Happy Sunday, and welcome to Sunday Snippets, a papist post exchange wherein various bloggers of a Romish disposition swap links to their postings for the week past. You can find the main convocation here at This That and the Other Thing, home of Chief Snippeteer RAnn.
It was one of those weeks here at Principium et Finis wherein bloggery took a back seat to other concerns, although there were a few posts (more on that below). But first, I wanted to talk about a little jaunt we made last weekend, a late-summer (nearly fall) visit to the beach.
The high temperatures for the day didn’t get above the mid 60’s, so we
wore jackets and kept our shoes on, and just walked and enjoyed the views (no
selfies of my feet in the surf this time).
Most other beach-goers were dressed for the weather as we were, but a
few defiant souls were there in swimsuits, either stretched out on the beach or
even, in the case of the most intrepid souls, wading a little into the
water. One of my sons remarked that
there were two factions at the beach that day: those who were in denial and
those who were not.
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| September beach-wear in Maine |
Among the deniers
there was one young girl dressed in a swimsuit, maybe twelve years old, who was
venturing into the surf . . . holding a smart phone in her hand. It was a most incongruous image. Twenty minutes later I saw her again, a
little further down the beach, still clutching her little electronic
gadget. I suppose I shouldn’t have been
surprised: I’ve seen the videos of people walking into walls, fountains, etc.,
in public places with their eyes glued to little screens, I’ve seen with my own
eyes my fellow motorists going down the highway at 70 miles per hour with their
eyes down and their thumbs bouncing off their devices, and I’ve heard about the
often fatal accidents caused by such people.
I couldn't help but think of that poor techno-crazed girl when I read this article [here] in Catholic World Report about "Casualities of the Device Age". The author, Thomas Doran, explains that, while the little gadgets have many useful aspects, the widespread addiction to them contributes "to a decline in the ability to reason, contemplation, and self-discipline." Having taught high school students for twenty-eight years, I can testify to the truth of Doran's observations. I would also add that enslavement to these little electronic tyrants, because they try to fill the void in our heart that only God can fill (as do all addictions), draws us away from the Lord. A few months ago I posted a meditation [here] in which I discussed the vastness of the sea as an image of God's infinite love. How very sad that the girl at the beach couldn't leave behind the instrument of her spiritual servitude even for the infinite embrace of the ocean; what a sobering image of our modern predicament.
Hmmm, perhaps you are saying, did he do anything last week but visit the seashore? Well, a few things. For instance:
Monday - The curious relationship between joy and suffering: "Our Lady of Sorrows & the Mystery of Suffering" [here]
Tuesday - Another mystery, the Mystery of Beauty, as experienced through "Palestrina's 'Stabat Mater' and Michelangelo's Florentine Pieta" [here]
Thursday - In a Throwback from March I muse upon the pitfalls and dangers one finds in trying to apply an ancient Christian maxim, as seen in the Curious Case of Michael Coren: "Easier Said Than Done: Hating The Sin, LovingThe Sinner" [here]
I couldn't help but think of that poor techno-crazed girl when I read this article [here] in Catholic World Report about "Casualities of the Device Age". The author, Thomas Doran, explains that, while the little gadgets have many useful aspects, the widespread addiction to them contributes "to a decline in the ability to reason, contemplation, and self-discipline." Having taught high school students for twenty-eight years, I can testify to the truth of Doran's observations. I would also add that enslavement to these little electronic tyrants, because they try to fill the void in our heart that only God can fill (as do all addictions), draws us away from the Lord. A few months ago I posted a meditation [here] in which I discussed the vastness of the sea as an image of God's infinite love. How very sad that the girl at the beach couldn't leave behind the instrument of her spiritual servitude even for the infinite embrace of the ocean; what a sobering image of our modern predicament.
Hmmm, perhaps you are saying, did he do anything last week but visit the seashore? Well, a few things. For instance:
Monday - The curious relationship between joy and suffering: "Our Lady of Sorrows & the Mystery of Suffering" [here]
Tuesday - Another mystery, the Mystery of Beauty, as experienced through "Palestrina's 'Stabat Mater' and Michelangelo's Florentine Pieta" [here]
Thursday - In a Throwback from March I muse upon the pitfalls and dangers one finds in trying to apply an ancient Christian maxim, as seen in the Curious Case of Michael Coren: "Easier Said Than Done: Hating The Sin, LovingThe Sinner" [here]
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