Vespers for the Immaculate Conception
Mary, Motherhood, and Death
The 2020 J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction Is Open
The editors of Dappled Things are happy to announce that submissions for this year’s J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction are now open. Named after one of the greatest writers of the 20th century Catholic literary renaissance–often called a writer’s writer–the contest aims to honor his legacy by … [Read More...]
On Re-Reading Books
For the first time in my life, I am re-reading books. Twenty years ago, I was sitting on a hotel balcony in Hawaii reading Timequake, a novel/essay by an elderly Kurt Vonnegut. I was an imprudent young man back then, excited by Vonnegut's transgressiveness and willingness to write truly crazy … [Read More...]
“Mass of the Americas” and the Flourishing of Religious Culture
In our era, new musical Mass settings are rare. So, it’s notable that a new musical Mass was commissioned and premiered at a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in San Francisco last December. For this article, I interviewed by email the respected Bay Area traditional sacred music … [Read More...]
Simone Weil at Solesmes
Simone Weil was a woman of many afflictions. She was born a Jew in pre-World War 2 Europe with chronically poor health, eventually dying young of tuberculosis in an English sanatorium. She also seems to have had persistent bouts of anxiety. Weil was philosophically trained, a sensitive thinker, and … [Read More...]
On Reading Flannery to My Baby
Guest post by Casie Dodd. In some ways, looking back at my rigidly Baptist and unequivocally Protestant background, it is no longer surprising that I was meant to be Catholic. However, it still took a long time for me to be okay with it. After a long process of giving up an evangelical past … [Read More...]
