Vampires

 A Bloody Habit by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson is a vampire story.  If you love that gender and/or if you love stories about Dominicans, you'll love this novel.  It takes place in London around the turn of the twentieth century.  Dracula had just been written and their are connections made between Dracula and the characters in A Bloddy Habit.  In fact, each chapter of the book begins with a quote from Dracula.

The main character is a lawyer, John Kemp.  He becomes involved by being the solicitor for some men who turn out to be vampires. Along the way, he is befriended by a Dominican priest, Father Thomas Edmund Gilroy. The two become involved in murders that are too gruesome to describe.  They are torn apart viciously and inhumanely.  The only sensible answer although crazy, is the fact that there are vampires in London.

If you love vampire stories, this is a good one.  I found it hard to get involved in the beginning.  The characters were too many and I didn't see how they were tied to each other.  But once the action began, I was on board.  I did enjoy it.

Catholic Taliban

 It annoys me when people rain on other people's parades.  There seems to be a push to spoil people's fun in getting ready for Christmas.  I've heard.  Christmas is December 25, this is Advent--a time of waiting for Christ.  Implicit in this criticism is that we shouldn't put up our Christmas trees, or go to Christmas parties.

So I looked it up.  Yes, we should prepare for Jesus' birthday.  We should go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and prepare interiorly.  But we don't live in a holy sanctuary, where happy, clappy, songs shouldn't be sung, we live in the secular world where we prepare to party for December 25.  Anyway, I looked it up on Catholic Answers:

Question:

Can a Catholic church have a celebration during Advent?

Answer:

Yes, a Catholic church can have a celebration during the Advent season.

The confusion arises because both Advent and Lent use the liturgical color purple and omit the Gloria at Mass. During Lent, parishes curtail and avoid celebrations due to the penitential nature of the season. People, therefore, assume that the same is true of Advent. However, Advent is not listed as a penitential season (canon 1250), and instead of prohibiting unaccompanied music and altar flowers as during Lent, the Church puts forth only that they should be done in moderation during Advent (GIRM 305).

 This is a picture from a fourth grader for Christmas 

I asked, “Where’s Jesus?”?  She forgot. So she did another one. 

Better. It’s obvious that this is a manger scene. Her sister however, had a definite theme in mind. “Peace on earth “. She is in the eighth grade. 

How to Pray

 When someone changes religion, I wish them well.  After all, they're searching for a relationship with God.  Good luck to them.  But.

But when they're leaving the God you know to become a witch, what then?  How can I wish them luck?  I'm at a loss, as what to do. 

I can't be thankful for their finding a faith they're comfortable in.  Can I?

Please join me in praying this way:

Let's pray that God helps them to find a true path to Him.

Pray that God shows them what to do.

Pray that God gives them understanding.

Pray for me, for the grace of patience, and to say the right thing.

Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover.

 Look how old this book is. 

The binding is falling apart. This book has been on my bookshelves for a long- long time. I finally committed myself to reading it. The Cloud of Unknowing is touted as the greatest thing since the invention of toilet paper. I knew I had it, but when I took it off the shelf, I thought I couldn’t read that!  It was falling apart!  So I bought a new edition. 

Nice looking, slim volume. I chose this translation because it was translated by Evelyn Underhill.  I don't remember if I've ever read anything of hers, but I go to her lecture studies.  She's well quoted.  Looking at the prologue, she states:

This edition is intended, not for the student of Middle English, nor for the specialist in mediaeval literature; but for the general reader and lover of mysticism.  My object has been to produce a readable text, free from learned and critical apparatus.  The spelling has therefor been modernised throughout: and except in a few instances, where phrases of a special charm or quaintness, or the alliterative passages so characteristic of the author's style, demanded their retention, obsolete words have been replaced by their nearest modern equivalents.

It's the exact opposite.  Underhill's edition is unreadable.  So much, for nice, shiny volumes!

The unattractive volume, by William Johnston is written for anybody.  Underhill's copyright is 1922.  Johnston's is 1973.  Compare the translations:

Underhill -- The First Chapter     Ghostly friend in God, thou shalt well understand that I find, in my boisterous beholding, four degrees and forms of Christian men's living: and they be these, Common, Special, Singular, and Perfect.

Johnston -- Chapter 1     My dear friend in God, I would like to pass on to you what I have roughly observed about the Christian life.  Generally, it seems to progress through four ascending phrases of growth, which I call the Common, the Special, Singular, and the Perfect.

See.  Would you rather be a "ghostly friend in God," or a "dear friend in God."

Hence, I chose to read Johnston's translation.  Once in awhile I compared it to 
Underhill's, but Johnston's is much more understandable.

So don’t judge a book by its cover. How did I like the Cloud of Unknowing?  I wasn't impressed.  The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, and Francis de Sales, An Introduction to the Devout Life, and even Catherine of Siena's the Dialogue were all about the same subject, "how to converse with God."  I like Nike's advice, "Just Do It."

God Hates Vegetarians

 This was funny.  Today, the "cloistered brothers" were reading about Cain and Abel, Genesis 4: 1-7.  Cain farmed and Abel shepherded.  For offerings to God, Cain offered fruit and vegetables, whereas, Abel offered the first-borns from his flocks.  God accepted the meat offerings but wasn't thrilled with the fruit and vegetables.  One of the "cloistered brothers" quipped, "because God hates vegetarians."

Of course that's not true.  No one knows why God liked one offering and not the other.  Some people surmise that it was the intentions of the giver. IOW, Abel offered the first-borns and Cain offered old and rejected fruit and vegetables.  Scripture doesn't say exactly.

This led to a discussion of siblings and parenthood.  From the siblings point of view, it wasn't fair.  But we don't know God's reasons.  As parents, sometimes our actions look like we prefer one child more than the other, but the parent may be helping the vulnerable child.  A parent can't help each child equally because each child's needs are different that the others.  

It was an interesting discussion.

Keep Calm

 A Fatal Grace is Louise Penny's second novel. The major protagonist, Chief Inspector Gamache, is still establishing what kind of person he is, to the reader. I for one like what he is, i.e., honest, kind, strong, and loyal. He is dealing with a team of detectives who at times are incompetent, disloyal, and confused. He's trying to solve two murders.

One is a tradition, in that, every year he choses one cold case to solve. While dealing with that, there's another murder in Three Pines. The little village is working its way into his heart.
An obnoxious women has been murdered by electrocution. No one mourns her demise and her murderer could have been one of three people but it ends up a surprise. Lo and behold, she is related to the cold case, Gamache is trying to solve. Both are related in surprising ways.
Their are hints of trouble to come to Gamache, in future novels. He makes a deal, which the reader doesn't know about, with one of his agents. Another agent may be disloyal. We will find out in another mystery. But Gamache and his wife end with satisfaction that they've made the world a safer place.