Images from the Vatican Observatory

The Horsehead Nebula

Planetary Nebula M27, the Dumbbell Nebula; image by Matt Nelson, taken at the VATT

Head over to the Vatican Observatory website to see more.


Ruler tip: Alive and Young

Kids These Days...

...are more receptive to chant than many adults give them credit for. These are second-graders, folks.

St. Theresa Catholic School, Sugar Land, TX.

When I was six, I remember the children's choir at my parish mostly sang things like Carey Landry's "Bloom Where You're Planted", a song which I haven't heard in over 20 years, and probably for good reason, but which has annoyingly remained lodged in my brain since. Chant would have been much better, but wasn't really given much consideration. I have serious doubts that it would have even occurred to anyone to teach us Latin.

Learning chant and other forms of early music gives children an opportunity to learn about musical theory and history at a period in their development when their brains are particularly receptive.  Latin instruction not only allows them to understand the words that they are singing, it also gives them a linguistic foundation that will help them learn other romance languages and maybe even raise their reading comprehension skills and their SAT scores down the road.

Our Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters make a point of preserving their liturgical heritage, and teaching their children the language of their liturgy. There is no reason that we Roman Catholics cannot do the same for our kids.

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Update: Looks like this video has gained the notice of Fr. Z, The New Liturgical Movement, and the Curt Jester. Is it going viral? One can only hope so.

Movie and Book Recommendation: "Flipped"

We literature nerds will always tell you that the book is better than the movie.

In the case of Flipped, I'd say it's a toss up.

Written by Wendelin Van Draanen, the author of the Sammy Keyes mysteries, Flipped tells the story of Bryce Loski,  Juli Baker, and their first real crushes--on each other.  As readers, we get to experience our two protagonists' changing attitudes toward each other as the novel deftly switches back and forth from Bryce's point of view to Juli's. 

Bryce is very much concerned with surface appearances and fitting in, something he learns from his parents, especially his father. When they meet he finds Juli's open and unguarded manner to be bewildering and embarrassing, just as his father is annoyed with her family's unkempt lawn, her brothers' noisy band, and her father's painting hobby.  

Juli, who, like her father has an innate love of beauty, is at first infatuated with bryce when she sees his "dazzling eyes".   Each character has a distinct and believable voice, and as each learns to see beyond his or her own point of view, the reader is reminded by their differing perspectives that there is always more than one side to any story. 

Like any child's life, the novel is populated with quirky parents, irritating but lovable siblings, friends, rivalries, and plenty of amusing and yet painfully awkward moments.

As Juli and Bryce awkwardly navigate the social minefields of early adolescence, their school and their suburban neighborhood, they take their families and the reader with them. 

The film follows the book very closely. The only significant change is a shift in the setting. The novel takes place in the late 1990's, while the movie has a nostalgic 1950's backdrop.  Rob Reiner did an absolutely remarkable job of preserving the integrity and universality of the original story.  In translating the book to film, and with the help of a talented cast, Reiner artfully captures the realism of Van Draanen's characters and their complicated lives, which is central to the story's appeal.  The result is a visually captivating, deeply moving, and universally appealing story that manages to be wholesome without being saccharine or pedantic.

So, if you're looking for something to do over the Independence Day weekend that smacks of wholesome all-American goodness, grab a copy of the novel and watch the movie. Hey, it's a holiday weekend. You'll have time for both. 


The MPAA rating for Flipped is PG. Because of some very tense family situations, and a few instances of crass dialogue, the Catholic News Service gives this film a rating of A-III (Adults).  I have to say, however, that I believe the movie is also appropriate for older teens. The novel is intended for readers who find themselves anywhere between middle school and middle age (and even beyond). 

For artfully rendered characters and themes and fantastic writing, this schoolmarm gives both book and film an A+.

Solfege and St. John the Baptist

Fr. Z posts today on the origins of the familiar syllables every choir kid has ever used to warm up, and they weren't invented by a certain singing governess.

They have their origins instead in a Medieval hymn sung on the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, which, incidentally, happens to be today.

Here are two versions of said hymn:

About this day, St. Augustine wrote:

The Church observes the birth of John as a hallowed event. We have no such commemoration for any other fathers; but it is significant that we celebrate the birthdays of John and of Jesus. This day cannot be passed by. And even if my explanation does not match the dignity of the feast, you may still meditate on it with great depth and profit. John appears as the boundary between the two testaments, the old and the new. That he is a sort of boundary the Lord himself bears witness, when he speaks of “the law and the prophets up until John the Baptist.” Thus he represents times past and is the herald of the new era to come. As a representative of the past, he is born of aged parents; as a herald of the new era, he is declared to be a prophet while still in his mother’s womb. For when yet unborn, he leapt in his mother’s womb at the arrival of blessed Mary. In that womb he had already been designated a prophet, even before he was born; it was revealed that he was to be Christ’s precursor, before they ever saw one another. These are divine happenings, going beyond the limits of our human frailty. When John was preaching the Lord’s coming he was asked, “Who are you?” And he replied: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” The voice is John, but the Lord “in the beginning was the Word.” John was a voice that lasted only for a time; Christ, the Word in the beginning, is eternal.  

According to Fr. Z, the traditional celebration involved the above hymn, a bonfire sprinkled with holy water, and (in Rome) a feast of snails.  Who knew escargot had a place in the liturgical calendar?

 For more on this feast and various customs associated with it, head on over to Catholic Culture.

What Draws the Young to Old Things?

Vintage is in.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it never went out.

Many people under 35 are currently fascinated with everything from the vintage to the ancient. Why?  Aren't young people supposed to be wholly preoccupied with the latest and greatest?

This is not just true for thrift store shoppers and fashion bloggers. Within the Catholic Church there are many young people gravitating toward traditional liturgy and practices that, to some of our elders of the baby-boomer generation, seem a little antiquated and possibly somewhat baffling. Most of the women I see in veils at mass each week appear to be under 35.  The religious orders that are getting high numbers of vocations from the young are those with the most traditional attitudes. 

Oddly enough, we can turn to an antique book for an explanation of this youthful preference for tradition. As usual, G.K. Chesterton can shed some light on the matter in a single paragraph:

"To each man one soul only is given; to each soul only is given a little power--the power at some moments to outgrow and swallow up the stars. If age after age that power comes upon men, whatever gives it to them is great. Whatever makes men feel old is mean--an empire or a skin-flint shop. Whatever makes men feel young is great--a great war or a love-story. And in the darkest of the books of God there is written a truth that is also a riddle. It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and improvements and change. It is the old things that startle and intoxicate. It is the old things that are young. There is no sceptic who does not feel that many have doubted before. There is no rich and fickle man who does not feel that all his novelties are ancient. There is no worshipper of change who does not feel upon his neck the vast weight of the weariness of the universe. But we who do the old things are fed by nature with a perpetual infancy. No man who is in love thinks that any one has been in love before. No woman who has a child thinks that there have been such things as children. No people that fight for their own city are haunted with the burden of the broken empires. Yes, O dark voice, the world is always the same, for it is always unexpected." (The Napoleon of Notting Hill, 1904)

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

Happy Mother's Day!

"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children..."
--William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

(Photo by LobotomizedGoat. Used with permission)

Movie Recommendation: "Vision"

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to contemplation of the truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know Himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."

--Blessed Pope John Paul II

There are many who would be surprised to find faith and reason united in the life of an abbess living in the middle ages.  Such people cannot be familiar with the life of Hildegard of Bingen. She wrote books, music, and mystery plays, and also taught and practiced medicine. For an introduction to her, I highly recommend the recent film Vision.

After seeing a highly favorable review over at Tea at Trianon, I discovered that Vision was available for instant play on Netflix, so I naturally had to add it to my queue.

Elena Maria Vidal writes:

Resisting the temptation to make the film into a piece of feminist propaganda, Vision portrays Hildegard as an obedient daughter of the Church. Her obedience is by no means mere childish acquiescence, as the vow of obedience is too often misconstrued, but an expression of a vibrant faith. St. Hildegard is not afraid to take a firm but charitable stand against injustice. She will brook no infractions of the Rule which protects the serene and disciplined life of her nuns. She is a true mother ready to fight to the death for her spiritual children. (Read the rest.)

That sounded good to me!

I was never terribly familiar with her work before I saw this film, but I have to say that it has sparked my interest, particularly in her morality plays, one of which is shown in the film, and her hauntingly beautiful music, which is used extensively in the soundtrack. Here is an example of one of her compositions:








The film as a whole manages to show the beauty of monastic life alongside the inevitable human realities of internal politics.  It allows the story to tell itself, without excessive glorification of the heroine, or unnecessary demonization of the Church.  Barbara Sukowa's performance portrays a strong woman dedicated to the truth and beauty of her faith with a kind of radical orthodoxy that challenges those around her. She takes delight in the created world, and passes that on to the nuns in her care. At the same time, she is still a human being with human weakness who has to struggle to reach high ideals.  She is, like the rest of us, completely dependent on God for whatever abilities, strengths, or successes she has.

This film was, in short, a breath of fresh air.

Enjoy.

They call him "The Prince of Music" for a reason.

I'm not talking about the guy in purple.

Long before there was a King of Rock and Roll or an artist formerly known as anything, there was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a gifted 16th century composer, whose work can still be heard in the liturgy as well as in concert halls.

His Sicut Cervus is one of the first pieces of renaissance polyphony I ever heard. It continues to be a particular favorite of mine.  One need not understand the Latin text to appreciate the beauty and meaning in this piece, though it helps:

Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum
ita desiderat anima mea ad te Deus.

"As the deer longs for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God."

Resurrexit Sicut Dixit, alleluia!

A little Mozart for Easter. Christ is risen!

I

Regina coeli laetare, Alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare. Alleluia,
Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia.

Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:

For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia,

Has risen, as He said, alleluia.

Pray for us to God, alleluia.

Kiss the Green Light Goodbye

The 20,000 square foot mansion said to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspiration for Tom and Daisy Buchanan's opulent East Egg home is no more.  Carolyn Kellogg of the L.A. Times reports that the 1902 home was demolished this week to make way for five custom homes to be sold at roughly ten million dollars apiece. (Click here for photos of the place before its demise.). 



Supposedly, this house is where Fitzgerald attended parties hosted by the mansion's owner, renowned journalist Herbert Bayard Swope.

Fitzgerald drew heavily on his own life when he wrote The Great Gatsby.  Daisy Buchanan herself bears a rather interesting resemblance to Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, who came from a prominent Montgomery, Alabama family just as Daisy herself is a wealthy Southern Belle.  His experiences with the "idle rich" in New York shape those of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby in the novel.

After the start of the Great Depression, Fitzgerald's novel lost popularity for a time, as the difficult economy seemed to make it less relevant. It was rediscovered, strangely enough, after the United States began to regain its prosperity, and the "American Dream" once again seemed attainable.

The novel seems more relevant than ever today, even with the so-called "Great Recession" dominating our headlines.  The American Dream, though continually changing with the times, still holds sway over the way we raise our children. On top of this, the culture of entitlement, decadence, carelessness, and conspicuous consumerism that dominates the fictionalized West and East Egg, and bleeds even into the impoverished recesses of the Valley of Ashes bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the world we live in today.

Perhaps this is why, when I taught this novel, I thought it so important to encourage my students to think critically about the culture they live in, and to examine their own goals for their lives as they read. Adolescence is a period of time in which many young people face the tension between what others think and expect, and their own individual needs and ideals. It is a time when they crave freedom, often without fully understanding what that means, or what relationship freedom has to responsibility.  Reading Gatsby gives them an opportunity to look at what they want, and decide what is worth the effort in the end: to realize that "it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world", much less for Wales. Or Daisy.

The American Dream, once a simple little house and picket fence, a mild feeling of contentment, a decent job, and a life in which we are free to do what we ought, has given way to something more complicated, less attainable, and a touch more sinister.  A mixture of wealth, fame, power, and a life in which we are free, like Tom and Daisy, to do whatever we want, regardless of who or what is damaged in the process, is now the American Dream of too many.  Like Gatsby, we pour our whole selves into ambitious pursuits, or like Myrtle Wilson with her apartment cluttered with oversized furniture and her borrowed lover, we fill our lives with out of place surface details that we think will impress others.  From reality show stars, to teenagers posting what they ate for lunch on Twitter, we all have our own ways of trying to be important in the eyes of the world. Some people give their lives and their sanity to this end. Others, with an excessive sense of entitlement,  waste their lives waiting for "success" to be handed to them.

Jay Gatsby spends his life chasing a dream version of himself in order to make himself worthy of that to which his ambition leads: Daisy, a shadow from his past; the woman whose alluring voice is "full of money".  What makes Gatsby "great" is his "heightened sensitivity to the promises of life": his capacity to dream and pursue his dream with his whole heart. His tragedy is "what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams" and the great waste of his "romantic readiness". Deluded by his own ideals, he pursues an object that is hollow, unreachable, and without lasting significance.  American Reality got in the way of Gatsby's American Dream.  The "fresh, green breast of the new world" which nurtured the dreams of our country's founders, had given way by Fitzgerald's time to mansions, skyscrapers, and the Valley of Ashes.

It is funny, then, that the demise of a home like that in which Tom and Daisy lived is going to make way for five more that can only be afforded by the stupendously wealthy.  Five more Tom and Daisy Buchanans?  Possibly.  But even though carelessness and corruption still permeate the world, idealism still has its place.  Let us hope--and work--for something better.

Pope Benedict XVI is the Cat's Meow!

A biography of the Holy Father for children will be published later this month. The twist? His story will be told from the perspective of his cat Chico. Insight Scoop, the Ignatius Press blog, describes the book as follows:


"In this beautifully illustrated book for children, Chico the cat describes the life of his "best friend", Pope Benedict, in this authorised biography of the Pope for young people approved by the Vatican.

"Dear Children, here you will find a biography that is different than others because it is told by a cat and it is not every day a cat can consider the Holy Father his friend and sit down to write his life story," the Pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, says in the foreword."

Read the entire post here.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen! Vatican approved!

Being a both an educator and a lifelong cat person myself, I love this idea. Most children I have ever seen have a natural fondness for animals. The use of a cat as narrator will help to make the story accessible to children, while allowing them to see the Pope as a person worthy of both affection and great respect.

And if it's fun to read, hey, that's one more way to encourage kids to open a book once in awhile.

Birds, Bushes, and Blooms

It's Valentine's Day!

Here is my post from last year on the origins of the holiday and its connection to the bird mating season.


In some regions, Valentine's day is the time to prune any rose bushes in your garden.

With that thought, I shall leave you with a lovely rose photograph taken by my brother:

Taking refuge in common sense.

Today, I found this little passage from Chesterton highly relevant:

It is commonly the loose and latitudinarian Christians who pay quite indefensible compliments to Christianity. They talk as if there had never been any piety or pity until Christianity came, a point on which any mediaeval would have been eager to correct them. ... Christianity was the answer to a riddle, not the last truism uttered after a long talk. Only the other day I saw in an excellent weekly paper of Puritan tone this remark, that Christianity when stripped of its armour of dogma (as who should speak of a man stripped of his armour of bones), turned out to be nothing but the Quaker doctrine of the Inner Light. Now, if I were to say that Christianity came into the world specially to destroy the doctrine of the Inner Light, that would be an exaggeration. But it would be very much nearer to the truth.

... That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.

All the same, it will be as well if Jones does not worship the sun and moon. If he does, there is a tendency for him to imitate them; to say, that because the sun burns insects alive, he may burn insects alive. He thinks that because the sun gives people sun-stroke, he may give his neighbour measles. He thinks that because the moon is said to drive men mad, he may drive his wife mad. ... Nature worship is natural enough while the society is young, or, in other words, Pantheism is all right as long as it is the worship of Pan. But Nature has another side which experience and sin are not slow in finding out, and it is no flippancy to say of the god Pan that he soon showed the cloven hoof. The only objection to Natural Religionis that somehow it always becomes unnatural. A man loves Nature in the morning for her innocence and amiability, and at nightfall, if he is loving her still, it is for her darkness and her cruelty. He washes at dawn in clear water as did the Wise Man of the Stoics, yet, somehow at the dark end of the day, he is bathing in hot bull's blood, as did Julian the Apostate. The mere pursuit of health always leads to something unhealthy. Physical nature must not be made the direct object of obedience; it must be enjoyed, not worshipped. Stars and mountains must not be taken seriously. If they are, we end where the pagan nature worship ended. Because the earth is kind,we can imitate all her cruelties. Because sexuality is sane, we can all go mad about sexuality. Mere optimism had reached its insane and appropriate termination. The theory that everything was good had become an orgy of everything that was bad.


--G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Earthly beauty points to something even better...

...especially when the something better is the inspiration for art.

All the more reason to make certain that our liturgy is beautiful.

If you like plants...

You might want to keep an eye on Transplanted, my gardening blog, as I update it with pictures of some inspiring locations and plants I recently encountered on a trip back to California.

For Corpus Christi

A prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas.

Authentic Femininity and the Bride of Christ

Contemplate the imagery in these words for a few moments:

...the Church, at her nature, has ALWAYS been feminine, for the soul of the Church is Marian. The soul of the Church projects us all as the Bride of Christ, of which Mystical Wedding was consummated upon the Cross. It is the place of the Church as a whole to be receptive to Christ, who gives everything for us, thus for we, His Bride, to give fully of ourselves.


Just take some deep breaths. Let it sink in. Feel a cozy thrill run up and down your spine.

And then read the original post from whence it came, which addresses the important issue of men fleeing the Church.

My original take on this was, "It's all their doing. The women are just picking up the things they've abandoned". But the post I've linked to above has me re-thinking this in part.

Those of you who have read books like The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands are aware of certain persons who theorize that men will respond quite readily if their wives use the power of their femininity properly. This isn't about some 50's notion that women should be subservient sex objects. It's more a question of understanding our men and how they work and using that understanding to help them to be happier people. One suggestion: make a concentrated effort to make your inner beauty shine. Another: be willing to do some basic maintenance with your outer beauty. You don't have to look like a pin-up. Just be healthy and well-groomed--and wear a smile now and then. The results of such efforts, the theory goes, are that good men will feel more "warm fuzzies" and automatically become more interested in understanding and pleasing their women. In short, we women can take the lead in creating a mutually satisfying marriage, even after the first one or two blissful years have come and long gone.

In the post referenced above, the same principle has been applied to the liturgical life of the Church. I think there is something to this. Beauty and femininity are usually associated with one another. Feminine beauty, both internal and external, varies widely from soft and delicate to stern and regal. Though each man has his particular preference, all men are attracted to what they perceive as beautiful. This is not a problem when beauty is accompanied (and enhanced) by dignity.

The Church, though her clergy is entirely male, is, as a body, usually referenced in the feminine (Bride of Christ, Holy Mother Church, etc.).

If one is to adapt this notion to the current state of liturgy in many parts of the Church in America (and possibly in other parts of the world), one could say that, of late, she has been struggling a bit with beauty. You could say the honeymoon is over and she has kind of let herself go. She is not producing the kind of great artistic works she used to. As Barbara Nicolosi noted in one of her lectures, the Church used to enjoy another feminine designation: "Patroness of the Arts". There was a time when the Church would commission great works of art, architecture and music.

Such artistic endeavors are still appreciated by people today. The Sistine Chapel, for instance, receives throngs of visitors of many faiths, hundreds of years after it was painted. Liturgical music from the Renaissance, though seldom used at mass today, is now frequently performed in concert for non-religious listeners because its haunting beauty draws people to it. Even if one does not understand Latin, such music certainly achieved a sense of divine beauty.

But what of today? How many churches built in the last 40 years make us catch our breath, or give us that little ache of longing in our hearts when we walk into them? How much of the music written in the last three decades will still be sung in 400 years? How many of us are so thrilled by the skills of our liturgical musicians that we wish we could record their efforts and take them home? How many scripture passages are proclaimed in a monotone?

Yep.

J.R.R. Tolkien understood the value of beauty in our journey toward salvation. There is certainly thorough appreciation of natural beauty woven through his writing. Creation, he argued was the ultimate work of art, and sub-creation (the artistic works of created beings such as ourselves) comes from both our love of the beauty of this world and our longing for the perfect beauty of the next.

That is what the Liturgy should do. In the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass, we are allowed, for a brief moment, to witness as Heaven and Earth meet. Tolkien put it this way,"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth." We catch a glimpse of paradise itself.

Our church buldings should be reflective of the awesome power of God which we witness in them every week. They should be places where our hearts burn within us--where our longing for perfect beauty, and our hope for its fulfillment, reaches the forefront of our thoughts. Nobody, male or female, can resist that kind of call.

Petite beauty: Humility means longevity for roses.

It was a gorgeous day today, and we spent some time at an antique rose garden.

Antique roses are a bit different from the ones we typically see in the average home improvement store or everyday nursery. The roses that I had been used to seeing, until recently, were bred specifically to have large, fantastically showy blooms. They also tend to require fairly regular maintenance, particularly in harsher climates. I did not know until I began doing some light internet research that these varieties were relatively recent creations in the history of roses, particularly some of the more spectacular hybrid tea roses with multi-colored petals, such as "Double Delight, pictured at the left.

Antique roses are varieties that have been around long enough to be...well...antique. Some of them go as far back as the early 1700's! Others were bred or discovered during the early 20th century. What they all seem to have in common is solid color petals, smaller blooms, and thicker foliage than their modern cousins. Though their blooms are smaller, these plants hold their own, and have a dignified beauty which, in my opinion, makes them just as worthy for a garden as any modern hybrid plant.

While perhaps not as showy as other roses, antique varieties appear to have the advantage in terms of maintenance. They are bred for hardiness. Established plants been known to survive---untended, and through hurricanes even--for upwards of 100 years. Now that is my kind of rose!

Cardinals in my garden.

No, not that kind. :) That would be pretty cool, though.

Not the baseball team either.

I mean the ones with feathers. A pair of them seems to have developed a thing for a tall tree in our backyard. If we're lucky, maybe they'll start nesting.

I never actually saw cardinals until I moved to Texas. I have always thought them beautiful, but never had a chance to really get a good look. But lately, I have been seeing them and hearing their songs almost daily. The male cardinal stands out the most, being brightly colored. Occasionally he'll streak through the air from one end of our property to the other.

(Photos from the Avian Gallery at RonDayPhotograpy.com)

Read more about Northern Cardinals here.

Read about Catholic Cardinals here.

Cardinal Virtues

Wonder and Awe in Tolkien

Another Tolkien aficionado comments on Middle Earth:

Guess who?

In the House of Bombadil.