YIMC Bookclub: Wise Blood

—Feast of St. Leonard of Noblac

I've been having a rollicking good time reading Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood. I've finished the first seven chapters and the cast of characters is setting us up for the the main event.

Did you know director John Huston, the voice of Gandalf the Grey in the animated The Hobbit, adapted this novel to film? That is where this photograph of Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif) comes from.

For Thoughts Like These from François Nepveu, S.J.

—Feast of All Saints of Africa 

I love discovering devotional works that bring the Catholic perspective on Christianity directly onto the center stage. That's what this book by Jesuit Father François Nepveu does.

Translated from the French by Henry Coleridge, S.J. (poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's brother), it is entitled Of the Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, And the Means of Acquiring It.

Father Nepveu presents us with the motives for loving Our Savior. What follows is the first motive he describes, which is pretty straight-forward and right on the mark.

Because the Sacrament of Reconciliation Can Happen Anywhere, At Any Time

It's not my intention to make my child look bad. Suffice it to say, one of our sons made a serious lapse in judgment the other day. He did something wrong and he knew it. My husband and I told him so and he was contrite. We've grounded him for a week. And then this morning, our son and I stopped by our parish after the 8 a.m. Mass so he could go to confession. I reminded him to lay it all out on the table, to leave no aspect of this unfortunate incident unsaid.

Because Life is Like an Epic Poem (Not a Report Card)

—Feast of St. Zachary 

Report cards used to be a once every nine week event. Remember those halcyon days? Information technology being what it is, nowadays we can check our children's grades daily. Oh, the horror!

I say that because lately, the picture hasn't been pretty for several of my little darlings. Not that I ever hoped that my kids would make straight A's or anything like that. That would be a miracle, considering my part of their genetic make up.

Thanks to Caravaggio's The Calling of St. Matthew

In Caravaggio's painting, Christ is gazing at Matthew, then a tax collector from Capernaum. Like Zacchaeus of Jericho, Matthew is despised by his community for collecting taxes for the Roman occupiers and pocketing the money of the poor for his own use. Have you noticed how many outcasts Christ chose to encounter? Within months of this encounter, Matthew is an apostle, witnessing Christ's Resurrection and Ascension.

The Road Of Joy (A Few Words for Wednesday)

—Feast of St. Martin de Porres

What follows is an excerpt from Kenelm Henry Digby's Compitum: or, The Meeting of the Ways at the Catholic Church, published in 1869. Reading books like this is why I haven't posted on O'Conner's Wise Blood yet. Forgive me.

Because Kenelm Henry Digby Could Write Such A Poem

Are you interested in Christian chivalry? You could do worse than read the works of Kenelm Henry Digby. Author of The Broad-Stone of Honour or Rules for the Gentlemen of England(1822), he was a Romantic who yearned for the days when knights upheld the honor of kith and kin. And the honor of the Holy Catholic Church as well.

I don't know much, but I think he may have written the best poem for All Souls Day that I have ever read. Please allow me to share it with you.

It's a little long, so be warned. But it really helps to explain why the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of All Souls, and why we pray for the faithful departed.

It's simple, really. Because it is the right thing to do.

For Purgatory, Thank Heavens

—Feast of All Souls

When I was straddling the fence on whether or not I should become a Catholic, I never had a problem with Purgatory. It just makes the most sense to me, not that my personal opinion about this doctrine means anything.

I'll admit that I thought I would have a big problem with it at first. Because, you see, it isn't mentioned specifically in the Bible (along with many other details). But where did all the people who died go, for example from the Old Testament times? Assuming that all the people who had died before the Incarnation were just, ahem—out of luck, is ridiculous to me. And that was before I knew the doctrine of purgatory very well.

The Feast of All Saints (Music for Mondays)

Today is the Feast of All Saints! As such, todays edition of MfM is dedicated to great music and prayers used to commemorate this day. I also found a short video tribute set to a contemporary song that you may enjoy as well. And to round it up, a modern classic.

Let's start this off with the great Latin chant version of the Litany of the Saints as composed by Pope St. Gregory the Great,

Because of Martin Luther, the Council of Trent and My Husband

When my husband and I were engaged 18 years ago, we had a conversation about where we would marry. Both of us had been raised Catholic and had become inconsistent in our practice of the faith. "What about the Lutheran Church?" I asked Greg. "It's exactly like Catholicism except women can be ministers and the ministers can marry."

 My husband, whose father was raised Lutheran, then explained to me that all Martin Luther's objections to the institutional problems in the Church had been answered. Besides which, he told me, only Catholics understand that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ.