Spoiler Alert for Eifelheim

 There's no way I can write a review of Eifelheim by Michael Flynn without spoilers.  So if you read this, get the book to see how the author weaves everything together.

Cliologist (some kind of historian) noticed that a small town, Eifelheim, disappeared off the face of the earth.  We're in the Medieval Times.  The historian, Thomas, along with a research assistant, and his girlfriend, Sharon, pieced together the story.  It seems that a flying ship crash-landed in the nearby forest next to Eifelheim.  The aliens looked something like giant grasshoppers.

Everyone of course is afraid of these strange beings.  Since this is Medieval times, they were thought to be demons, except these demons were afraid of people.  

One thing I liked about this novel is that the priest is a good man.  He was not a pedophile.  In fact, this priest found a little girl and cared for her. He also helps with the sick, including disrobing and washing the sick women and the author treats the priest's caring as perfunctory.  The Black Plague hits the village and the priest works as nurse, and priest.

When the villagers gradually meet the aliens most of them help them with food and taking care of the wounded.  Of course, some stay away and call them demons.  The aliens weren't used to the cold so the villagers gave them warm clothing and took them in their homes to be near a warm hearth.

When the Black Death came, the aliens helped with the sick villagers.  The aliens weren't affected by the plague, at all.  But they gradually died off because they weren't getting the nutrition they needed.  So Tom and Sharon concluded that everyone died in Eifelheim and those that didn't, left and told the story about the demons that kept the town from ever being inhabited again.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I know it's not yet Halloween, never mind November, but I'm in a thanksgiving kind of mood.  It happens this time of year because I'm reminded to celebrate food, and smells, and happy children.  I'm very grateful for everything the season has to offer.  These are some of the things that come to mind.

Starting with my husband of fifty years. That's an amazing amount of time.  It's been an adventure but we've somehow managed to land on our feet, still facing each other. 

Also on the top of my list are my three children, whom I love more than my life.  they are good, happy people, who have grown into independent and contributing members of society.  Isn't that the aim of all parents?  Dick and I are truly blessed.

I also put my friends on my list.  Friends are like family, and in certain circumstances better than family.  We've been to places, and been in trouble, and been in serene sanctuaries, but most of all we've come through closer than ever, and are still friends. 

I'm so thankful for everything and I realize it's all due to the grace of God, because I've done nothing to deserve my blessings, which by-the-way, is what I consider proof of a benevolent God. I certainly do not deserve God's largess, but somehow I've been graced.  

And I thank God, now, and every day, especially on Thanksgiving.

Use What's Useful

Why I chose this book.  First, the title attracted me, “The How Not to Diet Cookbook.”  Second, the author, Dr. Michael Greger lists the daily ingredients he wants us to eat and he gets complaints that it’s too much food and not enough calories.

Isn’t that a dieter’s dream?  Too much food/not enough calorie!   What do you think?   page xiv  

Dr. Greger explains that any long-term eating plan must be nutritionally complete, containing all essential vitamins and minerals.
          The healthiest diet is the most effective.  A whole food, plant based diet is the single most effective weight loss intervention ever published.  This was proven in a random control trial with no protein control, no calorie counting and no exercise component.  (Although you’ll see he does list exercise on his daily list.)

After I finished the book, I realized that he doesn’t have any meat at all.  Also, no eggs, nor milk.  What he posits is probably true but it’s impractical for me.  My husband has gout and can’t eat a lot of beans and greens.  So take what I say, and what he proposes in mind when you plan your meals.  A lot of things he mentions, I forgot or have forgotten. So this book got me back on track.

 Not all calories are the same.  Calories have different impacts on your body.  100 calories of chickpeas impacts you differently than 100 calories of chicken, depending on your bodies’ absorption, appetite, and microbiome.  It’s not WHAT we eat but HOW and WHEN.

 This is the whole plant food lifestyle.  It’s got to be a way of life.  It’s safe, inexpensive, and healthy.

BTW, Dr. Greger donates 100% of his profits to charity.

To decide how healthy a food is, he checks off how many attributes it has.  

The more checkmarks a food gets, the healthier it is. 

At each meal, Dr. Greger recommends to preload with water. Add apple cider vinegar to the water with your meal.  Eat an apple before each meal, or a salad, or soup, or some other negative calorie food.  The point is to fill yourself up before the meal, with good food. 

Use what you can.  I certainly am not going to go all plant-based meals.  My husband can’t.  Most of these recipes use chia seeds.  Some others use flaxseed and miso paste.  I don’t know what those are so certainly I’m not buying, nor using them. 

This book reminded me of the apple vinegar in the water trick. Eat soup and salad first. He has a salt substitute that uses yeast, so I added yeast and cumin to my own salt-free seasoning.  

 

What do you think?

What Has the Catholic Church Done for Me?

This is from Facebook, Sherry Weddell talking about evangelization.

From Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney comes some witty observations about the Fifth Plenary Council that is taking place in Australia right now.

"In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Reg, a member of the People’s Liberation Front of Judea, asks rhetorically, ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ To his frustration his fellows respond with multiple examples of the benefits of Roman civilisation.

‘All right, all right,’ Reg concedes, ‘but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a freshwater system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?’

Something similar might be said about Australia’s indebtedness to Christianity generally and especially the Catholic Church.

“All right, all right, but apart from a few obvious saints, and many hidden ones; or inventing the university and providing primary and secondary schools worldwide; or running orphanages, aged care, feeding stations and other welfare; or creating and maintaining hospitals, hospices and clinics…

“Apart from contributions to language and law, conceptions of justice and human rights; to ending cannibalism, slavery, infanticide and the chattel conception of women and children; to the advent of the scientific method and much subsequent science, medicine and technology; to the heritage of Christian art, architecture, literature and music; and to the theological and philosophical ideas underpinning our democracy and so much else; and to the sublime moral code and vision of the person that still inspire so many…

“Apart from all that,” Secular Modernity asks, “what have the Catholics ever done for us?”

Snip.

"None of which makes the Catholic Church perfect. The child sexual abuse crisis, spotlighted by the Royal Commission, left young ones terribly damaged, others understandably disillusioned, the Church’s credibility shot. Try as it may to bring justice and healing to survivors and to ensure this terrible chapter is never repeated, the Church will not regain some people’s trust for years—if ever.

We could identify other failings . The ancient adage “Ecclesia semper reformanda”—the Church always needing renewal—highlights that however divine the founder, the message or the graces received, we can always do better."

Snip.

"Australia would be the poorer without the Catholic Church. So the Church must renew itself, recover its founding inspiration and purge itself of the causes of its failures. It must address people’s deepest needs, state with confidence its faith and morals, find a language that speaks today, and so build people up in faith, hope and love.

The Church will serve the culture best, as well as its own members, by being its best self, faithful to the mission given by Christ — not by re-inventing itself as a secular NGO."

FYI, Fisher's concluding sentence about survival as an NGO is a reference to a common assumption that the Catholic Church in Australia will survive primarily through its large, effective, and well-heeled-because-state-funded network of schools (attended by 20% of Aussie students), hospitals and other social services - while local parish communities which are small (by US standards), and relatively poor would disappear. Because the assumption of many high secularized Aussies is that believing Catholics are rather like dinosaurs and passing away.

Maybe He Doesn't Turn Away

 In Mark 10: 1-30, we see the rich, young man, turn his back to Jesus, he turns away from Jesus, he turns around and walks back to his riches.

But what if that's not what he's doing?  What if he is just doing what Jesus told him to do--"...go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor..."

I picture the young man going to sell everything and give to the poor. That's what Jesus told him to do.  

Of course, my nit-pikking isn't the point.  The only attachment we should have is to God. Certainly, material things are not more important than God.  But this incident showing the young man turning away from God because he can't leave his material wealth doesn't prove that's what he is doing.  Mark should have the young man arguing with Jesus and then turning away from Him in disgust.

Note that Jesus didn't say to the young man to give his money to Jesus; He's poor. I suppose then Jesus would have been accused of coercing the young man with a promise of inheriting eternal life.  Then rich people could buy their way into heaven and we can't have that.

The Regional Meeting

 Yesterday, wiped me out.  I went to a Regional Lay Dominican Meeting.  As usual, I got lost.  I was driving alone and I hate to drive.  I was following a GPS but there were no street names and I took the directed left too soon. Anyway, it was a one-way street, so I couldn't turn around.  This street took me to downtown Providence, Rhode Island.  This is the capital of the state!  Intuition told me to take a right, which could have taken me to Connecticut.  Thankfully, it didn't. In fact, it brought me where I wanted to go more easily than the GPS originally was taking me.  

That's why I arrived frazzled.  I met old friends, which is always nice.  I blew my diet plan because all they had to eat was donuts and cinnamon bread.  Lunch was potato and macaroni salads and sandwiches of cold cuts.  Dessert was cookies and brownies.

I love praying in community.  We prayed the Rosary and morning and evening prayers.  Of course, we had Mass.  These moments are golden.

The purpose of the meeting was to elect a new president and vice president.  We did.  However, the  Treasurer was the one who got elected president, which meant we now had to elect a new treasurer.  What a tedious procedure!  Dominicans can be terrible nit-pickers!  Thomas Aquinas started this Dominican proclivity by saying that "Distinctions are important."  

To top it all off, driving home took two hours more than usual because of a major accident on the highway. Typical of the day.

Grandma’s Religion Class

 God created our world. 

God is Love—sock puppet   God created man to love, and know God. The man was named Adam. Adam named all the animals and  everything around him. But Adam noticed that everything around him had friends. There were forests of trees, gardens with flowers, fish in schools, but he was alone. God always takes care of us so when He saw that Adam was sad, He made a woman as a friend to Adam. She was named Eve. 

This is Adam all alone. 

Adam and Eve were very happy in Paradise. One day Eve was talking to the snake and that slimy serpent taunted Eve because she wouldn’t eat any fruit from a certain tree. She wouldn’t eat anything from that tree because God said not to. God knew that the tree would be bad for people to eat. This is like a parent telling a young child not to touch a hot stove. The parent knows the hot stove would hurt the child. This tree was called The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Up until this time, everything was good and wonderful. Why spoil this paradise?  But the snake sweet-talked Eve into picking an apple from the tree and eating it. She did as the snake said. It tasted good. Meanwhile, Adam was watching and listening to the conversation between the sneaky snake and Eve. Adam sees Eve pick the apple from the tree and nothing happened to her. Adam watched her eat the apple and she said it tasted good. Adam didn’t want to miss out so he picked and ate an apple too 

    But immediately Adam’s and Eve,s eyes were opened and they saw things differently. Before they disobeyed God, everything was good. After disobeying God, they saw bad. The snake was a slimy creepy creature and they were naked!  

When they saw that they were naked they covered their private parts with leaves.  They were embarrassed.

Suddenly, God called them.  They were scared.  What would God do when He found out that they disobeyed Him?

When God saw them hiding and embarrassed, He immediately knew what they had done.  He was disappointed in them.  He asked them why.  Why did they eat of the tree He said not to?  They explained that the snake talked them into it.  Why didn't Adam and/or Eve ask God first?  They had no answer.

    But God loves us.  He loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to become a human person like us.  And also, God forgave Adam and Eve.  God will always, always, take care of us and forgive us no matter what we do.  We go to confession to the priest, who is acting in God's place, and ask to be forgiven.  The priest gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Then we can be sure that we are forgiven.

    And don't forget that God watches over us and takes care of us.  To show that He will always take care of us, God made Adam and Eve clothes to be warm when He sent them out into the world.

Just remember that God loves us no matter what we do.  God will always forgive us and take care of us.