The light burst

After Isaiah 7:14, 9:2-7

The light burst

upon the darkness.

The people who had walked

in darkness suddenly could

see the yoke, the burden,

has been broken and

removed. The child is born,

born of a virgin;

a son is given,

born of a virgin;

a birth like no other

before or since has

happened, a son born

to rule, to govern,

to bring peace,

to be forever.

 

Photograph by Casey Horner via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

“Gerontion,” poem by T.S. Eliot – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

A Concise Theology of Failure – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

Dear Josephine – Sarah Dixon Young at Story Warren.

Saturday Good Reads - Sept. 28, 2024

You read a story like this, and you just want to weep. You want to believe that the FBI is all about nabbing the bad guys and keeping Americans safe, and then you read a story about Marcus Allen, an FBI man who did his job and questioned with FBI Director Christopher Wray had said under oath about Jan. 6. The FBI tried to obliterate him. The Inspector General of the Department of Justice investigated, and the net result was the FBI reinstated Allen’s security clearance, paid him 27 months of back pay, and proved to the American people that our premier law enforcement organization can no longer be trusted. You can watch his testimony before Congress, and you just mourn what our government has become.

Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition explains how to understand the debate about late-term abortion.

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

Legends of the Fall – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

How Harvard Divinity Teaches Hate – Robert Friedman at The Free Press.

 

British Stuff

 

Reading Winston Churchill – Peter Caddick-Adams at The Critic Magazine.

 

Art

 

Marie Lenclos’ Still Light – Spitalfields Life.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Reader’s Quest: How literature helps us find meaning and understand the world – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Tolkien Criticism Today, Revisited – Dennis Wilson Wise at Los Angeles Review of Books on two new books on J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

Poetry

 

“The Pitcher’s Arm,” poem by Benjamin Myers – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Seven Secret Poets Everybody Should Know – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Dusk – C. Walker at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“Song in the Key of Autumn,” poem by Scudder Middleton – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Faith

 

Slow and Costly in a World of Fast and Cheap – Darryl Dash at Dashhouse.

 

Life in the Rear View – Greg Doles at Chasing Light.

 

Why Do the Evangelicals Rage? – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

American Stuff

 

A Thousand Words a Battle: The Underground Railroad – Chris Heisey at Emerging Civil War.

 

Once Upon a Time in America: Deborah’s Theme by Ennio Morricone, Eunice Cangianiello violin

 Painting: Man Reading Newspaper, il on wood (circa 1900) by Konstantin Stoitzner (1863-1933). 

To keep in mind

After Philippians 2:5-11 

More than a thought,

passing, more than an idea,

considered. Instead,

a guiding principle always

to keep in mind, in heart,

in soul, among yourselves:

the person, through God,

emptied himself to serve;

the person, through God,

obeyed to death on the cross;

the person, no longer man,

was exalted and glorified.

At his name, we bow.

At his name, we confess

who he is, who we are,

what he has done.

 

Photograph by Rohan Makhecha via Unsplash. Used with permission.

On the Long Station: 50 Holy Wells, #50 – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

A While List of Reasons to Consider Marrying Young – Tim Challies.

 

After the Murder – poem by Luke Harvey at Kingdom Poets (D.A. Martin). 

 

Harry T Harmer, Artist – Spitalfields Life.

Some Thursday Readings

The kindest of ghosts: A new history of childhood reading is a treasure – Simon Evans at The Critic Magazine. 

Jeffrey Archer: My 10 Favourite Agatha Christie Books – at CrimeReads.

 

University Cancels Panel Because Author is a ‘Zionist’ – Joe Nocera at The Free Press.

 

John Thomas Smith’s Rural Cottages – Spitalfields Life.

 

J.D. Salinger and the Wounds of War – Via Soho at CrimeReads.

 

Discovering a Classic: The Mass of Brother Michel – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

September Sketches – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian.

 

When Did You Stop Writing? – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

 

An Artist in the Ghost Army – Mikall Venso at Missouri History Society.

 

Of Course It Still Matters! Why Story Literature Today – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review talks with Henry Oliver.

