Today we return to counting the ordinal
numbers of Ordinary Time.“Ordinary Time”
refers to the ordinal numbers by which we count the Sundays and weeks.Today is the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
in Year A.It always seems baffling the
Sunday in which we return to counting.How
did we get to eleven?The Sunday before
Ash Wednesday was the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.Then we had the Lent and Easter seasons.Pentecost I think concludes the Easter Season.Then we had the Solemnities of the Holy
Trinity and of Corpus Christi. Both are Solemnities but both count toward the
Sundays of Ordinary Time.So that makes
seven and eight.Why are we at
eleven?I’m not going to look it up.It will remain a mystery.
In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus call the
twelve apostles and send them out.In
the first line of today’s Gospel, Jesus’s “heart was moved with pity” for the
crowds.Given that that this Friday was
the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that line really stands out.Some translations say His heart was moved to “compassion.”The pastoral homily below will take up Jesus’s
emotions, but Gina Hens-Piazza points out in her Spiritual Reflections for this
Sunday, Jesus is moved to compassion five times in the Gospel of Matthew: here
(9:36), 14:14, 15:32, 18:27, and 20:34.Gina
draws this conclusion:
Compassion is more than a feeling. It manifests as an embodied
experience. The word refers to a deep, visceral, sometimes “gut wrenching”
empathy that moves one to act on behalf of another.It requires our vulnerability before another
so that we can be gifted with what psychologist and theologian Jean Houston
once called “leaky margins,” points of interpersonal overlap that allow us to
connect with someone in need, just as Jesus did. With this capacity to share in
ourselves what is experienced by another, we become radically present to
others. That connectedness prompts courage to well up in us, inspiring us to
act.
Indeed, the etymological meaning of
compassion is “a suffering with another.”
Today’s Gospel:
At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because
they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the
laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his
harvest.”
Then he summoned his twelve
disciples
and gave them authority over unclean
spirits
to drive them out and to cure every
disease and every illness.
The names of the twelve apostles are
these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his
brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his
brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and
Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and
Thaddeus;
Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed him.
Jesus sent out these twelve after
instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or
enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
~Mt: 9:36-10:8
Fr. Christopher Gama of the Franciscan Capuchin Friars in their A Simple
Word channel provides an insightful homily.
Fr. Christopher:
Jesus is surrounded
by the crowds. Everywhere he goes, people are bringing him their sickness,
their fears, their struggles, their hopes.They're bombarding him with all of their needs. Then St. Matthew tells
us something remarkable.He says,
"At the sight of the crowds, Jesus's heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd."
And it's important, I
think, to notice what Jesus doesn't first see. He doesn't first see their sins
or their failures or their worthiness or even their problems. He doesn't see
their condition, right? He sees that they're weary, that they're lost, that
they're directionless like sheep without a shepherd. And that's significant, I
think, context for Matthew. In the Bible, a shepherd's job is to guide, to
protect, to feed, and gather the flock.And
so when Jesus says that they are like sheep without a shepherd, he's saying
that they're trying to navigate life alone without God.
And then that becomes
a surprising image. Jesus looks at the lost sheep and suddenly starts talking
about a harvest. The tone shifts a little bit. He says, "The harvest is
abundant, but the laborers are few. And why would he switch from sheep to a harvest?
Well, I think because Jesus doesn't see the lost people. He sees their
potential. He sees their hearts open and ready for God or potentially.And he sees that people are ready to receive
mercy, healing, and hope. And the problem isn't the harvest.
Yes!He sees the abundant fruit
of humanity, and He will summon and commission His apostles to reap the
harvest.
For the pastoral homily I turn to Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. who explains
why our emotions are sanctified by Christ.
Fr. Cajetan:
What do we see in the
Gospel?We see, we hear this: Jesus’s
heart was moved to pity for the crowds.Why
is this so significant?It is
significant because we see that emotions, that feelings, that the sense appetites,
that passions, that the affective life are not inherently disordered, not irrevocably
corrupted, they are not objectively evil.Why?Because Jesus felt things, Jesus
had an affective life, Jesus experienced movements of the sense appetites,
Jesus had emotions, and Jesus could have no sin, therefore, the emotional life,
the affective life, feelings are not evil per se in and of themselves.
St. Thomas Aquinas in
the thirteenth century devoted dozens and dozens of pages to considering the
importance of the emotions and to reminding his students in scared theology, in
sacred doctrine, in holy teaching that the emotions—yes, they’re wounded, they’re
hurt, there’s a struggle in the affective life because of original sin and actual
sins—nonetheless they too can be healed and transformed by Christ, by grace, by
love and truth and the perfective order of God.
The emotional life that
we all have is something that grace can sanctify, and our Lord shows us that
the affective life is not something to be ashamed of, is not something to
chagrin, because it’s a part of what it means to be human.
So it is a good thing to be moved to pity and compassion.That may be obvious but it is significant nonetheless.
Sunday Meditation: “Without
cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Let’s listen to a Dan Schutte song, “Here I Am Lord,” but I actually
adore the Collin Raye rendition.
This
is Alice’s June newsletter. I explained Alice’s
monthly newsletter here.This month
focuses on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Before
the newsletter, let us pray: For Pope Leo XIV
Hail
Mary, full of grace…
Hail
Mary, full of grace…
Hail
Mary, full of grace…
St.
Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the
wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do
thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell
Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of
souls.
Handmaids of Mary
St. Michael’s Warriors
June 2026 Newsletter
Sacred Heart of
Jesus, have mercy on us.
Recently we celebrated the feast of Pentecost ending the
Easter season.Bishop Fulton Sheen, in
an article on the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles, said, that if
Christ never left us, Christ would always be outside of us. By sending the Holy
Ghost, He now dwells within us.
Bishop Sheen gave this analogy of how The Holy Ghost is an
encounter with love.“There was a boy
who gave his parents a hard time.He
didn’t like brushing his hair, washing his face, and he had a surly
disposition.Whenever he went out the
door, he slammed it.One day he came to
breakfast, his hair was combed, his faced washed, he was pleasant to everyone
in the family, and, when he left, he closed the door quietly.“He had met Susan…..”
He (the Holy Spirit) will be to us a cloud by day and abrightness of flaming fire in the night, ever
guiding, ever leading us on, unswervingly to our home beyond the grave.
I pray: Love of the Holy Spirit be thou the source of all
the operations of our minds, that they may ever be conformed to God’s good
pleasure.
Some unfinished business from last month: regarding Pope
Pius IX and the HolyFace of Christ, I
neglected to mention the purpose of the devotion to the Holy Face is to make
reparation for sins against the first three commandments:First Commandment, against denial of
God.Second commandment, blasphemy such
as using God’s name in vain.Third
commandment, the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days.Our Lady of La Salette, whose sorrow was in
the breaking of these commandments, gave us these words, “Fight, children of
light; you, the few who can see!For now
is hot time of times, the end of all ends.The Church will eclipse: the world will be in dismay.It is time you filled the earth with
light.I am at your side.”
Recently I discovered there is a Holy Face medal. You can order it for free here.Or send a self-addressed envelope with two
first class stamps to: Holy Face Association, P. O. Box 821, Champlain, NY
12919-0821.
Prayer to the Holy
Face by Mother Maria-Pierina (Carmelite):
O blessed Face of my kind Savior, by the tender love and
piercing sorrow of Our Lady as she beheld you in your cruel Passion,
Grant us to share in this intense sorrow and love, to
fulfill the holy will of God to the upmost of our ability.Amen
The Holy Face is a weapon.In our Blessed Mother’s own words, the medal is a weapon for defense, a
shield for courage, a token of love and mercy, which My Divine Son wished to
give the world in these troubled times.
There have been so many Holy Days this past month:
Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred the Heart of Jesus. It is feast
after the sorrow of lent.
The feast of Corpus Christi reminds us of the True Presence
of Christ in the Eucharist. Sadly, it was noted by a priest in his sermon, only
39% of Catholics believe in the real presence.As we processed with the Holy Eucharist in the streets of our Parishes,
and as the Pope processed in the streets of Madrid, Spain, Corpus Christi
Sunday reminds us of the True Presence.
“When all the world is comfortless,
And wrapped in
gloom as black as night.
Remind us, Lord, in our distress
One spot on earth is
always bright-
The
Tabernacle.”
In conclusion as a tribute to Bishop Fulton Sheen in
commemoration of his beatification, I offer his favorite poem to our Blessed
Lady, “Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue.”
Lovely Lady dressed in blue
-------
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
Tell me what to say!
Did you lift Him up, sometimes,
Gently on your knee?
Did you sing to Him the way
Mother does to me?
