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September 4, 2005
Gutenberg Goodies--George MacDonald
I've been off-track recently in keeping tabs on my favorite online books.
Turns out that one of C.S. Lewis's favorite authors is having a Gutenberg bloom.
If you're interested go here and scroll down to August 11. Or go to the main page and look up George MacDonald.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Here's Another--The Doré Bible Illustrations
They can be found here. It's nice that Gutenberg is doing something other than plain vanilla .txt files.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Fr. James V. Schall online
Another Sort of Learning. Includes links to a wide variety of essays and studies by this erudite commentator on literature, society, and learning.
Subjects include: Belloc, Chesterton, Sense and Nonsense, Augustinian Political Philosophy, Teaching and Learning, Christian Political Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas--each subject having a plethora of resources associated with it. Truly a treasure trove.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Chesterton
A list of what's available via Gutenberg. There's even more in Australia Gutenberg.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Michael Palin's Guides to Everything
He has his own Site. Seems to include complete text of many books and some Quick Time videos, maps, etc. Cool!
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
For Only the Most Inveterately Irish
Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood" Weird study of Dracula.
Sample:
from Dracula's Crypt:"The Metrocolonial Vampire"
Joseph ValenteA founding insight of the Irish Dracula school of criticism has been that Harker's observations in Transylvania refer in whole or in part to the features of life in Ireland in the nineteenth century.3 I think it would be more accurate to say that Harker's observations in Transylvania seem intended to echo or recall prominent treatises, received wisdom, and well-worn remarks, not to mention canards about Ireland. His comment on the immodesty of a peasant woman's native dress, for example, rehearses Edmund Spenser's strictures on Irish women's attire in A View of the Present State of Ireland.4 Harker's complaint about dilatory trains and his comments on the "idolatrous" peasants kneeling by a roadside shrine in a "self-surrender of devotion" (11), like figures "in old missals" (15), would have been familiar enough from Anglocentric travel narratives about Ireland. So too would have been his sense of the general depopulation of the countryside.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Another Amazing Compendium of Books
I'm not certain what all the titles here have to do with one another, but there's sure a lot of them.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I Beg One Last Indulgence
For the Antiquarians--the online works of William Morris. Arguably a better poet and designer than prose artist. Nevertheless, once you slip into the oddities of style, there is something wonderful about William Morris's work. Definitely for the medievalists and pseudo-medievalists amongst us. Waters of the Wondrous Isles, translations of Old French Romances and Icelandic sagas, and some very, very, very fine poetry.
And for those more modern, a relatively early work by Andre Norton.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 12:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Beauty Amid the Ashes
This couple really knows what hope and joy are all about. Join me in praying for a long and happy marriage for both of them. In the midst of tragedy they helped to remind a lost of people around them that there is still life and there is still hope.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:11 PM | TrackBack
September 5, 2005
Another E-Book Link
I found this yesterday and didn't quite know what to make of it. Was this an evangelical Matthew Fox? What exactly is Christian Hedonism?
But rather than continue to withhold, I thought you all might like to go and make your own evaluation. Given that it is evangelical, it could be anywhere in the spectrum from strongly anti-Catholic to nearly Catholic in sensibility. My sense of what I've seen is that the focus is "ecumenical."
So without further ado, I give you the library of the Desiring God foundation
A small sample from a book on fasting:
from A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer John PiperBeware of books on fasting. The Bible is very careful to warn us
about people who “advocate abstaining from foods, which God
created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know
the truth� (1 Timothy 4:1-3). The apostle Paul asks with dismay,
“Why . . . do you submit yourself to decrees, such as ‘Do not handle,
do not taste, do not touch’?� (Colossians 2:20-21). He is
jealous for the full enjoyment of Christian liberty. Like a great
declaration of freedom over every book on fasting flies the banner,
“Food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse
if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat� (1 Corinthians 8:8).
There once were two men. One said, “I fast twice a week�; the
other said, “God be merciful to me a sinner.� Only one went
down to his house justified (Luke 18:12-14).The discipline of self-denial is fraught with dangers—
perhaps only surpassed by the dangers of indulgence. These also
we are warned about: “All things are lawful for me, but I will not
be mastered by anything� (1 Corinthians 6:12).Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Against the Neo-Malthusians
An interesting text against birth control. I do not know its vintage, though it strikes me that much of the advise is incorrect and some of the physiology odd--so it may be turn of the century. (GSB is quoted--another clue.) It has this striking paragraph toward the end:
from Birth Control
Halliday G. Sutherland M.D.There are thousands who know little of the Catholic or of any other faith, and thousands who believe the Catholic Church to be everything except what it is. These people have no infallible rule of faith and morals, and when confronted, as they now are, by a dangerous, insidious campaign in favour of birth control, they do not react consistently or at all. It was therefore thought advisable to issue this statement in defence of the position of the Catholic Church; but the reader should remember that the teaching of the Church on this matter is held by her members to be true, not merely because it agrees with the notions of all right-thinking men and women, not because it is in harmony with economic, statistical, social, and biological truth, but principally because they know this teaching to be an authoritative declaration of the law of God. The Ten Commandments have their pragmatic justification; they make for the good of the race; but the Christian obeys them as expressions of the Divine Will.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:11 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Sorry, One More
It's on days like these that you can tell I run this blog for me. I collect all these bits and pieces and put them into posts so that when I've forgotten where they are in my bookmarks, etc., I'll have a repository. Sorry.
