The "Gospel" of Fairy Tales

My husband and I went to the opera last Sunday -- not a complicated opera, but a simple opera. We saw Hansel and Gretel in the English version at Shenandoah Conservatory. What a delight! And, as I watched, I thought how right G.K. Chesterton was in his essay on Fairyland where he describes the mistaken notion of poets to think the fairies operate with a freedom that is really license to do exactly as they please. Chesterton vehemently disagrees:

I think the poets have made a mistake: because the world of the fairy-tales is a brighter and more varied world than ours, they have fancied it less moral; really it is brighter and more varied because it is more moral.

What will the pope say next?

Pope Leo says God doesn't listen to the prayers of those who "wage war." Really? History tells a different story. Pope Urban II and Pope Gregory X both called for crusades to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims. And then there is the significance of the Battle of Lepanto that saved Europe from Islam's advance. Had the West not "waged war" we would likely all be answering the Islamic call to prayer today. Yes, blessed are the peacemakers, but sometimes peace has to be won through war.

A Palm Sunday Poem from The Donkey (And GKC)

Monday Morning Meanderings

• One of my favorite quotes from Chesterton is about saying grace. I thought of that this morning in the shower while I was praising God for hot water. 

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

Sunday Meditation: Wild Winds Today. Does that make you think of the Holy Spirit?

We are under a wind advisory with a tornado watch. Our situation down in a little dip makes the likelihood of a tornado touchdown at Camp Kreitzer pretty remote. But the wild wind is dropping branches and pinecones everywhere. Since I just spent several hours cleaning them up on Friday with two little brownies helping, I'm rolling my eyes. 

Unending tasks, like weeding and yard cleanup, always make me think of the perennial fight against my faults. No matter how much I work on them, they never seem to be eradicated completely. 

Leading a Honeybee Life!

I think of myself as a honeybee. I flit from project to project, from book to book, from household task to household task like a little bee collecting nectar. Sometimes I start cleaning intending to do an entire floor and switch to something new after finishing one room. Often a distraction becomes the next project. Hey, that door is absolutely grimy; get out the soap and water and give it a good cleaning. And then there are the minor disasters like opening the refrigerator and having a jar of soup water fall out and shatter like last night while I was fixing dinner. (I don't waste anything including the water left from steaming vegetables or cooking potatoes. They make great soup stock.) Clean that up and move on to something else or just pick up the glass, cover the mess with towels and clean it up after dinner which is what I did.

Question for the Day: Are You Lost in the Cosmos?

Currently I'm reading Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos: the Last Self Help Book. I was intrigued to find out that it's one of philosopher Peter Kreeft's favorite books. Percy is a favorite of mine as well. His novels, in my opinion, fit the description "southern writers weird" -- like Flannery O'Connor. Percy didn't like to think of himself as a southern writer and, in fact, parodied the tradition through the character, Sam Yerger, in The Moviegoer. Nevertheless, I can never separate him from the southern genre.

Tuesday's Election Day; How Would Chesterton Vote?

My husband and I belong to a Chesterton book club that meets monthly. Yesterday's topic was Chesterton and politics with a lively debate about the morality of voting: Trump vs. Harris, whether voting for a third party candidate like Randall Terry is justified, whether canvassing voters is disappearing in favor of social media, etc. I'm happy to say that the group always argues in the classical, Socratic sense and everyone treats everyone else respectfully even when we disagree (well, for the most part).

After the meeting I got to pondering how Chesterton would have viewed our discussion and what decision he would make if he were voting in Tuesday's election. I confess, while I've read a lot of Chesterton, I'm unsure. In What's Wrong with the World, he excoriated both Hudge and Gudge who represent political positions of the governing class. Hudge is the plutocrat, someone who rules by reason of his class and wealth. Gudge represent the socialist Marxist do-gooder. There is a third character Chesterton presents, however. His name is Jones and he represents the common man or, in today's lexicon, a piece of garbage or a deplorable. All Jones wants is a humble home where he can raise his family and dandle his grandchildren on his lap. That dream is denied him by both Hudge and Gudge as they pursue their approach to the world.

"God Rest His Dear and Gallant Soul"

Last night I was trying to decided what to make my next bedside reading. I looked on my kindle and thought I would reread The Scarlet Letter, but after eight or ten pages of the first chapter I set it aside. Maybe another time. Then I turned to a Chesterton book on my kindle, The Crimes of England. That was a bust too. Too much concentration needed. Then I remembered that I have a book written by Stalin's daughter that I've been wanting to read. So I went over and looked for it on the biography bookshelf, but a little volume caught my eye and I pulled it out. It was a small biography of Joyce Kilmer. I opened it and began reading and was a third of the way through it before setting it down and turning off the light.   

 

When I was at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., Joyce Kilmer's granddaughter was two years behind me. We never got to know each other, I didn't think about it at the time, but she never knew her grandfather. He was killed in World War I at the age of 31. Even his own children likely remembered little about him. I am only beginning to realize myself how true the title of this post is. It was the statement of Fr. Francis Duffy, military chaplain. Kilmer's military brothers found him on a little hill where they thought he was examining the area. He was dead with a bullet in the brain.  He was buried in France near the spot where he was killed. A memorial Mass was said for him at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on October 14, 1918. 

What's Wrong with the World?

What's wrong with the world?

G. K. Chesterton famously responded to that question with two words.

I AM!

