All in Tea With...
When I taught New Testament at a Catholic high school, I unconsciously created a memory regarding the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10. I united my love of literature with love of scripture by referring to Zacchaeus as “the hobbit of the New Testament”. Students chuckled at this provisional quip. The former tax collector was described as a short man who needed to climb a tree to view Jesus’ arrival in his town. J.R.R. Tolkien once described his creations as,
Music is powerful. Something inherently in music provides peace and joy amidst stress and turmoil. At least that is the experience I have when listening to music. There exists a certain universal quality to music that draws all mankind together. Below I will provide examples from literature and the tradition of Catholic Church to show evidence of music’s capacity to unite people through its creative power.
A Grief Observed knocked me over in the best way possible. It felt like someone running up and tackling you with a giant bear hug, if that makes sense. Although Lewis was writing about the death of his wife and I was (and still am) mourning the loss of my sweet baby, our experiences are similar in so many ways.
Flannery O’Connor is one of the most well-known Catholic writers, and novelists of any stripes, of the 20th century. She wrote pieces about broken people living in a broken world and the effects of grace on their lives. Sometimes her writings are labeled “too grotesque”–– and certainly they are. How else would you describe a serial killer slaughtering a family one by one–– mother, father, children, grandmother? There are many such instances in her writings.
You're probably wondering what an emo album from 2006 and a virgin martyr from the early Christian Church have to do with one another. Though their stories are set nearly two-thousands years and philosophical worlds apart, Saint Lucy and the My Chemical Romance album, The Black Parade, both speak to the power of commitment, perseverance, and a heart on fire for their beliefs.