But this site features a large number of e-texts--some by John W. Cample, Alan E. Nourse, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Andre Norton. All are claimed to be copyright cleared.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 6, 2005
Aridity and Apaethia
from Ascent to Love
Sr. Ruth BurrowsAlmost always God's greatest gifts are wrapped up in the saking of painful self-knowledge. When we 'got on well' in paryer, when there was satisfaction in the mass and sacreaments, when we could talk inspiningly of spiritual things and other showed respect for our wisdom, we had no idea of the true state of affairs. Humility is acceptance of the truth about ourselves, not an effort to work up humble sentiments in spite of our obvious excellence!
I wish I could say that the state I have been in resembled this aridity. It more resembles sloth--that painful condition in which doing anything whatsoever spiritual takes an enormous effort of will and always manages to be distinctly unsatisfying to the point where one says--"Oh, why bother? He isn't paying any attention, why should I?" The truth is that He is paying attention and I am not, otherwise I wouldn't be in that condition.
It would be pleasant and easy to think that I had advanced so greatly in prayer that everything I did was embued with sanctity and I could now rest on the spiritual laurels and wait for the world to come to me for my magnificent, benevolent wisdom. That thought would release me from continuing to struggle.
As it is, I know what I am fighting--apathia or acedia is more the fruit of sloth than of prayer. And sloth exists in intention as well as practice. That is more where my own lies. I need to force myself to read spiritual books, to pray, to go to Mass. It is ever a temptation to give all these things a miss and move on with my own agenda. And I could attribute (in spiritual pride) all of these things to Aridity.
The odd thing is you have to "earn" aridity. That is, you must have been so faithful in prayer that God honors your faithfulness with a purifying fire that makes spiritual things difficult for you. It's odd that this is how it develops in some people (I don't think all, but then I'm not far enough along and it seems that in every Saint's life I read, I notice these lagging times that seem to suggest aridity.)
Aridity is the fruit of constant, faithful, devoted, involved prayer. Apathia and acedia are the result of viewing prayer and attendance upon God as obligation rather than privilege. I go through the motions without a lot of heart.
But part of the cure of any disease is to recognize its symptoms and to deal with the disease. There is much that can be done for this torpor. The first thing that must happen is repentence--both in the traditional and etymological sense of the word. I must think about the privilege of being a servant of God. When I realize what a tremendous opportunity I have been given, it sparks a willingness to see to all the attendant responsibilities of that station. This is grace in action. God reminds me that I am His own precious child and my petulanace and stubbornness are unbecoming the son of so benevolent a monarch. I can love because He first loved me.
Then I can fill my senses with all the things that remind me of His presence among His people--with beauty, with music, with prayer, with good company--all agents of His will.
But most of all, I can see my helplessness for what it is and cry out as did the man before Jesus, "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief." For what cause could such a condition have except a certain unbelief--a certain lack of trust that God will take care of all things that need taken care of? In one word, the cause of sloth and of its attendant ills is that I do not, in some way, trust or believe the fullness of God's truth. I am no longer simple, one-hearted. I have become duplicitous because I love something other than God more than God. It does not good to try to find out what has become my idol because I'm clever enough to hide that knowledge from myself as it is convenient to do so. What I can do is pray that God show me the idol that has replaced Him and ask Him to remove it from my presence.
I suppose I shouldn't make so public my own failings; however, by so doing, I can encourage your prayers for me and for others in this community similarly afflicted. More, I can show what I really am--a vain, foolish, selfish, hard-hearted slip of a man--rather than what I appear to (some to) be. This is salutary--it puts the universe in right perspective and helps me start all over again.
I thank God for the Carmelite Charism that keeps me going in these weak times. Sometimes it is all that sustains the breathing of my spiritual life.
So if you've seen a dearth of the helpful, the insightful, or the spiritual--now you know why and I will continue to work as I pray. I will continue to write as God works with me and I will continue to ask your prayers on the journey--prayers to relieve the numbness and weariness that come from relying upon my own will to do what God wishes. Because in surrendering to Love, I will be made whole and I will be saved. And there is nothing short of surrender that can make any difference.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Reading List
Thread of Grace Mary Doria Russell
Martin's Hundred Ivor Noel Hume
A sheaf of articles on Opechancanough and the Good Friday Massacre of 1622
The Ascent to Love (Redux) Ruth Burrows--To paraphrase C.S. Lewis's dictum--if it's worth reading it's worth rereading.
