On the Seventh Day of Christmas, Anno Domino 2021
The Strangeness of the Good: A Poet and an Archbishop Speak
The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship is sponsoring this free online event featuring Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and James Matthew Wilson—with readings from Wilson’s new book of poetry, The Strangeness of the Good.
Others have remarked how hard it is to launch a book in this present, woeful age. No public readings, no tours, no launch receptions . . . no fun.
“The Benedict XVI Institute has kindly offered to help make up for the loss in the only way it could. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone will host me for a reading and discussion of the new book in light of the times we live in — which are, in any case, the subject of the book. Join us!”—James Matthew Wilson
2020 in Poetry
Recommended by Katy Carl, Dappled Things Editor-in-Chief. Aarik Danielson at Relief Journal writes:
My favorite poetry texts of 2020 offered places to burrow into comfort without entering echo chambers. They charged through the overgrowth, clearing any number of paths I wished to take—through rage, sorrow, and desire to somewhere resembling peace and affirmation.”
When Salvador Dalí Created Christmas Cards That Were Too Avant Garde for Hallmark (1960)
Open Culture quoted Ana Swenson from the Washington Post:
‘Hallmark began reproducing the paintings and designs of contemporary artists on its Christmas cards in the late 1940s, an initiative that was led by company founder Joyce Clyde Hall,’ writes the Washington Post‘s Ana Swanson.
And went on to say:
Hallmark signed Dalí on in 1959. The painter . . . asked the greeting-card giant for ‘$15,000 in cash in advance for 10 greeting card designs, with no suggestions from Hallmark for the subject or medium, no deadline and no royalties.’ The designs Dalí came up with included ‘Surrealist renditions of the Christmas tree and the Holy Family,’ as well as some ‘vaguely unsettling; images, such as a headless angel playing a lute and the three wise men atop some insane-looking camels.
The Emerging Catholic Literary Renaissance: An Interview with Poet James Matthew Wilson
The first of my two planned interview articles with James Matthew Wilson is now in the Latin Mass Magazine‘s Christmas 2020 issue. (Another interview with questions more-focused on Wilson’s latest book of poetry, The Strangeness of the Good, is slated for the April edition of Dappled Things.)
How the Sun Illuminates Spanish Missions On the Winter Solstice
Rev. Michael Rennier, DT Web Editor, recommends this Smithsonian article.
At dawn on Dec. 21, a sunbeam enters each of these churches and bathes an important religious object, altar, crucifix or saint’s statue in brilliant light. On the darkest day of the year, these illuminations conveyed to native converts the rebirth of light, life and hope in the coming of the Messiah.
