Towards the Feast of the Assumption

Painted by Grace Gifford Plunkett in her cell in Kilmainham Jail.

Towards the Feast of the Assumption: The old Catholic Encyclopedia, published before the dogma of the Assumption of Mary was defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950, is nonetheless edifying in what it says about the Feast which the Church celebrates on August 15...



Read The Pilot for the rest of the article.  It's a Holy Day of Obligation and while the pews aren't filled as they are on a Sunday, there are a surprising amount of people, especially considering when the parish offers a selection of Masses to accommodate people's schedules.  I credit it to the love the people have for the Blessed Mother.



Catholics have a soft spot for Mary.

Argonauta's Selections

This is how one of my book clubs (Argonauta) chooses its book selections.  No more Irish stories, memoirs, and mysteries.  Not because they're not good, au contraire; it's that we've read too many and are sick of them.  I predict we will add African stories to the list because there's two on this year's list.

We met in a restaurant for breakfast--a quiet, not rushed atmosphere, place.  Each of us ordered a huge breakfast.  After breakfast, the bidding discussion began.  Here are erthe resulting selections:

September:  Lilac Girl by Marsha Hall KellOctober:  Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
November:  Britt Marie Was Here by Felix Bachmann
December:  Bossy Pants by Tina Fey                                        
January: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
February:  Eleanor Oliphant by Gail Honeyman
March:  The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
April: Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Burke
May:  The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies
June-August: To Be Decided

We leave the last months open because, during the year, one of us will read something so fantastic that they insist the book be read.  This always happens.  Also, during these free months, we come across books we want to recommend for Argonauta's list. This method works for us.

By the way, I know I misspelled authors and titles.  I also know you will correct me.  

Fairy Rings and Fairy Forts

Today in my writers' group, a member read her piece on Fairy Rings.  This is what she described:

They're on hills.
Trees are clustered together.
From the sky, they're circles of trees.
Walking into the trees, you'd fall down into an abyss.

Theories abound as to their purpose.  A popular guess is that these were for defense.  The enemy would fall into the deep holes.

Curious?  I know I was.  My google search couldn't find these types of Fairy Rings.  In fact, Google references mushroom circles as fairy rings.

However, there's something called Fairy Forts.  They are circular settlements.  Around them were walls made from rocks, gravel, dirt or some sort of earthenware, and maybe trees.  The purpose was for protection from wolves and other predators.

Better information is from the website where I got this picture: http://irishimbasbooks.com/the-difference-between-irish-fairy-forts-fairy-rings-rath-and-lios/

This woonderful has a plethora of Irish folklore.  Click over to enjoy.

Naivete

Spine Damage by Sharon St. George will leave you with a good feeling.  All’s right with this world.  St. George ties up all the loose ends.  There are no dangling story lines or plot plops.  Everyone and everything are as it should be.  The good guys win and the bad guys get their just desserts.

What else do you want?  Good writing?  How’s this:

When we reached the location on the dock where I’d seen the man fall, a roly-poly harbor seal with impressive whiskers poked its head up from the basin’s briny seawater.  He gazed at us with round, curious brown eyes—another hungry resident hoping for a handout.  P. 226

Saturday morning, I woke to the harbor’s usual salute to the senses: the crying of gulls, the pungent smell of seawater, and the bright morning sunlight striking my face through a porthole in the forward berth.  The aroma of coffee confirmed that Nick had been up at least long enough to start a pot brewing.  P. 232

Spine Damage is the fourth book in the Aimee Machado Mystery series.  Aimee is a librarian and along with her pilot boyfriend, they solve mysteries.  The novel is told in the first person, Aimee, whose detailed descriptions allow her characters and settings to come alive.  In this particular story, the setting is California and the Azores.  An unconscious man with a bullet in his spine is brought to the hospital, where Aimee works as a librarian. The man is from the Azores and only speaks Portuguese.  Aimee is half Azorean.  So she helps his family, which is how she is drawn into solving this mystery.

The injured man’s fifteen year old sister is missing and the worse is feared.  Rightly so, because the trail leads from the kidnapping in the Azores, to drug trafficking, to female slavery, to murder.  The pace is quick and full of twists.  It’s a page turner.

Sharon St. George has written another good mystery in her Aimee Machado Mystery series.  Add this one to your “to read” list.

Although I was given the book to review, I was not required to write a favorable review.  This review is my own honest assessment. 

