A parents anthem

Fr. Neuhaus RIP

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus of First Things passed away this week, January 8. For those of us interested in literature, Christian writing, theology, intelligent ecumenism, and the interaction of faith and culture, this is a day where a titan has gone to his reward.

To me, Fr. Neuhaus idealized all that a priest should be. He was active in causes that many would see as politically inconsistent. He was active in Civil Rights and ecumenism as well as providing a forum for orthodox thinkers. He carried himself as a very masculine intellectual, and was a true role model in a time when the priesthood was in crisis.

Book `em

I laughed.

Everyone at the table looked at me, puzzled.

I told them to just wait a few minutes and they would understand.

The occasion was an exchange of gifts post-Christmas. Daughter and son-in-law had not been with us Christmas Day - they had gone out of state to his grandparents - so we were exchanging gifts a few days later.

I had gotten each of my daughters the same book. Being a fan of Chesterton and a Secular Franciscan, and concerned that all three of my little birds were straying from the Church, I decided to give then a book that was important in my own faith life and discovery of Chesterton - Chesterton's biography of St. Francis. The book seemed particularly appropriate with this daughter, as she was named after Clare of Assisi.

Emerging from the wrapping of the gift Clare had given me was ... you've already guessed I'm sure ... a copy of Chesterton's biography of St. Francis. The exact same edition I'd gotten her.

"I know you like Chesterton and St. Francis," she explained.

So I laughed.

A few moments she unwrapped her gifts and found her copy.

She laughed.

She is my daughter.

I think Chesterton would have appreciated it.

I have now begun rereading it - it has been many years since I had done so. I hope she reads her copy, too.

Barra on GKC

Allen Barra published a piece about GKC in the Wall Street Journal last week. When I edited Gilbert Magazine, Barra would occasionally write to me and even sent me an autographed copy of one of his books. Needless to say, this doesn't mean I know the man by any stretch, but based on that limited correspondence, free book, and things I've read by him, I'd say he's a real decent guy.

And it's a real decent piece, along with a new caricature of GKC. Check it out.

Happy New Year

Resolutions have become cliche', but in terms of my reading, I really want to get more into Belloc this year. His St. Joan of Arc is something that Ive deleted out of a shopping cart numerous times when Ive been ordering books online. I click with his personality in some ways, he reminds me of some people I served under in the Army .

In terms of Chesterton, it has been years since I read Fr. Brown, and it is time to go back again. Ive read a number of different books this way. Its amazing how those couple years of life experience in between reads change what you notice and what jumps out at you.

In terms of the larger world, this is going to be an interesting 2009. I think the trend in government is toward leviathan institutions when the observable facts of the matter is that smaller local banks have fared better than the massive institutions.

I think the "culture war" really has entered another phase, but one more of blood and soil than debate and rhetoric. I think the palpable truth of humble responsible living speaks to all much like St. Francis said, without words. There is a conclusion I have heard Peter Kreeft defend in his online talks often, an opinion that many of my non-religious military friends who have seen the bad part of the world think of as well. It seems that certain ideas and ideaologies can be conceived only by a decadent, spoiled, egotistic, and elitist people. When the power of money and the power of being powerful is shown for the illusion that it is, the phantom worldview that such views espouse likewise loses its luster.

This here is very interesting, and perhaps an omen of future change.....There is a demand from a small group in France to have the Verdee' massacre declared a genocide. I think most of us in traditional circles know that those who claim that contemporary secularists have taken us out of the age of religious bloodshed are sorely mistaken. Secular and atheist governments have spilled more blood than centuries of inquisitions combined. This is an interesting stirring to have this debated in mainstream Europe.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas....

Im not saying anything new here today, just pointing my finger towards some magnificent others...

Here is Kevin O'Brien's Theater of the Word Youtube channel. I spoke with Kevin briefly at the GKC Conference a couple years ago, not aware of who he was and was very impressed....even before I knew I was supposed to be. These guys are doing some terrific work. Its wonderful to be around this type of energy.

And now........the paradox.......

Here is Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ on his show, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Here is a video from a Canadian Prof. Chycho, a mathematics instructor offering remedial training on Youtube. Shut your eyes and listen to both of these men and you will find that their voice, intonation, passion, and delivery are close to equal....at least they sound the same to my army-induced hearing loss ears.

Merry Christmas Happy New Year!

Christmas poetry - from Frances Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton is highly regarded as a poet, and is well-known as a lover of Christmas.

His better half (okay, given their relative sizes, better fourth) also had a way with words - and an appreciation for the season.

Frances Chesterton wrote “How far is it to Bethlehem?,” which has become a popular and often-played Christmas Carol. The poem is collected in one of my favorite holiday poetry anthologies, Poems of Christmas, edited by Myra Cohn Livingston.

Apparently Frances penned a number of Christmas poems, and at least one Christmas play. I find mention on Amazon of an out of print book that contains “A collection of Christmas cards, each consisting of a poem by Frances Chesterton, sent by G. K. and Frances Chesterton in 1916, 1917, 1919-1935 and by Frances Chesterton alone in 1936 and 1937.” I could not find the title of this book, though – perhaps some scholarly sort knows it and even has a copy.

I also found mention of a few Christmas pieces she wrote: Several poems - “Here Is the Little Door,” “A Lullaby Carol” and “The Shepherds Found Thee by Night,” the latter two also put to music – and a short play, The Christmas Gift.

I found texts for “How far” and “Here Is.” I’d be curious to see those other poems she wrote, and the play.

Here are texts I found.

How far is it to Bethlehem?

How far is it to Bethlehem?

Not very far.

Shall we find the stable room

Lit by a star?

Can we see the little child,

Is he within?

If we lift the wooden latch

May we go in?

May we stroke the creatures there,

Ox, ass, or sheep?

May we peep like them and see

Jesus asleep?

If we touch his tiny hand

Will he awake?

Will he know we've come so far

Just for his sake?

Great kings have precious gifts,

And we have naught,

Little smiles and little tears

Are all we brought.

For all weary children

Mary must weep.

Here, on his bed of straw

Sleep, children, sleep.

God in his mother's arms,

Babes in the byre,

Sleep, as they sleep who find

Their heart's desire.

------

Here is the little door

Here is the little door, lift up the latch, oh lift!

We need not wander more but enter with our gift;

Our gift of finest gold,

Gold that was never bought nor sold;

Myrrh to be strewn about his bed;

Incense in clouds about his head;

All for the Child who stirs not in his sleep.

But holy slumber holds with ass and sheep.

Bend low about his bed, for each he has a gift;

See how his eyes awake, lift up your hands, O lift!

For gold, he gives a keen-edged sword

(Defend with it Thy little Lord!),

For incense, smoke of battle red.

Myrrh for the honoured happy dead;

Gifts for his children terrible and sweet,

Touched by such tiny hands and

Oh such tiny feet.

When you sing you pray twice

It is still true that when the Christmas season begins I get “as giddy as a school boy”. My wife and I unpack and set up the decorations with the same dance we have done for years and our youthful laugh returns. Whenever “Jingle Bell Rock”, “Santa, baby” or even the Hippopotamus song come on the radio I crank it up. But by the time they light the pink candle in the Advent wreath my ears and soul hungers for more than funnel cakes and corn dogs.

In his General Audience of February 26, 2003, Pope John Paul II reminds us that "one must pray to God not only with theologically precise formulas, but also in a beautiful and dignified way." For this reason, he said, "the Christian community must make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and song will return increasingly to the liturgy."

Or as Thomas Aquinas said, “Music is the exaltation of the mind derived from things eternal, bursting forth in sound.”

Last year I “discovered” Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek and the Christmas Gregorian Chants. Now there is music that requires a knife and fork to consume.

This year a friend turned me on to the Christmas choral works of Benjamin Britten a 20th century composer who “got it” right Britten once wrote: “It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.” Note the last sentiment, like GCK said “It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.”
…everlasting beauty of monotony - The beauty of paradox.

ROGER DU BÉARN gave us this clerihew:

Benjamin Britten,

Feeling hard-bitten,

Gave Billy Budd a bearing

Incomprehensible to Albert Herring.

-----------------------------------

One more thought from Uncle Gilbert on Christmas:

"The place that the shepherds found was not an academy or an abstract republic; it was not a place of myths... explained or explained away. It was a place of dreams come true."

Media related thoughts.........

Chesterton spoke a great deal about media and publishing.....even though he was decades removed from "Big Media." Belloc's thoughts about media control and propaganda came out in a wonderful book a few years ago from IHS Press, The Free Press.

Ive been thinking about how horrible the Churches and other advocates of traditional living have been at entering the mainstream debate. Granted, EWTN is now a top notch outfit in terms of management and production, but outside of Catholic circles, it is not part of the mainstream.

I just think that so many prime teaching opportunities have been lost. I think it would pay to advertise the fact that even after the 2008 election, we still have had more Black Popes then Black Presidents. Do any left leaning groups know that the Catholic Church is the worlds largest provider of health care to AIDS patients on Earth? When Mother Theresa's letters were made public, why didn't the US Bishops or one of the Catholic Universities give the press some information about the Dark Night of the Soul as it exists in Catholic spirituality. Heck they could have even painted it as a form of depression or something, but at least could have raised the level of discussion.

