On Gunston at Night
Gunston Hall is the magnificent Georgian Home of George Mason, father of the Bill of Rights (as he is often called), abolitionist, and one of the chief architects of the Constitution as it stands now. Last Night I went to an evening dinner and candlelight tour of the grounds. I was bowled over.
Unlike Mount Vernon, which has more extensive grounds and funds, Gunston Hall is a relatively small operation. However, there was much more to do at this tour than at Mount Vernon. After dinner, we (my MIL, my Son, and me) went out into the balmy evening (20 degrees or so) and toured the house. We saw three scenarios--dancing in the parlor, a display of colonial delights in the dining room, and a surgeon removing a tooth in the downstairs bedchamber. On the back porch George Mason greeted his visitors. Samuel, of course, gave him a hug and thanked him for the dancing and the eels.
We followed up the brief house tour with a short carriage ride, laprugs and all. Then we retired to the kitchen yards where open hearth cooking was demonstrated. They had available for sampling, pork, eel, and Great Cake (a forty egg cake the size of normal people's kitchen tables). The laundry workers were also demonstrating their work. In addition they had warm cider and ginger snaps for everyone to eat.
Overall, this was a spectacular display for a relatively small, lesser-known attraction. Those who live in the area would do well to avail themselves of this opportunity in future years. We tend to grow myopic regarding the wonders that are near us. When I lived in Virginia, I never gave these places much thought, they were always nearby, and I could go at any time. Living at some distance, I now prize each opportunity to visit these historic places. By such visits, if you carefully ignore the scripts of many of the docents and ask the right questions, you can restore a proper historic perspective unalloyed by the idiocies of multicultural demands for people to not be people of their times, and PoMo victim theory. You can recapture the spirit of the times and realize how incredibly miraculous our present government and way of life are. God has been very gracious to us as a nation. Indeed, God has "shed his Grace" on us. At one time, we were a Godly people, following Him and relying upon Him to a degree not fully understood today.
Reflections Inspired by Cold Weather
It amazes me that anyone likes cold weather. I get slow, stupid, relucant to do anything, and terribly anxious. Oh wait. . . I'm describing my base state of being. Cold weather simply forces me to abandon the mask that I too often wear in warm and temperate climates.
I have long considered that I would like to move back to Virginia in (as they say) the fullness of time. On his trip, I have decided otherwise. Despite the plethora of wonderful historical activities and sites, the cold shuts me down. I find it hard to pray, hard to think, hard to do anything other than to curl up in a ball and stay warm. Thus, I think I am not cut out for these climes. What a grace God has granted me--not to long continually for what is realistically out of my control anyway. Such longing is utterly destructive and soul-destroying.
Isn't God amazing?
Meditations and thoughts for Advent
I hope you all have been reading the Precious Blood meditations for Advent. The one for December 6 was by our own Father Keyes, C.PP.S. If you have not been reading these, do yourself a favor and pick them up.
Fr. Keyes and Ms. Knapp offer consistently fine, consistently inspiring, truthful, helpful, an provocative meditations on spiritual matters. Among the very fine blogs to which I link, there are places of great spiritual refreshment, quiet places that inspire reflection and conversation with God. These places consistently challenge me in my Christian walk and consistently demand of me a more effective witness.
Too infrequently do I thank the people who take the time and effort to present these to us. They provide refreshment and life in a sometimes news-sogged blogworld. Thank you.
Blogging Prospects
A little today, and none tomorrow. We make our fourteen or so hour trek back home. Hopefully the roads in N.Carolina will have had sufficient time to clear a bit--unclear about the extent of the ice storm--so we may be on the road a bit longer than usual in our homeward travail.
Please remember us in your prayers. Much thanks to those who have been praying, my wife is somewhat better.
What About Jesus?
Kairos has provided us with a wonderful list of self-help books following on the current fad of wondering what Jesus would do. Read these titles and find out.
Request for Prayer
Yesterday the area I am in was said to have had 10 inches of snow, though it didn't look like it to me. I am hardly an objective viewer. Also yesterday I needed to try to find medical care for my spouse who was having multiple infections of bronchii and sinus. Today I may be wandering around looking for same for son.
