Tuesday, August 14
A Quick Roundup
If any of you are in the mood for white birettas and pre-Revolutionary French abbeys restored to good (sacred) use, you might want to have a look at the Canons of Lagrasse, and their austere yet lovely monastery. It appears they aren't the only ones up to this sort of thing, either.
A longtime reader blegs:
My daughter will be in the 7th grade this coming year. She is hoping to do declamation, and wants to present a speech by a Catholic woman. We have not been able to find one. Maybe with the vast intellectual resources present in your bloggers and the commentators we might find a great speech of great spiritual power.Thoughts? Catholicism has certainly produced its share of wonderfully uppity women in its day, though I can't think of anything specific speech-wise on par with, say, Bad Queen Bess's speech before the Spanish Armada about having the heart and stomach of a concrete elephant, or whatever it was. Put your heads together, and see what you come up with!
Another item of interest comes from a gradeschool friend of mine who has produced an incredibly exhaustive survey of free Catholic MP3 links on the web on the extremely professional-looking Sonitus Sanctus blog, which is definitely worth your time. Highlights include a defense of Pius XII, Ambrosian chant (insert embarassing squeals of delight from yours truly!), Thomas More on audiobook, and more still. There may be plenty of blogs out there with confusingly interchangeable Latin names, but this one looks like it's going to distinguish itself from the rest of the herd.
The redoubtable Dawn Eden, now settling into Our Nation's Capital (insert stock footage of White House, with dramatic Red October-style music and time signature in the corner), has some questions about telenovelas, which make even less sense if you actually understand the Spanish. But it's for a good cause. And a happy St. Max's day to our heroine, while we're at it!
And last but not least, why Our Lady doesn't like artificial sweeteners.