Mr. Check @ #19 Mr. Davis's lifelong sympathy for Catholicism, as well as the support he received during his Time of Troubles from many Roman Catholic religious and clergy - including Pius IX - is well-known. Too bad he never had the opportunity to be exposed to Orthodoxy.

http://lent.goarch.org/forgiveness/learn/

Thank you for your kind words and good insights. I am proposing only a return to the somewhat more rigorous rules for fast and abstinence as they appeared in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, and as they were clarified in 1949, and before they were eased by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1966. You can find an excellent description of these in the front of the Roman Catholic Daily Missal printed by Angelus Press. I was born in 1966. I did not grow up with these observances, but, as I wrote in the piece, one of the (many) merits of them came into clearer focus for me after discussing Americanism on the radio with my friends at Catholic Answers.

I am a supporter of private mortifications. I have to commend my Opus Dei formation in this regard, because, like the Little Flower, Josemaria Escriva (and Francis de Sales before both of them) encouraged little sacrifices: getting out of bed when the alarm goes off, not leaving dishes in the sink at the end of the day, skipping desert, holding your peace, eating half of dinner, etc. I am not really an enthusiast for web-based "communities" but there is one in which husbands fast once a week for their marriages. Things like this are of great value in the economy of grace.

My point about the common practices, however, was the sense of Catholic solidarity they reinforce. There is this very sense in the Fr. Feeney essay, "Fish on Fridays," which is why I quoted it, his particular difficulties with the Holy See, notwithstanding.

Mr. Jacobi, if you come to our Summer School, I'll see if I can't scare up a Hershey bar for you, though I have the sense you appreciate some variety beyond that. In the meantime, take the money you are not spending on chocolate and send it to Chronicles!

Art,
I always assumed the tradition of sack cloth and ashes came from Jona and Nineveh. After the Incarnation,however, it was affirmed that it came earlier when the prophet said, "Take me forth and cast me into the sea, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." This is probably why humble individualism has never been nearly as popular in the world as the more rugged variety. Cheers

I. Is insensible to the finer things in life

II. Is innocent of anything more than intoxication's first chaste flirtations

As for individualism, I too agree that America has gone overboard on viewing themselves as individuals rather than people that make up the Body of Christ, the Church. But I think it is also inherent that humans make individual choices. Sometimes that choice will be to join a group in common sacrifice. At other times it may not be. St. Therese united her most mundane daily chores to the suffering of Christ. That's quite individualistic. So I don't think that merely being an individual is the problem. More to the point, it's NOT seeing ourselves as part of the Body of Christ (the Church). We are, indeed, both individuals and members of the Church. After all, God did give us individual souls with free will, and a universal Church in which to satisfy our desire to be with Him.

You'd better not tell her that Jefferson Davis wore a scapular!
(I suspect she already knows.)

In the preface to JEFFERSON DAVIS, UNCONQUERABLE HEART, Felicity Allen writes that it was Undset who encouraged Hudson Strode to write his (thee volume?) biography. Strode's version makes extensive use of previously unused correspondence (50,000 pieces by Allen's account). Undset developed an interest in Davis while she was living in America. I seem to think the Allen book was once reviewed in Chronicles, but I am not positive.

Professor Wilson, if he is following this thread, might lend his expertise.

I have written a very short reader review of the Catherine of Siena hagiography at Amazon. Please tell your admirable and noble friend that he can now buy you a copy!

http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Siena-Sigrid-Undset/product-reviews/1586174088/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Marking all the Orthodox fast days this year is especially eye-opening, since this is the earliest Pascha (Easter) will fall in our lifetimes - 22 March OS. The last time it was this early was in 1915. Because of the extremely early Easter, the Fast of the Holy Apostles will last 42 days - 18 May OS through 28 June OS! Of course, many Orthodox do not keep the fasts properly or at all, but, as your post implies, at least the ancient norms are still taught by the Church. Also, many DO keep the fasts. Last week, I buried a Romanian lady who, from childhood until she was into her late '70's kept the strict fast on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, eating only one lenten meal after three in the afternoon. She learned this from her parents, with whom she walked for six miles one way to go to church every Sunday. Some of us have known monks who literally lived on Holy Communion and water throughout Great Lent. "Where God so wills, the order of nature is overruled."

#9 Mr. Check

Some Romanians still live the life Andrew Lytle's essay celebrates, particularly in traditional villages in Moldavia which are still both agrarian and influenced heavily by the monastic ethos. I often threaten my wife with a plan to retire in Iasi, so that we can live within the vicinity of real people, and in a place that is really a place, as Walker Percy would say.

Re Sigrid Undset and St. Catherine of Siena: A touchingly zealous young ultramontane friend of mine threatens to give me this very biography, claiming that it will convert me to Catholicism. I doubt it; it does, however, sound like a wonderful book.

I seem to recall that Sigrid Undset was an admirer of Jefferson Davis. Does anyone know anything about this?