Let me tell you, a bit of snow in D.C. area and everything shuts down. So we ended up at a hospital emergency room. What fun.
So, I request your prayers for health for my family and for safe and swift travel on Sunday when we need to make our way from Virginia to Florida. I don't dare even think about trying to go earlier as the condition of the roads, even main roads in N. Carolina and Virginia is likely to be prohibitive.
Thanks to everyone.
On St. Francis of Assisi
The complete work is available here.
The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi Father Candide ChalippeProduced by Scott Pfenninger, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF FATHER CANDIDE CHALIPPE, O.F.M.
REVISED AND RE-EDITED BY FATHER HILARION DUERK, O.F.M.
Imprimatur FATHER SAMUEL MACKE O.F.M. Min. Prov. St. Louis September 1, 1917
Nihil obstat ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S.T.D. Censur Librarum
Imprimatur JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY New York
This Jubilee Edition of the Life and Legends of St. Francis of Assisi is Respectfully Dedicated to all Members of the Third Order in the City of Cleveland and Vicinity, above all, to the Nobel Patrons and Zealous Workers of Our Tertiary Branches.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Life and Legends of St. Francis of Assisi by Father Candide Chalippe, O.F.M., need no apology. The work was first published at Paris in 1727. It is not only well written and reliable withal, but also instructive, elevating and inspiring. The facts and legends mentioned are drawn from the oldest and most reliable sources. The abundance of incidents and anecdotes not to be found elsewhere make the volume eminently interesting, while the reflexions and applications which the author now and then interweaves with the narrative are so replete with practical hints on spiritual life, that they will undoubtedly produce the best spiritual results in the reader. The style though simple, at times graphic, is very pleasing; the narrative flows on with equal ease and freedom.In 1852 a priest from the Oratory of St. Philip Neri made a translation into English from what was then the latest French edition. This French edition came from the press in 1850. With the English translation the original work appeared in an abridged form. The original work is divided into six books, the English translation contains but half of these, so rearranged for the sake of clearness that they form five books. Most elucidations of the original work regarding characteristics of St. Francis, events and dates that are doubtful, are omitted, likewise most of the writings of St. Francis. The former were and still are undergoing changes, owing to new historical researches and discoveries made by students of Franciscan sources, while the latter were but lately again newly translated into English and edited as completely as possible with many critical notes and references of great value by the scholarly Father Paschal Robinson, O.F.M.—The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi by Father Paschal Robinson, O.F.M. The Dolphin Press, 1906.
The marvellous progress the Third Order of St. Francis is making in this country causes the story of the life of St. Francis that is herewith presented to the public in a newly revised edition to be especially welcome. For all Tertiaries know that mere devotion to St. Francis is of itself not sufficient to acquire the spirit of their Seraphic Father; all are aware that membership in the Third Order does not necessarily argue the possession of this spirit—and yet, every real Tertiary desires nothing more than to acquire the poor, humble, loving spirit of St. Francis. This spirit can scarcely be acquired, unless the life of St. Francis be well known, meditated upon and imitated as far as practicable. The Life and Legends of St. Francis of Assisi by Father Candide Chalippe, O.F.M., is peculiarly adapted to help Tertiaries to perform this task; the spirit of St. Francis breathes in every page. Not once, but several times may Tertiaries read this book to great advantage. With every reading new items of interest will be discovered, new lessons will present themselves to be learnt, new inspirations will be imparted to the soul from above. The more this book is read, the more it will be loved; the more it is studied, the more it will be admired. For Tertiaries a book of this kind is a necessity; it is as necessary for them as a text-book is for a scholar.
May this wonderful work spread in the future even more rapidly than before, may it receive the hearty welcome it deserves among the innumerable Tertiaries and clients of St. Francis of Assisi and be to them a sure guide to God's abundant graces in this world and to life everlasting in the next.
