Thadeus > Recent Status Updates

"The finding and fighting of positive evil is the beginning of all fun--and even of all farce."

"The slugs gave him great entertainment, and so did the worms. He felt a new and realistic interest in them which he had not known before; it was, indeed, the interest that a man feels in a mouse in a dungeon; the interest of any man tied by the leg and forced to see the fascination of small things."

"And the lecturer really did know a very great deal about English history and literature....
But she noted that in every case what he knew was a fragmentary fact. In every case what he did not know was the truth behind the fact. What he did not know was the atmosphere. What he did not know was the tradition. She found herself ticking off the cases like counts in an indictment.”

"Song Against Grocers, by Humphrey Pump, sole proprietor of'The Old Ship,' Pebbleswick. Good Accommodation for Man and Beast."

"'Mr. Pump,' said Lord Ivywood....The mere date of this inn brings it within the statute of 1909; it was erected when my great-grandfather was Lord of the Manor here....

'Ah, my Lord,' broke in Pump, with a sigh, 'I'd rather deal with your great-grandfather, I would, though he married a hundred negresses instead of one, than see a gentleman of your family taking away a poor man's livelihood.'"

"The change in usage [from last names to first names], whatever one thinks of it, is symptomatic of a general breakdown of the boundaries between public and private life, between formal and familiar, between grown-up and childish, between high and low, refined and vulgar, sacred and profane. This leveling of boundaries is itself entirely American..."

"...intimate speech is not a means of exchanging information but rather of disclosing souls, of revealing who we are (also to ourselves) by eliciting the blossoming self-revelation of a friend or beloved."

"...as one can fully see only at the end, her virginity is in the service of satisfying her own erotic longings, but only with someone who is worthy of being their object and, looking ahead to marriage, of satisfying them long-term."

"Once female modesty became a first casualty of the sexual revolution, even women eager for marriage lost their greatest power to hold and to discipline their prospective mates. For it is a woman's refusal of sexual importunings, coupled with hints or promises of later gratification, that is generally a necessary condition of transforming a man's lust into love."

"Anyone who seriously contemplates the present scene is - or should be - filled with profound sadness, all the more so if he or she knows the profound satisfactions of a successful marriage."
From section entitled, Recent Obstacles to Courtship

"...covenants made kinship bonds where they did not previously exist."

“Never before had Eirik seen so clearly that the sweetest of all arrogance is that which springs from pride in the physical body, brute strength, and perfect health.”

"Eldrid was the first person Eirik had known who made him feel so comfortable that he dared to keep quiet."

"This was no doubt why Olav, in his heart, had always held greater affection for Arnvid than for any other man. Arnvid was so brave that he never feared bending down, if need be, to let someone place their cross on his back."

"The means (methods) of pure science and pure religion are different, but the end is identical; to conform the soul of man to objective reality…
Science and religion seek truth as their end; magic and technology seek power. Magic is not religion; magic uses religion. Technology is not science; technology uses science."

The story in 1 Kings 21 of the insatiable desire of King Ahab, the contentedness of Naboth, and the deceit of Ahab's wife, Jezebel, is truly instructive and the commentary from St. Ambrose describes it well.

Good reflections on 1 Kings 17 including Bp. Barron's reference to St. John Paul II's law of the gift.

"Christ says, 'Watch and pray;' herein lies our cure. To watch and to pray are surely in our power, and by these means we are certain of getting strength."

So many examples of Eirik's inconstancy in chapter V!

"[The artistic world of his parents and sisters] was reverent, not in the full sense of a supernatural reverence before God, but reverent in the recognition that the world is full of mystery and that great things call for wonder."

"In his soul, Olav had fought without hope, ravaged by a terrifying fear, against forces that were not flesh and blood.

"He now understood that it wasn't the suffering he'd endured that had destroyed all happiness in his life--a man could be happier while he was suffering than when his days were good."

"At the center of the first temptation, and at the heart of all rebellion against God, is a disordered vision of God that distorts him into a master who seeks to oppress us."

Chapter IV seemed to involve a major mental episode for Olav. Definitely disorienting!

Olav decided that Eirik would not inherit the axe called AEttarfylgja, or Guardian of Kin. He needed to remember to send word home from England about this.
The thought was very troublesome and he did his best to put it out of his mind.

"The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret."

"Because Israel did not have arms, it abandoned the country to its enemies. We too grant our enemy an opportunity by our laziness in reading or consulting spiritual teachers, just as the Israelites did by their neglect of making arms or seeking Israelite smiths for them."
- St. Bede commentary on 1 Samuel 13:22-23

Chapter XIII...Big reveal in this one. Wow!

"But the instant Olav caught sight of Ingunn...wonderously beautiful... the realization slowly sank through Olav that a miracle had occurred."

"Olav, who had a hard time getting close to others, was always happy and astonished when anyone sought his friendship."

Chapter VIII was a great view from Eirik's perspective.

"For the use of the ratio, discursive thought, requires real hard work. The simple vision of the intellectus, however, contemplation, is not work."