I completely admire Pat Buchanan, though I disagree with him at times, for being able to be who he is, representing what he does, and still be able to interact with mainstream journalism.

I think people are beginning to sense that something is wrong with mainstream news. The massive layoffs are hitting that industry. I think the timing is good for a solid Catholic Press to emerge from Catholic circles and interact with the opinion forming mainstream press.

New Chesterton books/New Gilbert arrive

I received two new Chesterton volumes - more of his newspaper pieces, and the second volume of his poems. The prophet certainly was not averse to writing verse - and who knows how many more poems are floating around out there.

I also received the latest Gilbert. I'm glad to see them deal with the anti-semitism charges head on.

I was also pleased to see this humble blog get a mention.

Amid this cornucopia of Chestertonian delight, my only sorrow was that none of my clerihews got in (though the published ones were good).

Hmm. Maybe the editors had a Chestertonian moment and the ones I submitted a while back are being used as coasters or as bookmarks.

The prophet Chesterton – again

Looking for a Christmas lesson for my youth group, about the reality of the Incarnation vs. the make believe holiday of commercialism, I came across an article by Vigen Guroian called The Christian Humanism Of G. K. Chesterton: Truth and the Paradoxical Imagination.

Guroian bases his whole thesis on what Chesterton gave us:

“Chesterton responded with Christian humanism to what he judged to be a serious breakdown of the fundamental moral suppositions deposited by biblical faith and the classical tradition. He believed that this declension was due to the loss of conviction in the culture about the reality of the Incarnation, that is of God truly having become a human being in Jesus Christ with all the import that that has for human existence. For Chesterton, the doctrine of the Incarnation is the hinge that holds together what is, for the Christian, a vision of the world that is essentially paradoxical. And he is astonishingly adept at employing this vision in his cultural criticism and Christian apologetics. The Incarnation sheds light where sin deceives and despair darkens the human horizon. Sin causes us to experience spirit in opposition to matter, faith in conflict with reason, life defeated by death. But the Incarnation reveals these apparent contradictions as paradoxes. Contradiction may signal futility, but paradox is pregnant with the possibility of resolution and harmony.”

St Glibert, Blessed Belloc

Some good things coming out on here as of late.

In regards to St. Gilbert.........Hey, heroic virtue is the standard. Chesterton was a good man, a devout Catholic, and a brilliant writer but as neat as it would be, I do not quite think I would take up his cause. I could end up being proven wrong.

In regards to the bigger issue, I do think Pope John Paul II particularly made a terrific example of canonizing lay people, and trying to expedite certain causes in an effort to put forth contemporary examples of sanctity. I think that Chesterton will most likely go down in the ages like..........Chesterton! I think that there are some examples of terrific spiritual writers, apologists, and theologians through the ages who were not raised to the altar. Dante, John Duns Scotus (granted he is a Blessed, but I think has no active cause), Brother Lawrence from The Cloud of Unknowing,Meister Eckhardt, and many of the Rhineland mystical writers of his same time period.

Ive noticed some good back and forth regarding Belloc on here as well. Honestly, he is a man I identify with more than Chesterton. As a solider I respect his physicality and sheer toughness. Ive read abit about some of his famous hikes and they are incredible. I used to be a good ruckmarcher, could take 70lb pack and full load 10k in a bit under 70mins. To those who do not have a military background or do alot of alpine type hiking this is very physically rigorous, not just merely putting one foot in front of the other. Belloc must have had a will of steel, feet of leather, and skin of ice to be able to rack up the miles they way he did. Belloc is a master of historical details and primary sources, providing the facts regarding certain situations where modern pundits make up their own history.

Have a terrific rest of the weekend

St. Gilbert, Patron Saint ...

Saint Gilbert Chesterton.

It has a certain ring.

St. Gilbert.

There are already people agitating for the canonization of GKC. While I support those efforts, that is not my purpose here.

I am considering a post-canonization question.

You see, many saints have particular places, occupations and conditions over which they are considered the patron saints, serving as advocates and intercessors. Some are considered patron saints over multiple areas.

My question is of what thing(s) what would St. Gilbert be a patron saint?

Obviously, he was a prolific writer. Might he join St. Francis de Sales as a patron saint of writers and journalists? I have not found who is the patron saint of essayists, so perhaps St. Gilbert could fill that role.

Although his poetry is not his best writing, it still has its strengths and beauty – and sheer volume. Perhaps he could join St. Columba as a patron saint of poetry?

