Disturbing the Peace

 My reading nook is normally a very peaceful and quiet appearing place.  Not so this Saturday and Sunday.  You might think the most uproarious time was on Saturday as we celebrated my birthday.  But not so.

This is my birthday cake

For the most part my guests were really well behaved.  All we had to do was to make sure some people were busy eating........

That was my Birthday Cake

 Others, of course are just naturally peaceful people...

A piece - full guest

The conversationalist

There are always one or two, though, who really liven things up....

The rowdies

Yes the party on Saturday was lively, but not uproarious.  It was on Sunday that the action really picked up.  King Alfred convinced his chiefs to oppose the invader Guthrum the Dane and.......

we fought the Battle of Ethandune

all afternoon 

in my living room.

Pictures were made possible by a lovely gift from my family.

Cake was made by daughter Collette and her children.

Book was a meme.  It is available at the American Chesterton Society

Woman at Prayer - 3, "Peace"

A third in a series of essays from the booklet A Woman at Prayer by Rev. Conleth Overman

PEACE, IT'S WONDERFUL

We each make our peace or mar it.

We live in a confused, mad world. And if we are not careful we shall all be mad. It will be worth our while, therefore, to try to understand what peace is and how we can acquire it for our­selves. 

The opposite of peace is chaos. When contrary forces collide head on, when warring, hostile per­sonalities meet, when pressures are applied from many sides, the result is a state of disorder. Lives are ruined, happiness destroyed, minds are twisted, in an atmosphere of enmity and con­fusion. 

We were made for the enjoyment of peace. Had there been no sin in the world, peace would be our permanent environment. In a better world undisturbed by sin, peace would come naturally to us. But today, given the world as it is, we must use intelligence and determination to ac­quire for ourselves the peace we need to live in. 

Thomas Aquinas has given us the classical definition of peace: "Peace, is the tranquillity of order."  We can transfer his definition into more familiar idiom:  "Peace is having everything in its place". Once you put things where they belong you begin to enjoy the tranquillity and serenity of mind that we call peace. 

Peace is not dead, passive stagnation. St.  Thomas' definition of peace allows for a full measure of satisfying activity. It is possible to have the interplay of great forces, of powerful streams of thought and action, as long as they are ordered, properly subordinated, that is, in their proper places. 

We all agree that peace is very desirable; we admit, also, that we can live a full life under the reign of peace; the question now is, how can we acquire peace in our day. The answer is not hard to find: Personal peace is the product of the virtue of justice. This is what the Holy Spirit meant in the Psalms by the verse: "Justice and peace have embraced." (Ps. 85:11) 

Justice is the virtue that inclines us to give to everyone what is due to them. Justice gives us a calm view of everything ;  justice enables us to have the proper perspective, to give the right emphasis. What disturbs us most is that we do not see things clearly. We over-value trifles, we under-value essentials. And the result of such confused thinking is restlessness, confusion, wasted effort, the feeling of failure and frustra­tion.

Most of us get the impression of peacefulness from St. Joseph. In the pages of the New Testa­ment he moves with quietness and sureness. He had great problems and heavy responsibilities; but he was ever in peace. What was the secret of his peace? St. Matthew tells us: "For Joseph .... was a just man." (1:19).   Joseph was unafraid and unconfused because his eyes were firmly fixed on what was right, what was due to God and man. 

Once we are persons of peace, then we can begin to weave a pattern of peace around us. We should make our own the prayer of St. Francis of Assissi: 

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon; 

Where there is doubt, faith; 

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light; 

And where there is sadness, joy." , 

From the Kitchen of My Hearth and Home

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Cherry Almond Bars

If you are new to my blog, you might get the impression that my hearth and home has only a library and a chapel.  Well, it has neither.  I do have some great bookshelves and a little prayer corner -   I use and enjoy them  both.  But, the center of my home has always been the kitchen.

The past few days my kitchen has been BUSY making things for our Ladies Sodality Salad Bar.  It's our biggest fund raiser of the year.  We draw ladies groups from a fifty mile radius and of course we always worry about having enough food!

