Skimming the Cream of Augustine

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St. Augustine’s (whose name is pronounced either a-GUS-tin or AW-gus-teen – in my experience the academy goes with the former) Confessions are on every Great Books list that exists.  And for good reason.  Who am I to review the great saint’s work?  I’d rather offer you portions that will make you hungry for more:

The thought of you [God] stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.  p. 21

My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I pray you to enlarge it.  It is in ruins, but I ask you to remake it.   p. 24

This clearly shows that we learn better in a free spirit of curiosity than under fear and compulsion.  p.35

The brambles of lust grew high above my head and there was no one to root them out, certainly not my father. p. 45

Sloth poses as the love of peace: yet what certain peace is there besides the Lord?  p.50

You follow close behind the fugitive..  p.75

We [friends] could talk and laugh together and exchange small acts of kindness.  We could join in the pleasure that books can give.  We could be grave or gay together.  If we sometimes disagreed, it was without spite, as a man might differ with himself, and the rare occasions of dispute were the very spice to season our usual accord.  Each of us had something to learn from the others and something to teach in return.  If any were away, we missed them with regret and gladly welcomed them when they came home. Such things as these are heartfelt tokens of affection between friends.  They are signs to be read on the face and in the eyes, spoken by the tongue and displayed in countless acts of kindness.  They can kindle a blaze to melt our hearts and weld them into one.  p. 79

…opinions, like so many puffs of wind that waft the soul hither and thither and make it veer and turn. p.85

Sins of self-indulgence are committed when the soul fails to govern the impulses from which it derives bodily pleasure.  p.86

…exhausted by the canker of anxiety...   p.158

You saw how deep I was sunk in death, and it was your power that drained dry the well of corruption in the depths of my heart.   p.181

The tears flowed from me when i heard your hymns and canticles, for the sweet singing of your Church moved me deeply.  The music surged in my ears, truth seeped into my heart, and my feelings of devotion overflowed, so taht the tears streamed down.  But they were tears of gladness.  p.190

I posted a few more quotes earlier this week in my post Eating with Augustine. 

Oh, do read Augustine. He is readable.  He is remarkable.  He is real.

Fine Art Friday/Turning Pages

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cover

and, finally, a detailled view:

This dovetails with our reading of Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.  My youngest son enjoys bringing his dad up to speed with our reading during the dinner hour.  We both enjoy listening to his retelling of Bede’s stories.  

Look what I found!!!  This is HUGE!

The British Library’s feature Turning the Pages        

It took about five minutes to download and now we have access to all kinds of rare documents.  I looked through the Lindisfarne Gospels and Jane Austen’s juvenile History of England.  Also available are Leonardo daVinci’s notebook, Mozart’s musical diary, the original Alice in Wonderland.  More works will be added. It is really unspeakably marvellous to be able to see these pieces like this on your computer screen.

 Oh, I am sooooo happy that we now have DSL.  This is a treasure trove of exploration.  

The King of Love My Shepherd Is

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It’s peculiar, I know, but I’m fascinated with funeral music.  I’ve been collecting selections for my own funeral for decades, beginning with my all time favorite: For All the Saints, by Vaughn Williams. After Ronald Reagan’s service  I watched We Were Soldiers simply to hear the striking, majestic music in the recessional. I was saddened, indeed, when the paper came Tuesday and I realized that we had missed President Ford’s service. 

We watched excerpts of the Washington Cathedral service Tuesday, pointing to people we recognized and remembering the political world of our high school days.  I appreciated Tom Brokaw’s eulogy, how he mused on football as a metaphor for life. My heart lurched when Susan Ford Bales read from the book of James, her voice on the edge of control.  But on the whole, we missed all the good music. 

I started sniffing around the internet and found the program for the service.  I love organ music and would like to collect more this year.  I’m printing out the prelude and hunting down these pieces on Amazon to listen to parts. Marcel Dupré is a new composer to me, but I surely like what I’ve heard thus far. 

Minnesota Public Radio has limited coverage of the funeral.  If you are in for an exquisite, absolutely fabulous musical experience do this:  Download the state funeral (takes less than a minute) and move the clip position to 42:45 so you can hear The King of Love My Shepherd Is.

The best way to listen to this is to open a new tab and follow along with the words on the program.  The organ accompanies the singers the first two verses and then drops out as they sing Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed.  The minimal, etherial harmonies on the next verse match the words In death’s dark vale perfectly. 

The organ re-enters with the last verse in a triumphal reharmonization.  Goosebumps!  Major goosebumps! 

It doesn’t get any better, musically speaking, this side of paradise. 

Runaway Bunny and Brahms

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One of the joys of looking and listening is discovering obscure connections. 

I’m listening to a Teaching Company course on Johannes Brahms.  I can’t say enough wonderful things about Professor Robert Greenberg’s music courses.  Greenberg teaches in such a lively, entertaining manner that his subjects breath and pulse and truly come alive. 

Brahm’s Quartet for Four Voices and piano, Op. 31, No. 2, Teasing, based on the poem Teasing by Josef Wenzig has the men singing several lines followed by the women’s response.  Here are the lyrics:

 It's true, my dear, I am now courting,
 and I will establish you as my wife;
 you will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.
 
 "Then I'll become a dove with a white form -
 I will fly from you, fly into the wood,
 and so I may not be yours, may not be yours:
 that hour will never come."
 
 I have a flintlock that can fire quickly -
 I'll shoot the dove down in the wood;
 You will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.
 
 "Then I'll become a little fish, a golden fish -
 I'll spring into the fresh water;
 and so I may not be yours, may not be yours:
 that hour will never come."
 
 I have however a net that fishes very well;
 I will catch me this golden fish in the water.
 You will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.
 
 "Then I'll become a hare, full of swiftness -
 and run in the fields, the broad fields.
 and so I may not be yours, may not be yours:
 that hour will never come."
 
 I have however a hound that's smart and fine;
 he'll catch me that hare in the fields.
 You will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.

Are you a Margaret Wise Brown fan? (If not, you should be!)  Do you recognize The Runaway Bunny?

Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away.
So he said to his mother, “I am running away.”
“If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you.
For you are my little bunny.”

“If you run after me,” said the little bunny,
“I will become a fish in a trout stream
and I will swim away from you.”

“If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother,
“I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”

The book continues in the same vein.  It’s a delightful book to read aloud to a young child, making the little bunny’s voice high and squeaky and the mother’s voice calm and low. It captures the pull and push of budding independence and the security of a mother’s love.  I sure like the theme much better in the context of a mother’s love than as talk between a man and a woman.  

Who knew that you would find a German Lieder in classic children’s literature?  Isn’t that just plain fun?

Eating with Augustine

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There can be no hope for me except in your great mercy.  Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!  You command us to control our bodily desires.  And, as we are told, when I knew that no man can be master of himself, except of God’s bounty, I was wise enough already to know whence the gift came. [quote from Apocrypha – Wisdom 8:21]  Truly it is by continence [moderation] that we are made as one and regain than unity of self which we lost by falling apart in the search for a variety of pleasures. (p.233)

For the process itself [eating] is a pleasure and there is no other means of satisfying hunger except the one which we are obliged to take.  And although the purpose of eating and drinking is to preserve health, in its train there follows an ominous kind of enjoyment, which often tries to outstrip it, so that it is really for the sake of pleasure that I do what I claim to do and mean to do for the sake of my health.  Moreover, health and enjoyment have not the same requirements, for what is sufficient for health is not enough for enjoyment, and it is often hard to tell whether the body, which must be cared for, requires further nourishment, or whether we are being deceived by the allurements of greed demanding to be gratified.  My unhappy soul welcomes this uncertainty, using it to vindicate and excuse itself. (p.235)

Every day I try my hardest to resist these temptations.  I call for your helping hand and tell you of my difficulties, because this is a problem which I have not yet resolved. … Drunkenness is far from me. By your grace may you prevent it from coming hear! But there have been times when overeating has stolen upon your servant.  By your mercy may you keep it far from me!

Give me strength, O Lord, so that I may do all things.  Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!

How do you respond to these quotes?  Do you agree that we are hopeless without God’s mercy?  Is enjoyment of food ominous?  Is it wrong to eat for any other reason than to preserve health?  Does his struggle strike a chord with you?

I find Augustine’s grasp of the heart issues involved with overeating very helpful.  Dependence on God’s mercy, grace and strength is essential to controlling bodily desires.  The second quote reminds me of the maxim “Do you eat to live or live to eat?”  While I don’t view enjoyment of food as a menace, I know that the enjoyment factor is often the reason why overeating has stolen upon this servant. 

I would love to come to a place where I eat in moderation six days a week (it is work in my mind – you know, being moderate) and feast on the Lord’s Day, celebrating His deliverance. 

There is a lot to process in these words of Augustine.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.
   


Most Exciting Game – Ever!

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The first football game I watched this season was the Fiesta Bowl last night. I’m convinced that it is The Best football game I’ll ever see.  Boise State (the good guys) beat Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime.  Writers will be scrambling for adjectives to describe the range of emotions both teams experienced during the four hours of drama.  21 points were scored in the last 86 seconds of regulation play!!  You can read a recap here.  After the daring and dramatic two-point conversion, using a trick play, Boise State remained undefeated.  Their QB grew up 1 1/2 hours away from our home, so there is some euphoria over a local boy turned hero. 

The player who ran in the winning play, Ian Johnson, was being interviewed immediately after the game. A cheerleader was nestled under his arm, grinning and looking at the camera.  My daughter-in-law looked at me and asked what I had been wondering, “Do you think that’s his girlfriend or just some cheerleader who wants more air time?”   Next thing, as the nation is focused on him, he takes a knee and asks her to marry him!!  “Uh, I can’t be sure, but it looks like she’s his girlfriend,” I replied. 

So ends my sports blog. Tomorrow: Diet advice from St. Augustine.

New Year’s Eve Connections & Better Posture

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We departed from the usual home-with-a-DVD style and celebrated New Year’s Eve at a party.  This morning my husband told me that we were the oldest ones there.  !!!!!  My, my, my.  We joined several families and took over a lovely restaurant which is closed during the winter season.   A local young man invited a score of  NSA (New Saint Andrews) students and grads to join in the festivities.  Musicians, good ones, abounded and we had a great time of listening and singing, chatting, and game playing.  Nourishing soups and crusty breads took the chill off the evening.

I met a young lady whose father is famous.  Instead of the potentially wearisome question, “Are you so and so’s daughter?” I delighted in mentioning ever-so-casually, “Your aunt is my friend.”  Her jaw dropped.  It was the niece of  Dana at Hidden Art.   Now, I’m easily amused; but this is the closest I’ve gotten to meeting one of my online friends in real life (is IRL an acronym?).  I know, a niece in Oregon in not the same as the aunt in Georgia.  But it was a delightful connection and it was fun to be fans together of a lovely lady who, in my mind, is the hallmark of the modern gracious southern lady. 

One of my resolutions this year is to improve my posture.  Slumping is so unattractive; I tend to slump, especially at the computer.  I recently learned a great tip from an intern choir director.  Lift both hands straight above your head.  Lower your arms but keep your shoulders and chest in the same position.  It is a great posture refresher.  A dear lady named Precious, who employed me to clean her house when I was in the 8th grade, used to admonish me, “Look at the third story, Carol!  Keep your shoulders back and your chin up.”  Can you recommend any other exercises for good posture?

The Old Year Now Away Is Fled

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Sung to the tune of Greensleeves, author unknown

The old year now away is fled, the new year now is entered;
Then let us now our sins downtread, and joyfully all appear.
Merry be the holiday, and let us run with sport and play,
Hang sorrow, cast care away, God send you a Happy New Year!

And now with New Year’s gifts each friend unto each other they do send;
God grant we may our lives amend, and that the truth may appear.
Like the snake cast off your skin of evil thoughts and wicked sin,
To amend this new year begin, God send us a Merry New Year!

Meaning to Read More

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Sophia Kramskaya Reading, 1863 by Ivan Nikolayevich Karmskoy

A humorous quote on reading lists from Emma by Jane Austen

  Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old.  I have seen a great many lists of the drawing-up, at various times, of books that she meant to read regularly through–and very good lists they were, very well chosen, and very neatly arranged–sometimes alphabetically, and sometimes by some other rule.  The list she drew up when only fourteen–I remember thinking it did her judgment so much credit, that I preserved it for some time, and I dare say she may have made out a very good list now.  But I have done expecting any course of steady reading from Emma.  She will never submit to anything requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.

[Added later: the blue titles are finished, the green ones are in progress.]

CAROL’S 2007 MASTER READING LIST

CURRICULUM reading:

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede
Beowulf
The Song of Roland
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated J.R.R. Tolkien
The Divine Comedy, Dante
Ascent to Love, Peter Leithart
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare
Richard III, Shakespeare
Top 500 Poems, William Harmon ed.  (read one aloud daily)
Going Somewhere, George Grant
From Playpen to Podium, Jeffrey Myers
A Natural History of Latin, Tore Janson
Study is Hard Work, William Armstrong

CHALLENGE reading

The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis
Civilization of the Middle Ages, Norman Cantor
Autumn of the Middle Ages, Johan Huizinga
book by Charles Williams, undecided which one

CULTIVATING reading

Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter
Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin (the first book this year)
The Reformation in England, J.H. Merle d’Aubingné
Breathe, Keri Wyatt Kent
The Excellent Wife, Martha Peace

COMFORT AND JOY

Miniatures & Morals, Peter Leithart
Emma, Jane Austen
Doctor Thorne, Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens
A Short Day Dying, Peter Hobbs
The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh
The Memory of Old Jack, Wendell Berry
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry
A Place on Earth, Wendell Berry
That Distant Land, Wendell Berry
Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset
Phantastes, George MacDonald
Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences, Ursula K. LeGuin
Isaac and his Devils, Fernanda Eberstadt

CREATIVITY

The Mind of the Maker, Dorothy Sayers
On the Art of Writing, Arthur Quiller-Couch
Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendelson
A Good Year, Peter Mayle
A Year in the World, Frances Mayes
A Short History of Art, Janson and Janson
Good Poems for Hard Times, selected by Garrison Keillor

CURIOSITY

Kepler’s Witch, James Connor
Mornings on Horseback, David McCullough
Scarlet Music, Joan Ohanneson
The Mendelssohns, Herbert Kupfeberg
Life of John Calvin, Theodore Beza
God’s Secretaries, Adam Nicolson
Life is So Good, George Dawson
Racing Through Paradise, William F. Buckley, Jr.
Sailing Alone Around the World, Captain Joshua Slocum

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The Phoenix and the Carpet, E. Nesbit
Mr. Standfast, John Buchan
The Black Arrow, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
Mimosa, Amy Carmichael
Beorn the Proud, Madeleine Polland
Warrior Scarlet, Rosemary Sutcliff
Outcast, Rosemary Sutcliff
The Silver Branch, Rosemary Sutcliff
The Road of Camlann, Rosemary Sutcliff
The Hound of Ulster, Rosemary Sutcliff
The River Between Us, Richard Peck
Words By Heart, Ouida Sebestyen
Squalls Before War, Ned Bustard

Each year I like to read a book by Austen, Dickens, C.S. Lewis and David McCullough.  Add to that list Anthony Trollope and Wendell Berry.  I wish there was a G.K. Chesterton included on this list, but I don’t think I’m up to reading Calvin’s Institutes and Orthodoxy in the same year.  I have a book of Chesterton’s essays that I can dip into to assuage my GKC thirst.  Rosemary Sutcliff is one of my favorite children’s writers – I’m excited to plan to read five of her books this year.

I want to thank Janie at Seasonal Soundings for the inspiration to be more intentional in my reading.  There is something accountable, shall we say, about putting into print your intentions.  Like dear Emma, I’ve always been meaning to read more.

Do you have a book you’d recommend?  The list can be amended, don’t you know…..

A Bookish Life

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I’m quite excited about A Natural History of Latin.  It seems an essential book for a homeschool parent wanting to know more about Latin.  The intended audience is those not familiar with Latin; it’s very accessible. I’ll read more soon and give y’all some quotes.

The upright book to the left is Andrée Seu’s latest book, Normal Kingdom Business.  If you’ve read her incredible writing in World magazine, you will enjoy Mindy Withrow’s interview of Andrée here.  The upright book to the right is an unparalleled delight, Quotable Quotes,The Book Lover.  At the lower bottom is Cordelia Underwood by Van Reid.  If ever there was a modern day Charles Dickens with more humor than pathos, it would be Van Reid.  I consider him one of the best kept secrets in modern fiction.  The two oversized books, Italy, A Beautiful Cookbook and France, A Beautiful Cookbook are part of the “Beautiful Cookbook” series put out by Borders.  These books are just stunning.  I must show you more:

My husband is just like Alsace-Lorraine: solid, rugged, joyful!
 

There’s a good selection of Wendell Berry and Anthony Trollope.  Scarlet Music is a historical novel about Hildegard of Blingen.  George Grant wrote one line about Isaac and His Devils and that was incentive enough for me to order it! Tucked next to Wendell Berry is Dorothy Sayer’s The Mind of the Maker. Out in front is Kristin Lanvansdatter, George MacDonald’s Phantastes and two Dover books full of quotations.  

The photo of my grandson Gavin deserves a close-up don’t ya think?  It was a Christmas gift from my dear friend Katie.

These are garage sale bargains.  My daughter in-law spied them, nudged me and pointed.  There was no price indicated.  I asked the owner and tears came to her eyes.  “If you would like them, you can have them. None of my children wants them.”  I gave her a token bill and took them. The blue set is the works of Dumas; the green set is Dickens.  They aren’t the complete works but the type is readable and large enough for my eyes.

Finally, discoveries from our small, rural, local library.  An unabridged reading of Jane Austen’s Emma on CD. And a lovely book discovered while walking the stacks.  I’m a sucker for any book that begins with “Oxford Book of”.  The Oxford Book of Ages is a collection of quotes for all the ages of our life.  It would be a marvelous resource to have close by when you are sending birthday greetings.  

I’m ready to start putting together my reading list for 2007 which I’ll post in the next few days.

I’d rather be shut up in a very modest cottage,
with my books,
my family and a few old friends,
dining on simple bacon,
and letting the world roll on as it liked,
than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.  
Thomas Jefferson