 

Photograph: Agatha Christie.

Redcar Collector, a short story by Glenn McGoldrick, is free on Amazon Kindle today.

 

The Anonymous Spot with an Incredible History

If you like Brutalist architecture, and I don’t, an excellent example of it is the U.K. Ministry of Justice Building in London. It’s located near Buckingham Palace, where the streets of Petty France and Broadway converge. I’ve passed the building dozens if not hundreds of times, on my way to and from the St. James’s Park tube station. It’s right around the corner from where we stay when we visit London.

The complex was designed by Sir Basil Spence, a celebrated architect associated with the Modernist / Brutalist style (some call it the Soviet style). In fact, Spence has a plan to replace most of the government buildings in Whitehall with buildings like this one. Fortunately, the plan never became reality, except for this building which at its top resembles Darth Vader. At least Darth Vader had a personality.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

We Are in a Writing Renaissance – San Kahn at Compact Magazine.

 

Fall – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Twilight of the Hacks – Fred Skulthorp at the Critic Magazine.

 

Poets and Poems: Emily Patterson and “Haiku at 5:38 a.m.”

The simplest form of poetry, and, indeed, one of the simplest forms of all written communication, is the haiku. Derived from the Japanese hokku, it became a serious art form in the hands of the Japanese poet Bashō (1644-1694). The traditional form of a haiku is three lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Originally, it was confined to observations of nature, and while that’s still a common subject today, we use the form to describe all kinds of themes and subjects. 

Like to describe each hour of the day. That’s how poet and writer Emily Patterson uses the haiku in Haiku at 5:38 a.m. In her collection of 24 poems, she has one haiku for each hour of the day. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The Future of Book Publicity, Part 1 – Kathleen Schmidt at Publishing Confidential.

 

Roads, Dead Ends, and Endings – Nadya Williams at Current Magazine.

 

Notre-Dame restoration reveals Renaissance poet’s coffin – Hugh Schofield at BBC. 

 

Why Chinchilla is My Favorite Fur – prose poem by Tina Barry at Every Day Poems.

 

It Happens to Those Who Live Alone – poem by David Whyte.

"Death and Papa Noel" by Ian Moore

In a small town in France, transplanted Englishman Richard Ainsworth operates a bed-and-breakfast inn. It’s Christmas, and there are no guests, so he’s looking forward to a long holiday of binging on his favorite movies. 

His plans are not only upset but incinerated with the arrival of Valerie d’Orcay, a private detective who is currently on a most unusual mission. She’s representing a dead person, attempting to identify who perpetrated the murder. And she’s enticed a group of suspects to meet at Richard’s B&B to play a mystery game, with clues scattered around the town. Richard himself gets to play Papa Noel, or Father Christmas, at least until he realizes that the costume is about three sizes too small. Her goal: determine who killed her client.

 

Ian Moore

It's a generally unlikeable group, and no one divulges their real name. Instead, they use the name assigned to them by d’Orcay, Like Madame Rouge and Monsieur Vert (the detective has a penchant for using colors for the names of suspects). And then the mayhem and the comedy begin.

 

Death and Papa Noel by British author Ian Moore is that story of 

mayhem, comedy, murder, and flushing out the killer. It’s funny, but in the British sense of the word. Quite a few of the lines sound like a comedy sketch, and that reflects Moore’s career as a comedian. The story is novella in length, a rather quick and rather fun read.

 

Moore has published several short mysteries in this series, including Death and Croissants, Death and Fromage, and Death at the Chateau, as well as The Man Who Didn’t Burn, the first in the Juge Lombard thriller series. Moore is also a standup comedian and chutney maker. He lives in France.

Some Monday Readings

 

Writing Tempest: John Haley’s Soundbite Wins the Title – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Civil War.

 

A Word About (Book) Dedications – Sophie Masson at Writer Unboxed.

 

Magnetic – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Church Visits and Garden Walks – James Stevens Curl at The Critic Magazine reviews A History of English Churches in 100 Objects by Matthew Byrne.

 

Things Worth Remembering: ‘A Time for Choosing’ – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.