The Clocks--Agatha Christie--revisiting some classics.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 7, 2005
I've Seen This Before--Ophelia
Oh, how I don't like the present prediction of the track of Ophelia near the Florida coast. We're supposed to get about three days of exceedingly wet weather, which is not any big deal, but that big curling loop that seems to be forming is horribly reminiscent of Jeanne from last year. Present forecast discussion are quite naturally nebulous because the weather pattern is hard to interpret. They actually expect the storm to make a short loop and peel off into the Atlantic, which would be the best scenario for everyone.
So, while you all are praying for NO and the victims of Katrina, please throw in some good wearther prayers for the entire nation. I'm hoping the track means that Ophelia is being sucked into a vortex that drove Nate and Maria away, but it's hard to tell at this point.
Present forecast discussion are quite naturally nebulous because the weather pattern is hard to interpret.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What Does Vocation Mean?
Sometimes I am a very slow learner.
It has taken me a long time to understand the meaning of vocation, and I'm not certain I understand that meaning in its fullness even now.
The Lord has raised up a great many orders with lay associations from which lay people who are called may profit mightily. However, those who are not called can often wreak havoc and distress the communities to which they wish to belong. How do we begin to discern a vocation?
I'm not sure I can answer that question in its fullness, but the other day, while pondering something in The Ascent to Love I suddenly realized one of the reasons I am called to be a Carmelite. Quite simply, I cannot do otherwise.
God uses all that we are--physical appearance, personality, intelligence, charisma, etc. When He calls us those things operate like homing beacons to hear the call. We will be naturally drawn to what best fits what God has made. So for example, it has been my experience that nearly every Franciscan I've ever encountered has been downright giddy. That's not meant to be judgmental, but rather a perception. What I perceive as giddiness is a manifestation of the Franciscan joyous charism. But my perception of that is distinctly negative--I don't want to be that. I don't mind other who are--in fact, I deeply grateful to them because they serve a critical role among God's people. But my temperament is not naturally suited to that sort of effusiveness. Cross the Franciscans off my list.
Then I turn toward the Jesuit/Domincan orders. These are people who are drawn to the rigor of logic and argumentation. (Not solely, mind you. No one is all one thing.) The method of Aquinas appeals to them in its organizational and logical beauty. The preeminence of intelligence and intellect in the approach to God is a hallmark. I thought for a while I was cut out to be a Jesuit or a Dominican. Truth is, I haven't the mind for it. I cannot pursue my quarry with such persistance, and the more I think about some things the more morose, estranged, and distanced I become from God. (As an example--"Just War" theory.) From this, in retrospect I conclude that I was not called to be a Dominican or Jesuit. Now, my comments here should not be taken to define the true Charism of either order--I do not know that because I do not belong to them. I'm only talking about perceptions.
The order that most appealed to me didn't appear to have a lay association. I found out later that I was wrong, the Cistercians actually do have lay associates--but I think that this knowledge was withheld from me until I had found a home. The Cistercian Charism might exacerbate my already extremely low receptivity to others. On most personality indicators and by most measures, I'm just about as far from extravert as one can be and still be breathing. I don't mind being around a small number of people, but I do not seek out company. The Cistercian turn of things might have amplified this tendency to a point where the pursuit of sanctity became impossible because of my reclusiveness. I don't really know. God alone knows why He called me where he did.
I ultimately ended up with the Carmelites. Now it's hard for me to identify why this feels so much like home. But part of the feeling comes from the certain knowledge that St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila described very clearly my early experiences in faith and prayer. They also struck a chord in that I recognized the road to God in their words. There is a certain melancholy, which is not to say depression, but a kind of pleasant longing, which may typify many charisms, but which I could recognize here. The whole idea of "dark night of the soul" and of "dryness" in prayer rang true to me. I knew in hearing it that it was the truth. Now, it may in fact be the truth only for certain types of people. That is, not everyone will go through these spells, nor will everyone need to exprience dryness to experience closeness with God. But, I suppose, in a sense, this "dryness" is honoring and tempering the desire to be alone that so typifies the extreme introvert. God let's us experience that fully without ever allowing us to be alone. I don't know why I am called. I just know that there is something in the charism that speaks in a way nothing else has. I recognized a call.
