tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9271782082114028682012-01-30T16:47:00.097-06:00A Fieldguide for Building Christian CultureGwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.comBlogger5971100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-83754690068372771212011-08-23T17:00:00.000-05:002011-08-23T17:00:23.933-05:00

at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH. There my duties will include Deaning, teaching, assisting with Student Life and Activities, the Guild Associations, and running the Summer Programs. Cheers to everyone starting school; blessings on all families and parishes! Godspeed us all! Here is a great quotation to get you going: "It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-86594453145899987002011-08-23T16:43:00.001-05:002011-08-23T17:04:31.999-05:00

I found the Haymarket in Boston; read Tom Wessell's incredible Reading the Forested Landscape; discovered Lord Peter Wimsey novels; got introduced to Pimm's and Fursty Ferret; attended a fantastic wedding and helped make hors d'oevres under the direction of the Jacobite chef; registered for the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Annual Conference; realized just how good Scythian's music

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-56843527921225930662011-08-23T16:09:00.000-05:002011-08-23T16:09:40.503-05:00

Yes, that's right: 30 miles through God's country--beautiful Indiana--with fellow pilgrims from St. Boniface Roman Catholic Parish.  It starts Friday night and ends twenty four hours later.  We camped overnight beneath the full moon.  Mass to start, mass in the morning, and mass at the end with sandwiches and beer to solace the tired pilgrims.  Join us next year in 2012; click here for more

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-18990096261052676452011-08-23T15:57:00.001-05:002011-08-23T16:46:29.376-05:00

And you can read more about that excellent institution here.  Like last year there was study, prayer, competition, service, poetry, scavenger hunts, races, singing, dancing, hikes, swimming, trips . . . We built stilts this year, too, and raced in them.  I'd say the best part was the girls trip to see the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.  Part of me really wanted to take them to see the sunrise;

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-87793036120512151882011-08-23T15:44:00.000-05:002011-08-23T15:44:38.338-05:00

With other graduate students at Maryvale Institute.  The Henley Royal Regatta was a lark.  Stoner House was deeply moving; this is where St. Edmund Campion printed the Decem Rationes and the famous "brag." Campion’s Brag To the Right Honourable, the Lords of Her Majesty's Privy Council: Whereas I have come out of Germany and Bohemia, being sent by my superiors, and adventured myself into this

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-81982738791236804722011-08-23T15:25:00.000-05:002011-08-23T15:25:26.421-05:00

Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England is located at the old site where Bl. Newman first lived after his conversion to the Catholic Faith.  I am working on a research degree, a Ph.D in Catholic Studies.  The proposed title of the dissertation is something like The Role of Stabilitas in the Transmission of Tradition: An Analysis of Alasdair MacIntyre’s Ideas with Reference to Western

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-13903060833733726212011-08-23T15:17:00.001-05:002011-08-23T16:45:00.631-05:00

And Newman's University Church in Dublin.  Hopkins' grave was not marked in any special way--with hundreds of others in the Jesuit Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery.  I remembered that his first identity was not poet but priest. "The Lantern Out of Doors" Gerard Manley Hopkins SOMETIMES a lantern moves along the night, That interests our eyes. And who goes there? I think; where from and bound, I

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-18991240170227879552011-08-23T15:09:00.000-05:002011-08-23T15:09:45.089-05:00

Check out the forthcoming 4th Edition here.  It is outstanding.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-6500051417479441422011-08-23T15:05:00.000-05:002011-08-23T15:05:45.679-05:00

You might ask . . . My last post was May 5, 2011.  What happened?  Well . . . I finished the school year at Trinity School at Greenlawn.  I went to see friends in Ireland.  And we climbed Croach Patrick.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-30394287266420584702011-05-12T08:46:00.001-05:002011-05-16T12:11:57.780-05:00

Once I wrote a post about Easter Traditions, but this year, for some reason found that I wasn't able to keep my usual ones. I just ran out of time! The Holy Triduum making of Easter Stollen, Pralines, Easter Spice Ring, and the annual cleaning of the car just couldn't happen without skipping some of the liturgy (not an option). So I just made the Easter Stollen and decided to space out the other

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-71392644235338649302011-05-11T11:46:00.000-05:002011-05-11T11:46:48.463-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-49114092595825757472011-05-06T08:00:00.001-05:002011-05-06T08:00:01.490-05:00