My contributions were a double batch of Oriental Chicken and Rice Salad - a recipe from my daughter Karen - and my own tried and true Cherry Almond Bars.  Technically, it's a coffee cake, but so rich and tender that I serve it as a dessert.  The last time I made this recipe was for a tea,  served  with whipped cream.

CHERRY ALMOND BARS

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter,softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

4 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 can cherry pie filling

Glaze (below)

Heat oven to 350.  Grease jelly roll pan, 151/2 x 101/2 x 1 inch.  Beat sugar, butter, shortening, baking powder, vanilla, almond extract and eggs in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping bowl constantly, until blended.  Beat on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 3 minutes.  Stir in flour.  Spread 2/3 of the batter in jelly roll pan.  Spread pie filling over batter.  Drop remaining batter by tablespoonfuls onto pie filling.

Bake until light brown, about 45 minutes.  (Mine is done sooner),  Drizzle with Glaze while warm.  Cut into bars about 2 1/2 x 2 inches.

GLAZE

Beat 1 cup powdered sugar and 1-2 tablespoons milk until smooth and of desired consistency.  (Mine always takes more milk).

This recipe comes from a booklet that I ordered from General Mills some years ago:  The Best Gold Medal Recipes of 100 Years.  It's  magazine size and is a real treasure.  It contains the whole history of General Mills and 'Betty Crocker' mixed in with dozens of 'tried and true recipes'.  I wonder if it is available anywhere on-line?  It's worth the hunt.

BTW, I like Betty.  We are old friends and you can read about it here: http://myhearthandhome.blogspot.com/2010/01/betty-and-me.html

What is Right With the World

At present we all tend to one mistake;  we tend to make politics too important.  We tend to forget how huge a part of a man's life is the same under a Sultan and a Senate, under Nero or St. Louis.  Daybreak is a never-ending glory, getting out of bed is a never-ending nuisance;  food and friends will be welcomed;  work and strangers must be accepted and endured;  birds will go bedwards and children won't, to the end of the last evening.

G.K. Chesterton from What is Right with the World

Woman at Prayer - 2, "Security"

Another essay from the booklet A Woman at Prayer by Rev. Conleth Overman:

GOD, OUR SECURITY

It is easy to be secure - if we know how

There can be no question about the need that each of us has for security.  Lewis Carroll once wrote a phrase that shows us why: "We are but older children, dear, who fret to find our bedtime near."  * Much of adult bravery is merely whistling in the dark.

It is understandable that we should have fears and moments of anxiety. Our little personality is surrounded by the limitless unknown. We have but a brief few minutes of life here on this earth where time has dragged its slow length on for countless centuries. And after life what? Tenny­son reflected on the puzzle of eternity: "Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark ... " **  The candle of life is snuffed out and we are alone in the dark.

And thus, standing on the sliding slope of time, we clutch at all sorts of straws to get for our­self a feeling of security. There are some that grasp material possessions; and all that they actually gain is further anxiety. Others grasp at a partner in marriage; and they, in as much as original sin has made human nature a broken reed that pierces the hand, find further sorrow. And yet others hold fast to reputation which is a mocking scold at best. And all of these, because they look to creatures for their security, build on sand.

And there is yet another desperate expediency to which many yield in their frantic search for security. They look to their own inner resources for security. But in as much as they themselves are creatures they are only trying to draw water from empty wells with broken pitchers.

The greatest secret that we can learn for our peace of mind is the futility of creatures. It took David a lifetime to learn this lesson. But he learned it and wrote in his old age: "Omnis homo mendax" (every man's a liar) ***. Neither possessions, nor spouse, nor child, nor fame, nor self, provides a firm foundation for our security. It is only by admitting the limitations of creatures -ourselves included-that We begin to have sense. Then we can begin to turn to God.

God is our security. He is eternal and thus unaffected by the mutability of time; He is in­finite. and thus limitless; He is changeless, and thus sure and steady; He is all merciful, and thus possessed of unbounded compassion for weakness; He is just, and thus appreciative of every spark of good in us.
God does not love us because we deserve His love; God loves us because He is God. "God hath first loved us," exclaimed St. John (I John 4:19). God fell in love with nothingness, with weakness and little­ness. It is our very limitations that attract God. Our darkness calls out to God's light, because light shows up best in darkness.

