Friday Links – January 19 2018

Could Catholics and Protestants by reconciled by beauty? That's the question raised by B.D. McClay of Commonweal in her review of Bach and the Heavenly Choir by Johannes Rüber: "The novel itself is constructed around a fairly improbable scenario: What if a pope were to canonize Bach, or try to? The fictional Pope Gregory, a French abbot plucked from total obscurity to become pope, is a man of good character whose papacy is largely undistinguished…. He spends his time in prayer, playing the violin, and thinking about Bach. And when he’s pushed by one of his cardinals to canonize somebody, well, Gregory suddenly has an idea."

Aleteia has a short writeup about the mini-revival of Visigothic chant. "Visigothic chant, also known as Mozarabic chant, is the plainchant tradition of the Visigothic/Mozarabic rite of the Catholic Church, primarily associated with Hispania (now Spain) under Visigoth (now German) rule."

Nora Krug has a fascinating story of a widow and widower who fell in love after reading the "last days" memoirs of their respective spouses. There's more than one reason in the world to write.