The Conference will take place Nov. 10-12, 2011 and the theme:  Radical Emancipation:  Confronting the Challenge of Secularism.  Submissions are due July 15.  Learn more here.  A retreat for the mind, that's what this conference is--always rewarding.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-52463407057943022862011-05-05T07:34:00.000-05:002011-05-05T12:16:36.010-05:00

A great exercise that sometimes yields surprising results is to have students take out a few sheets of looseleaf paper and a pen or pencil. Then tell them they have 30-60 minutes in which to write:  "What did you learn this semester?" You can limit it to the class in particular or to the classes they took this semester.  This exercise gives the students the opportunity to realize how much

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-24998628473301098452011-05-04T07:54:00.001-05:002011-05-04T07:54:00.643-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-42744404809370050452011-05-03T07:35:00.000-05:002011-05-03T07:35:00.270-05:00

Mid April already, and the wild plums bloom at the roadside, a lacy white against the exuberant, jubilant green of new grass an the dusty, fading black of burned-out ditches. No leaves, not yet, only the delicate, star-petaled blossoms, sweet with their timeless perfume. You have been gone a month today . . . Click here to read the rest of an outstanding poem by Ted Kooser which Garrison

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-87758248024288851432011-05-02T07:06:00.002-05:002011-05-02T07:06:00.982-05:00

"In postfeminist America, men are happier than women." Thus writes Ross Douthat here in The New York Times.  Also, this blog post of his is provocative, especially as he delicately questions Dana Goldstein's claim that "Internet Porn Has Nothing to Do With the Major Social Trends Affecting Sex and Marriage" (I mean, really?).  Finally, as if we needed more reasons, here is his interesting

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-36439048971234702282011-04-30T08:48:00.002-05:002011-04-30T08:48:00.302-05:00

"Behold, I make all things new." Astounding, isn't it? Just a local greenhouse at http://www.bennettsgreenhouse.com/ Maybe we'll have to do a garden after all!

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-9148897132079605262011-04-29T19:03:00.000-05:002011-04-29T19:03:40.626-05:00

Now this is the kind of thing to lift one's heart.  Learn more here.  If you're anywhere nearby, head on over May 1. It is pretty great to leave the model parish after a wonderful visit, and come home to something like this! 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-57611626440235104642011-04-29T07:53:00.005-05:002011-04-29T09:59:48.884-05:00

Someone was interested in buying the Indiana Postcards I mentioned in an earlier post.  I get them via Snapfish and would be happy to provide them to anyone at cost + shipping & handling. Here are Snapfish rates per card: 1-19 cards 99¢ 20-49 cards 89¢ 50-99 cards 79¢ 100+ cards 75¢ You could order anything you like that you've ever seen on the blog and Snapfish will send it your way.  Just

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-64720702318746251042011-04-28T08:42:00.000-05:002011-04-28T08:42:00.685-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-3028060455247082232011-04-27T08:22:00.000-05:002011-04-27T13:46:22.628-05:00

"When I first saw your dad, he was riding across campus on a white horse." This was the sentence that caught my eye as I recently skimmed through a blog entry by Bill Powell.  If you want a good short story (really short!) and a wonderful idea for telling your own, please enjoy this! Edwin1710 posted the photograph below here. This photo was taken on May 17, 2007 in Tochigi Prefecture, JP,

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-75507704395616983372011-04-26T08:45:00.001-05:002011-04-26T08:45:01.206-05:00

Okay, okay, if a Tree House is out of the question, maybe settle for a Tree Swing.  There are many different varieties to provide delight and grace the landscape. Peguy might have added it to one of his poems:  "all the wild beauty of the world is not worth one garden" (with a tree swing). Check out this photograph from Flikr via Canadian Veggie (Christopher Porter, taken on June 21, 2009 in

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-65950711122881556192011-04-25T08:55:00.002-05:002011-04-25T08:55:00.427-05:00

Then from the dawn it seem’d there came, but faint As from beyond the limits of the world. Like the last echo born of a great cry, Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice Around a king returning from his wars. —Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King, 324 A blessed Easter!