We are told that the Saints gloried in their weakness, in their faults and failings. It is true that they recognized the glimmerings of virtue that were manifested in their lives. But they gave credit for what goodness they possessed to God. They welcomed their limitations because thus they had no desire to steal any glory from God. All that was good in themselves they ascribed to God; their sins they claimed for their own. "Thou dost but crown thy graces, 0 God," cried out ·St. Augustine, "when thou dost reward our merits!"

The sincere acceptance of ourselves, and com­plete dependence on God - this is the way to inner security and peace of mind.

*Proglogue to Through the Looking Glass
**Crossing the Bar
*** Psalm 116:11  My New American Bible says:  "No one can be trusted".   Man may dissappoint but God never does

Things are often not what they seem

If I were to start a local chapter of the American Chesterton Society, I would have the members bring their favorite quote and find out where they first heard about him.  But, on the second meeting we would have read at least one Father Brown story - "The Scandal of Father Brown", which is the title story of the fifth collection.

Reading any Father Brown mystery is a  good introduction to Chesterton because 'they are often not what they seem'.  Yes they are good mysteries, but there is a lot more going on than detection.  Paradox (Chesterton's favorite literary device) abounds, but it is used in a broad, easy to grasp manner.  His defense of the permanent things (marriage, family, orthodoxy) is evident, as it is in all he writes.

"The Scandal of Father Brown" has the typical Chestertonian theme 'things are not often what they seem' going on many different levels at once.  The story is a mystery about the disappearance of an American heiress.  As the mystery unravels, GK manages to fit in a number of other themes:   prejudice and how a civilized person deals with it; the American cult of celebrity; modern dysfunctional views of marriage; the effect of media on the lives of people; the irresponsibility of the press -  and how it all ties together and fits in with the mystery.  This is accomplished in  nine very entertaining pages.

Now, I may be prejudiced about this particular story because I have just finished reading it.  Perhaps it would be better to start with the  first collection "The Innocence of Father Brown" where we have a little theology thrown in:  "I want you to give them back, Flambeau, and I want you to give up this life.  There is still youth and honor and humor in you;  don't fancy they will last in that trade.  Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil.  That road goes down and down."

It would be a hard choice except that "Scandal" ends with a great addendum that illustrates one of my pet peeves.  I can't stand it when false accusations against anyone are made, because they are always out there and can't be retrieved :

"I must ring up my paper and tell them I've been telling them a pack of lies."

 Not much more than half an hour had passed, between the time when Rock had telephoned to say the priest was helping the poet to run away with the lady, and the time when he telephoned to say that the priest had prevented the poet from doing precisely the same thing. But in that short interval of time was born and enlarged and scattered upon the winds the Scandal of Father Brown. The truth is still half an hour behind the slander; and nobody can be certain when or where it will catch up with it. 

The garrulity of pressmen and the eagerness of enemies had spread the first story through the city, even before it appeared in the first printed version. It was instantly corrected and contradicted by Rock himself, in a second message stating how the story had really ended; but it was by no means certain that the first story was killed. A positively incredible number of people seemed to have read the first issue of the paper and not the second.

 Again and again, in every corner of the world, like a flame bursting from blackened ashes, there would appear the old tale of the Brown Scandal, or Priest Ruins Potter Home. Tireless apologists of the priest's party watched for it, and patiently tagged after it with contradictions and exposures and letters of protest. Sometimes the letters were published in the papers; and sometimes they were not. But still nobody knew how many people had heard the story without hearing the contradiction.

It was possible to find whole blocks of blameless and innocent people who thought the Mexican Scandal was an ordinary recorded historical incident like the Gunpowder Plot. Then somebody would enlighten these simple people, only to discover that the old story had started  afresh among a few quite educated people, who would seem the last people on earth to be duped by it. 