Then again, given the delightful Father Brown stories, why not a patron saint of mystery fiction?

St. Gilbert was a staunch defender of the faith and a profound thinker. Perhaps he could join St. Thomas Aquinas as a patron saint of apologetics and of philosophy. Given his debating skills, he might be an apt patron saint of debaters – another area for which I have not yet found saintly coverage.

As a convert, he could join the ranks of patron saints like Charles Lwanga, Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (maybe joining at the same time as Cardinal Newman).

Of course, he did like to drink and eat. Maybe he could join St. Nicholas, St. Augustine and St. Luke in being a patron saint of brewers, or St. Martin of Tours as a patron saint of vintners and innkeepers. He could serve with St. Lawrence as a patron saint of cooks, and, appropriately, comedians (Lawrence’s joke of presenting the poor as the treasures of the Church was a knee slapper).

And while St. Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of lost items, St. Gilbert might be an appropriate patron saint of people who keep getting lost.

The possibilities are endless.

For what other things might he be a fit patron saint? I welcome the input.

The Prophet Chesterton

In wandering around the blogosphere I have frequently encountered mention of Chesterton. Sometimes it’s a quote. Sometimes it’s an entire post. Or frequent quotations and posts. Sometimes he is used as a reference for judging some contemporary belief or action.

Mark Shea of Catholic and Enjoying It! caught my attention a long time ago for, among many reasons, frequently referring to him as the “Prophet Chesterton.”

I have seen that title and similar reference to him as a prophet elsewhere, including in a blog called Totally Catholic Youth Ministers Lounge (yes, that is the name!) in which they invoke the great one to counter some ill-informed anti-Catholic comments (as opposed to their usual ill-informed comments) of the women of The View.

More recently I got a chuckle when I stumbled across Father Dwight Longenecker of Standing On My Head referring to him by a variation of the title: “The Portly Prophet”.

Prophets are usually defined as individuals who have encountered God and serve as an intermediary with the rest of humanity. They often give warnings or promote change.

Chesterton certainly fits those criteria. Of course, in terms of another sorts of “fit,” prophets are often pictured as ascetical sorts on the thin side who frequently fast and wander off to mountains, caves, deserts and other isolated regions. Sound more like Shaw!

Chesterton, appropriately, provides us with a prophet paradox – a man of proportion with large appetites who often seems to have received his “messages” over many a glass in a tavern.

But why not? God has a sense of humor.

As for whether Chesterton is a prophet, history will prove that. Are his warnings, predictions and guidance authentic? So far, they seem to be – and think of how many people he has helped to lead to the Church.

The Prophet Chesterton. It has a certain ring.

At least until we can call him St. Gilbert Chesterton.

More Books

As a young lad I was intrigued by the collages of Max Ernst, especially in his surrealist poem The Hundred-Headless Woman. Not only on an aesthetic level but also in the precession of his cut and paste. They also carry a since of fun, in a dark humor soft of way. Wanting to create similar colleges I was faced with the problem of finding suitable pictures to cut and paste. Using current magazine illustrations always fell short because they are all in color with varying light sources so it was impossible to get a seamless finished product.

Then I discovered Dover Press a place that publishes 19th century illustrations. I use them to this day for whenever the collage bug hits me.

Today I was looking through their catalog of books and discovered they handle a lot more than clip art, (a pit fall of being myopic). Lo and behold they have an excellent collection of Chesterton works and being an art shop they have some great cover art (the photo on this page is an excellent example.)

I have never seen this illustration of Chesterton before and I really like the one slipper on and one off bit to show his famous forgetfulness of things that don’t really matter.

Although I have the book I will buy this edition just because of the cover. Yes, sometimes I do need an excuse to buy an other book.

A Work of A Master

After having read alot ABOUT C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy online, I finally found the set in a used bookstore and absolutely devoured it.

Out of the Silent Planet ------ Perelandra -------- That Hideous Strength

These are small books that achieve a true theology of literature. Just as Tolkein achieved a fantasy world that breathes Christian oxygen, so did Lewis in this series. These are small books, little less than half inch think paperbacks each, yet Lewis weaves in themes of creation, fall, redemption, and temptation. That might sound a bit shallow and cliche', but Lewis treads through the inner thoughts and emotions of man.....and woman, then widens his vision through the cosmos, taking the classical doctrines of angelic intelligence and the nature of fallen and unfallen intellect and concupiscence and weaves an enjoyable SciFi tale with these Scholastic and Patristic ideas.

