The Benefits of Heresy

How some good came to the faithful from the Cathars and Waldensians. To quote:

Another reason why we had a flourishing of theology and a concern for getting the details right in the 13th century was because of the rise of heresy; we talked about the Cathars and the Waldensians. When nobody challenges the basic truths of the faith, there isn’t any need to define it carefully; but when those are challenged, you need to get things in the right language. You need to say, “We believe this, we don’t believe that; this is correct, this is incorrect.” The very challenge of heresy led to the need for clarification and explanation in more detail than perhaps was necessary before. (Read entire article.)

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Marie-Antoinette Candleholders

A charming craft from The Graphics Fairy. Share

Beneath the Surface

Do not look at the surface of things. To quote:

In the eyes of the casual observer and nearest neighbor, chaos and disorder seem to reign supreme. After all, there are way too many children for any family to manage and the house is just too small. The yard is messy, the grass is desperately in need of mowing and the weeds have begun to fill in all the edges and empty spaces. In the center of the yard is a large sandbox, unused, the remnants of a few broken toys remain nestled between the dandelions and the ant hill.

The large garden plot is the one glory of the property, surrounded by walls of corn…it is lush and verdant as a tropical rainforest, giving up its harvest in grateful appreciation for the care and nurturance it has received throughout the season. But…the flowers that surround the porch, so very beautiful in the early part of spring, are looking worse for wear; coleus and begonias have been trampled by the many barn cats that prowl the property.

On the front porch, there is a can filled with cigarette butts and the smell of tobacco hangs heavy in the air while the porch light still burns from the night before. In the past few weeks there have three police cars and an ambulance…surely that means something? Then there are the cars, two of them in varying states of disrepair, one missing its battery, the other an old Mercedes wagon, many years past its prime.

“Ah,” opines the observer/neighbor, “this family is a scandal. There is something seriously amiss here…just look at the state of things! I think perhaps I’ll leave a Christian tract in the mail to gently show them the error of their ways. After all, it is the charitable thing to do…”

Yet…if the neighbor were to look a little more closely, or perhaps gently inquire, the picture might alter considerably…(Read entire post.)

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Faith and Grief

A mother's reaction to her child's death.

Author Dawn Marie Roeder’s two-year-old son died under tragic circumstances, but she credits her Catholic faith for helping her survive, grieve and forgive. She now wants others to know that God’s heart is “so big ...  beyond our understanding.”

“I just really hope to touch individuals who may be on the brink of losing hope or faith, to know they’re not alone. God loves them,” Roeder told CNA July 12.

“I wouldn’t have been able to survive without faith,” she said. “It’s critical, and it’s a cornerstone of my healing.”

Roeder’s 2011 book “It Doesn’t End Here,” published by Lanciano Media, tells her story. In the year 2000, an adverse reaction to a prescription drug caused Roeder to crash her car, killing her son and leaving her unconscious. She then took part in a five-year legal action against the pharmaceutical company that made the drug, saying it did not give sufficient warning about the possible dangers of the drug. The action put Roeder under intense scrutiny from the company’s lawyers and thrust her into the public eye.

Roeder, who now lives in Phoenix, said she wrote the book because she learned that Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary “are with us even in our most difficult and trying times.”

“I never felt abandoned by them,” she said. “If anything, I turned to them. I ran to them.

“He who suffered on the cross knows more than anything what it is to suffer. Our Heavenly Father, of course, through the loss of his son, knows what it is to lose the most precious thing in his life.”

She said the role of her faith in the aftermath of her son’s death has been “enormous.”

“We’re vulnerable at that time when we suffer loss. We need to make great choices, especially in our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual part of our being, to be balanced.”

“Faith helped me as a foundation of being able to keep those other aspects in balance and keep me strong,” she said.

Roeder also learned the importance of forgiveness, saying it is a gift from God.

“He gave it to us from the cross. What are we to hold against anyone or any institution if we ourselves are sinners? We’ve been given the greatest gift on the cross. And we are to share that, as his children.”

While forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean trusting a particular person or situation again, she said, “we have to forgive with our hearts, with our whole being.”

Roeder’s book tells her experience across several chapters divided by reflections on the Seven Sorrows of Mary. She said she did this to honor the Virgin Mary as her “role model” who helped her grieve. She hopes the book’s sections on the Seven Sorrows will highlight the connection between “the suffering Our Lady had” and “the suffering of our everyday life.” (Read entire post.)

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Music from the Days of the Cathars

Here is a Russian singing group, the Consolament Ensemble, which has recreated songs from the era of the Albigensian crusade in the thirteenth century. They appear to be wearing the Cross of Toulouse, which has little or nothing to do with Cathar spirituality, since the Cathars despised the sign of the Cross. The music is lovely and reflects the rich culture of the South of France, where the troubadours flourished.

The following ballad is supposed to be an encoded hymn about the fall of the Cathars under the guise of being about cattle herders. It is a splendid sample of the music from that time and place.

My novel about the Cathars:

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Eighteenth Century French Cuisine

From an Englishman's point of view. (Now this is delightful.)

The markets at Nice are tolerably well supplied.  Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is pretty good, and we have it all the year.  In the winter, we have likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is indifferent.  Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with maiz; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.  Chickens and pullets are extremely meager.  I have tried to fatten them, without success.  In the summer they are subject to the pip, and die in great numbers.  Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares, partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes, beccasicas, and ortolans.  Wild boar is sometimes found in the mountains;  it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of winter, when it is in good case:  but, when meager, the head only is presented at tables.  Pheasants are very scarce. (Read entire post.)

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Madame Elisabeth Rejoining Her Family

A representation of Louis XVI's sister Madame Elisabeth of France on her way to Heaven after her murder at age thirty. Share

An Interview with Catherine Delors

An informative interview with one of my favorite contemporary novelists and dear friends.

Catherine Delors, author of "Mistress of the Revolution" and "For the King" answers 10 questions about her favorite time period in history, her favorite figures from history, and the age old question of coffee or tea. (Read entire post.)

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The Duchesse de Berry in Mourning

A moving portrait of the expectant Caroline of Naples, mourning her husband the Duc de Berry, murdered before her eyes. In her arms is the infant Louise d'Artois. Louise, the granddaughter of Charles X, was the grandmother of Empress Zita; most of the modern-day Habsburgs are descended from her. In her womb is the future Henri V, Comte de Chambord. Please visit our discussion about Henri and his family at the Tea at Trianon Forum.

 Here is a print of Caroline with both of her children, Louise and Henri, near a bust of Henri IV, receiving a crown from France.

(From Louis XX's Photos on Facebook.)

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