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $16.78 paperback
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 328
Release: May 15, 2017
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603815819

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YTQ6th

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spine-damage-sharon-st-george/1126282506 

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/spine-damage/id1234678429?ls=1&mt=11 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/spine-damage

Website: http://sharonstgeorge.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SharonStGeorgeauthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SharonStGeorge   

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10908363.Sharon_St_George 

Spine Damage Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23923941-spine-damage

Last Day

Ninth Day: Devotion to St. Dominic

This is the covenant with them which I myself have made, says the Lord: and my words that I have put into your mouth shall never leave your mouth, nor the mouths of your children, nor the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and forever, says the Lord. (Isaiah 59:21)

As St. Dominic lay dying just outside of Bologna at St. Mary of the Hills, he requested to be taken back at once to Bologna that he might be buried “under the feet of my brethren.” There, having assured his spiritual children that he would be of greater assistance where he was going, he left them his last will and testament: “Behold, my children, the heritage I leave you: have charity for one another, guard humility, make your treasure out of voluntary poverty.”

Be therefore followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

O wondrous hope that you did give at the hour of death to those who mourned you, when you did promise to help them even after death.

   Father, keep your word, and aid us by your prayers.

You who did shine by so many signs in the bodies of the afflicted, bear us the help of Christ and heal our souls in illness and unrest.

   Father, keep your word, and aid us by your prayers.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

   Father, keep your word, and aid us by your prayers.

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O God, who enlightened your Church by the merits and teachings of blessed Dominic, your confessor and our father, grant through his intercession that it may never be destitute of temporal help, and may always increase in spiritual growth. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn

Entering Eternal Life

Eighth Day: The Death of St. Dominic

Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place you over many. Enter into the joy of the Lord.        (Matthew 25:2)

St. Dominic died at Bologna, August 6, 1221, at midday. Father Ventura, prior of Bologna, was present and thus describes the death of St. Dominic. “Father Dominic returned from Venice about the end of July. Although very weary with traveling, he conversed on the affairs of the Order with me till late. I begged him to rest that night, but he prayed in the Church till Matins at midnight, and then was present in choir. Afterwards he complained of his head, and his last illness began. Lying on a straw mattress, he called the novices around him and exhorted them to fervor with cheerful words and smiling coun­tenance. After being carried to a hill not far off, for better air, he preached to his brethren and was then anointed. Fearing that he would not be buried ‘under the feet of his brethren,’ he was carried back to the convent. The brethren re­cited prayers for a departing soul. When they came to the words, ‘Come to his help, ye saints of God; hasten to meet him, ye angels of the Lord: receive his soul, and offer it in the sight of the Most High,’ having lifted his hands to Heaven, he gave up his spirit.”

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O most kind father, St. Dominic, by your saintly life and death, bless and guide us in the path of your holy rule, that persevering until death, we may, through it, attain the eternal joys of heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Loving Like God

Seventh Day: Love of God and Our Neighbor

That we have passed from death to life we know because we love the brothers. The man who does not love is among the living dead. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life abides in no murderer’s heart. The way we came to understand love was that he laid down his life for us; we too must lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:14-16)

Love is the fulfilling of the law, and Dominic, the preacher of God’s law, was consumed with the fire of love. In all his actions his love for God appeared and his constant prayer was that he might have true charity and love God purely for his own sake. From this love sprang that ardent desire to suffer for God which made him a martyr in spirit. So deeply was he moved by the love of Jesus Crucified that he longed to die for him. His life of generous self-sacrifice proved his love sincere. As a youth he sold his only treasure, the books from which he studied, to feed the poor. His life was entirely devoted to the hardest apostolic labor, traveling far and wide to seek the lost sheep of the Good Shepherd and braving every kind of danger. His prayers for souls were continual, and daily he did penance for sinners. The one object of his Order was the salvation of souls. Throughout his life he preached to the heathen hoping for martyrdom. He had compassion for the suffering and misery of others. To all he was gentle, kind and merciful.

The true love of God is proved by the desire to be like Christ, and to labor and suffer for others.

Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten of God and has knowledge of God. The man without love knows nothing of God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic, That we may be made worthy of the prom­ises of Christ.

Let us pray, O Holy Father St. Dominic, who showed us the way to eternal happiness, and won many souls to God by founding the Order of Friars Preachers, pray for us, that we may follow in your footsteps, and ever work for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.