When I began reading That Hideous Strength, I thought I might have bought a book that had been taped together with the wrong cover. It did not really come together for me until I nearly reached the end when I realized that I had been led along by a master storyteller at the height of his craft. Lewis covers the whole cosmos in this series, from outer space to secret inner thoughts, from corporate corruption to sexuality and marital coldness. In the midst of all of this, his prose in describing far off worlds is so breathtakingly beautify that I found myself pausing just to muse on the images.

Very good series. Very ethics of elfland --- Orthodoxy in fictional form.

Have a great weekend.

an impression of Belloc

I have a friend who has supposedly been working through Orthodoxy for years now. Not sure what his projected completion date for the first pass through that one is. I think the problem is that he uses the book as a sedative; Mortimer Adler wrote in How to Read a Book "To use a good book as a sedative is conspicuous waste." The winding roads of Chesterton's prose are difficult to follow during a late night reading. So my friend took a break to try out some Belloc, and wrote me his impression today:

I am now finishing up How the Reformation Happened. Belloc’s writing appeals to me more than Chesterton (at this point). I like the framework of “yes, I wrote that, I meant to, and here’s why it’s true. Idiot [implied].” I also enjoy paragraphs.

Yes it is a big deal.

No. No. Not the election. It was on this day 30 years ago that my bride and I made some promises to each other. On the surface they sound simple enough but these were covenant promises. To Love and Honor each other; the love part sounded simple because we were on fire with love so I did not pay much attention to the Honor part; (I was stupid then. Not that I am any smarter now just a different kind of stupid) I have found it is only by honoring that love is maintained and keeps the fire ever ready to flare up again.

‘To accept children gladly, for richer and poorer, in sickness and health, and through the good times and the bad’ this we both swore in front of God and everybody. The children part was easy, we thought, since we both wanted a baseball team but God had other plans for us.

Just as I tried to tell my children what these promises mean my parents told me. My kids looked at me like I must have looked at my parents not quite deer in the headlights but like a 10 year trying to understand 3 point perspective. It is impossible to get someone who is both invulnerable and invisible to understand that the down times and sacrifice are gifts. That can only be unwrapped with the power of grace through the sacrament of marriage.

We have done poorer and would like to try richer for a while. Through sickness we held each other and through heath we held each other. The good times have been very good and we have walked through the valley crap.

I guess what has made this “easy” for me is that to this day my bride is jelly to the bone.

“It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word.” GKC

Just cause I’m in the mood here is another one:

Falling asleep
holding hands
a habit
as old as their union

beginning
because they were
afraid
of losing
each other

then
they were
afraid
of losing
themselves

then
to strengthen
their
oneness

now
because they
are afraid
of losing
each other

Foolishness

This past week I picked our last ripe red tomato and ate it with great joy and a little mayonnaise. Mowed the lawn for the final time, cleaned out the garden shed and taught my daughter how to fly a kite.

Then I wrote the poem I wanted to write.

MIDDLEAGE FOOLS

One more time
bring forth life.
Cut away the brambles
pull the weeds
turn the soil
to face heaven
and plant the seed
once more.

One more time
bring forth life.
Though the season
is nearly at it’s end
the fruit of the tree
will satisfy
for years to come,
different in flavor
from the others
but just as sweet.

One more time
bring forth life.
We will do
the prescribed dances
make the holy
Sacrifice
and mix its ash
with the sanctified waters
to bless the earth.

One more time
bring forth life.
I’ve seen the sign,
the Hawk and the Quail
have returned.
Hold my hand.
Together we will
gather the stones
rebuild the wall
carve some into
Totems
and make the garden
safe.

One more time
bring forth life.
Before we believe
the others
who tell us we
are too old to work the fields

Come. Let’s make
The Magic.

Seasons Greetings........

........for Halloween



If I did this right, you will be hearing Basil Rathbone's interpretation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven .

I think Rathbone is one of the greatest English actors of the 20th century. His voice alone, like here, is powerful and expressive. He played intellectual characters, such as Sherlock Holmes, as well as swashbuckling swordsmen in a number of other roles.

In terms of GKC and Halloween, I find it striking now that I think deeply on it, Chesterton never really took on the gothic mood. He had no problem with righteous indignation and dealing with the negative aspects of human nature. The conclusion that I come to is that the mood of his writing is imbued with the Christian spirit. Eschatalogically, the story of the world has a happy ending. Scheske wrote an essay a few years ago about horror movies, and I think this idea works well in addition to his.

Halloween is fine, some horror movies are ok, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are worth thier weight in gold in cool. In the end, however, Halloween gives way to All Saint's Day, the victory of salvation. Interesting idea to ponder.