Deep Down Things
Nicodemus, Doug Weaver
Pentecost 2012 issue.
Friday Links, April 1, 2022
+ Sacramental Poetry, livestreamed or in person in Maryland, April 29.
+ Is Catholic Art coming back? National Catholic Register poses a question many are asking.
+ Getty Museum show presents ancient Jewish and Catholic manuscripts—”in dialogue.”
+ Catholic Literary Arts Sacred Poetry Contest 2022—Ekphrastic writing (in response to sacred art). Deadline 11:59 PM April 30.
+ Upcoming Catholic Literary Arts course on how Dante will make you a better writer.
A House of Living Stones
We discover sometimes that beauty is too large and expansive for our intractable, fear-made walls. Our stones cannot contain it without breaking into a million pieces. What are we to do then, we creatures made for a beauty so large?
Friday Links, March 25, 2025 Feast of the Annuciation
+ Joseph Pierce on the mystery of suffering inspired by a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
+ On the persistence of “Expansive Poetry’—with the history of the movement.
+ Interview with Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, and playwright, about his plays.
Envy - The Only Sin With No Pleasure
Why Are We So Addicted to It?
Friday Links, March 18, 2021
+ What power does a poem have, and what work can it do?
+ Speaking of power, Elizabeth Lev shows how the power of art in Ukraine is cultural memory.
+ “The Future of the Catholic Literary Imagination” 2022 Catholic Imagination Conference. Are you going?
+ St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry is offering the chance to audit one summer course for free—including one on the nature of aesthetic experience, the relationship between truth, goodness, and beauty, and the role of beauty in liturgy.
How To Become a Work of Art
Elizabeth Lev’s new book traces the development of St. Joseph in sacred art. Through sacred art we come to know St. Joseph and the aspects of the faith he represents, but we don't read him like a book. He's a gesture towards the transcendent.
So are you, really.
Gently Pleading for Chaos
While not an overtly religious writer, Osler does allude to the Garden of Eden, and she is aware of limitations to human creativity and imagination. Along with divine omnipotence and omniscience, she seems to say, goes a kind of audacity. “If in your wildest, most creative, moments,” she challenges us, “you had invented a rose, would you have had the recklessness to add scent?”
Friday Links, March 11, 2022
+ Looking for a community of writers and artists? Check out Catholic Literary Arts.
+ The witness of Richard Wilbur to Christian virtue.
+ Who is taking up the mantle of Maritain, Hildebrand, and Gilson? Thomas Mirus asks James Matthew Wilson in a Catholic Culture podcast.
+ The joke’s on Satan: Jacob Riyeff writes about how the devil tricked his own self during Christ’s atoning Passion.
Announcing the Kierkegaard Poetry Competition
We’re now accepting poetry submissions for a new anthology inspired by the writings of Søren Kierkegaard, featuring Dana Gioia and Mary Grace Mangano as contest judges.
Beyond Hallmark Movies - Obeying the Fifth Commandment
In Hallmark movie versions of aging, the elderly become wise and calm, dispensing pearls of wisdom to their grandchildren who visit frequently. The adult grandchildren roll their eyes while smiling indulgently; then, later, they wonder aloud to friends and family members about how grandma can stay so cheerful, strong, and wise in the face of decrepitude. But this Hallmark movie version, a quaint depiction our cultural expectations, was not my experience
Friday Links, March 4, 2022
+ Late have I loved Thee—a writing contest
+ Virtually tour Jane Austen’s House
+ The power of unpretentious poet George Herbert
Memes vs. Flowcharts
Is imagination the lost art in our decision making? A conversation with Professor Alison Milbank.
Love Among the Archives
The beautiful story of an archivist who discovers and researches lost family Bibles to return them to their families.
Friday Links, February 25, 2022
+ Review of a crowd-funded Vonnegut film, Unstuck in Time.
+ Review of two new books about creative types, one of which is Katy Carl’s novel, As Earth Without Water.
+ Thoughts on Amazon’s Tolkien in Rings of Power and on the Sin of Pride.
Gilbert and Me
In this tedious world of tweets, snap chat, memes, talking heads, and internet influencers we can open the pages of Chesterton and find someone who is willing to engage us about the things that matter, while ordering us a pint. He reminds us that what the modern world has proclaimed so tedious and commonplace is actually quite astounding and fascinating if we engage it.
Contemplative Realism: Event to Attend This Week, Book to Read, Manifesto to Sign
“The contemplative realist is keenly aware of the difference between the necessarily clinical gaze of the scientist and the mesmerized smittenness of the contemplative.”—Joshua Hren
Our 2022 J. F. Powers Prize Finalists
Friday Links, February 19, 2022
+ Presence: the Journal of Poetry, preview reading of Spring 2022 issue, February 20.
+ Scala Foundation Conference Spring 2022: “Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good,” April 30, and in addition, for writers 17-35:
+ Poetry Contest: winners announced at conference.
+ Poetry Masterclass with James Matthew Wilson May 1.
+ Summer Writers Institute of the MFA creative writing program at the University of St. Thomas, Houston.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The trailers for David Lowery's new film starring Dev Patel looked promising: stunning set pieces, rich in symbol, beautifully cast. The Green Knight is not only green-colored, he is growth itself. The King and Queen are haloed as Byzantine emperors of old. It's a film that shows a reverence and affection for the source material, even while misunderstanding it from the medieval Catholic perspective.
Tell your children their birth story
I have that story on hard days and happy days. On those inevitable days when I wonder what the point of me is after all. When dealing with insensitive boors, or sadness, or fear, or self doubt. When wondering if I am a good mom, or if I did everything right in the end. Whatever comes my way, I have that memory. I was gift.