On Samuel Johnson
By one who seemed not over-fond of him:
EPITAPH ON DR. JOHNSONHere lies poor Johnson. Reader, have a care,
Tread lightly, lest you rouse a sleeping bear:
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was, but self-sufficient, rude, and vain;
Ill-bred and overbearing in dispute,
A scholar and a Christian—yet a brute.
Would you know all his wisdom and his folly,
His actions, sayings, mirth, and melancholy?
Boswell and Thrale, retailers of his wit,
Will tell you how he wrote, and talked, and cough'd, and spit.
Pedro Calderon de la Barca
An interesting translation of Pedro Calderon de la Barca's play St. Patrick's Purgatory. Enjoy.
Followup on Catholic Curiosa
Found this article about Catholicism in Virginia. Excerpt follows:
Bloody Beginning for Catholics in Virginia Clare MacDonnellIt was a bloody beginning for the Roman Catholic Church in the colonies at the end of the 16th century. In 1570, Jesuit Father John Baptist Sequia and companions were brutally killed after they were betrayed by their guide in the Virginia wilderness, near what is now Fredericksburg.
Although the Jesuit expeditions had ended, Catholicism in Virginia was revived when Gov. Giles Brent of Maryland and his sister, Margaret, arrived in 1647. They settled in Aquia Harbor, near the Spanish missionaries’ settlement. The Brents had been forced out of Maryland because of their religion and politics, so they maintained Aquia as the first Catholic settlement in Virginia, embracing religious tolerance in the community.
It was not until Thomas Jefferson’s Act for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1785, which decreed that Catholics were free to worship openly in the Old Dominion, that the Church began to flourish in the area.
Gen. George Washington was a key figure in establishing the first Catholic Church in the colony — St. Mary Church in Alexandria built in 1795. Col. John Fitzgerald, a Catholic and aide to Washington, spurred the fund raising campaign for the church. St. Mary Cemetery, the state’s oldest Catholic cemetery, is where the original church stood.
A few years later, in 1789, the Archdiocese of Baltimore was founded as the nation’s first diocese with John Carroll as its first archbishop. Archbishop Carroll, who has been called the founding father of the American Catholic Church, was the grandson of Charles Carroll who emigrated to Maryland from Ireland and served as Lord Baltimore’s attorney general. His son, Charles, founded the Baltimore Iron Works and his grandson Daniel signed both the Articles of Confederation and the federal Constitution and helped frame the First Amendment. Charles Carroll, John’s cousin, was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.
More Catholic Curiosa
This morning took a spin south to Fredericksburg to tour Kenmore again (more of that later). Returning, I asked wife if she would like to go back by a slower route--Route 1. She said sure, had to be more scenic than 95.
Well, scenic it was. I won't mention all the wonders along the route, but I thought everyone might be interested in one particularly noticeable display. We were headed North and had just passd through the town of Aquia. On the right there is a Roman Catholic Church with the unlikely name of St. William of York (never heard of him, but have no doubt that someone can tell me all about him.) Just a little pace north of that, we came upon an enormous (fifteen or twenty foot tall) crucifix, corpus and all, right by the side of the road. Now, I'm used to the little displays that mark the scene of an accident, and even of the larger three-cross displays, the meaning of which I am uncertain. But this was far more ornate and far larger than any such display.
Well, we had encountered, according to my wife who had the chance to read it, the site of the first Catholic Settlement in Virginia. Had I not been tooling along at quite a clip, I might have paused and returned. (I have to admit also, since moving to Florida, the antifreeze has been drained and filled with e-z freeze and the weather in NoVA has not been conducive to extensive exploration outdoors.
Anyway, just though you all might like to know. Those of you in the area might want to take a look someday.
It's Great To Be Missed
Mr. O'Rama at Video Meliora asks if my silence is of the penitential sort. Oh no. Not at all. I feel that if I am penitent everyone ought to be, so I do my best to bring penance to all. No, silence resulted from events of yesterday. My FIL, an avid geneologist discovered a treasure trove of relatives all of a sudden and spent much time documenting the event. Then, before I could post a thing, I was out to a local Vietnamese Restaurant to celebrate the birthdays of three family members. So now I'm back. Thanks for missing me.
