Friday, April 27, 2012
“Peter the Liar Got Hit by a Bus”: Concerning the Morality of the Story
RC’s comment on my analysis (a pretty fancy word for what I wrote, but let that be) of Raphael’s two paintings of St. George and the Dragon got me thinking. He brought up the review I wrote for StAR of Baron de la Motte Fouque’s The Magic Ring—a book that he enjoyed very much but which I, to borrow one of my favorite phrases from Sayers, praised with faint damns. My reply to RC’s comment, explaining what I thought made for a good work of literature (or a great one) as opposed to one that is merely fair, started to get out of hand as I worked it out in my mind; and in the end I offered a simple formula to explain my views.
Monday, April 23, 2012
St. George's Day
Hopefully you will have noticed the picture on the top left side of this
blog. It's the earlier, more dramatic of Raphael's two stabs (pardon
the pun) at painting St. George and the Dragon. The latter one, the one
that more commonly shows up on postcards and people's walls, looks like
this:
Thursday, April 19, 2012
I Didn't Sign Up for This
I know, I know ... I posted yesterday and two days before that too. But some weeks are like ... this one.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Humor, Madness; Man and Beast
Every spring my peaceful early-morning commuter train is transformed by
the presence of The Tourists. Usually these are families with kids; and
usually the kids are pretty well-behaved (the other kind ride Metro),
so I don't mind too much. It does break the morning stillness though,
having half-a-dozen people jabbering behind you about what they're going
to have for breakfast, while you're trying to figure out why JPII said
"dynamism" (or the Italian equivalent) when "power" is a more
intelligible and traditional translation of St. Paul.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Peter on the Sea
It's nice when the author of a book ties things together at the end—and
as the priest pointed out in his homily on the gospel today, St. John
is such an author. In the final chapter of John's gospel, the apostles
go fishing: fishermen before Christ came, they are fishermen afterwards;
and so it goes.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Real Men > X
And I was thinking it would be hard to find inspiration to write this week. I write most easily (I won't say best,
although that also may be true) when annoyed. Not
frothing-at-the-mouth furious, but just ever so slightly ticked off. But no, I thought. It's Easter Week. All the news (that I read) will be happy Catholic trivia and inspirational gurgles on how the celebration does borrow
from paganism, but that's actually OK. Maybe there'll be something
about vestment colors or dating Passover. Possibly a piece or two about
how it's wicked to lie to your kids about the Easter Bunny. That'll be about the
most abrasive it gets.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Love and Necessity
"And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." (1 Corinthians, 15:14)
"It behooved Christ to rise again ... for our instruction in the faith, since our belief in Christ's Godhead is confirmed by His rising again." (Summa III.53.1)
"The Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly "I AM", the Son of God and God himself." (Catechism, 653)
"It behooved Christ to rise again ... for our instruction in the faith, since our belief in Christ's Godhead is confirmed by His rising again." (Summa III.53.1)
"The Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly "I AM", the Son of God and God himself." (Catechism, 653)
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