And so the two Father Browns chase each other round the world forever;  the first a shameless criminal fleeing from justice;  the second a martyr broken by scandal, in a halo of rehabilitation.  But neither of them is very much like the real Father Brown, who is not broken at all;  but goes stumping with his stout umbrella through life, liking most of the people in it;  accepting the world as his companion, but never as his judge.

There would be plenty to discuss from just one short story at my imaginary local chapter meeting.  It would be a good beginning.  One story - and a beer mug.  Dale Ahlquist, the president of the ACS says that the main equipment for a starting a chapter  is a Chesterton Beer Mug.  I'm all for that - I LOVE ROOT BEER!

Warning:  If you decide to read "Scandal" be forewarned that there are every type of racial and ethnic slurs coming out of the mouth of an American.  This used to be typical, but I think we have improved on that front and people are not used to hearing those things any more.  However, the way Father Brown handles the prejudice is instructive.

The Father Brown Mysteries

The first books I read by G.K. Chesterton were the Father  Brown Mysteries.  When I read them, 30 - 40 years ago, I didn't really realize that he had written anything else.  Being an avid classic mystery reader, the Father Brown stories were right up there with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.  In fact, I think I saw the stories on PBS Mystery Theater before I read them.

Father Brown is a fictional character based on a real friend of Chesterton's -  Father John O'Connor who was a parish priest in Bradford, England.  At one time G.K. was writing an article about an upswing in crime and showed it to the priest.  Father O'Connor said that he thought that the article was going in the wrong direction, and proceeded to tell Chesterton about how real evil was.  G.K. was shocked by what the priest told him and was surprised that someone as unworldly as Father O'Connor would have that knowledge.  This eventually appealed to Chesterton's love of paradox and, even though he himself was an Anglican, he decided to write mysteries about a priest/detective who was quiet, humble, and probably the last person who would be thought knowledgeable about crime.  In "The Blue Cross", when asked by the criminal Flambeau, who has been masquerading as a priest, how he knew of all sorts of criminal "horrors," Father Brown responds: "Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?"

Father Brown is a short and stumpy , "formerly of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London", with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil. He makes his first appearance in the story "The Blue Corss" and continues through the five volumes of short stories, often assisted by the reformed criminal M. Hercule Flambeau.   He was something new and intriguing at the time of his literary appearance. The mystery genre was then dominated by Sherlock Holmes and many, many, imitations. Unlike Sherlock, Father Brown's methods tend to be intuitive rather than deductive.. He explains his method in 'The Secret of Father Brown': "You see, I had murdered them all myself... I had planned out each of the crimes very carefully. I had thought out exactly how a thing like that could be done, and in what style or state of mind a man could really do it. And when I was quite sure that I felt exactly like the murderer myself, of course I knew who he was."

The stories normally contain a rational explanation of who the murderer was and how Brown worked it out. He always emphasizes rationality: some stories, such as "The Miracle of Moon Crescent", "The Oracle of the Dog", "The Blast of the Book" and "The Dagger With Wings", poke fun at initially skeptical characters who become convinced of a supernatural explanation for some strange occurrence, while Father Brown easily sees the perfectly ordinary, natural explanation. In fact, he seems to represent an ideal of a devout, yet considerably educated and "civilized" clergyman.

The stories were originally compiled into five volumes with 8-12 stories each:

• The Innocence of Father Brown  (1911)
• The Wisdom of Father Brown  (1914)
• The Incredulity of Father Brown  (1926)
• The Secret of Father Brown  (1927)
• The Scandal of Father Brown  (1935)

There are now several one-volume books containing all the stories.  A two volume set adapted for younger readers is also available.

"Things are not always what they seem to be" is a favorite theme of G.K. Chesterton.  We owe the creation of favorites such as Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Columbo to those who caught onto that theme.  In 1930, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, Edmund C. (Clerihew) Bentley, and many others,  formed the 'Detection Club'.  GKC was it's first president  (1930-1936).  They had a fanciful initiation oath made by either Dorothy Sayers or GK  and held regular dinner meetings in London. 

In addition to meeting for dinners and helping each other with technical aspects in their individual writings, the members of the club agreed to adhere to a code of ethics in their writing ( The Rules of Fair Play) to give the reader a fair chance at guessing the guilty party.  The club still meets, but the 'rules' have been relaxed.

