and Anthony Andrews. Andrews did such a memorable job!
Leila says
Heather, I think this is what I am remembering! So fun! But could it have been made SO long ago? Sheesh, I’m getting old!
Meghan Jones says
Yes! The Jane Seymour version is the best! We just recently watched it again…so, so, so good. My oldest daughter has read the first 2? 3? Scarlet Pimpernel books.
Anel Vlok says
Would it be a good idea to hang a print of the Holy Trinity icon in our home as artwork study, Ambleside online style, for our children (and us)? Or would that be crass/disrespectful? I have seen it before and it was the subject i think last year of our church’s Bible study group around this time. It is mesmerizing. Full of beauty.
Leila says
Hanging a beautiful icon is always a good idea 🙂
And learning more about the beautiful objects you display is also always a good idea!
Kate says
The movie “Scarlet Pimpernel” is about the French Revolution. It’s melodramatic and silly at times. “The Scarlet and the Black” is about Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty in WWII and stars Gregory Peck.
If parents want an alternative to the Baltimore Catechism, try to find the “Learn of Me” religion serious. It’s out-of-print and I don’t think it has been reprinted. The author, Josephine Van Dyke Brownson, wrote the series in the 1930s as an alternative to mere rote memorization. I stumbled across a few volumes at a yard sale many years ago and have since filled out the series from online purchases. I think her presentation is more in line with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Other religion books I prefer are “Christopher’s Talks to Little Ones” and “Christopher’s Talks to Children” – both which were reprinted by Neumann Press (which I think was bought out by TAN/St, Benedict Press). You can also find old hardback copies online. I ditched the Baltimore Catechism approach a long time ago. It made religion seem as dry as memorizing the multiplication tables.
Anamaria says
Thank you! My oldest is still below the age of reason but already seems prone to scrupulous thinking- “so-and-so brought ham sandwiches but it’s Friday. Is that ok?” And mention of it months later… she’s been in cgs since 2 1/2 but I haven’t been sure what to do later!
And yes Gregory Peck in the Scarlet and the Black! If I remember correctly the book wasn’t very well written but interesting enough to keep reading!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_and_the_Black
jadeddrifter says
Oh, thank you for the recommendation. I love the children’s Baltimore Catechisms, but not for kids under 9 or 10.
I have been using Seton’s catechisms for the younger grades, and am unhappy with them (I think they really talk down to the child) but wasn’t sure what else was out there. I had asked around but no one really knew of anything else. I ordered book 4 of the series to see what it’s like.
Leila M. Lawler says
When I recommend the BC, I *always* say that it is an outline for the parent/teacher, not a text to be read straight through, and yes, not for children under the age of reason. ONE chapter can take weeks. It is very good and healthy for children to repeat the statements as set up, but before you get to that point, there is a lot of discussing, Scripture reading, and teaching that has to happen.
I do still recommend it. I think it’s important for there to be the grounding of God’s love for the child before you even get there!
Anel Vlok says
Thanks Leila. It makes sense. I’m afraid I know no like minded friends who would *touch* the CCC unfortunately. But I can still get is, and do some prompting. Here you have to pray for a miracle, please. No one I know is remotely researching catholicism. The revulsion is deeply ingrained. I’m not a good example of my culture in this respect. I’ve tried challenging the standard “they worship Mary” and “they are too full of rules, and too little faith”… to little avail.
Also, I have tried to leave a comment with regards to studying the Trinity icon. Would you please check it out? Tx so much. Sorry if I’m draining.. Truly.
Leila says
Anel, You’d be surprised what you can get away with when you say something like “let’s take a look at this together and see what it is all about.” Even with one friend…
Or if you say, I am going to have a study group with the kids. Or just do it with your own kids. Sometimes we have to do that!
jadeddrifter says
So, I read the first three chapters of “Living Water” Book Six of the “Learn of Me” series. I am sorry to say that I have some concerns about it. In the first chapter, the author says that God loves most the person who loves Him the most. This sounds like pelagianism to me. In the third chapter, the author says that the angels did not have the beatific vision until after the battle between the good and bad angels. I don’t believe this is what tradition says? I believe that the angels did posses the beatific vision from the beginning and this is what made the sin of the demons so egregious. My other concern is that this book is talking down to 11-year-olds, must like the Seton texts that I don’t care for. I also had a sense that it was emotionally blackmailing the child at times.
It seems that Leila’s method (and Charlotte Mason’s) may be the best, tried-and-true way: read lots of scripture and quality literature and use the Baltimore Catechism as the child gets older and needs more formal instruction.