Really Tough for a Florida Boy
. . . but worth it. The family packed into the motorized chariot last night and trekked our way out to Mount Vernon where we spent the better portion of the evening doing a candlelight tour of the house and grounds. Now, this tour consisted mostly of waiting. (Something one grows used to if one frequents the amusements near my home). The first stretch in a tent with hot cider and ginger cookies, next near a stage with two performers giving sense of some Revolutionary Era amusement and around bonfire singing Christmas Carols. Finally the tour begins, and it was quite lovely. Walking up the grat oval loop toward the house, you could see the candle (real candles) coachlights lining the lesser-oval drive in front of the house. We were greeted by one of the "Mansion Guests" who were spending the Christmas season visiting the Washingtons, and then volunteers explained the house and grounds as we walked through.
I've been in Mount Vernon countless times. (Every time I visit home, I visit Mount Vernon at least twice.) This may have been the loveliest visit of all. It also gave a very clear sense of what life in the time might have been like. It would have been more accurate had the rooms and passages been heated only by the fires in the fireplaces, but for reasons of preservation, one can easily understand why that bit of reality was not injected into the visit. The tour concluded with a visit to the major nearby outbuildings.
If you live in the area and have not treated yourself to this experience, you should really consider it. But then, in case you haven't guessed it over the past week or so, I am really a history buff--enjoying to the maximum visiting old homes and famous places.
Oh, and even Samuel enjoyed it. He asked everyone dressed in period clothes if they were John Adams, George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson. Early on, when we first visited, Sam had asked where George Washington was. My reply (after a futile attempt to explain the reality) was that he was with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Having a mind like a steel trap, he retained this datum. The last person we met, he started the usual litany of questions, "Are you George Washington?" The Man responded, "No, I work for General Washington." Samuel must have misheard him and gave him a big hug--much to the man's surprise--and said, "I love you, George Washington." Quite amusing and I hope heart-warming for the person thus addressed.
A similar experience plus dinner is planned for later this week at Gunston Hall, home of George Mason. I regret I am not going to be here for the Woodlawn Candlelight tour. Oh well--it will be good to get home.
We'll also be visiting Kenmore (George Washington's Sister's Home in Fredericksburg), the Smithsonian a second and perhaps a third time, and possible Stratford Hall (boyhood home of Robert E. Lee and Family Seat of Lighthorse Harry, and Richard Henry).
On the Most Common Form of Modern Slavery
I was graced by the understanding of slavery granted me as I toured Mount Vernon. The enormity of the crime overwhelmed me. And as Franklin cogently notes below, physical, obvious slavery is only scratching the surface of the horror.
The most common form of slavery today as in the past are the shackles that we embrace. We put them on willingly and we are utterly reluctant to remove them. In fact, we do all that we can to preserve these shackles inviolate--the shackles of Sin.
C.S. Lewis had a wonderful description of the difficulty of removing these in The Great Divorce, A man is seen by a friend to have a lizard companion. When the Angelic friend asks him to give up the lizard there is a long struggle which ends only when the man says something like, "Take it quickly, do away with it before I change my mind." That is what sin is--it is behavior that has grown into habit, into character, and finally into addiction. We fear withdrawal, we fear the emptiness of its absence, so we gladly tighten the chains and shackles around us.
As we enter into Advent, it is a good time to consider the evils we have grown into--evils that have acquired our shape as a well-worn couch--evils that we have settled into and now give no notice. They may be small, they may be enormous, but they are always all-encompassing. We cannot give them up. Or so we think. But we turn to Jesus and gazing at Him, taking one step at a time, we CAN and will walk away from them. His grace makes it possible. His grace makes it necessary. His blood is the price paid so that we may walk away from the "fleshpots" of Egypt and enter the true land of "Milk and Honey." What a shame if His purchase is not received in full in the Kingdom of Heaven. Better to wear His yoke, than the one that we no longer even see.
The Worst Day in Recent American History
Dylan offers responses to the question "What was the darkest day in American History between the Assassination of Kennedy and the present." The most prominent answer is hardly a surprise coming from the loyal audience that it does--go and see. However, one answer that is missing, and for which I was too lazy to look up the date, and thus did not comment is notably lacking. Such lack, I think is remarkable and ominous.(I tried to respond in his comment box, but AOL is about fifty percent so far in response to java-script stuff--no comment survived, and so I reproduce in part, and elaborate in large part, what I said there.)
The day that I would choose looms large in memory and mind because we have not seen yet the full play of the consequences. That was the day that the full Senate refused to remove the master of malfeasance from office for strictly concerns of convenience. I will admit that I probably emitted a sigh of relief that the whole ordeal was over, but when Clinton was ultimately allowed to retain office, we officially abandoned all principle in favor of expedience. True, the House found him guilty of the crimes with which he was charged, thus he was impeached; however, by not removing him from office, we said, in effect, "Yes, it's true that he is a criminal, but the economy is good, there will be state disruption, and we just don't think that what he did was that bad."
Suborning perjury, perhaps committing perjury himself, and using the office in ways to protect himself and others in their criminal activities, is a serious, very serious offense. We let ourselves down, and the Senate of the time let us all down for not upholding the dignity of the office and demanding that the person in it rise to that dignity.
We, in effect, acknowledged that what is expedient must rule. Principle is meaningless. We moved truly into the world of PoMo government, in which everything is relative and the only thing important is to preserve the status quo or the present power base if such base assures that we can continue to believe that everything is relative.
We have not seen the end of this dire day We have not sen play out the full implications of our repudiation of principles, and God willing, I pray that we never will.
However, this dire day is certainly one that we need to examine more thoroughly for its utterly repugnant sensibility and for what it says about us as a people.
Advent is a pentitential season. As we wait for the coming of the Kingdom and as we look to the Coming of our Savior, let us examine not only our hearts, but also what we permit by our actions. We as a people made possibly the triumph of King Herod (or should I say King Ahab), and for that many of us hold some portion of corporate guilt. It is time that we act on what we say we believe--"Truth is truth. It is absolute and uncompromisable." If so, then we should behave as though we believe what we say.
Please forgive me for simply repeating the contents of one of my comment boxes here; however, I feel the words important enough to rest at the upper level of an archive and not to rely simply upon the vagaries of commenting systems to survive or die. Many commenters have made very cogent remarks regarding a post below, and I would like them to be prominent and useful for the future.
Thanks for your indulgence.
Steven,
Thank you for sharing your insights. Slavery is a tough one; it existed when Jesus was alive (as human) and He didn't do anything about it.
Pax,
Katherine
*****
Dear Katherine,
True enough, but neither did Jesus say a word about procured abortion, which, while not as prevalent as it is today, was still common enough practice to be denounced in the Didache.
His silence does not indicate approval, merely that there was limited time in His mission to say all that was essential to carry the world forward in pursuit of God.
In addition, the Old Testament Levitical regulations certainly indicated that no person should be kept in permanent bondage (one of the purposes of a Jubilee year).
Thus I see a two-fold approach--we look to the wisdom of the old Levitical law and we use that, in part as a basis for moving forward in pursuit of God.
Surely if we follow Jesus we cannot allow that He would have whole-heartedly approved of slavery. He might have noted that the slave was in a better position to access God than the person who "owned" him. (Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. . .")
In sum, I think the issue may be easier than we make it out. We are not supposed to "make our treasure here on Earth" but to "store up treasure in heaven." By this reasoning, we certainly should not be in the position of owning people.
Perhaps Jesus did not comment directly, but I believe His instruction and his attitude are quite clear in the words that are left to us.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to elaborate on this very important thought. We must never allow a similar system to crop up here again, and justice demands that we work to the best of our ability to abolish this practice wherever it may exist in the world today. Call it what you may--reste-avec, slavery, it cannot but be clear that persons must never be regarded as objects to be owned and used at will.
(By the way, I know that you did not imply any of this in your reply--I do not impute these thoughts to you. But I do thank you.)
shalom,
Steven
*****
Steven,
I for one do not think that slavery and freedom can be defined by the presence or absence of chains, fences, concentration camps, and other devices that commonly come to mind when these words are used. Such devices delimit forms of physical slavery, which indeed may never exist again in this country, but that is not the only form of slavery. There is slavery that can be mental, emotional, psychological, and against these forms, which are debilitating to the mind and soul if not the body, I think we are still struggling.
We enact laws to proscribe the outward forms of slavery, but our laws are powerless to affect the workings of the human heart. We can prohibit someone from legally owning another, but we have not the means to prevent someone from seeking to subjugate another's will to their own. And conversely, we cannot force freedom on someone who does not fully desire it.
The mistake I think many people make is to assume that since the signs of slavery are no longer evident, we need be concerned about it no longer. But if by slavery and freedom we mean something more than the physical and the legal, then we need to look a bit deeper into what we are seeking to avoid and what we are seeking to promote. But such an effort is today complicated by the fact that slavery and freedom are emotionally-loaded words, and rational discourse on such subjects is frequently difficult.
Everybody nowadays "knows" that slavery ended a long time ago, and also "knows" that as a consequence everyone is now free. But ask them what they mean by "free" and more likely than not you'll get them upset. This may be because thinking with catchphrases is easier than defining one's terms. But I think it is also due in part to chronological snobbery, the attitude that ours is the first generation in human history that had everything figured out, and the vast bulk of humanity were all unwashed heathen, whom time and death have cast into the outer darkness to wail and gnash their teeth.
This attitude scares me, because it entails scorn and derision for our ancestors and their beliefs and traditions, and raises the distinct possibility that we will most likely be condemned to repeat history, since we lack the humility to learn from it. No, I don't think we'll resurrect the plantations, but there are more invisible and consequently more effective forms of slavery.
Franklin Johnston
*****
I think the important point about the Revolution is that the founding fathers had the right words and the right goal: endowed by their creator with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and freedom. What they lacked was the intestinal fortitude and the follow through on the "for all." They did, however, fight with their lives and livlihood for fuller embrace of these principles. Sadly, it took much too long and much too much blood.for the fullness of these words to achieved for people of all races. Yet, these failings to attain a full embrace of this noble goal should not diminish the courage it took to gain what was gained. What truly diminishes us as a nation, is that we, in this time of plenty and wealth unimagined, are consciously choosing to RETREAT from these these noble goals. Our mantra is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- for all races, religions, creeds, sexual orientations as long as you happent to be economically viable and not a resource drain on society or your family and friends. In other words, the unborn, the chronically ill or disabled, and the dying are excluded from these inalienable rights. This truly is sad. It is one thing to have the most noble of goals and fail to attain it; it is another to achieve the most noble of goals and then repudiate it.
Anonymous
*****
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you, well spoken and quite poignant. Agreed and seconded in all points.
Dear Franklin,
[post edited to reflect the fact that in my haste to comment, I simply repeated what Franklin says above, implying that he did not say that Slavery may return and those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.]
However, slavery is NOT gone from the world--and that is a tragedy that must be addressed. In Haiti they have the institution of the Reste-avec (means Stay-with) in French, which is ostensibly a servant, but in all practicality a slave. I do not know that the hacienda system is completely dead everywhere in the world--but to be owned by the company store is slavery. I do not think we should suggest that the scourge is eradicated. Because it does not exist here does not mean that it does not exist.
However, the thrust of what you have to say is extremely important. Such attitudes and trends make possible atrocities beyond our ability to conceive. T. H. White's dictum, which I am fond of quoting notes that 90% of humanity are sheep; 9% are blackguards and knaves; and the 1% fit to lead, know better.
As long as we are sheep to fashion and the world, we are in danger. It is only in becoming the sheep of Christ that we have the power to resist the glamours of the world.
shalom,
Steven
*****
Such thoughts and words should not be allowed to vanish into the dim depths of commenting archives where they may or may not survive. I love good dialogue about important issues, and this issue has stirred a great deal of very good thought. Thank you all for contributing and thank you for helping me to grow in understanding and in my walk with Christ--for it is only in facing the truth squarely that we begin to see His face in the events that surround us each day.