The giveaway of Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timelessness of the Traditional Latin Mass (affiliate link) by Peter Kwasniewski is closed!
If you won, and there are three of you, you will be receiving an email from us!
If you did not win, I urge you to buy the book, in whatever form you think best. (I know it's a little pricey but the Kindle version would work fine.)
I would love to know what you think about it — about the analysis that it offers on the subject of Tradition and the changes the Mass has undergone in the past 50 or so years. If you are reading it now, feel free to comment here with any thoughts you may be having!
Also, please leave an Amazon review — even a short one! It makes a lot of difference in helping others to find the book when they are doing a search.
I confess that in the past, when I have offered my thoughts on worship, I have had to have a little mental reservation (or sometimes a big one), knowing that in so many places there is nothing approaching what we ought to have. If evangelization is one beggar telling another where to find bread, the message is made much more complicated if the baker is not on the job.
When I read Peter's book, I had an overwhelming sense of fittingness in his explanations, offered with so much clarity. I found myself yearning for the stability and peace that only walking in old paths can bring. I think the yearning in itself is the first and necessary stage in obtaining from God what He wants to give us.
bits & pieces
- A tour de force: Gunhild Carling singing Happy and playing 10 instruments (including, yes, jazz bagpipes) and tapdancing! FUN ALERT! (also clean — wacky, but clean!)
- I so enjoyed this article on humor by Fr. Jerry Pokorsky: The tragedy of neglecting comedy.
- Fr. Mankowski is always worth a read (even if you missed it almost a year ago!). Most of us don't read Hebrew, Greek, or even Latin, so we are at the mercy of the translator. What are the criteria? What constitutes a good translation — of Scripture? What do we get out of a translation? Sometimes too much…
“… there is a deeper point to be made. As long as our knowledge of the Bible is imperfect, much of our translation and exegesis must remain conjectural. Yet where the original phrasing is preserved in translation, the reader or homilist is at liberty to follow his own lights in recapturing its meaning, whereas the explanatory translations cut him off from other possibilities.”
I am also grateful to have been pointed to, and have already adopted as my unified theory of what is wrong with our age, “the heresy of explanation.” This compact diagnosis is from Robert Alter, author of the book under review.
- If you are interested in Peter Kwasniewski's book, and in the idea of restoration of Tradition in general, perhaps this film project would be something you'd want to look into: Mass of the Ages
from the archives
10 Reasons Not to Have Separate Finances — there are good reasons to share your worldly goods when you're married. (Fun note: this post of mine is being translated into Croatian!)
A throwback to {pretty happy funny real} days, with spray-painting, sewing, and gardening amusements (which I still enjoy!)
Now more than ever, we are going to need our circle of trust and our pocket of friends. Here's how to go about it if you don't have it: The St. Gregory Pockets.
liturgical year
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Victoria says
Thanks for sharing the Mass of the Ages link, I hadn’t heard about it yet. The interview Cameron did with Scott Hahn is also very good. I was surprised that he is commenting on liturgy issues, but I’m glad he did because his wisdom uplifted me.
A. says
Auntie Leila, I have a question that I believe you and the readers of this blog can help me with – what laundry basket should I buy? I have a clothes line and so I am frequently (well, from May-September) hauling heavy loads of wet laundry from the basement to the backyard. None of the plastic ones I have bought have stood the test, the handles are always breaking and I patch them with duct tape. Should I buy another plastic one and just reinforce the handles somehow? Go for one of the fancy wicker ones and hope they don’t mold? Buy a wire basket and pad the handles so they don’t cut me? Use a giant Rubbermaid tub only for the wet stuff? Help! All advice and product recommendations gratefully received!
Dixie says
Ugh, laundry baskets are the worst. Do you use big baskets, or small? I have found that switching to smaller
baskets improves things, even though it means more trips. I use the Sterilite square 1.5-bushel ones.
A. says
My current baskets look pretty normal-sized to me, but they are rectangular and not square. My washing machine is not large, it’s a stacking front loader due to the tiny space for a machine available in our basement. The problem is really only the handles, which break away from the basket right where the two come together. I am thinking I will probably buy the sturdiest plastic basket I can find and then reinforce the handles with dowels or something, so that when the plastic wants to flex it can’t . . . I will look into square baskets though!
Lucy says
I use enameled beverage tubs like these. I have had them for 6 years and they are still like new, even with 4 kids. The handles make it easy for even a toddler to carry them. My original ones were from Hobby Lobby, and came in different patterns, and over the years I have added them in several colors. The solid container means they don’t get dirt in the bottom when taken out to the clothesline. I don’t live in a very humid climate, and my kids are well trained to bring anything damp straight to the washer.
https://www.target.com/p/6-6gal-steel-small-beverage-tub-white-sun-squad-8482/-/A-77657092
Leila M. Lawler says
Ah! I have had my baskets for so long! Who even knows where I got them?? But they probably don’t make them. Which is sad, because they obviously last! They were just the normal plastic ones from whatever the store was back then… Ames? Like some now-defunct store that was replaced by Walmart. I’ll try to see if they exist.
Leila M. Lawler says
The ones I have are like this one: https://amzn.to/2ZynfXX (affiliate link) or the Sterlite one that is displayed when you scroll down. On some of them maybe the handle cap thingy breaks off, but basically they have lasted for 20-30 years… don’t know if they are still made the same way. I see they do have them at Walmart (and probably Target). The plastic on mine is very thick and sturdy, not thin.
They are not beautiful and aesthetic, but they last, stay clean, are relatively light, of a good size, and stack (if you get the same kind).