Harry Potter's Lenten Retreat

I'm in charge of the Book Club this Lent. Jenna is starting a new job (congratulations!) and Christie has made the Big Move to the Wales-that-is-not-in-Maine (double congratulations!!), and I am sitting through another snow-storm (12-18 inches predicted. No congratulations in order). That means I have the time and the inclination to head things up this season, they don't. But hopefully they will have the time to jump in! Because we're talking about love. This Lent is sort of all wrapped up in love for me this year, as I work on being more loving to those around me, to myself, and especially to God (who is all good, and worthy of all my love..that's right, I just went to confession ;) ). 

There's an abundance of love (and love-seeming-emotions) in Harry Potter. There are good and beautiful loves, there are less than ideal loves, and then there are manipulations-disguised as love..we're going to try to talk about all of them. But not all at once.. Today we're just going to start at the beginning. 

The Rules

     We're not going to be absolutely careful in this discussion, but we are going to try very hard to keep the discussion to the first 3 books. But a few spoilers here and there are just fine. Just avoid focusing on all the love-y stuff from beyond book 3.

    Anyone can feel free to join in by linking a blog and/or commenting on any of the posts linked-in to the discussion. We'd love a big, happy argument about how much love Dumbledore actually shows Harry (cough, not much, cough)..or whether or not it is actually possible to create a human-being who has never and could never love another..and we'll probably get all teary-eyed together over Lily's sacrifice (yes, even me). 

     To make it easier on myself, we'll divide the discussion into four semi-overlapping sections: Friendship, Familial, and Sacrificial love, as well as Un-love - a time to explore Voldemort, the Dursley's relationship to Harry, and any un-charities we've noticed.

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Friendship

    Friendship is, I think, the love Rowling is least comfortable with..it is the weakest portrayed in the series, the most often portrayed, the least inspiring of all the loves shown in the series. The primary friendship: Harry, Ron, and Hermione is a frustrating one for me. Harry and Ron are pretty consistently abandoning Hermione for all manner of petty reasons, Ron is - it seems, never really stops hating Harry for life in the limelight, and Harry has the sort of trust issues that can only come from an abusive childhood..but why do they never, ever go away - at least with his two closest friends?

   I know we don't like to assume too much about the author from her writing, but throughout the series, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Rowling. "She must not have any friends.." kept flashing through my mind. Because the trio aren't the only friends represented in the series, but they're probably the best shot at healthy, true friendships, and it's disappointing. So much simmering resentment. I look back at my own school-day friendships and I remember having friends like that: friends I liked (even loved), but didn't really trust, friends I knew would isolate me at the first mis-step..those weren't my closest friends. My dearest friends from school were the ones I trusted with my whole heart, the ones I know are still there for me, despite the miles, despite the spiritual distance, despite the paths we've taken that lead away from each other. There's still that core closeness..and maybe that closeness is there, somewhere deeply hidden in the trio. Buried behind back-biting, petty betrayals, and thoughtless cruelties, maybe there's the core of friendship. But if it's there, it seems like a sad, struggling thing - beset on all sides. 

   Still, if it is there - and I never see it reading the books, really, only in discussing them afterwards with enthusiastic people who can see it - it does raise the friendships in the series above where I saw them. I like to hope that maybe Rowling is trying to draw that aspect of friendship out. Reminding her readers again and again that love is something constant..something that 'bears all things..endures all things..[and] never fails.' 

What do you think, are her friendships true and beautiful. Are they Loving?

Lenten Icons

The Lamenting Virgin is an ideal companion for the season of Lent. She mourns as we do - but deeper, fuller. Her empty arms wrapped around the Son she longs so much to hold. The Mother mourns what cannot be - it is a loss of something she never really had - for who can hold all of God? Strange to think that once she did. Once she had a child, a tiny son who nestled in that lonely space, but the dreams and hopes that mothers share, of the sweet potentiality in each child, that she never really had. He was something else entirely: "I had only streams of milk or tears to offer, and you were ever so much more than me." Something un-holdable, something set apart. And I think she knew, even then, that her arms would always be both empty and full.

My pain has been perfected and fills me up...

You became great,

and then you burst the rims of my heart

as a smarting too stark. .

no longer can I give to you

birth.

(Rainer Maria Rilke. From The Life of the Virgin Mary) 

Meditations on the Tarot V: The Pope

"The ancient rites have lost their effectiveness since Christianity appeared in the world. The .. Catholic religion, in fact, is the legitimate daughter of Jesus, King of the Mages. A simple scapular worn by a truly Christian person is a more invincible talisman than the ring and pentacle of Solomon...Necromancers evoke the dead, the sorcerer evokes the devil and he shakes, but the Catholic priest does not tremble in evoking the living God."