This momma only wishes that there was something pre-packaged to help me be sure I’ve hit all the bases in the early years without having to think about it. *BOOHOO*
Anel Vlok says
Also, if one is fairly certain that one’s child is not being catechised very well with the eye on confirmation (in our church the year they turn 18), what is a parent to do? I’m wary of just applying to church and catechesis what one could apply to public school, losing in effect the community of believers and, dare I say, falling prey to religious pride in one self, perhaps instigating it in children of a certain temperament?
I am a protestant and I’m truly worried about the state of the body of Christ, divided as it is, bad leadership is rife everywhere. I would even dare to say that we should start speaking of Christians and not Catholics or Protestants per se, as every God searching Christian I know, is alarmed at the state of the church.
I digress… I am searching and researching and literally do not know where to turn.
But I’m far more worried for my children than for myself.
Should we just go to church, have them catechised, and then try and mend the damage at home, or how do we do this in this day and age?
I don’t know if I’m making *any* sense and I know I have been hamering on this elsewhere.
I might just be obtuse…
Thanks for great links.
Leila says
Anel, the parents are responsible for the formation of the children, ultimately. The Church is supposed to be leading and helping in this endeavor. I recommend that you obtain a Catechism of the Catholic Church (yes, even though you are Protestant) and begin reading it yourself.
It is certainly something that can be read, slowly, with high schoolers. I suggest getting together a small group of like-minded families and get the dad and mom who are the most on fire with the need to catechize to lead. Meet once a week. Ideally girls and boys would be separate. Tea and cookies for the girls one afternoon a week; football and lemonade for the boys.
I would not leave it to trying to “undo” bad catechesis. In the end, the peer group wins.
Anel Vlok says
My actual reply posted elsewhere. Sorry. 🙂
Cirelo says
Where did you find your reference desk left of your mantle? I’ve been looking for something just like it and can never find just the thing I have in my mind and there it is, look, you have it!!!
Also, S&B with Peck is a great film!
Leila M. Lawler says
Cirelo, I got it long ago at a little gift/furniture type shop that was near another store I frequented. I never go into that type of store, haha! But I had wanted that piece of furniture so badly, to put a dictionary on! And they had it.
You could also look for a nice wooden book stand and put it on top of a small but tallish side table. Desk hack 🙂
Shari says
Thank you Leila for including the article about scrupulous thinking. It was most helpful and something that would pertain to us.
Gina brown says
Auntie Leila, I confess that book excursions make me sad. While libraries and bookstores filled me with wonder and awe as a child, they bring me nothing but grumbles today. I have to know the titles and authors that I am after, and now I am wise enough to look in advance as to whether they have those that I seek. A frequent pastime of my 17-year marriage is the bookstore or library. Never did these visits trouble me until I tried to find titles for my children to read. Until I found your blog I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS IN MY HEAD… Ever since I realized that I could not find age-appropriate, quality books everywhere I went I have been meticulously following your blog suggestions to scoop up what I can afford. I create my own bookstore/ library at my house. It does not stop my longing for my children to have even what I had at the library as a child. It does not stop me for pining for good titles when I stop into Barnes and Noble. I should know better by now. I homeschool. We are a rebellious lot to start, as you well know. Before that, I taught sixth grade reading and took my students weekly to the library at a public school, and served on my city’s library board. Our librarian collected her board members well. All agreed with her wild choices. Except for me. I think that we have to create our own libraries and bookstores. Just like we create our own own classrooms and domestic churches. And stay home, as Chesterton suggested. Even though I only just realized it with your posts today, maybe that is just what God is calling us to do…
Thanking God for the refuge of your blog here!!! May God bless your family’s work!!
Leila says
Gina, so true — a bookstore is a wasteland! Or worse! Hang in there — and what about a St. Greg’s Pocket?
Angelique says
My daughter struggles with scrupulosity. I still like the Baltimore catechism, but it is absolutely ESSENTIAL that I read the lessons out loud along with her so I can explain and reassure at any tricky points. Really, you are de facto your children’s spiritual director, and to do a good you job must know their temperaments and weaknesses. Different children need different emphases.
Leila M. Lawler says
Yes, agreed. The BC is an outline. I would never hand it to a child.
By the way, as the child’s spiritual director, you can say to your daughter, “I will let you know if this is really a problem. Until then, just be peaceful. THIS IS YOUR DUTY :)”
Also, scrupulosity has a specific definition — one aspect is feeling that one has never quite fulfilled the penance given. I recently saw a wonderful remedy offered by the priest: He says the prayer he gives as a penance WITH the person — comes out of the confessional, kneels down, and says it with him. Then he says, “Now we both know you did it!” Beautiful.
Stephanie says
In addition to being helpful/practical, this practice (by the priest following Confession) is very touching and moving! Thank you for sharing, Auntie Leila!