Week 16 (2024)
holy waste & experiencing the eclipse, paganism & bearing life in dehumanizing times, hospitality & hidden fruitfulness
(Click title to open in browser, on the Substack website)
to read: books
The Silver Chair — C.S. Lewis — "There is no other stream.”
After Virtue — Alasdair MacIntyre — I’m mentally exhuasted, okay?
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
Desanitizing Christianity After St. Benedict and After Virtue — Gregory P. Floyd, Church Life Journal — “While Anthony initially seeks the desert and in it a radically purified life in pursuit of God, he is nevertheless repeatedly brought back to the city perched on its edge ready to take flight and yet tethered to the life of worldly concern… Authentic saints see more, not less.”
- , Mere Orthodoxy — “In MacIntyre’s estimation, we are living after the catastrophe. We are miming traditions and moral judgments but doing so out of context- not only do we not know what such things mean, but we cannot even understand the fragments we hold. What has been lost in the catastrophe of his metaphor is the traditions that give an account of the good life and how to live virtuously within them.”
(related: Too Large for One Life: On Friction and Sustaining Tradition and The Life We're Looking For, shared previously)
The Miracle That Saves The World —
, The Public Discourse — “I chose to break the cultural norm of delaying discussing pregnancy before twelve weeks and did so as a defiant, definitively pro-human act, a small rebellion against these deeply dehumanizing times we find ourselves in… Arendt wrote that totalitarian leaders and strongmen ‘do not care whether they themselves are alive or dead, if they ever lived or never were born.’”(related: Natality, shared previously)
- , First Things — “This situation would be familiar terrain for the Church. After all, it was precisely in the pagan world, amid its simultaneous suffering and enchantment, that the Christian faith spread like wildfire. There is no reason it should not do so again.”
(related: We Are Repaganizing, shared previously)
Experiencing The Total Eclipse — Jonathan Malesic, Commonweal — “Tears filled my eyes, doubling and then tripling the image. My mouth quivered. I do not cry frequently. Had I not been in public, I would have utterly broken down.”
Dependency — Abigail Moma, Ekstasis — “held together by breath and mercy,
lay your dust-formed frame upon
his feet and acquiesce to the ache
only he can relieve.”Poetry Is A Holy Waste — Mary Lang, Dappled Things — “Certainly it’s not required for a person of prayer to also write poetry, but doing so is helpful to grow in the spiritual life… consider what we will find of the arts when we reach heaven.”
(related: On Unnecessarily Owning Art, shared previously)
- , Theology of Home — “Silence, pondering, growing in wisdom. These demand a hidden life to produce fruit… We need to take care of one another's mystery as they did. To protect it with our prudence, our charity, our respect so it may feel free to grow to fruition.”
Hinges And A Lock — Gregory Thompson, Comment — “Bewilderment has settled in to stay. Fear still shadows my children’s hearts. And grief still lurks in the corner of every joy. But there are signs—real signs—that this hope toward a hospitable life has taken root and is blooming out in each of us.”
- — “One day she might leave in the night not because of a bad dream, but because of an argument, an adventure, or a broken heart. And if she does, no wall around our little family will protect her. However, if I have worked alongside the Holy Spirit to build a community of people who will open the door to her, of faithful friends who will hound her steps, then I need not be afraid.”
to watch, listen to
Continuing On:
Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer — Episodes 132-133 — What Is The Gospel? and How Do I Know I'm Saved?
The Commonplace with Autumn Kern — Why Stories Matter For Kids
to glean from: tip, product, resource
This Album — Jess Ray is quickly becoming a favorite artist, and this album has been well-worn and savored and sung in recent weeks.
This Cocktail — A hit. Spring is basically fall in reverse, right?
to look back on
This Week:
You can reply directly to this email if received in your inbox — I always enjoy hearing from y’all that way.
So many good things I've bookmarked as usual and also! I wanted to add my love for Jess Ray. She is right behind og Audrey Assad in writing music that has been formative for me.
That Lyons piece on Dark Enchantment was timely given that I was just chatting with a friend who asked a store employee about the charm he was wearing, only to be told it was Thor’s hammer that he wore for protection.