Alec Guiness as Father Brown

A Woman at Prayer - "Perfection"

A Woman at Prayer is  a book from the Cenacle Retreat House in Rosharon, Texas.  It was published in 1962 by The Rev. Conleth Overman.  The book came into my possession about 1973 and was a real help to me then and through the years since.   The sub-title,  Suggestions for Holiness, sets it apart from most modern books for women in that it is quite plain spoken.  But even though it isn't for the faint of heart and is somewhat dated,  I decided that from time to time (Fridays?) I will  publish some of  Rev. Overman's essays just as he wrote them.

PERFECTION FOR LAYFOLK

To be upward-reaching is  a sign of life.

    When Our Divine Saviour said, "Be ye perfect," He was addressing Himself to all.  It was a very high perfection that He urged upon His followers.  "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mat 5:48).   Consequently each Christian is bound to two things:  First to strive for perfection, and, second, to try to scale the heights without ever being content wit a second-best sort of holiness.

     Since the model of our personal perfection is the infinite perfection of God, the question naturally suggests itself, how is God perfect?  God is perfect in his boundless life of knowledge and love.  God the Father loves Himself and expresses His love in the Word, His divine Son;  God loves Himself and breathes forth this love in the Holy Spirit.  This is God's limitless perfect life.

     Our perfection, then, consists in knowing and loving God with all the power of our being.  Knowledge alone won't sanctify us; we must prefer God above all things and cleave to Him. But an ever increasing  knowledge of God is essential if we are to grow in love to the perfec­tion expected of us by Christ.

     Two things we must avoid if we would be per­fect:  One, we must cease to know the world; and  we must refrain from loving the passing things of time. The life of multitudes today con­sists in knowing creatures* to the exclusion of a knowledge of God.  Many people have their minds so filled with creatures* of all descriptions-cocktails, cigarettes, TV, movies, food, best-sellers, sex, headlines, gossip, clothing,  ads, business, etc.--that there is no room in their heads  for the truths of God. And the same goes for their wills. They have so attached themselves to things, both animate and inanimate, real and imaginary, that their wills are bound down to earth. "Where your treasure is," said Christ with great psychological insight, "there is your heart also." (Mat 6:21)

    So, break your bonds! Practice recollection to clear your mind of the mirage of creatures; practice detachment to open your wills to the attraction of Divine goodness.   Are we asking so much? Well, child, you'll have to make these two renunciations ultimately anyhow. The angel of death will forcibly tear you away from your toys and gewgaws; and your false loves will be revealed.   It is much wiser to set. yourself to this painful process of recollection and detachment now.

     Know God! Put aside the slop that goes into your mind through the multiple channels of mod­ern communication. Take up your New Testa­ment, your Imitation of Christ, one of the good books about the Saints or God's revealed truth. Pull the shades of your bedroom windows, get down on your knees and ponder the great truths of the Faith. Fill your mind with God.

     Love God! To love means to prefer, to cleave to.   Stop trying to possess all the unnecessary creatures that your eyes see; be content with simple things. Turn to God.  Love to be in His presence at Church.  Love to remember his spiritual presence within you: "Know you not that you are the temple of God?" (I Cor: 3:16)


*  'Creature' means material things, esp. the all-pervasive materialism of our culture.  

P.S.  Phil. 3:13-14

Editor's note: What popped out at me the first time I read this, was how to love God.  This had puzzled me for some time.  But I could easily understand how to prefer Him to all others, and to hang on to Him when the world seemed to be turned upside down. 

A Proper Introduction

How can I describe my friend, Gilbert Keith Chesterton?

First of all he is quite a presence:  six foot four  and weighing in at 300 pounds, he is hard to miss!  A Goliath, you might say, but he is more like a jolly giant or an overgrown elf.  He is full of joy and laughter.  As he says, "I suppose I enjoy myself more than most other people, because there's such a lot of me having a good time."

