Long overdue:
St. Xavier Society for the Blind – provides Catholic literature in braille & audio format. Free service, available for anyone whose disability interferes with reading printed material.
Universalis – the Liturgy of the Hours (aka The Divine Office). Free online, or you can download to your various devices at a relatively affordable price.
Enjoy.
Added a couple links:
The Lewis Crusade is written by John C. Hathaway, who can transform wading-pool duty at a parish picnic into an intellectual feast for the busy catholic brain. Great guy who has a thing or two to say to you.
Uncommon Adornments & Phos Hilarion are the twin businesses of jewelry-maker Ann Rinderknecht Miko. Very nice work, take a look. (And if John’s not available, she’s right up there in the entertaining-conversation department.)
Thanks to Julie at Happy Catholic for pointing readers to Unhappy Hipsters. I actually like modern architecture, and have no particular bias against literary fiction, either — but it’s still pretty funny. Adult humor in the proper sense of the word — parody it takes an adult to appreciate.
Just so you know, I’ve been sneaking in other links here and there and forgetting to tell you. So if you are a feed-reader, you might want to click on the blog and peruse, one of these days when you are hard-up for reading material.
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Speaking of reading material, I just finished Saint of the Day. So expect a review soon. (And yes, it did take me a mighty long time to finish it. But hey, I read a year’s worth of saints in less than one year. How many years of saints have you read this winter? Hmmn? People smarter than me don’t answer that.)
Just added the Baby Name Wizard to the links. Which to my knowledge I do not need for nine months from anytime, but did need to check on a character name. Pulls name data from the Social Security Administration, so you can find out, for example, whether anyone was naming their daughter “Erica” in 1914. (They weren’t. We went with Erna.) Handy for historical fiction.
BTW for the new readers, I happily take link suggestions for anything that remotely fits with the theme of the blog, and if you read here, I’ll gladly link you.
Now off to go continue getting my rear whipped at the writer’s conference. Aria’s finger is doing great, and now has two fewer paper clips stainless steel surgical pins than it did a week ago. Yay!
Interesting article re: witchcraft, the church and the state. Quick, readable, specific enough to be useful. Can’t comment myself, but gives you some fodder for further study. Will say that the info Mike Flynn gives does seem to coordinate with what I have read elsewhere. (H/T to Mark Shea for posting the link.)
Entirely unrelated tidbits:
The Coalition for Clarity has two historical quotes of interest posted here. The first is St. Augustine, writing at the end of the Roman Empire of course; the second is Pope Nicolas I, writing in 886.
So many times history books try to sum up an entire society by what happened most. Peering into the detailed lives of individuals gives a more accurate picture.
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And our other topic: For those who are looking here for an update: Aria is doing great, little finger is pinned back together and she’s a happy girl. Especially since this whole event has been associated with the aquisition of new clothes. Prayers for good results at the follow-up appointment Feb 8th much appreciated.
Yesterday the WSJ ran this article featuring Deacon Patrick Moynihan — oddly unlike the coverage he gets in the diocesan newspaper (in a good way). Here is the site for The Haitian Project, where you can learn about Louverture Cleary School, and see post-earthquake updates.
Made a section in the sidebar for Haiti blogs, including a few extras I didn’t have on my list the other day. The Pye’s write about their work distributing emergency food aid:
We talked with World Food Program and they said we could use their food if each pastor wrote their name, their church, a phone number, and each person’s name that would receive the food. So we did and we were given hundreds of list; from 14 people to 2,000 people on them. Saturday we started calling pastors. We would get a pile of food together that would feed the number of people on their list. They would come in a vehicle and pick it up. On Saturday we were able to give to 20 pastors food and water for the needy in their congregations.
I think this is a good response to the WSJ op-ed the other day questioning the role of foreign aid. Using the Pyes as a distribution-point, World Food Bank is getting food into the hands of specific individuals. There is a mechanism in place for accountability and transparency. (On the topic of corruption and graft, see Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s WSJ column today. Chilling.)
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On another note, I signed up for the Coalition for Clarity. I’m not usually the joining type, but I make an exception for this worthy cause. Because you know, torturing people is just plain wrong. FYI, you don’t need to be catholic to join. Just as you don’t need to be catholic to know that torture is evil.
Three blogs I’ve been following for Haiti updates:
The Anchoress, who has been posting reports from a friend in Petit Goave.
The Livesay Weblog, missionaries working in Haiti with several ministries — currently running a makeshift hospital at their location.
The Rollings — their ordinary work is making water filters for Clean Water for Haiti, based out of Pierre Payen.
Follow these. When you can do almost nothing, at least you can know how to pray.
(Thank you to the several people who first pointed me to these.)
Dr. Boli is in rare form today. If you’ve ever been made to read Treasure Island or Gulliver’s Travels, here’s one for you.
Happy New Year.
William Peace rants here about misuse use of the word ‘amazing’. Hearty dittos — go read and be inspired to curmudgeonliness.
As long as we’re on the topic, here’s my list of a few more things that are not amazing:
Parenting more than two children. I have a mere four, and I get the ‘wow how do you do it??’ thing even from other Catholics. (My answer: Not that well, frankly.) Er, hey guys, I’m a married lady. It’s a normal biological function.
Homeschooling. Especially when you do it as haphazardly as I do. Might not be your thing. But again: It is entirely normal for parents to be able to teach their own children. You know back all those centuries when married couples were still in the habit of procreating regularly? Most of them also trained their very own children to follow in whatever trade they practiced. Now I don’t know how to weave or spin or farm, but I can read and write pretty well. So it isn’t particularly amazing that I can teach my children to do the same.
Teaching 5th Grade CCD. Sordid truth: 5th graders are the best. The rest of you guys are missing out. Actually I’ve only had one person tell me this was amazing — and that one person was someone who possesses a number of talents I only dream of. So her comment wasn’t really about anything being ‘amazing’ so much as recognition that we all have different skills and preferences.
–> I don’t suppose there’s anything really wrong with using the A-word loosely, to merely mean “you are able to do something well that many other people don’t do very well”. And certainly we shouldn’t lose sight of wonder of the every day world: flowers and children and birds and wideness of the sky are all amazing, when we are pulled out of our busy thinking and stop to consider them.
But back to my ditto, above. It is woefully patronizing to gush over non-achievements. If you’ve gotten into that habit, maybe not even realizing it, perhaps 2010 is the year for you to quit?