Did you hold His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world?
O! And did He cry?
Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things -------
Little things that happen? And
Do the Angels' wings
Make a noise? And can He hear
Me if I speak low?
Does He understand me now?
Tell me -------for you know.
Lovely Lady dressed in blue
-------
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
And you know the way.
Handmaid of the Handmaids,
Alice
If I may, I loved Aaron Neville's version of "Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue." He does take a few liberties with the lyrics, but I think the liberties actually improve it as a song.
Today is the second solemnity following
Pentecost.Last week was the Solemnity
of the Holy Trinity.Today is the
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the Feast of
Corpus Christi. On Friday we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus.The Church gives us these
feasts to understand the mystery that is the nature of God.Think on the last four solemnities: the Holy
Spirit comes in dwell at Pentecost, the Trinity comprises the one God; the Body
and Blood of Jesus brings us into communion; and the sacred heart that reveals
His infinite compassion.
For Year A, the lectionary takes us to the
heart of the Bread of Life Discourse.Allow
me to quote St. Thomas Aquinas who is the Doctor most associated with the
understanding of the Eucharist.
One eats Christ’s flesh and drinks his blood in a spiritual way if he
is united to him through faith and love, so that one is transformed into him
and becomes his member: for this food is not changed into the one who eats it but
it turns the one who takes it into itself.And so this is a food capable of making a human being divine.[Quoted from Magnificat, June 2026, p.91]
Today’s Gospel:
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that
came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live
forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the
world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves,
saying,
"How can this man give us his
flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last
day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the
Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down
from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and
still died,
whoever eats this bread will live
forever."
~Jn::51-58
Who better to preach on the Body and Blood of Christ than a Dominican
friar, Fr. Greg Heille from the Chapel of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St.
Louis, MO.
Fr. Greg:
The feast goes back
to the year 1264.Pope Urban IV lived in
Orvieto, not far outside of Rome.And he
called upon the Dominican friar, Thomas Aquinas, to write the hymns and the
prayers for this feast day, for the mass and for the liturgy of the hours.We still treasure some of these hymns, for
example, Panje Lingua, which includes Tantum Ergo, which is sung at
Benediction.We love to hear Panis
Angelicus. And so many celebrations of the church.The Dominican Order was only founded less
than 50 years before.And Thomas Aquinas
wrote these beautiful prayers.The
opening prayer, the collect for mass today, is written by Thomas Aquinas, and
it is a prayer that we pray as Dominicans at the beginning of our divine office
for morning prayer, and for evening prayer, the prior or the leader of the
community prays this prayer, which we will pray at mass this weekend."God, who has left us in a wonderful
sacrament a memorial of your passion.Grant,
we ask that we may venerate the sacred mystery of your body and blood.So that we may always feel in ourselves the
fruit of your redemption.Who lives and
reigns with God the Father, in unity with the Holy Spirit, God, world without
end, amen.
In some of our
parishes we will hear a long sequence before the gospel.This long sequence was also written by
Aquinas. And here is the end of that sequence as he wrote it.“Jesus Good shepherd. True bread. Jesus. Have
mercy on us. You feed us. You watch over
us. You make us see good things in the land of the living.You who know all things and prevail, who
nourish us mortals here, make us, there, your table companions, joint heirs,
and members of the community of saints.Amen.”
The Eucharist is
joyfully celebrated this weekend because we return to it again and again week
by week and day by day to be nourished with the bread of life.This is a central sacrament of our Christian
life, to return to the altar of the Lord, to receive the bread of life, and to
be united in our faith, in this true presence of the body, and the blood of
Christ.
I think Fr. Greg’s point that we celebrate the Body of Christ joyfully
is insightful.Can anything possibly give
us more joy than to be united with Jesus Christ?
For the pastoral homily I return to Archbishop of Detroit Edward J.
Weisenburger.
Archbishop Weisenburger:
I must acknowledge
I'm indebted to my good friend and trusted biblical scholar, Bishop Daniel
Mueggenborg of Reno, Nevada. I was moved by some of his reflections. In one
commentary on this passage. He notes how strongly the passage stresses the
realism of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist. In many other passages, the
biblical term "soma" is used in Greek to refer to "body," and
that's an accurate translation. But in John's gospel, John records Jesus not as
using the word or the identity "soma," but rather the evangelist uses
the term "sarx." "Sarx" in Greek has only one very specific
meaning, which is "flesh." It hearkens back to the opening words of
John's gospel when we read "In the beginning was the word, and the word
was with God, and eventually the word became flesh (sarx)." Now, please
note that a term like soma, for "body," could have a symbolic meaning,
not sarx. That term "flesh" has no meaning other than the corporeal
human reality of a very physical being. Jesus wants to be crystal clear, and
he's adamant. He Himself is really and truly present; flesh, blood, soul,
divinity in the food and drink he gives us in the Eucharist.
