7QT {v. 12} - we happy few

-1
Finally, back to the blog. It's been a while - a much-needed hiatus, if you will. Every now and then it's a good idea to take some time and refresh your mind, your spirit. So, I thought, what a great day to return to blogging - St. Crispin's Day!

Also known as, An Excuse to Put Tom Hiddleston On My Blog Day

-2

At last, The Furlough has ended! Things can kind of go back to normal around here... It was a wake-up call to have the rug pulled out from under us like that; everything you depend on can be taken away just like that. Politics has always involved a certain amount of theatre (the Tudors, anyone?) but this was really too much. 

-3

Speaking of monsters, completely coincidentally, Ignatius Press is releasing a new edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula that coincides with the premiere tonight of NBC's "Dracula" series. Though I think this new series is more about sex than ancient pagan rituals, it's striking to me how obsessed with the occult and/or demonic our culture has become. Movies, books, TV shows, etc. - for a society that has decided religion is medieval hogwash, they are awfully obsessed with it.

Not your grandpa's Dracula...

-4

“The world, and men for whom His Son die, will not be given over to monsters … we go out as the old knights of the Cross.” -Van Helsing, Dracula

What's not included, notably, in many (if not all) of these depictions is any sign that the forces of good in this world stand a fighting chance against evil. Should we, as Christians, be dwelling on this as much as our culture is wont to do? Of course not. (“…there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men’s eyes.”)  But we do have a role to play. In this brief article on the new Ignatius edition, the author notes how Bram Stoker accords this vampire the exact right silliness he deserves, and the exact right seriousness. Maybe we have something to learn from this. Maybe we shouldn't get too cozy with this strange, uneasy alliance. What do you all think? Agree, disagree, confused?

-5

Is it just me or do you feel like Pope Francis is speaking right to you? Lately, reading reports of his daily homilies, I have been so convicted by his words. 

 "The royal road the Lord paved for us 'is not a path to poverty for poverty’s sake' but rather 'an instrument so that God might remain God and the only Lord of our lives."

"For idolatry is a form of impiety...What is lacking is the sense we all have within us to adore God ... we all need to adore, because we have God's very imprint within us” and “when we do not adore God, we adore creatures”

"To hear the voice of God in one’s life, one needs to open his heart to surprise. Otherwise, one can start 'fleeing from God."

-6

And one more amazing quote from another awesome pope:

via Cassie Pease Designs

-7
Fall is slowly fading into winter; you feel the new cold snapping at your skin in the air now. What I love (among other things) about these fall-winter months is finding a good, long book or two you can really sink your teeth into. I just picked up the much-hyped, Man Booker-nominated book, The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, because it was shiny and new in the library.

 + 

via pinterest

So far so good. But I'm think of finally tackling War and Peace or Middlemarch this winter, and finishing up an Austen novel. Has anyone read these before? What is your favorite curl-up-with-a-blanket-and-cocoa book for this season?