Hard to Find

In October of 1963,  Flannery O'Connor read her short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, to an audience at Hollins College in Virginia. This passage is taken from the comments that preceded that reading and can be found in the book, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose.

I've talked to a number of teachers who use [A Good Man is Hard to Find] in class and who tell their students that the Grandmother is evil, that in fact, she's a witch, even down to the cat. One of these teachers told me that his students, and particularly his Southern students, resisted this interpretation with a certain bemused vigor, and he didn't understand why. I had to tell him that they resisted it because they all had grandmothers or great-aunts just like her at home, and they knew, from personal experience, that the old lady lacked comprehension, but that she had a good heart. The Southerner is usually tolerant of those weaknesses that proceed from innocence, and he knows that a taste for self-preservation can be readily combined with the missionary spirit.

"The old lady lacked comprehension, but . . . had a good heart." I have to commend any student or author or reader who is willing to grant this concession to those with whom they disagree. I find that this is precisely what is lacking in our public discourse on all sides, which is tragic because it's the only thing that could possibly breach the wall that deafens both the right and left to their opposite numbers.

AMDG 

Well, We Don't Have to Do THAT Again for Seven Months

New Student Orientation is over at last, and things at work will slow down just a bit. It's a great relief, and hopefully I'll be able to write something when I recover.

Lost and Found

The other day I noticed that a bunch of pictures that I had taken on my phone weren't there. I thought maybe the memory card was full, so I deleted some duplicate pictures, but I still couldn't get any new ones to save. Yesterday for the first time, I was able to look at the contents of the card on my computer, and I found that the phone had created a second folder that wasn't accessible from the phone, and all the pictures were there. So, here are some.

Remember the ice ghost?

Well, now there is this.

It's too soon to draw any conclusions from this evidence, but I'm keeping my eyes open.

Visitors at my granddaughters second birthday party.

Unfortunately, she had already eaten Cookie's chin and most of Elmo's left cheek.

CHRISTMAS REJECTS

Left behind.

I found this poor little guy in the dark storage room that one has to pass through on the way from the vestibule of the Cathedral to the restroom. It's a frequent haunt of mine. I don't know why he didn't make the cut for the crêche, but I don't see why they had to put him in front of the air conditioner in the middle of the winter. I mean, he might be an ass, but we ought to extend the warmth of Christmas to him anyway.

Chinese hobbits. Who knew?

The sign over the door says, "Speak friend and enter."

This was a shadow on the wall of the Eucharistic chapel at the cathedral. I liked the way it looked. The picture didn't come out the way I wanted, but I liked it anyway.

I like the autobalance version, too.

There's one person who reads this blog sometimes that might recognize this last picture. I went to high school at the school that is connected to the church that is now the cathedral, but at the time was not. Many afternoons after school, my friends and I walked down what is one of the loveliest streets in Memphis to get to our bus stop. One morning recently, I had some free time between Mass at the cathedral and work, so I took a walk down the street. It is lined with stately homes surrounded by wonderful old trees and lots of flowers and there is a beautifully landscaped median in the street. But, I'm not going to show you a picture of that. These are the steps that were next to the bus stop. Being teen-aged girls, I'm sure that we weren't always happy or always in complete charity with one another, but now I only have good memories of our time there.

AMDG

Revelation

St. Irenaeus, from the Office of Readings for Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time.

Through creation itself the Word reveals God the Creator. Through the world he reveals the Lord who made the world. Through all that is fashioned he reveals the craftsman who fashioned it all. Through the Son the Word reveals the Father who begot him as Son. All speak of these things in the same language, but they do not believe them in the same way. Through the law and the prophets the Word revealed himself and his Father in the same way, and though all the people equally heard the message not all equally believed it. Through the Word, made visible and palpable, the Father was revealed, though not all equally believed in him. But all saw the Father in the Son, for the Father of the Son cannot be seen, but the Son of the Father can be seen.

The Son performs everything as a ministry to the Father, from beginning to end, and without the Son no one can know God. The way to know the Father is the Son. Knowledge of the Son is in the Father, and is revealed through the Son. For this reason the Lord said:No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son has revealed him.The word “revealed” refers not only to the future — as though the Word began to reveal the Father only when he was born of Mary; it refers equally to all time. From the beginning the Son is present to creation, reveals the Father to all, to those the Father chooses, when the Father chooses, and as the Father chooses. So, there is in all and through all one God the Father, one Word and Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation for all who believe in him.

I am continually finding things in the Office of Readings that surprise and delight me. I had never thought before about the fact that the revelation of the Father by the Son did not begin with His incarnation, but was His mission from the beginning of time. This explains so well the fact that early man understood some of the truth of who God is just from observing His creation. It wasn't just that God's works reflected His glory, it's that they were created to actively reveal His glory.

AMDG

A Few Things

I don't usually link to things but since I'm busy, I will give you something pretty to look at. I would love to be able to go see some of these places. At the moment, I just want to walk through The Tunnel of Love. Chand Baori is used for a scene in the movie The Fall, and if you didn't like anything else in the movie, which would not be the case, this scene alone makes the movie worthwhile. In fact, you could probably just watch the movie for the beautiful images. 

And here and here are a couple of links to some good posts on Heather King's blog, Shirt of Flame.

And a poem that Sally wrote that reminds me of home, which is where I'm going now.

AMDG

Love and Reason

St. Basil the Great, From the Office of Readings for the First Tuesday in Ordinary Time

Love of God is not something that can be taught. We did not learn from someone else how to rejoice in light or want to live, or to love our parents or guardians. It is the same--perhaps even more so--with our love for God: it does not come by another's teaching. As soon as the living creature (that is, man) comes to be a power of reason is implanted in us like a seed, containing within it the ability and the need to love. When the school of God's law admits this power of reason, it cultivates it diligently, skillfully nurtures it, and with God's help brings it to perfection.

As I was reading this yesterday, I was thinking that it is as good an explanation of the way that conscience works as anything that I've ever seen. What is really great about it is that it completely does away with the image of that little angel sitting on our shoulder shaking his finger at us for doing wrong, and sweeps the whole faculty into the realm of love. Love is informed by reason, and reason by love. 

This relationship of love and reason was another little epiphany for me. It's not that I couldn't have figured out that they had to be related, both proceeding from God, but that I never really think about them at the same time. I think about reason as the cold, hard light of day that illuminates the truth, but then, Love and Truth are the same.

AMDG