Friday Goodie Bag... On Monday!
"Where is the horse and the rider?"
“For he was a gentle heart and a great king and kept his oaths; and he rose out of the shadows to a last fair morning.”
I think we should pause a moment and pay tribute. The English actor, Bernard Hill, age 79, died this weekend.
For one role he was loved by millions. He brought King Theoden, lord of the Riddermark, to warm life in a performance that will be remembered and honoured for a long time.
I have no idea what kind of man he was personally, and don’t really think it’s my business. But we can be grateful for this extraordinary work.
Requiescat in pace.
We’re having our Friday Goodie Bag post today because I’ve got some goodies that we had to wait until the end of Friday to get. Then the weekend was full of visitors, and… well…
A lot has been going on in the house, with a large number of guests coming and going, and it’s been difficult to carve out a block of time in front of the screen… rather a reversal of trends, and a welcome one.
But we’re back, and there’s some fun stuff above and below the fold.
Why am I doing this?
Someone on Substack Notes asked, “What is your ‘why?’ Why do you write? Why did you start a Substack?” and it’s something I’ve been kind of thinking about lately. I didn’t actually plan this to be the thing when I started the site back in April 2021. I didn’t really have a plan at all. It just sort of happened, and it’s growing on me so much that, for my side of things, it’s become a major part of a larger spiritual quest.
This makes 20 years since I’ve been writing a blog, one way or another. I’ve been blogging, either personal or political, for as long as blogging has been a thing, since 2004. But in 2015 I walked away from journalism, and then finally from politics and punditry entirely; I shut down my pope blog and didn’t intend to come back. When I started this Substack I didn’t really have an idea what it was going to be about; I think I did it mostly force of habit. I wrote things that were on my mind for a small audience of mainly friends, old colleagues I wanted to keep in touch with, and family.
But as I continued my own studies in Christian sacred art, and it started to grow to fill my own internal gaze, I started to notice that a lot of people seemed to know very little/nothing - as I did - and were very eager to learn what I was studying, so it finally just sort of coalesced, and since November 2023 I’ve oriented the site to be a go-to place online for Latin rite Catholics wanting to fill this particular cultural and spiritual gap.
Like a lot of people I’ve struggled a great deal with the direction and difficulties we are facing as a civilisation and especially in the Church. There are times when it seems overwhelming and hopeless, pointless and meaningless. Especially when we learn that the things we thought were true are not, in fact, true; things are not “turning around;” a new “conservative” pope is not going to save us; whatever is the true origin and reason for this ongoing crucifixion of the Church and however it is going to end, we will have no quick or easy fix, no turning things around through any of the available natural means.
No “Eucharistic revival” by the barely-believing bishops, no campaign for catechesis, no movements or enclaves or official Bright Ideas are going to save us. Activism is dead - smothered in the same suffocating bureaucracy that is killing the whole body. We have simply forgotten who we are, and gone wandering off with all memory erased into the trackless, waterless wilderness, each more alone than the people abandoning the Tower of Babel. Nothing will bring us back but the Shepherd Himself.
Meanwhile, what can we who do remember, at least a little, really do? Everyone has different roles, of course. But mostly I think in this strange time when catastrophic change feels just around the corner, but nothing much is happening right now, we wait. We, who are not bishops or voting cardinals, not popes or presidents: we sit tight, and remember and hold on. We gather together and bolster each other as much as we can in whatever small ways it’s possible. I’m glad I am in a position now to be able to help others keep calm and remember. It might be saving my soul.
Feast of San Giovenale, Narni
The main reason we didn’t have this post on Friday was that I was attending our town’s festa. In the little Umbrian town where I live, we are in the middle of our annual Festa of San Giovenale, (Juvenal) our patron saint and 1st Christian bishop, of the 4th century.
From the end of April to the second Sunday in May, it’s two weeks of medieval food, events, poetry, dancing, plays, crafts, sword fighting, archery, drumming and trumpeting, processions and pageantry.
My friends and I attended an event on Friday afternoon, a preliminary contest to the famous “Race of the Ring,” set for May 12th this year. Riders, who are all locals and train all year, compete by galloping their horses down a short course set up in the main piazza. The goal is to catch on the tip of their lance an iron ring held onto the end of a rope with a magnet. With each round, the ring is replaced with a smaller version, going from 10cm (about 4 inches) diameter to just three cm.
Below the fold today I’m offering paid subscribers the small collection of videos I took of this magnificent event, as well as some of the clips I was able to get of our evening in the 13th century tavern, entertained by some travelling minstrels. Lots of fun clips below. Subscribe to join us.
The other side of the Last Judgment
Two years ago, on a day trip to Florence, I was able to visit for the first time the Museum of San Marco, the Dominican convent where Giovanni da Fiesole lived, the monk and Blessed known to history as Fra Angelico. I discovered there a small but extraordinary painting of the last Judgment that continues to occupy my mind with its vivid depictions of both the damned being sent to hell, and the blessed souls dancing in a lovely garden on their way to eternal bliss.
The only post I was able to get done last week was about this painting and one aspect that surprised me: Eating yourself; what medieval art can tell us about hell and the people in it. But of course, the subject is a bit gruesome and I thought to balance things out, we might like to see some of my close-up shots of the other side of things.
And finally drawn up together in a great procession of joy in through the gates…
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