The Pope is the card of Benediction. The magic of the God-Man made visible throughout time. And when I look at it I think of the Icons above my altar - their tiny blue light glowing in the darkness; little doors opening to the warmth of the Divine Will.

We are entering into a season of fasting now..and I tuck my written prayers behind the Saint best suited to tend to it: Paraskeva and the Theotokos sharing my beloved friends, St. Joseph nurturing the lonely and the dead, Anna keeps me from laying out the lovely cards beneath my books, and Nikolas works wonders for us and keeps the car from breaking down. Yarrow has given the coyotes to St. George, she worries about them - will they find their friends in the night?  And there is a creepy guy on the snow as well - haunting, wrapped in his own death, we've given him to Sts. Anthony, Patrick, and Elizabeth Ann Seton, he needs quite a few holy friends to keep from worrying us. The world is full of mysteries. Full of the unsettling dead and the dark, uncertain night. 

It is overwhelming to think that we walk on an earth that has drunk the fresh blood of Christ. That we drink it as well - is there anything, really, for us to fear? I worry less while fasting, there is the Icon of Christ in the Cup, reminding me with delight.."I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" and cannot be troubled by any man.

Harry Potter Book Club: Lent, Lies, and Penitence

Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday! This very Wednesday..it's sort of overwhelming. But my fellow bookclubbing girls and I want to do something special this season: Christie is moving to Wales (no, not Wales, ME - unfortunately; the real Wales) and Jenna is readjusting her life in pursuit of more knowledge - so we may not have as much time as ideally we would for consistent sections of analysis and discussion. What we do have though, is a passionate interest in the ideas behind those sections and the holy season itself. So we're going to (and correct me if I get this wrong girls) slow down (maybe pause, maybe not, depending on schedules and real life commitments) the consistent analysis during Lent and focus instead on the way Love itself is presented and defined in these first three books. Just these first three books, no skipping ahead! I want to talk about family love and friendship and charity and hope..I know Jenna and Christie have a book's worth of thoughts to share on the topic, and I'm looking forward to your reflections as well! Excited? I am!


So I'm not going to go too much deeper into Lupin's Fatherly role toward Harry right now, but I love the scene Jenna references in her post:

      Lupin manages what Snape never could have done: he makes Harry feel guilty for 
      breaking the rules. I'm not sure there's a more successful punishment in any of the 
      books than Lupin's few, well-chosen words here. It's quite a powerful little 
      scene—it manages to make me feel like I took a deserved kick to the stomach, 
     and I didn't go sneaking off to Hogsmeade.

Lupin does manage that, doesn't he? And you know, I think part of the reason is that, as much as he does have obvious affection for Harry, and as much as he does sort of step into that father-role with Harry, he doesn't really treat Harry as special. We actually see him in this book relating with other students in a similar, affectionate, personal way. Snape treats Harry as special (especially awful, true, but singled out), Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, even Trelawney single him out. The Dursley's singled him out for mistreatment, and even Molly Weasley singles him out for the lion's share of her nurturing. But Lupin - even while giving him the extra lessons he needs - doesn't really treat Harry as special. He treats him very much like he treats Neville: as a boy in need of some extra help, a student that he as a teacher is trying to guide and help. It's refreshing to me, and it must be refreshing to Harry as well. To see an adult that is neither hostile nor indulgent reprimand him..Thank you professor Lupin!

 

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And I wonder with Jenna "whether Snape knew who the mapmakers were. Obviously he didn't know what the map was, but did he recognize the names?" She guesses that even if he didn't recognize the names, the personalities that came through were easily discernible..and I have to agree..even if he wasn't certain, he must have suspected - and having someone easily available who did know must have made him even more frustrated.. Poor Snape, everyone has a breaking point! It must have been a stress-filled year for him all things together.

I'm also left feeling just a little badly for Malfoy. Not only does Harry win the match, not only does the fake dementor attack fail, not only does he lose 50 points in one afternoon, but he has to be the too-short guy, perched on his friend's shoulders and then knocked over by a huge, scary spell in front of the whole school! When you're in Slytherin, and you know everyone hates you anyway, it stings even more.

this one's for you, Jenna ;)

Pretty Girls Have Inner Beauty, Too!

I have a friend who is prettier than most. She's sort of exceptional-looking, dark hair and eyes, a taste for flattering clothes, musician's hands - but it's her skin that makes her stand out most of all. Her skin is nothing like my own; no sign of weather-damage or neglect, no blotchy-red response to sudden cold or heat. Instead it glows with just the right amount of inner-light, it seems forever well-tended, and looks softly made-up even freshly scrubbed clean. I covet the easy perfection of her skin; all the same, I've never wanted to look just like her, I'd rather look like myself - perfected.

Me..unperfected

My friend's beauty inspires me to try for my own best look. She reminds me, just by being herself, that caring for the whole body is a holy act. A way of blessing the people we love, ourselves, and the world around us. Because beauty is a gift meant to be shared.

Not everyone is interested in receiving that gift, however, and physical beauty has as many - or more - naysayers within the Church as architectural beauty. So many faithful Catholics want to leave behind the grand, rich, artful buildings and make their holy places streamlined, conference-centers housing a toned-down tabernacle; and many more - especially women - fight beauty in the bodily temple. They want to know why we bother with make-up at all, why we work to make our bodies living canvases for the Beauty of the Divine Love.

living canvas

 
It's not that I believe that people who are less than pretty are out of God's favor, or that the ridiculously good-looking are holy simply because of their looks. I don't insist on - or even necessarily encourage following the trends of the day - molding our bodies to the ever-shifting standards of perfection. What I do believe is that my body is a temple to the Holy Spirit, and that it is not enough to merely sweep the temple clean and wash the windows. The effort taken to dress and decorate the altar, to hang lights, and fill the walls with Icons and images is a holy effort - it glorifies God and gladdens His heart.

 I'm sad when I hear women denigrate someone like my lovely friend, calling into question her 'inner beauty' because she finds it worthwhile to nurture the outer beauty as well - not, as some would assume, to seduce or distract the husbands of other women, nor to make those women jealous and miserable; but to delight God with the care she gives his temple, to delight her husband and to live out the vow "with this body, I thee worship", and to make a fitting home for her own beautiful soul. Because, believing in our own inner-beauty requires us to let it show, doesn't it? Either with Byzantine Churches - the abundant old-style I prefer; or else in country chapels - white-washed and gleaming, but beautifully tended, however we house it. 

Meditations on The Tarot: The Emperor IV

 

"Freedom is the true throne of God and His cross at the same time. Freedom is the key to comprehension of the role of God in history..the God of Love and the God-King, without the sacrilege of making Him a tyrant and without the blasphemy of doubting His power.."

I like the Emperor in this card, he is a peaceful ruler - no sword, no retinue, just calm authority. He rules alone, like God..without needing the trappings of a court to give him power. Alone under the sky, we can see his authority - even unacknowledged, needs no force to defend it. He simply is The Emperor.."he has made a place in himself for the Divine Name" - and because of that self-established emptiness, he can receive authority. 

"Nature has a horror of emptiness..the spirit has a horror of fullness."

I think about this as I look at the things I would like my life to be full of..good things, beautiful things, a life full-to-brimming; where is the Spirit in such a life? Does He get lost among the crowd? Do I mistake Him for something else, something easily replaceable? It is better to have lonely places in my heart - little rooms that I would have filled with all the blessings of life; tiny beds to rest in as He waits for me to hear His voice.

(My dearest husband had an idea..He'll explain it below, I'm giving him occasional free-rein here to post the delicious drinks he makes for us at home all the time..I know I'm lucky, but you can say it again. Enjoy!)

           

            Welcome to the Bartender’s Corner; a place to indulge in completely nerd-inspired drinks and… well okay, that’s pretty much it. But isn’t that enough? I mean, what goes together better than fandom and alcohol?Anyway, enough with the excuses...

Starting off a long run of Firefly inspired cocktails we have the “Shiny”, an eminently drinkable mixture in honor of Kaylee and her “inter-engine fermentation device.” And strawberries. Everyone loves strawberries.

“Six gerstlers crammed under every cooling drive so that you strain your primary atery function and you end up having to recycle secondary exhaust through a bypass system just so's you don't end up pumpin' it through the main atmofeed and asphyxiating the entire crew. Now that's junk.”

                                                                                                                             -Kaywinnit Lee Frye

SHINY

Rose (does anyone know how to do that little accent thingy over the 'e'?) wine, chilled

Seltzer

4 or 5 strawberries

1 lime for zest and juice

Chop all but one of the berries into your glass; then toss in a pinch of lime zest and about 1/4 tablespoon of lime juice. 

With lime zest. I know you're not stupid, I just had so many pretty pictures...

 

Chopped berries.

Next, fill glass about half full of wine and add a splash or two of seltzer...

 ... garnish with the last berry and enjoy!

Yeah, I had no skewers available so I used an iced tea spoon - I suppose a wrench would also be appropriate.