He wears a crumpled hat and a heavy cape and carries a walking stick with a sword concealed inside.  A swordstick?  He says he carries it because he likes things that come to a point.  But that is not the only weapon he carries....he carries a gun!  "I bought it on the day of my wedding", he explains...and then adds, "to defend my bride".  He says it also has proved to be quite useful on other occasions.  For instance, whenever he hears a man say that life is not worth living, he takes out the gun and offers to shoot him.  "Always with the most satisfactory results", he laughs.

But wait!  Is this how I really want to introduce him?  I could go on and on about the contents of his pockets (he wrote about it) and his way of life.  But I really need to tell you that he is a genius and a prolific writer.  He wrote millions of words - as a journalist with a daily newspaper column; in a monthly magazine he produced with his friends; as a novelist, essayist, poet, mystery story writer.

But wait!  I need to mention that he is a Christian apologist and wrote works that influenced Tolkien and C.S. Lewis such as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.  He debated the atheists and Progressives of his day and was famous for it.  Now I am getting closer to telling you what is important about G.K. Chesterton.

EVERYTHING he wrote was a defense of  what he called the permanent things:  Orthodoxy in religion, the home, the family, Christian Culture.  He defended it against the same Progressivist agenda that is steam rolling us today and he did it with grace, clarity and good humor.  When you read  his books it seems as though they were written just yesterday.

He was endowed with a considerable intellect and used it with all his might in the service of our Lord.  In the poem the Wild Knight we get a glimpse of his motivation:

The wasting thistle whitens on my crest,
The barren grasses blow upon my spear,
A green, pale pennon:  blazon of wild faith
And love of fruitless things:  yea, of my love,
Among the golden loves of all the knights, 
Alone:  most hopeless, sweet, and blasphemous,
The love of God:
I hear the crumbling creeds
Like cliffs washed down by water, change, and pass,
I hear a noise of words, age after age,
A new cold wind that blows across the plains, 
 And all the shrines stand empty;and to me
All these are nothing: priests and schools may doubt
Who never have believed;  but I have loved.

The poem goes on with all the reasons his enemies tell him that he should not seek after God, but no matter how reasonable they sound, all he can respond is that he loves Him and desires nothing more than to see His face, because God had spoken to him once... The last few lines are:

But the grey clouds come down
In hail upon the icy plains:  I ride,
burning for ever in consuming fire.

I have been reading G.K. Chesterton for a while - some poetry, some novels, some apologetics, some essays, and many mystery stories.  Eventually I would like to review them here.

New Beginning

The beginning of Spring, a few days after the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord - this is the perfect moment for a new beginning.  So, begin I will.

For the past 6 weeks, I have been studying Common Sense 101 - Lessons from G.K. Chesterton.  G.K. was an old acquaintance of  mine that has turned into a great friend.  I was going to spend some time introducing him, but since he is here today I have decided to do a quick interview with him.

Mrs. Bill:  "Mr. Chesterton, the name of my blog is Hearth and Home.  I have tried to present the home as the center of life.  Do you have anything to say to that?"

GKC:  "The place where babies are born, where men die, where the daily drama of mortal life is acted, is not an office or shop or a bureau.  It is something much smaller in size, yet much larger in scope.  And while nobody would be such a fool as to pretend that the home is the only place where people should work, or even the only place where women should work, it has a character of unity and universality that is not found in any of the fragmentary experiences of the office or the shop or the bureau."

Mrs. Bill:  "I know from experience that this is true, but I seem to be in the minority.  Our culture  is in disarray and now the government is stepping in with all kinds of assistance and programs that don't really seem to do any good."

GKC: "Human culture is handed down in the customs of countless households;  it is the only way in which human culture can remain fully human.  The households are right to confess a common loyalty to some  king or republic.  But the king cannot be the nurse in every nursery, and the government cannot be come the governess in every schoolroom."

Mrs. Bill:  "You mention the schoolroom.  In our society, we hear endless talk about the importance of education - public education, that is.   But I think we somehow manage to forget that the primary place of education is the home.  What do you think?

GKC:  "If education is the largest thing in the world, what is the sense of talking about a woman being liberated from the largest thing in the world?"

Mrs. Bill:  Thank you Mr. Chesterton.