Week 52 (2022)
babies on airplanes & real darkness, 'Mary consoles Eve' artwork & women's bodies, Christmas sentimentality & materialism, euthanasia in Canada, rootedness & It's A Wonderful Life
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reading: books
Laurus, Eugene Vodolazkin — audio — Glad I read it.
Domestic Monastery, Ronald Rolheiser — hardback — Same for this one.
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
"You humbly chose the Virgin's womb" — Elizabeth Burtman, Good News For New Moms — “What a marvel-ous thing that Jesus chose as his first earthly residence a woman’s womb; that he received the hospitality and care of her body1; and that he entered the world through her birth canal.”
Christmas "Time" Is Here — Joshua Heavin, Mere Orthodoxy — “If people who have little to no attachment to the Christian faith attend our churches during the Christmas season, woe to us, woe, if we offer them nothing more than vague sentimentality and holiday nostalgia.”
Mary Consoles Eve — Sr. Grace Remington & Joy Clarkson, Plough — “One of the things I was pondering as I drew this picture was the question of why Eve said 'no’ to God and Mary said ‘yes.’”
Combatting The Christmas-Industrial-Complex — Jon D. Schaff, Front Porch Republic — “Similarly, one can have a very merry Christmas with great simplicity. And maybe, thinking of charity toward our less fortunate neighbors, modeling simplicity has its virtues.”
No Other Options — Alexander Raikin, The New Atlantis — “And yet stories describing just this — a system that does encourage the vulnerable to seek medical death — are coming fast and hard lately. A number of recent news articles have reported on Canadians who, driven by poverty and a lack of access to adequate health care, housing, and social services, have turned to the country’s euthanasia system.”
The Dilemma Of Babies On Airplanes — Stephanie H. Murray, The Atlantic — “Giving parents the space to care for a helpless child as they guide them toward competence and autonomy means accepting that we will all be a little inconvenienced.”
There Is No Mary Problem In ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ — Clare Coffey, The Bulwark — “My mind changed last year, when I had the chance to see It’s a Wonderful Life on the big screen, in my town’s theater. Perhaps you just notice things differently over the years—this is, after all, one of the charms of the movie. Perhaps seeing the film as it was meant to be shown really does unlock new insight. Either way, I found myself paying attention to one exchange as I never really had before.”
Yearning For Roots — Peter Mommsen, Plough — “Matthew’s genealogy, then, both affirms the significance of family history and powerfully relativizes it. Biological kinship, it turns out, is far less important than the family called into being by God’s promises.”
Deep Night, Dark Night — Joe Plicka, Ekstasis — “But still, I close my eyes and try to imagine. To reinvent for myself a darkness primal and fearsome. And restful. A dark night like The Night, so quiet and deep, when angels appeared in incandescent splendor to a ragged clump of herders sleeping on the ground with their sheep, and the only thing they could remotely compare it to was the sun itself. A brilliance billowing in their Cimmerian field. A miracle.”
Past, Present, Future - And Why Regular Reflection Matters — Jen Pollock Michel, Post Script — “What can I celebrate and give thanks for?
What can I lament?
Did I form any new resentments this year? Did I leave old ones behind?
What habits were helpful? Unhelpful?
What distracted me?
What energized me?
What’s working: in marriage, in parenting, in other important relationships, in my writing life, in my own formation? What isn’t working, and why?
It’s important to prioritize this kind of reflection, especially in light of the research that indicates how we inhabit time today.”
What Did You Learn About God In 2022? — Claire Swinarski, Letters From A Catholic Feminist — Mostly came to read the portions from Amber Haines and Leah Libresco Sargeant. I never regret hearing what those ladies have to say.
watching/listening
Interview w/ Andy Crouch — Rule of Life w/ John Mark Comer — After going through John Mark Comer’s book, I thought Andy Crouch’s The Life We’re Looking For is a great one to further explore similar themes. And here they both are talking about them! You cannot go wrong with any of Andy’s books (Strong And Weak was paradigm-shifting) — or talks (like this one).
Jesus 1: I Think I'm A Principal — Alan Jacobs, with the first of some rapid-fire segments on Jesus as a person.
Continuing On:
Love In A Cottage — Episode 49 — Limits & creativity in early motherhood.
Verity — Episodes 22-25 — Especially enjoyed episode 25 on reframing pregnancy and birth, as well as (in)fertility.
using: product, tip, resource
Calendar by Appointed Co. — I love minimal monthly calendars and planners (since I have working Google Drive docs & sheets for keeping track of most things related to our life. It’s a game-changer.) This is a good wall size and will replace a personal monthly planner, since what we needed was simply a shared, visual way for our family to see appointments & commitments.
Bible Reading Plan — The one I’ve used for the past handful of years. I save to Google Drive & print out on colored cardstock paper.
Prayer Journal by Hosanna Revival — Blank, day-by-day space for 5 years’ worth of writing.
remembering
A Year Ago:
This Week:
God is called Emmanuel, for He is with us. Merry Christmas!