Where We Start From: Hope from the Narthex of the Apocalypse

“Beware the autumn people…For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life…For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eyes? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles- breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.” – Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”

"We are bidden to 'put on Christ', to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want."

“To think creatively, to struggle with an opaque text or confounding idea, to seek connections between periods of history or disciplines of thought, and to search for the precise word or the right rhythm for a single sentence—these are human actions every bit as worthy as the wielding of a hammer, the manipulation of a surgical scalpel, or the making of a courtroom argument.”  ―  Roger Lundin ,  Beginning with the Word (Cultural Exegesis): Modern Literature and the Question of Belief

Ray Bradbury wrote many, many short stories, and several novels. From the Dust Returned is one of his "fix-up" novels, created by stitching together short stories that are loosely related, sometimes altering elements of the stories to make them fit better with each other. Despite its Frankenstein's-Monster origins, this is one of Bradbury's masterpieces, a five-star novel. The 2001 hardback edition is covered by a dust jacket with artwork done by Charles Addams, a friend of Bradbury's, and the father of The Addams Family. This illustration was included with "Homecoming," which was a stand-alone short story in Mademoiselle magazine in October, 1946, and is Chapter Nine in the novel. The beauty of this novel lies in the richness of the prose, the humanity of the non-human (but for one member) Elliott Family of rural Illinois, and the macabre and grim atmosphere that haunts each page. Elliott Family members include Cecy, an astral-projecti...

"It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen." -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

Russell Kirk, the great American man of letters, wrote mostly non-fiction, but he also wrote twenty-two superb, unsettling ghostly tales. I maintain a web site called Ghostly Kirk that is dedicated to these stories. Enjoy this site, but, better still, read the marvelous tales! Happy All Hallows Eve, All Hallows (Saints) Day, and All Souls Day. Russell Kirk (1918-1994)

"From first to last, the civilizations of Middle-earth, whether these be the warrior-societies of Rohan and Gondor or the peaceable farming and trading communities that make up the Shire, are built up through remembrance and custom. It is a modern mistake to think that great personalities can grow without being rooted in the rich soil of the past, in the memory of great deeds and in fidelity to promises made across the generations. Civilization is founded on covenants that cannot be broken without consequence. The great army of the dead will fight to regain its honor in the service of the King." The Power of the Ring: The Spiritual Vision Behind the Lord of the Rings , (p. 132) by Stratford Caldecott, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, NY, 2005 I cannot do the warmth, power, perception and beauty of Stratford Caldecott's (1953-2014) book justice with my words, so I have used some of his words.  Caldecott's journal Second Spring , and his blog Beauty f...

Jackson the Cat with some pumpkins grown by my uncle and aunt All Hallows' Eve approaches...the perfect season for ghostly reading to stimulate the moral imagination...and to scare yourself. Here are some literary recommendations: 1. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving The atmosphere of this tale is perfect. I've read it many times, and no longer feel very sorry for the vain Ichabod Crane. 2. The ghostly tales of Russell Kirk These are my favorite ghostly tales. After reading them, you will never look at life, or death, or the afterlife, in quite the same way again. Audio links here and here . 3. The ghostly tales of M.R. James The greatest English writer of ghostly tales. You will be scared out of your wits. Happy Hallowe'en!

Where Love Is, There God Is Also (Leo Tolstoy, compiled by Lawrence Jordan, Fleming H. Revell, 2001, 93 pages, cloth), serves as a powerful introduction to Leo Tolstoy’s (1828-1910) gospel-based short stories for those familiar with his earlier works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and his wider array of short stories with a secular focus, as well as for those whose literary wanderings exclude the great Russian. The book contains three short stories, “Where Love Is, There God Is Also,” “The Three Hermits,” and “What Men Live By,” each written by Tolstoy after he had renounced his earlier works as “products of an idle brain.” These stories give us an understanding of the practicality of Christ’s teachings for daily living. They remind us, through direct confrontation with Tolstoy’s brutally honest prose, that to be faithful to Jesus Christ we must move beyond mere mental and verbal assent to His teachings into the realm of assent and practice, of faith and works. This key but oft-negl...