In recognizing my own vocation, I started to discern the whole sense of vocations. I've had some very promising aspirants to the Carmelite order, who were simply not called. They moved into the group hoping to change and transform it into something else--more charismatic prayer, more thoughtful discourse, more appreciation of the fine points of liturgy, more apologetic, more. . . You name it. Most of these people found for themselves that they were not Carmelite. Some found other orders, other found prayer groups or other Churchly associations that benefited from their gifts.
Sometimes people will say to me that they want to belong to an order. My question to them is, "Does God want you to belong to an order?" Belonging to an order is not a guarentee of sanctity. In some cases it may interfere with our life's journey toward God. Belonging to a lay association of an Order is not the only means to intimacy with God. For many it is not a good way at all. But I understand the longing to find people of similar ways of thought and similar dispositions toward prayer. I think this is what people have in mind when they say they want to belong to an order. If God is calling you, you will belong. However, God may not call you to an order, but may call you to service with others. I would love to belong to St. Vincent de Paul society. But every time I make strides that direction, I find my entire life derailed in one way or another. The limits of my ability to associate consist in giving the goods that the society will disburse to the needy. I am not called there.
And that is another very interesting point. There are a great many vocations that have nothing at all to do with Holy Orders or Religious Communities. Every life is a vocation. God is always callilng, always yearning for us to turn to Him. He calls each one of us and it is in careful listening that we ultimately begin to hear and shape our lives according to His will. For some, matrimony is a vocastion--but it does not end there. In matrimony some will have many children, some a few, some none at all--these circumstances in turn will shape our vocations. Those with few or none who have longed for them will find ways to care for children who would otherwise not have families. Or they will find ways to serve children and be around them as in daycares, nurseries, teaching, nurses, etc.
Our vocation is built into who we are and how God has crafted us. It is the homing signal He built into us to call us home. The very best thing we will be able to say upon entering heaven is "I heard you call and I came." Our vocation is a way of living in response to that call and it may or may not involve association with a group of like-thinking, like-praying people. More often than not, it does not--and yet those who are not called to these aseemblies are still irrevocably called to discern their vocation and to serve God.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:20 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Via WitNit, a Lecture on the Federalist Papers
I love history. Every city I visit, I seek out whatever they may have in the way of historical interest and go to see it. I love reading primary sources, and I love the whole sense and sweep of history.
WitNit, which has long been a favorite of mine, though I do not often refer to it, has found this wonderful link to a transcript of a lecture on the Federalist Papers.
For most of us the Federalist Papers were something we encountered as a mention in a high-school text and which we went out of our way to avoid in college. Nevertheless they are key primary sources for understanding issues in American History and issues that continue to affect us to this day. They are philosophical and practical. It is important to remember that they were written largely as information and propaganda as the constitutional convention was going about its work. They prepared the groundwork for moving from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution and may have been instrumental in the acceptance of the latter. They are wide ranging, talking about everything from a national bank and national debt to state's rights.
The short lecture details why these are important and even gives key papers to read if you are not inclined to spend time reading them all (although they would repay the careful reader many times over). Anyway, enough of my plug go and visit the lecture and/or WitNit--you'll be glad you did.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Blogging Amusement
Given how many times I've started to make a comment and ended up deleting what I was writing, I'd really be interested in a counter that showed me how many started and how many completed. I wonder if there are a bunch of us out there who start to comment on all sorts of things we have no real business commenting on, come to our senses, and delete our comments. Don't know, but it would be interesting to find out.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Blogging Amusement
Given how many times I've started to make a comment and ended up deleting what I was writing, I'd really be interested in a counter that showed me how many started and how many completed. I wonder if there are a bunch of us out there who start to comment on all sorts of things we have no real business commenting on, come to our senses, and delete our comments. What would be even more interesting is a survey window that pops up when you cancel out a comment and asks you "Why did you decided not to comment?" My number 1 answer is "I was being a pretentious, self-important idiot and felt that I had already reached my limit on that for the week( month/year/lifetime)"
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Horror: The Perfect Christian Genre
Thanks to MamaT for the reference!
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Predominant Faults
Sweet music to my ears over at Father Jim's. Nothing I didn't already know, but nevertheless it is good to hear it confirmed. It is very disheartening to be repeating nearly the same thing week after week after week with no discernable progress. But, as Father Jim points out, there is good cause for hope.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 10, 2005
The PreInklings
A novel by Maurice Baring, the third member of the "PreInklings" consisting of Chesterton, Belloc, and their associates. You don't often find Baring's stuff on the web or elsewhere, so I thought I'd alert you.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Baring--A Collection of Short Stories
Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches
I'm doing this by quickpost, hence the separation of content. But that's okay, you'll be better able to differentiate.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Death-Wake
Okay, I'll admit it. I include this one merely for one of the more bizarre titles I've seen in a long time:"The Death-Wake or Lunacy; A Necromaunt in Three Chimeras"
Very, very odd indeed. With an intro by Andrew Lang.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack