The itch to simplify and rationalize

This post from Fr Ray Blake brought to mind the great interstate highways that now cut through the heart of Indianapolis. They were laid down in the 50s and 60s, that era in which the old was seen fit only for destruction, the better to put something new, simple and rational in its place. Nevermind the old neighborhoods and parishes that simply disappeared overnight, old communities bulldozed and cut in pieces. Now, as you drive across Indy at 70 mph, you see the scarred stump-ends of forgotten streets, neighborhoods and yards pass by. Seems rather like what happened to our liturgy around the same time.

Catena aurea: Matthew 3

• Matthew 3:1-3
• Matthew 3:5-6
• Matthew 3:7-10
• Matthew 3:11-12
• Matthew 3:13-15
• Matthew 3:16
• Matthew 3:17

Butler's Lives: August 30

• St Rose of Lima, Virgin
• Saints Felix and Adauctus, Martyrs
• St Fiaker, Anchoret, Confessor
• St Pammachius, Confessor
• St Agilus, commonly called St Aile, Abbot

Augustine's commentaries on the Psalms

The Oxford Movement translation of Augustine's commentaries on the Psalms.

• Subject Index
• Index of Texts

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125
126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Bob Dylan's radio show, complete

Complete mp3 archives of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour are available for downloading here. If you like American music of the last 100 years and you need a fun and trustworthy guide to it all, get thee to TTRH.

Catena aurea: Matthew 2

• Matthew 2:1-2
• Matthew 2:3-6
• Matthew 2:7-9a
• Matthew 2:9b
• Matthew 2:10-11
• Matthew 2:12
• Matthew 2:13-15
• Matthew 2:16
• Matthew 2:17-18
• Matthew 2:19-20
• Matthew 2:21-23

Butler's Lives: August 29

• The Decollation of St. John the Baptist
• St. Sabina, Martyr
• St. Sebbi, or Sebba, King and Confessor
• St. Merri, Abbot

Commentaries on the Psalms

The Psalm commentaries of John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale

• Volume 1, Preface
• Volume 1, Preface to 2nd edition
• Volume 2, Preface
• Dissertation 1: The Psalms as Employed in the Offices of the Church
• Dissertation 2: Primitive and Medieval Commentators on the Psalms
• Dissertation 3: The Mystical and Literal Interpretation of the Psalms
• Dissertation 4: Chronology of the Psalms
• Dissertation 5: The Psalms as Used in the Sacraments and Rites of the Church
• Index of Scripture references

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125
126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Butler's Lives: August 28

• St. Augustine, Bishop and Confessor, Doctor of the Church
• St. Hermes, Martyr
• St. Julian, Martyr

Catena aurea: Matthew 1

The gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, in the Catena aurea of St Thomas Aquinas (translation by John Henry Newman and crew).

• Matthew 1:1
• Matthew 1:2
• Matthew 1:3-6
• Matthew 1:6-8
• Matthew 1:8-11
• Matthew 1:12-15
• Matthew 1:16
• Matthew 1:17
• Matthew 1:18
• Matthew 1:19
• Matthew 1:20
• Matthew 1:21
• Matthew 1:22-23
• Matthew 1:24-25

Butler's Lives: August 27

• St. Caesarius, Bishop and Confessor
• St. Poemen, or Pastor, Abbot
• St. Hugh of Lincoln, Martyr
• St. Joseph Calasanctius, Confessor
• St. Malrubius, Hermit and Martyr
• St. Syagrius, Bishop

I'm back

I haven't blogged in a while - it's that darned Facebook. I may as well try to put something up here every day. Perhaps I'll get back into the habit of writing, and maybe my sentences will lengthen, too. This bit at Instapundit was sweet:

Terrorists left in their own filth: War crime.

Patients left in their own filth: Progressive healthcare!

Tolkien fan fiction

As I was drifting off to sleep last night I thought that surely someone has written short stories based in Tolkien's world - it might be interesting to read about the little-known areas of Middle-Earth and the parts they played in Tolkien's history. Hollin, for instance, when Elves still lived there. It was such a bang-up good going-to-sleep idea that I traced the phrase "TOLKIEN FAN FIC" on my arm in the hopes of remembering it this morning. It worked. Behold.

Tin whistle update

My two big tin whistle projects at the moment, aside from easy tunes I stumble across: Over the Waterfall and The Foggy Dew. For the latter, also see this page. At the bottom of that page there's a link to a recording of some old guy singing his version of the song - that's the version I learned to sing. For ubuntu people, you can play the file via "mplayer -playlist http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/ram/rs_l06.ram"

What to write about

It seems the early Romans didn't find much to write about. From Edith Hamilton, The Roman Way:

A sense for poetry was not strong in the Roman people. Their natural genius did not urge them on to artistic expression. Rome was said to have been founded in the year 753 B.C., and the earliest piece of literature we know about is a translation of the Odyssey made at the end of the First Punic War, some five hundred years later. For all these centuries it would seem that the Romans felt little impulsion to express in any form what the world was showing them and life bringing them.

The joy of reading GM Fraser

The blogger at The Port Stands at Your Elbow has bang-up reviews of two of George MacDonald Fraser's books, The Complete McAuslan and Quartered Safe Out Here.

Konstantin Levin discovers happiness...

...through mowing.

Mencken on preaching

This, via Daniel Mitsui, is too good not to pass along:

Rome indeed has not only preserved the original poetry of Christianity; it has also made capital additions to that poetry - for example, the poetry of the saints, of Mary and of the liturgy itself. A Solemn High Mass is a thousand times as impressive, to a man with any genuine religious sense in him, as the most powerful sermon ever roared under the big top by Presbyterian auctioneer of God. In the face of such overwhelming beauty it is not necessary to belabor the faithful with logic; they are better convinced by letting them alone.

Preaching is not an essential part of the Latin ceremonial. It was very little employed in the early Church, and I am convinced that good effects would flow from abandoning it today, or, at all events, reducing it to a few sentences, more or less formal. In the United States the Latin brethren have been seduced by the example of the Protestants, who commonly transform an act of worship into a puerile intellectual exercise; instead of approaching God in fear and wonder, these Protestants settle back in their pews, cross their legs and listen to an ignoramus try to prove that he is a better theologian than the Pope.

This folly the Romans now slide into. Their clergy begin to grow argumentative, doctrinaire, ridiculous. It is a pity... If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it.

The tin whistle follies

The tin whistle bug has bitten. I'm currently working on God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, having discovered that the alphabet song/twinkle twinkle/baa baa black sheep is gratifyingly easy to play. I have two whistles; naturally, the kids grab one the moment I put it down and start tootling away.

Once I can stumble through God Rest, I'll look into tackling Over the Waterfall (that's not me in the video):

When short little Commies tweet

This is hilarious! I hope it's not a parody.