Week 16 (2025)
Les Mis, Aslan & suffering, singing, Easter sorrow & the wilderness, spring break & life coloring death
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to read: books
- — I’ve read all of Sara’s essay writing on here for a couple years now I think, which is always so beautiful, so rich. So it was a treat to enjoy this first novel of hers. Well done, Sara… what a thoroughly enjoyable ride.
Meditations On The Stations Of The Cross — John Henry Newman — “Jesus could bear His Cross alone, did He so will; but He permits Simon to help Him, in order to remind us that we must take part in His sufferings, and have a fellowship in His work.”
(pair with these modern renditions of the stations, shared by here)
![Remembrance [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e5ef37-81a3-488a-b701-7a5783250ddb_1000x1600.jpeg "Remembrance [Book]")
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
When Should Christian Schools Have Spring Break? — Mary Proffit Kimmel, Circe Institute — “This elation of spirit ought to coincide with the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, and the Christian school should give its faculty and families time to enjoy the full eight days of Christ’s rising from the dead… Not only does the world want to turn penance into parties, but it also strives to make seasons of feasting into times of fasting.”
Life Has Colored Death — Anna-Marie Musico,
— “Is it like music to Your ears when my hands cover the dough in cream cheese and cut the avocado to remove its seed? Do You hum Your song of redemption when I daily pick up the weights and later sit to weave my words? For once, before the cure came, I would curse the hands He made and starve the hunger pangs.”- , Hearth & Field — “Human beings process strong emotions in varying ways, depending on their personalities. Some, when provoked to anger or ecstasy, cannot rest until they have written it out in poetry or modeled it in clay or brushed it over a canvas. We do what is fitting to the person, the feeling, and the time. But the same principle is true for these things, too. Such creative acts are helpful not because they are perfect or perfectly performed, but rather because they belong to you and come forth from you — made, as you are, in the image and likeness of God, the Creator. So go ahead and sing if you want to. Don’t reject your own music because you are not an Artist. Each one of us is an artist with a small “a,” not because we are so trained, or even so skilled, but because we are human. And these human instincts to art and action are natural, normal, and, indeed, sacred — they express something for us all.”
(related: Suffering & The Melody Of Thin Places)
Seeds Of Truth — Mike Schramm, Dappled Things — “These myths, they must grow in our minds into Christ. They cannot stay seeds, but the seeds are still needed. It is a great example of the old theological maxim from St. Thomas Aquinas, grace perfects nature… This does not just apply to one story, but as we have found, it applies to all stories.”
- , Anselm Society — “Shasta discovers comfort in the darkness. That’s when my own tears began to roll as well. Then the Presence, Aslan, does a remarkable thing: he breathes on Shasta and says, ‘There, that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.’”
The Hidden Sorrow Of Easter — David Bannon, Front Porch Republic — “Jesus died, as our loved ones died. He returned. But our dead have not. Easter Sunday is not our ending. Not yet. In this life, each week seems to end on Holy Saturday. We wait for a day, the other side of death, when we will hold our loved ones in our arms again. Because of this, not just Easter, but the entire season of Lent may seem like a burden for mourners.”
The Heel Of The Wilderness — Haley Hodges, Ekstasis —
“Surge, pitch, and tumble—perhaps you were born
Clasping the heel of the wilderness. Someday soon—
Any day now, an angel will knock you to the ground”On Les Mis, Suffering, & My Almost-Adult Daughter — Rachel E. Hicks — “Why is it this way? We pray for humility, God sends humiliations. We pray for eyes to see others how God sees them—He sends us to ghastly places and to people from whom we want to look away. We pray to know Christ better—He allows us to know Him in His sufferings. To know Him in His sufferings. And in each other’s.”
Treating Infertility: The New Frontier Of Reproductive Medicine — Ethics & Public Policy Center — The perfect collaborative endeavor to encompass a good chunk of what I’ve been trying to get at here (with some familiar, overlapping contributors). Our approaches to the complexities of the fertile body come with both acute and widespread physiological, social, and moral ramifications. What a gift that this collective effort was accomplished to explain as much. I’m reading through sequentially. This forth week: Restorative Reproductive Medicine: A Surgical Approach to Treating Endometriosis by Patrick Yeung Jr., MD
(related: primers on endometriosis from Natural Womanhood and Caitlin in podcast and printable form, along with this interview with Abigail Anthony of The Free Press fame, shared previously)
to watch, listen to
Continuing On:
The Natural Womanhood Podcast with
— Season 3, Episode 8 — How Naturopathic Medicine Does Women’s Health with Dr. Jessica Whelan, NDWoven Well Podcast with
— Episodes 55-56 — Client Story: Lauren (Having a Big family) and Advocating In The Dr.'s Office — “It’s an open and frequent dialogue with your spouse, it’s constant… and will naturally soften your heart to children if that’s what your family is called to at that time.”
(more resources on female embodiment in the Big Ol' Compilation — now unlocked)
to glean from: tip, product, resource
Golgotha — A gorgeous album for Holy Week, from Poor Bishop Hooper. Everything this married duo creates is just so beautiful. With music these days, limited time as a mom means I’m more particular about what we’re playing in the house, and I’ve developed emotional loyalties to a small arsenal of musicians. See also: Josh Garrels, Jess Ray, Zach Winters (currently reading through a beta version of his new poetry collection - you won’t regret buying and soaking in his last one, Snowmelt To Roots.)
RE: Spring break, when I was a kindergartener in the late 1980s, my California public school had spring break lined up with Easter, and we called it "Easter break." I don't remember when it changed, but at some point I remember being upset that we no longer had an Easter break. It's kind of crazy to me that within my lifetime Easter has sort of been marginalized out of the public sphere.
Thank you, Haley!