Week 14 (2024)
holy cards & beauty for the least of these, Lewis & Catholics, morgul magic & relational theobiology, localism, farm stays & seeing the ordinary
(Click title to open in browser, on the Substack website)
to read: books
Prince Caspian & The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader — C.S. Lewis — I especially love how Reepicheep and Eustace are foils to each other of the modern vs. pre-modern ways of thinking, reading, living life. But Eustace came around!
Localism In The Mass Age — edited by Mark. T. Mitchel, Jason Peters — My brief thoughts. *Now reminiscing on the 2023 FPR Conference where my husband and I picked up this book, and where I got to chat with writers whose work I deeply admire and always read, including
…even editors of Touchstone, Hearth & Field, FPR’s Jeffrey Bilbro, and folks from Plough. ‘Twas a fun, unique time for this caregiver/homemaker/newsletter-maker to experience the ideas I love interacting with come to life in physical space. This is my equivalent of a Taylor Swift concert, y’all.
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
C.S. Lewis And American Catholics — Mark Noll, Current — “Hamm’s Mr. Lewis in Perelandra appeared in the Fordham quarterly Thought. It would be the longest American essay on a single work by Lewis for many years to come.”
(related: If Lewis Wrote Today, shared previously)
That Old Morgul Magic — J.M. Robinson, The Narnian — “The story of secular materialism has taught us how to naturally reduce things down to their material components and render them meaningless. It’s so natural and powerful that we don’t even know we’re doing it.”
(related: Do You Believe In Magic?, shared previously)
The Theobiology Of A Mother's Voice — Kristen M. Collier, Church Life Journal — “To think that God fashioned his creation in a way in which the mother participates in the development of her child’s language formation in the brain may be taken for granted, but is humbling and awe-inspiring as it speaks to a Relational Theobiology.”
Ordinary Time — Elizabeth Corey, The Public Discourse — “Some of the freshest writing right now comes from outlets like Public Discourse, Plough, Local Culture, The Hedgehog Review, and Comment, where writers consider topics that haven’t always been given their due: nature, music, disability, marriage and dating, the lives of children, friendship, even food and farming.”
The Work Of Moss-Gathering — Daniel Witt, Front Porch Republic — “But we post-industrial people seem to have an ever-increasing compulsion to stone-rolling. We are a fidgety people, a twitchy nation, hurried, harried, always rearranging and reconsidering, never letting any small area of our time, our minds, or our lives simple be.”
The Urge To Localism — Jeff Polet, Ford Forum — “…all testify to the salutary material effects of local association, even while the ever-growing literature on the deleterious effects of hypermobility, of mass communications and technologies, and of the emergence of chronic loneliness attest to localism’s psychological benefits.”
Staying On The Farm — Hadden Turner, Over The Field — “And you can be sure that the money you spend will go straight into the pockets of those best placed to steward the landscapes we cherish, enabling them to continue to make a living in these uncertain times and giving them that extra bit of income that they can plough back into improving and conserving their own lands.”
A Picture Worth A Thousand Words — Denise Trull, Theology Of Home — “I wondered if holy cards had an emergent history of their own and where it began. It was no surprise that the small images first appeared among the peasant and lower classes of the 1400’s. Most paintings at that time were large, formal, expensive, and out of reach of the poor.”
Beauty For The Least Of These — Ellie DuHadway, Plough — “…beauty is not an extravagance, but a necessity. Beauty is its own nourishment, essential for the flourishing of all people – even those who have been called “the least of these.” Perhaps especially so.”
Easter Vigil, 2019 (and what followed after) — Paul Robinson, Ekstasis — “This is the night
when I learned
that the resurrection of the body
is only as realistic
or as reasonable
as comic relief, retrospectively,
or a new born baby.”
to watch, listen to
Continuing On:
Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer — Episode 131 — The Rise To Power: How The Early Church Gained Political Influence — This series has been a fun primer to have alongside my first proper church-history-overview book (this one by Justo L. González… recommended by multiple people and included in her Ultimate Church History Book List.)
The Commonplace with Autumn Kern — Three (Favorite) Feminine Ideal Types In Classical Literature & How To Do Scouting In A Classical Charlotte Mason Education
to glean from: tip, product, resource
Lemon Cardamom Babka — I want to try this, as we somehow have the ingredients and we could really use our rum for something besides Pina Coladas and other such “smoothies”.
A Guide To Booklegging: How (And Why) To Collect, Preserve, And Read The Printed Word — The Gaskovskis also have some great booklists, including this one of books to keep you human (I printed it off for reference, and also because I love an excuse to use colored printer paper.)
to look back on
This Week:
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Heard you on the podcast. Great interview. Keep up the good work
Oooh I'm eyeing that babka recipe! It's been a minute since I've baked (the flu took me out for a few weeks, and then life got hectic), but I think this weekend will be good for it. Thank you, as always, for a lovely newsletter!