Memento Mori

A quick reminder: if you, a friend, or loved one are facing a poor prognosis or terminal illness, remember a slim volume that is written in faithfulness to the Church's teachings and has received high marks from a few folk like Mark Shea, Joseph Pearce, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, and Amy Welborn. Namely, A Little Guide for Your Last Days.

It is comforting, at times humorous, always as truthful as the author can make it, facing, as he is, a struggle with cancer himself.

For a wonderful collection of written resources visit the Little Guide blog here.

The Archangels

St. Michael the Archangel

I love this feast day. Today at Mass the eighth-grade 'Guardian Angels' of our kindergarteners are dedicated and all the school year long they sit together at Mass, do projects together, and, well, share times one with another.

It's the day of the big three: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Definitively ones to have on one's side in a pinch.

Agnus Dei

Pomposa - Abbey Church of Santa Maria (1036 - façade detail)

Knox - True Peace

HOW IS IT THAT THE WORLD gives us peace, or tries to give us peace; and why is that effort unsatisfying? Partly, of course, because peace in the true sense, in the Christian sense, is a threefold gift, and the world only offers us one third of it. True peace means peace with God, peace within ourselves, and peace with one another. I think it is probably true that the world at this moment is more genuinely anxious for the maintenance of peace between nations than it has ever been in all its history; nor should we do well to belittle or to deride the efforts made, even by those who differ deeply from us in fundamental opinions, to secure an object so dear to the heart of Christ. But, if the last irrevocable treaty were signed, and the last cruiser scrapped, and the last gun melted down, would that be peace? Peace in a world that for the most part either forgets God, or openly defies him? Peace in a world where human hearts, emancipating themselves from every moral tie, are carried to and fro by their passions, and win from the gratification of them only discontent? For the war within our own intellects, for the war within our own wills, the world has no solution to offer; hold congresses at every town in Switzerland, and our hearts will still be a battleground, for God made them for himself, and they can find no rest until they find rest in him.

- Ronald A. Knox

I Love Cotton, But ...

Do we know enough about nanotechnology just to buy that "convenient" no-iron shirt?

Warnings from Yale

Invitation to Marian Chivalry

Have you never wanted to be a part of the true, good, and beautiful? to make a difference even in a small corner of your world that is part of a far greater cause? to find a niche in the sublime Catholic world that is forever old and forever new?

This is your opportunity to be an active force and forceful practitioner in Marian chivalry. The witness of our forbears like Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (and his brothers and father) give us exemplars and, while we may not give up our marital or other responsibilities to fight the good fight behind cloistered walls, the Acta Militum of prayer and service is ours to pick up for the battle.

Corpus Christianum is an international Private Association of the Faithful, open both to men and women, dedicated to praying for a renewal of Christendom.

Marian in character and guided by a Catholic chivalrous spirit, Corpus Christianum members pray daily for the following key points:

- The renewal, unity, and spread of Christendom
- The Supreme Pontiff and all priests/religious
- The protection of Christians around the world
- The restoration of the family
- The conversion of sinners and the sanctification of all people

Consider prayerfully joining. Marian chivalry is a great gift to our hurting, sinful world. Your witness, prayers, and service may very well be the turning of the tide, no matter how small you may believe your part to play may be.

Pro Christo et Ecclesia!

Deo Gratias

One really must give thanks for the wonderful thoughts - and pix - from young John Cusack like the latter (above). Go. Read. Rejoice.

Collins PRB

Convent Thoughts (1851) - Charles Collins

Esca Viatorum - Food of Travellers

LET US BE CONTENT to think of the Blessed Sacrament not as the medicine but as the food of our souls; acting on us, as material food does, without our knowing it, yet all the time sufficing for the day's needs, carrying us along on our journey, though we seem to make such a weary business of it, dragging foot after foot. The invalid who refuses food because it has so little relish for him becomes a worse invalid yet.

- Ronald A. Knox

de Heem

Eucharist in Fruit Wreath (1648)- Jan Davidsz de Heem

Knox - At the Altar and Tabernacle, Pt. 2

IF A PRIEST WERE wrecked, all by himself, on a desert island, and by some incalculable chance had all the requisites for Mass ready to hand, I suppose he would be justified in saying Mass, day after day, without even a server to share in the exercise. And still, day after day, he would find himself interceding not only for himself but pro omnibus circumstantibus, for all the people standing round; he would turn and bid them ask acceptance for this sacrifice, his sacrifice and theirs; he would ask God to remember, together with his own, the intentions of the bystanders; and all the while there would be no answer to his Mass except the lapping of the waves and the cry of sea-gulls. I wonder if he wouldn't be impressed, merely by this ironical contrast, with the fact which ought to impress us whenever we go to Mass, but all too seldom does; that the Mass is essentially a corporate affair, a family affair, in which the priest is meant to stand out against a background of faithful laity; in which the laity ought to have the sense of sharing God's mercies with all the people round them, even with the woman who has taken their favorite seat, even with the man who looks as if he had come to rob the poor-box? The Mass is not just me worshipping; I am part of a crowd, the crowd of circumstantes, who are making, by their concerted action, a joint offering to almighty God.

- Ronald Knox

As Benedict Prepares to Visit

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang

Burne-Jones, Morris, Dearle - PRB

Arming and Departure of the Knights

- Burne-Jones, Morris, Dearle

A New Day

Morning Glory

Offering One's Death - Knox

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT the hall-mark of the true Christian is not, necessarily at least, being brave about death; but rather, being prepared to offer whatever shrinking he feels about it as part of the sacrifice which he makes of his life to God? Fear is not a sin. You may through fear, by neglecting your duty, by denying your faith; granted. But fear in itself is not a sin; or what was our Lord doing in Gethsemani? It seems to me that whatever were the precise feelings of fear and disgust; the Greek is perhaps better represented if we say that he began to be mystified and dismayed - he was evidently condescending, as far as Incarnate God could, to our human weakness, and inviting us to unite our secret misgivings about death with the sacrifice he was making then. We were to see - that is how I read the story - that we should not be held responsible for having a dry feeling in the mouth, and a quaking about the legs, in moments of danger; that was not the point.

The point was, first, that we should do our duty, whatever inward tremors we had to crush down in the doing of it. And second, that we should make an offering to God of this human weakness, this shameful disability, and tell him, "My God, I know I'm a coward, but I want to offer my terrors, like every other discomfort my human destiny involves, to you. Cowards die many times before their deaths; and all those deaths I offer to you" ...

The dearer a thing life seems to you, the harder it seems to relinquish, the more motive for generosity in offering it. So little, the real value of the sacrifice we make, when we give our souls into his hands; all the better, then, if (by a kind of sentimental value) it means much to us, who make it.

- Ronald Knox