Friday Links
February 14, 2025
St Valentine receiving a rosary from the hands of the Virgin by David Teniers III
Seeking (and Sought) with Joe Pug by Eric Cyr
David Butterfield with An Introduction to Greek and Latin Metre
Kathryn Jean Lopez on How to lead a contemplative revolution
Why everyone should be religious
Evangelicalism, Catholicism, and the Literary Imagination
The Thomist Poet’s Reading with Mike Blackwell
Seeking (and Sought) with Joe Pug by Eric Cyr
I love Joe Pug’s music, so I am thrilled to share this essay from Eric Cyr on Pug’s work:
Even on his earliest records, Pug’s seeking was colored with a desire for grace and the divine. “Hymn 101,” where the idea of seeking is introduced in his music, also ends with a look forward toward fulfillment in God’s grace. In the last line of the song, Pug sings, “Will you recognize my face when God’s awful grace / Strips me of my jacket and my vest / And reveals all the treasure in my chest.” On these early records, though, God’s grace feels almost secondary, a means to a poetic end rather than the end of the search itself. In “Bury Me Far (from My Uniform),” a soldier killed in war rejects being held up as a national symbol and repeatedly makes the request, “Bury me far from my uniform / So God might remember my face.” This last line is striking but on the whole not the focus of the song. Rather, the idea of God remembering the soldier’s face is used as a poetic way to counter the co-opting of the soldier’s life as a symbol of national pride. This is not to criticize the song, which is as affecting as any anti-war song and emphasizes the dignity of the individual, but to point out the role of grace in Pug’s earlier songs.
David Butterfield with An Introduction to Greek and Latin Metre
Here’s something fun from Antigone Journal: “a series of ten lectures on Greek and Latin metre, delivered to students at the University of Cambridge in Easter Term 2021.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez on How to lead a contemplative revolution
It’s so hard to quiet ourselves in the world today. Ignatian prayer has taught me over the years to acknowledge the presence of God the Father, and of Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit before I even begin to pray. In a time of an epidemic of loneliness, that makes all the difference. And for a child who maybe has never known a father in this world, it could be a gamechanger not just for prayer, but for life. I confess I was skeptical, but Bishop O’Connell insisted he had seen miracles by that simple prayer of the heart to know the presence of Jesus.
Why everyone should be religious
A longish, and very interesting interview with Mariya Manzhos in Deseret News with Ross Douthat on his new book:
“Believe,” which is Douthat’s eighth nonfiction book, offers a roadmap for navigating the stumbling blocks along the way to belief. “The universe is not a trick” is a recurring theme in the book. In fact, modern science, rather than discrediting religion, has strengthened its plausibility. The fine-tuning of physical laws, the unresolved nature of consciousness and the persistence of religious experiences all suggest that it’s likely that a divine intelligence underlies reality. “Reason still points godward,” Douthat writes.
Evangelicalism, Catholicism, and the Literary Imagination
Our very own Rhonda Ortiz and Lorelei Savaryn join the Coming Home Network to discuss
their perspective on the literary imagination as Catholics compared to how they understood creative writing in their previous Christian experience. They reflect on some of the Christian authors who have been most influential to them in this regard, and how their experience of the sacramental life has informed the way they approach their fiction writing.