The Cowboy Career of G.K. Chesterton

(Left to right) Lord Howard de Walden, William Archer, J.M. Barrie, G.K. Chesterton and Bernard Shaw, in the middle of making the cowboy film How Men Love. From Peter Whitebrook, William Archer: A Biography

My curiosity over Chesterton continually leads me into highways, biways, and labyrinthian detours. I presented at one of our monthly Chesterton bookclub meetings on Saturday and chose a unique format which hadn't been done before. Not having time to do any serious research, I suggested that, since Chesterton had so many eclectic interests, why not have the book club members share about whatever they happened to be reading. No doubt Chesterton would have been interested in it, since he was interested in just about everything! They could choose anything at all: any genre, any author, whatever. It could even be something they were reading to their children. I love picture books as a matter of fact and, with his love for children and his childlike enthusiasm, I know Chesterton probably did too. After all, his favorite book was The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald. Not only that, but he wrote a book for children called Coloured Lands with stories, poems, and his own drawings.

What are you reading for Lent?

Prayer and study are an important element of the Catholic life, especially during the season of Lent when we are invited to grow closer to the Lord. Since "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ" obviously it's important to read the Bible. I usually focus on the four passion narratives during Lent and always read Pierre Barbet's meditation from Doctor at Calvary on Good Friday. You can read it free online. 

Do You Want to be Happy for the Rest of Your Life? There's a Way!

Owen Francis Dudley

I've been re-reading Owen Francis Dudley's series on the Masterful Monk which is recommended by Fr. John Hardon in his Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan. Dudley was an Anglican priest who converted to the Catholic Church in 1915 and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1917. Like Anselm Thornton, who became the Masterful Monk of the series, but was a doctor, he served in the British Army (as a chaplain) during World War I and, again like Thornton, was wounded. 

Dudley's series addresses the problem of human happiness. It explores the meaning of suffering and exposes the moral quandary after the war when many rejected the belief that a good God could allow the horrors of trench warfare, poisoned gas, etc. that marked that horrible waste of human life.

On Papal Authority: Did Pope Paul VI Renouncing the Tiara have more than a Symbolic Meaning?

The last papal tiara, renounced by Pope Paul VI at the conclusion of Vatican II

Fr. Tom Collins and I have been having an interesting exchange about the crisis in the Church. He recently sent me the comment below about papal authority and the "tiara." I found it thought-provoking. Many seem to think that Pope Paul VI shunning the papal tiara was a good idea. Who needs all that pomp and circumstance anyway? When the pope placed it on the altar he called it the, “renunciation of human glory and power” and “the new spirit of the Church purified.” 

Thought for the day from one of my favorite authors: Big Body, Big Mind, Big Faith!

Some things never change. Look at those in trouble with our current pope and you know they are the ones Chesterton is talking about. The false disciples, the one's who have the pope's favor.,...let's just say they aren't fearless since they have the approval of the woke world. Their happiness is like the bands playing as the Titanic is sinking. And they will be in deep trouble when they meet Christ on Judgment Day if they don't repent. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You!

Philosophy Gives Me a Headache!

Philosophy gives me a headache all right! All that talk about realism, rationalism, liberalism, modernism, Marxism, sophism, skepticism, and every other ism out there makes my head spin. I actually got an A in metaphysics in college, but don't ask me anything about it. Being and essence, mind and matter, substance and attribute.... good grief! We had to read Sartre's Nausea and it was definitely nauseating as was his entire philosophy in my opinion.

G.K. Chesterton, Our Model for Engaging in a "Boisterous Argument with [our] Times!"

I was recently reading an article on Chesterton. With my dimwitted memory I can't remember the author, but he made such an interesting statement I think I will remember it forever. He wrote that Chesterton engaged in a "boisterous argument with his times." Everything Chesterton said or did was bigger than life, so of course, his arguments would be "boisterous." But they were never mean or ugly or bitter and always, like Socratic dialogue, were a search for truth. 

Gratitude: A Great Virtue for Lent and Every Day!

I read an article this morning on gratitude which reminded me of a Chesterton quote. We say grace

before meals to thank God for the food we eat. But here's what Chesterton said:

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”—G. K. Chesterton

An Ode to Our New Don John, Alexander Tschugguel (With a Hat Tip to G.K. Chesterton)

A good Catholic prince
and a brave soldier of Christ!
Don John of Austria

Once I got it in my head yesterday to write a poem about Alexander Tschugguel throwing Pachamama in the Tiber based on G.K. Chesterton's Lepanto, I was doomed. I couldn't do anything else until I accomplished my goal. The fact that Alexander is from Austria made the comparison to Don John of Austria and his heroic stand against Ali Pasha and his fleet at Lepanto a compelling one. And so here is my ode to Alexander in thanksgiving for his removing the idols from the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina. 

But really, read Chesterton's Lepanto, my inspiration. Talk about a master poet. He is unparalleled when it comes to writing ballads about warriors! After you read Lepanto, I recommend The Ballad of the White Horse about England's Christian king, Alfred the Great, another heroic warrior. And DO read the poems out loud. Poetry is meant to be heard!

Ask Chesterton for a Miracle for my Brother Ray

Gilbert and his beloved Frances

I love G.K. Chesterton! And how I long to see his cause for canonization advanced.

He is a real-life Santa Claus, not only in his girth, but in his magnanimous spirit. I use that word deliberately, a word that comes from the Latin: "magna" for great, and "animus" for soul. He was, indeed, a "great soul" who loved his fellow man and never preened his brilliance to impress an audience. When asked, "What's wrong with the world?" he responded humbly without a pause, "I am."

Thinking about Chesterton recently, I embraced the acronym WOW! to describe him. Three of his greatest characteristics were his sense of WONDER, his OPTIMISM, and his WIT. He exuded joy and cheerfulness, a man who, like comedian and social commentator Will Rogers, "never met a man [he] didn't like." He could debate and criticize an atheist contemporary without the conversation degenerating to the level of animosity. Don't we desperately need that kind of respectful exchange today? In fact, the writer H.G. Wells, with whom he vigorously disagreed, once said: