A. First up, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I noticed this on Netflix a few days ago, but didn't pay attention to it because I mostly go to Netflix to rewatch episodes of TV shows I've already seen before, since that's how I roll. Plus I'm wary of new shows these days and what might be in them. But over the last couple of days, I saw multiple mentions of it in various places and by various people, including unlikely places, which worked together to pique my interest. So last night I was trying to find something by which to knit, and decided to check it out. And boy, is it fairly delightful. If you have a chance, I recommend it. (I mean, if you enjoy things that are funny.) Oh, and also, it got me hooked really early on by including a parody of Antoine Dodson's news interview, aka the Bed Intruder Song:
2. Up next we have an article by George Weigel, A Mission of Love. It is so good. Nothing groundbreaking, obviously, but just so good and so true. I mean, like, this:
In light of all this, the Christian idea of chastity comes into clearer focus. In the Catholic view of things, chastity is not a dreary string of prohibitions but a matter of loving-with-integrity: loving rather than “using;” loving another for himself or herself. The sexual temptations to which the Church says “No” are the implications of a higher, nobler, more compelling “Yes:” yes to the integrity of love, yes to love understood as the gift of oneself to another, yes to the family as the fruit of love, and yes to the family as the school where we first learn to love. “Yes” is the basic Catholic stance toward sexuality, marriage and the family. We should witness to that “Yes” with a joyful heart, recognizing that the example of joyful Catholic families is the best gift we can offer a world marked today by the glorification of self-absorption.I just wish I could share this stuff with more people. In that article he mentions a mini-catechism that was put out by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Pontifical Council for the Family, and man. Do you know how much I wish I could take that or something similar and use it in some sort of church program, like a marriage-prep program for non-engaged people? I really think that one of the biggest problems we have with marriage these days is that people don't think about what marriage means until they've already stepped on the marriage moving sidewalk and gotten engaged, after which point it's significantly more difficult to switch paths. Not impossible, but I'd say the majority of people who get engaged are pretty set on getting married regardless of what problems might come up in marriage prep (assuming, you know, they even do marriage prep). And a lot of those who do, at least on the Catholic side of things, are doing it just to fill a requirement. I might be jaded about that, but from things I've heard, that's the impression I get. And considering the number of divorces - even among Catholics - it certainly doesn't seem like the truths of what marriage is sink in very deep in a lot of couples. (This isn't to say, obviously, that good marriage prep or a solid foundation on what marriage means and entails immunizes people from divorce. But I think it certainly helps inoculates to a degree.) Anyway. It's a pipe dream I have to work on that. Maybe someday. Starting with reading that book myself might not hurt, though.
Semi-related: Faith formation for parents/adults. It's not enough to focus on teaching at kids who get next to nothing (if that) at home. I wish I could get more involved in adult faith formation, because while it's very important to win over to Christ the hearts of the youth, if they don't see it practiced by their elders it'll be easy to become disillusioned or lose sight of its importance. The author of the first article has a few suggestions here, thankfully. But figuring out what works in each individual parish isn't necessarily simple, and takes a lot of work and logistics - and desire.
D. Lastly, for this round anyway, let's talk a little bit about beauty, shall we? Bishop Conley wrote a beautiful piece in First Things that you should just please, please read.
Christianity is not Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Christianity is the faith of unmerited greatness—the faith of heroic virtue, unsurpassed hope, and unbounded charity. The Christian life elevates humanity in the great sanctifying process of theosis. By our very baptism, in fact, we are given the capacity to love precisely as God loves. And at the core of the Christian life is a transformative religious relationship with a living person—Jesus Christ.He goes on to talk about beauty as a pathway to Christ, and how "Pope Francis says that the pathway to Christ is the “via pulchritudinis.” Beauty responds to the flat-souled, reductive culture in which we live. Pope Benedict wrote often that beauty is an arrow that wounds—by that, he meant that it penetrates hearts which might never be turned by reason or virtue."
The mission of the New Evangelization is to proclaim the living person of Jesus Christ to those for whom God is a benevolent, impersonal, and mostly impotent figure.
It's just a great piece to read, so you should do that. And then go find something beautiful at which you can wonder. And go for a walk, because most of us could use more walks in our lives.
Coming up next: SILENCE. Yes. It will be good.