A second Greek word
to take note of is "trogein," which very specifically means the
physical act of "munching," as in munching on a piece of food. Some
might even find such a word mildly offensive in relation to consuming the
Eucharist. A different Greek word, "phragein," would be much more
respectable, but it could have a more figuratively meaning, such as digesting
something intellectually. But here again Jesus in John's Gospel is going out of
His way to make very firm His point. He's giving us a real gift of His body and
blood. And to receive this gift, we must physically consume it.
A third point to note
is that throughout the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, the Evangelist is
drawing a beautiful parallel between "the people of Israel receiving manna
in the desert" and "Jesus' gift of Himself in the bread of
life." Just as manna gave the people nourishment to continue their journey
to the way to the Promised Land, so too the gift of the Eucharist is meant to
nourish you and me in our journey towards salvation. The Israelites would encounter
many hardships and had to be sustained for such a journey. The same is true for
us. The Eucharist truly is our manna in
the desert. It is food for eternal life, and it is a sharing in the very body,
blood, soul, divinity of Jesus.What our
Lord is stressing in this teaching is that a disciple is not merely someone who
follows Jesus and obeys his teachings. No, a true disciple is one who is
transformed by the very Christ they receive.A true disciple is one who grows into the likeness of the God they
encounter in the form of bread and wine.
Upon hearing the
Teacher, we read that many "grumbled" at Jesus. That phrase,
"grumble," is the same word in Greek used to describe the Hebrews in
their response to Moses' leadership in the desert. A grumbling, a murmuring. It
implies a hostility, a discontent, ultimately a rejection. And sadly, we read
that many of Jesus' own disciples, upon hearing this teaching, found it to be
too hard, too much. And the gospel says many of them left Him because of it.
But note that in response to this rejection, Jesus does not change His teaching
in any way. Instead, He challenges those who hear Him to remain, and to believe
and to accept what He reveals. He will not bend the truth to their desires or
their sensitivities. But He does conclude, "Blessed are those disciples
who are able to accept His teaching." And their faith is voiced
beautifully by St. Peter, who will say, "Master, where else can we
go?You alone have the words of eternal
life."
I think most of us in the Catholic faith accept eating of Christ’s body
and blood without grumbling. But that’s a pretty low bar.Combine the two homilies today to accept Christ
with joy.
Sunday Meditation: “For
my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
“I Received the Living God” is such a beautiful hymn, and so Catholic!
I am starting a new
series of posts on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, hereby the
acronym, LotR.As you may know,
the LotR is divided into three volumes, each a novel length work in
itself.It is a modern day epic, and
some call it the greatest novel of the 20th century.I would not go that far, but it is a great
work.The three volumes go under the
titles, The Fellowship of the Ring (Vol I), The Two Towers (Vol
II), and The Retrurn of the King (Vol III).
The LotR became a
recurring read at my Goodreads Catholic Thought Book Club.A recurring read is a book that is too long
for one group read, and so broken down into segments.We read one segment, pause to read other
books in a cycle of genres, and when the cycle returns to the recurring read we
pick up where we left off for another segment.The natural divisions of the LotR made it natural to read a
volume for each segment.Last year we
read The Fellowship of the Ring.The posts that come out for this volume came out of that discussion.We are currently reading The Two Towers,
and eventually I will be posting those discussions.I expect the discussions for The Return of
the King may be ready for posting next year.The series of posts will be linked to each
volume of the trilogy.
The song doesn’t really
have much to do with LotR, but the
allusion to Mordor is fascinating.I
remember hearing the song as a teen before I had heard of LotR, and the allusion certainly went over my head.Allusions to LotR are in a number of Zeppelin songs: “Ramble On,” “Stairway to
Heaven,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “The Battle of Evermore,” and “Bron-Y-Aur.”
When one of the greatest
and most popular rock bands, who’s morals and themes are hardly in line with
that of J.R.R. Tolkien, has a love of LotR,
it is evident that the cultural influence of LotR is deep and wide.
As an introduction, I’m
not going to highlight the story.What
I’m going to provide can certainly be found on the internet, but I am mostly
going by a biography I read last year on Tolkien, Tolkien, Man and Myth: A Literary life by Joseph Pearce.It’s a good bio and I recommend it.
The background Tolkien
provides in the Prologue—that is, that the story is a sequel to Tolkien’s
previous work, The Hobbit, and that
the story is part of a prehistory where the earth is in a stage in time called
“Middle-Earth,” where humanoids called hobbits, elves, dwarves, and several
other categorizations, including men, lived upon the earth.As I write that, some doubt on that sentence
enters my mind.I’m not exactly sure Tolkien
considers all those categories humanoids.I will go with that until proven otherwise, but the story is certainly
fantastic.
The novel is considered a
fantasy novel, but it is also considered an epic.It fits the form of ancient epics, and it’s
scope is most certainly vast and epic!The novel starts as a quest, utilizes the narrative form of a journey,
and before the end is achieved a war between forces of good and evil rages
around the questing hero.There are
struggles against outer forces and there are internal struggles within many of
the characters, especially Frodo, the questing hero.The continuity with the predecessor book is
explained early.Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit
from the shire, on an adventure of his own some sixty years prior finds a magic
ring that allows the wearer of the ring to become invisible.Suffice it to say Bilbo returns prosperous
from his adventures and lives a comfortable life in the shire.But in his old age and with coming death he
gives the ring to his nephew Frodo.In
time Frodo learns of the danger associated with the ring and is asked to
dispose of it.We’ll get into these
details as the novel unfolds.
###
Kerstin Comment:
We'll encounter a lot of geography reading this book.
Both hardcopies and electronic versions of the book contain at least the Middle
Earth map, and maybe even the Shire segment, though they may be hard to read.
On my ancient kindle maps are worthless. Last time I read the book l printed
out various segments, though I don't remember the exact websites. There is
plenty online. An interesting one is an
interactive map where you can map out the journeys of the various
characters.
My Reply to Kerstin:
Thanks Kerstin. That's quite amazing. It will probably
take me weeks to figure out how to interact with the map.
###
J.R.R. Tolkien
The author’s biography is
pertinent to this work.Here are some
raw facts.John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.)
Tolkien was born in 1892 in what I think now is South Africa.His father was a bank manager there and married
Mabel, who had come out be with him, in the Anglican Church.JRR’s younger brother Hilary was also born in
that same region of South Africa, but because of JRR’s health, Mabel took the
children back to England, outside the city of Birmingham, in 1896.That same year, the father dies in South Africa,
leaving Mabel impoverished trying to sustain two small boys.She received help from several of her and her
husband’s family members.
Mabel and her sister
became interested in Catholicism, and both converted in 1900, taking along her
two boys.There was a huge push back
from their families, and Mabel’s sister was forced to abandon her new faith by
her husband.Mabel refused to leave
Catholicism, and most of the financial help she was getting from her family was
stopped.She really struggled and fought
for her faith, and this left a strong impression on JRR.Because she did not have the money to send
her boys to school and because she was herself apparently well educated (she
could speak four languages including Latin) she became the primary educator of
her boys.JRR’s love of languages must
have had its source from his mother.
Mabel moved to Birmingham
to be closer to a Catholic Church, and it was there the family became friends
with Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan.The
contrast between the country life outside of Birmingham and the city life inside
of the city also made a strong impression on Tolkien.He hated the city with its trams, busy street
life, smoking factories, and railroads.All of Tolkien’s life he would despise automobiles.
In 1903 Mabel died from
what appears to be complications of diabetes.So at the age of eleven, JRR and his brother, a couple of years younger,
were left orphans.They were taken in by
Fr. Francis, who Mabel had made sure would prevent her and her husband’s
families from taking away their Catholicism.Fr. Francis turned out to be a very good foster father to the boys,
encouraging their learning, their faith, and their development.The boys helped in the church, and so learned
their faith very well.
In 1909 JRR met a young
lady, Edith, who was three years older, and fell in love.Tolkien was only eighteen at the time, and
this was a big issue for Fr. Francis who refused to allow JRR to pursue this
relationship.As far as I can tell, it
was strictly because Fr. Francis felt JRR was not old enough to be in a
romantic relationship.He forbid JRR to
pursue it and forced him to break it off until JRR was legally independent at
the age of twenty-one.JRR honorably did
as he was ordered, but upon immediately turning twenty-one, re-located Edith (in
1913) and asked to resume the relationship.She happened to now be involved with another man, but she broke that off
and returned to JRR.Despite anger from
her family, she converted to Catholicism in 1914.
JRR was also now in
college at Oxford, and they put marriage off until he could be stably employed,
but then the Great War (WWI) had started.Upon completing his degree in 1915, Tolkien enlisted in the Army and married
Edith in 1916.He saw action at the
front throughout this time.Many of his
friends were killed in the war.Late in
1916 he contracted Trench Fever, a disease transmitted by lice and was sent
home as an invalid.Trench Fever is a
recurring bacterial infection, and apparently it led to Tolkien being
emaciated.He remained invalid for the
remainder of the war.
His marriage was by all
accounts a good marriage.They had four
children: John (b. 1917), Michael (1920), Christopher (1924), and Priscilla
(1929).He became a professor of philology
and literature, a translator, a scholar of ancient works, a writer of stories,
novels, and poetry.He was a college
professor at several universities, most notably Oxford.At Oxford he became friends with C. S. Lewis,
and was instrumental in Lewis’s conversion from atheism to Christianity.The two with other literary professors at
Oxford formed a group called the Inklings where they met twice weekly and
shared their ideas and writings.I’m
reminded of a story of Tolkien reading from his drafts of LotR, and one of the Inklings, Hugo Dyson, an important Shakespeare
scholar, who in the middle of Tolkien reading blurted out, “Oh no, not another
[expletive] elf!”
Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937.He said he wrote it as a children’s book for
his children.He, and many others,
distinguish the narrative between The
Hobbit and LotR by stipulating
that the former is a children’s book while LotR
is an adult book.Frankly I can’t
tell the difference.As far as I’m
concerned, The Hobbit can be read as
adult story, and the LotR can be and
is enjoyed by many children.I don’t
know what makes one a children’s book and one an adult.The
Hobbit is a finely crafted book with subtle themes, superbly structured,
and great character insights.I’ve said
in the past that I thought The Hobbit
was the greater novel, but I’m looking forward to being persuaded otherwise in
this read.
###
Patrick Comment:
WWI affected Tolkien tremendously. Reading about his
wartime experience helped me understand LOTR better. Courage is a major theme.
Ellie Comment:
Thank you for the introduction, Manny, it was super
interesting! Earlier this year I read a spiritual biography called Tolkien's
Faith by Holly Ordway and I definitely recommend that to everybody here, it was
amazing to learn how Tolkien's faith had evolved and how it shaped his stories,
too.
My Reply to Ellie:
Oh I know of Holly Ordway. I read her biographical,
conversion story Not
God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms. I thought I wrote a
review for Goodreads, but apparently I forgot. In fact I don't even have it
marked as read. I will have to update that. It was a good read and I recommend
it.
###
What can we say about LotR as a work?It was written over an extended time period,
from 1936 to 1949.World War II
certainly had a hand in inspiration of the work, as well as Tolkien’s
experience in the First World War.Tolkien
insisted that the work was not “allegorical nor topical.”Tolkien states in the introduction his
intention.
The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to
try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers,
amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them.
It should be noted that
Tolkien despised allegory, and he did not like most of the fiction of his
friend C. S. Lewis, who’s Narnia
Chronicles rely on allegory.That
statement of intention is a statement of the pure aesthetics of fiction.Tolkien first and foremost wants to tell a
story of epic proportions.In this epic narrative,
the author creates several languages, a prehistory to humanity, a geography of
an earth prior to the current continental positions, and a world populated with
different humanoids and fantastical creatures.It really is epic in proportion.
Though Tolkien states
there is no allegory, it’s very hard not to spot some.“Middle-Earth” is suggestive of Middle
English, a time period before the modern.A war takes place in LotR
which seems to be analogous to either of the World Wars.The fellowship of the central characters
seems to suggest Tolkien’s biographical Inklings.The history of Middle-Earth seems to parody
prehistorical movements.The hobbit
shire life seems analogous to small town country English life, current and
past.The various classes of humanoids
seem to suggest an analogy to racial differences between actual humans.Tolkien insisted that there was not a racial
component to the book, and I believe him in the sense of the negative
associations with race.The racial
component I think should be associated with linguistic family groups such as
Germanic, Slavic, Romance languages.I
think—and I’m just speculating—that Tolkien’s philological knowledge of
language groups inspired him to create imagined, similar humanoid groups.Perhaps Tolkien might dispute my speculations.Here is his statement on use of analogy.
Other arrangements could be devised according to the
tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I
cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so
since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history,
true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of
readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one
resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination
of the author.
Perhaps I am confusing
“applicability” with allegory, but I don’t know what he means by that and he
never explains it.While what I perceive
as allegory in LotR is not a strong
corresponding allegory (there are levels of allegorical correspondence), I
still perceive some.Frankly this subtle
allegory I think helps the novel, and perhaps is what he means by
“applicability.”Perhaps we are in some
agreement.
Some of the themes we
will see is good versus evil, the power of evil to disorder our inner being,
the fellowship between friends, the simplicity of rural life, and the richness
of folklore of common folk.I think LotR is part of the folkloric Renaissance
and artistic movements that began with Romanticism in the 19th
century and has blossomed since then.Indeed, Tolkien in LotR uses
folklore and creates the folklore of the characters in a way that is truly
remarkable.I personally am not so
interested in the fantasy aspect of the novel, but I captivated by the
folkloric elements, taken from real life and imagined.
I’m sure there is more to
point out, and I look forward to discussing them, but we need to leave the
introduction here.
I hope that’s a
satisfactory introduction.
###
Kelly’s Comment:
I read somewhere that CS Lewis also denied that the
Narnia books used allegory. For some reason the idea of one's works containing
allegory suggests putting limits on what the reader might experience? Which I
take as using the term applicability -- the way in which you can read something
and I can read something and both go away with something different.
And you're right Manny, this is my (at least) fifth
reading of this series, PLUS having seen the movies several times, and still I
come away with something new each time!
I am using my old set of physical books, which I have
to turn pages very gingerly. I got the Kindle version as backup, haha.
Happy reading!
Bruce’s Reply to Kelly:
That depends on how you define allegory. If CS Lewis
did say that Narnia was not allegory, maybe it was because he saw the allusions
in Narnia as so obvious that it was like hitting the reader in the head with a
2X4.
My Reply to Kelly:
Well, there is a stronger level allegory in the Narnia
books than LotR. I understand Tolkien's point about over use of allegory. I
think Tolkien's dislike is just a little quirky on this. Great works of
literature have used allegory. Dante's Divine Comedy, the greatest. Gawain and
the Green Knight, which Tolkien translated from the Middle English, has strong
levels of allegory. Why Tolkien dislikes allegory is there at the end of the
quote I put up; he dislikes the "domination of the author." Yes, as
you point out, allegory forces the reader to a particular way of reading, and
Tolkien prefers a multiplicity of way of reading a book.
Funny you should mention old hardcopy books. I too am
reading from my old hardcopy from some forty years ago. It was read twice, so
not as flimsy as yours but it's still delicate. To my surprise, I had no notes
inside the book. It was from so long ago it was before I started writing notes
in the pages. I always do that now, and I am now writing notes in this old
hardcopy!
Frances’s Comment:
There’s a lovely,
informative video on You Tube which adds color to the story of Tolkien, LOTR
and Tolkien’s role in leading C.S. Lewis to Christianity. The video is only 13
minutes long. Just Google: You Tube, “On the Power of Fiction, Tolkien, Lewis.”
That really is a good article. “Celebrating the
Epochal Publication of “The Fellowship of the Ring” 70 Years On” by Holly Ordway.The relinquishing of power as the central
theme. Yes, I had not thought about it in that way before, and it is spot on.
Thank you Michelle.Here is an excerpt:
According to Eugene Vinaver, Tolkien once said that
“his typical response upon reading a medieval work was to desire not so much to
make a philological or critical study of it as to write a modern work in the
same tradition.”4 Tolkien was not an antiquarian whose eye is forever fixed on
his rearview mirror, but a translator who looks both ahead and behind, aiming
to preserve the best that history had to offer by making it accessible to
contemporary readers. And to achieve that translation, he had to know both
languages, as it were—tongues ancient and modern.
###
What I hope to do from
here is go one to three chapters at a time, give a chapter summary, provide my
thoughts on the chapters, and provide pertinent discussion of the book that
happened at the book club.I aim to put
out a post per week.Stay tuned.
