“Intellectual activity nurtures an inner life,” sums up Hitz, “a human core that is a refuge from suffering as much as it is a resource for reflection for its own sake.
THE CREATIVE LIFE
A PATH IN THE WOODS
“[b] I still want to remain faithful
to my first astonishments
to recognize as wisdom the child’s wonder”…
SIR ALEC GUINNESS: CATHOLIC CONVERT
Guinness played a priest in another, lesser-known film, “The Prisoner” (1955).
Adapted from a play by Bridget Boland and directed by Peter Glenville, the film considers such contemporary issues as public shaming, the surveillance state, and anti-Church sentiment.
PARTING SHOTS
So large does Gerard Manley Hopkins loom in my heart that it took me forever to find his grave because I assumed he would have a giant oh say winged statue or maye even a mausoleum all to himself.
GEORGE SAUNDERS’ A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN
“[Nineteenth-century Russian novelists] seemed to regard fiction not as something decorative but as a vital moral-ethical tool. They changed you when you read them, made the world seem to be telling a different, more interesting story, a story in which you might play a meaningful part, and in which you had responsibilities.”
CREATIVE SUFFERING
The Russians have a notion that where the greatest evil is to be found, so is the greatest good.
HE WHO DANCES ON WOOD
“He Who Dances on Wood” is a luminous homage to making do with what’s at hand, to the vocation of art, and most particularly to the glorious Fred Nelson.
WHAT IT IS TO BE A WOMAN
To men who think they can become women, I want to say, you’re not strong enough.
ON ERIK VARDEN’S THE SHATTERING OF LONELINESS
“While de Beausobre was engulfed in Stalin’s terror,” Varden writes, “she encountered an old nun who assured her she must one day leave Russia and convey a message to ‘our brethren beyond the border.’
THE SPIRIT JOURNEYS
‘The greatest among you must be as the least, the leader be as one who is a servant.’
And again, ‘A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.’
SEASONS OF LIFE
“We have to renounce far more than we accomplish.” –Paul Tournier, The Seasons of Life “How can we possibly entertain the idea that we are different from other men, when we shout, cry, feel afraid, lack determination, and behave atrociously just like everybody else?” –Carlo Carretto, Letters from the Desert
THE HUCKLEBERRY EXPLORERS CLUB
The entire Club is a freewill offering, not promoted on social media and with zero online presence. Neither Shuffy nor Morgan have cellphones. Local people simply stop by and for the rest, email suffices.
JOIN ME AT KYLEMORE ABBEY!
The summer tourists will have gone and I, for one, cannot even imagine the beauty.