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-88532235883700158012011-04-21T08:34:00.002-05:002011-04-21T08:34:00.285-05:00

A blessed Triduum to all--God's mercy and grace to everyone. E Tenebris Come down, O Christ, and help me! Reach thy hand, For I am drowning in a stormier sea Than Simon on thy lake of Galilee: The wine of life is spilt upon the sand, My heart is as some famine-murdered land Whence all good things have perished utterly, And well I know my soul in Hell must lie If I this night before God’s

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-42135158187126823262011-04-20T08:35:00.035-05:002011-04-20T08:35:00.776-05:00

If a garden is out of the question, this summer might be the summer for an easier (ha ha!) project: the ultimate treehouse. Now is the time to look at some great photographs below, courtesy of Flikr group "Treehouses of the World."  I used to think you needed to have the right kind of tree to have a treehouse, but look below for some surprising new ideas.  Here are plans and ideas at The

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-73232666447917131412011-04-19T08:05:00.000-05:002011-04-19T08:05:01.237-05:00

"I am a good for nothing and I don't even know what to make of myself. But Divine Providence certainly knows what it wants. It is only up to me to support it. Let us go ahead in Domino."--St. Joseph Cottolengo (Wednesday Audience with Benedict XVI, 28 April 2010)

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-876819547710850372011-04-18T10:48:00.000-05:002011-04-18T10:48:00.245-05:00

I was thinking that, as soon as I get a chance, I'd like to organize an ongoing photography contest in the community where I dwell, with a winner every week or every month.  I'd gather submissions for a month.  Then I'd post the submissions in some prominant place--a foyer, or wherever people stand outside the dining room, etc.  And then I'd award a simple prize or privilege at the end. 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-27797373549894933512011-04-17T10:37:00.001-05:002011-04-17T10:37:00.842-05:00

Here is a great article from Catholic News Service (penned by my excellent brother Becket Adams): Knights of Malta newsletter offers spiritual guidance to US prisoners. This work of the Knights of Malta is truly amazing. I first heard Caron tell his story last summer when he spoke at the Thomas More College Summer Programs.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-15304861321123412612011-04-16T10:38:00.000-05:002011-04-16T10:38:00.067-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-50353908593984140102011-04-15T08:51:00.000-05:002011-04-15T08:51:00.391-05:00

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great bird identification site here with multiple methods--browse by taxonomy, by shape (silhouettes!  very useful!), by name, or by common birds.  The site includes audio files of bird calls.  And just for fun, here is a link to live streaming footage of the Decorah Eagles in the fish hatchery in Decorah, IA, courtesy of the Raptor Resource Project.  The

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-17060473166264664342011-04-14T08:46:00.001-05:002011-04-14T08:46:00.619-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-91270590738460860022011-04-13T08:37:00.000-05:002011-04-13T08:37:01.087-05:00

This amazing and amusing website is the last word in learning about cloud formations.  I wish I'd had this when I was teaching science.  Fortunately, through a series of unexpected events, I will again be teaching science this Fall.  More on that excellent topic later. 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-69524151544036960612011-04-12T08:07:00.001-05:002011-04-12T08:07:00.392-05:00

by Jessica Hickey, (c. 2011) Wednesday, 23 March 2011 "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." (Is. 42:16.) "Our only art is Faith, and our music Christ." (St. Paulinus of Nola) In our last meditation,

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-49354019492628609612011-04-11T08:55:00.002-05:002011-04-11T08:55:00.498-05:00

Although winter is almost gone, it might not be too late for a little indoor activity like this. With a little household junk, some glue, and brown paper bags create these droll toys.  I think this crew could probably pull off Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and maybe even Greek tragedy.  This video is curtesy of my imaginative sister.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-16248331079476424572011-04-10T10:36:00.000-05:002011-04-10T18:36:25.253-05:00

Here's a happy thought for anyone who works with youth and worries about finding good plays for them to perform, music for them to play, etc., etc.  I went to a Vivaldi concert last night and remembered that Fr. Antonio Vivaldi worked thirty-seven years teaching music at the Pieta in Venice to orphaned girls of all ages.  He wrote sixty works for these students, trying to put together something

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-34616315826342604052011-04-09T16:54:00.000-05:002011-04-10T17:37:11.625-05:00

Christian Integration is a set of principles for building Christian Culture. Sometimes I find or invent great ways to put the principles into practice and sometimes I just go back to the tried and true ways that I've already mentioned on the blog. Sometimes I can't think of anything new to put on the blog--but I'd sure welcome your ideas! Anyway, after a long dry spell, I've got some new ideas.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-65363519334746485062011-03-27T10:12:00.000-05:002011-03-27T10:12:00.163-05:00

There are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 21:25).

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-58356417481967958782011-03-26T10:23:00.000-05:002011-03-26T10:23:01.025-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-8921508514275587502011-03-25T10:02:00.005-05:002011-03-25T10:02:00.798-05:00

The total meaning of the poem resists being reduced to a statement, even a considered and carefully thought-out statement. For poems are not statements at all, but significant dramatizations of a situation, experiences, that are concrete embodiments, not abstractions. Thus, the images, the tone, even the metrical patterning can qualify the meaning significantly. If we come to know a poem well and

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-75477359665020114002011-03-24T12:01:00.000-05:002011-03-24T12:01:59.200-05:00

More chalk art by my talented sister.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-71414448285468791042011-03-19T08:29:00.001-05:002011-03-19T08:29:00.073-05:00

Via the National Register of Historic Places I found a slideshow of historic schools--hundreds of exterior and interior views of schools and universities around the nation.  Some of these places inspire, such as Healy Hall at Georgetown. What would you do, if God found you a donor  . . . ?

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-57348693375460703712011-03-18T08:37:00.001-05:002011-03-18T08:37:00.296-05:00

And finally . . . the amazing FIRST PLACE in Best Animated Shorts (silent) goes to the outstanding Crac! winner of the Academy Award in 1982.  Read more here.  Frederic Back's beautiful short combines the wisdom of tradition with a profound and unshakeable hope.  He combines everything beautiful in life with everything difficult, especially in the last centuries--and comes out with a film that

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-26104765646168937722011-03-17T08:16:00.001-05:002011-03-17T08:16:00.160-05:00

I found the pottery guy who comes mysteriously and periodically to the Farmer's Market.  He is so local, he does not even have an Etsy.  You can, however, look him up here at http://www.maplelanepottery.com/. There was a lot more cool stuff than below, of course--asparagus, sausage . . .

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-13636764450033643302011-03-16T06:53:00.001-05:002011-03-16T06:53:00.921-05:00

1.  Outdoor architecture tour.  Scope out local examples of different styles of architecture, or different examples of architectural features--friezes, roman versus gothic arch, doric column, etc.  Then take the students on a bus or walking tour and have them make sketches. 2.  Tree tour.  Scope out a walking tour of ten - twenty different trees.  Revisit at different seasons to learn how to

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-17961595993168605882011-03-15T13:22:00.000-05:002011-03-15T13:22:31.655-05:00

You can donate here to Caritas' work in Japan.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-56522842048956073092011-03-15T07:39:00.002-05:002011-03-15T07:39:00.845-05:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-24521926523889856952011-03-14T08:45:00.001-05:002011-03-14T08:45:01.257-05:00

And the Number One best all-time animated talking short is A Windy Day by John and Faith Hubley.  This was nominated for an Academy Award in 1968.  Animation by Barrie Nelson.  Read more here.  The great short not only has fine animation, but more cleverly, animates the conversation of Hubley's two little girls Georgia and Emily.  This film is so realistic, so true to life, yet so fantastic and 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-35180075880543189132011-03-12T09:41:00.009-06:002011-03-12T09:41:00.324-06:00

or What Boniface Saw by Jessica Hickey, c. 2011 Ash Wednesday in the Year of Our Lord 2011 "This Faith, increased by the Lord's Ascension and established by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, was not terrified by chains, imprisonment, exile, hunger, fire, attacks by wild beasts, or the tortures of cruel persecutors. For this Faith, throughout the world, men, women and children fought to the point

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-30302942849661405332011-03-11T07:29:00.001-06:002011-03-11T07:29:00.632-06:00

Number Two in the Best Animated Shorts (Silent) countdown is La Maison en Petits Cubes by Kunio Kato and winner of an Academy Award in 2009.  Kenji Kondo composed the music.  If Up moved you, get ready for this.  Read more here.  Twelve minutes.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-76294765710507094572011-03-10T07:59:00.002-06:002011-03-10T12:28:21.263-06:00

This is a detail from Marianne Stokes' 1912 tapestry "Ehret die Frauen." The text across the top is taken from Schiller's "Wurde der Frauen" and reads: Honor to the women; they braid and weave heavenly roses into earthly life. The legends at the sides and bottom identify the allegorical figures depicted:  Schutz (courage); Pflege (care & cultivation); Liebe (love); Wissen (wisdom & learning);

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-38307475875769710862011-03-09T08:57:00.009-06:002011-03-09T08:57:00.538-06:00

Where have I been and how did I miss that Pope Benedict made medieval saints the subject of his Wednesday audiences throughout 2010?  Find all the meditations here.  First, he went through the Mendicant orders, then St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Leonard Murialdo, St. Joseph Cottolengo, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Joseph Cafasso,

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-34772629517391476662011-03-08T08:37:00.000-06:002011-03-08T08:37:00.130-06:00

From the Children's Museum in St. Paul, MN comes recycled books masquerading as a plank of wood!

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-85451917234299592042011-03-07T07:51:00.023-06:002011-03-07T07:51:00.349-06:00

Number Two in the Best Animated Shorts (Talking) Countdown is Frederic Back's The Man Who Planted Trees which won the Academy Award in 1988.  This short is based on Jean Giono's short story and was issued with French narration and English narration.  In the English version below, Christopher Plummer narrates.  Fascinating animation with a lot to think about between Elzeard Bouffier's deeds and 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-7208545041398585832011-03-05T09:23:00.029-06:002011-03-05T09:23:00.725-06:00

Keith Kay's The Little Giant Book of Optical Illusions, available here, is a book I wish I'd discovered a few years ago.  When I was teaching Descartes' Meditations I looked around for a few optical illusions, the better to illustrate how our senses work, and how we can tell if we are perceiving reality.  In science, I also let students do projects on optical illusions and took them through some

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-62636706641954616552011-03-04T09:11:00.000-06:002011-03-04T09:11:00.385-06:00

Number Three in the Best Animated Shorts (silent) category is Michael Dudok De Wit's Father and Daughter which won an Academy Award in 2000.  The animation is striking and the story so simple, so profound.  Read more about it here.  Eight minutes, thirty seconds.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-90578101590665440362011-03-03T08:09:00.000-06:002011-03-03T08:09:00.114-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-2392447979797853392011-03-02T09:04:00.000-06:002011-03-02T09:04:00.931-06:00

Via Snapfish, I have been taking my This Is Indiana photographs and turning them into postcards.  I've been trying to come up with ways to incarnate and express what is wonderful about my local culture.  These postcards do it, and once in the hands of the post office and the recipients just might make Hoosiers glad to be from here. And people who love their homeland, suffer for it, build it up,

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-45185164469171467252011-03-01T08:05:00.000-06:002011-03-01T08:05:01.488-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-39972105164723087322011-02-28T07:54:00.001-06:002011-02-28T07:54:00.620-06:00

Number Three in Best Animated Shorts with dialogue is Aleksandr Petrov's The Cow.  This deeply moving paint-on-glass animation was nominated for an academy award in 1989.  Read more about it here. Nine minutes, thirty-eight seconds (Ten minutes.)

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-24141111973974913632011-02-26T07:02:00.000-06:002011-02-26T07:02:00.951-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-60076392890967286182011-02-25T07:52:00.002-06:002011-02-25T07:52:00.490-06:00

Number Four in the Best Silent Animated Shorts is French Roast, animated by Fabrice O. Joubert and nominated for an academy award in 2009.  Read more about it here. Eight minutes.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-91093933817548644512011-02-24T07:26:00.003-06:002011-02-24T08:54:10.470-06:00

Here, from my limited experience, are the best recommendations ever made to me.  I know they work on ages 12-18 and I bet they work on more ages.  They are drawn from a variety of sources, but mostly from the excellent advice of faculty at this great school where I first began teaching ( I did tweak these suggestions, perhaps beyond recognition of their originators!  Nevertheless--thanks!) 1.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-48193316255553190262011-02-23T07:22:00.000-06:002011-02-23T07:22:00.226-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-44186654252463649552011-02-22T07:55:00.002-06:002011-02-22T07:55:00.479-06:00

by Jessica Hickey (c. 2011) Wednesday, 16 January 2011 "I know that nothing has ever been real without my beholding it. All becoming has needed me. My looking ripens things and they come toward me, to meet and be met." (Rainer Maria Rilke) "Center of Ages, it is towards You that they converge, towards You that creation hastens from all parts." (St. Gregory Nazienzen) From childhood, I have

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-6846214459113838102011-02-21T10:26:00.000-06:002011-02-21T11:55:23.230-06:00

Number Four in best animated shorts (with dialogue) is Give Up Yer Aul Sins, nominated for an Academy Award in 2001. Animated by Alan Shannon and directed by Cathal Gaffney, this was part of a popular series animating scriptural stories or stories of saints as narrated by Dublin school children as interviewed by Peig Cunningham. Read more about it here.  Five minutes.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-77780181524908878432011-02-19T13:22:00.001-06:002011-02-19T13:22:00.581-06:00

It is hard to describe what it feels like to walk on the beach of Lake Michigan and realize not only that you have left the shoreline but that the "hill" you are climbing Is. A. FROZEN. WAVE!

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-45446741013516028372011-02-18T13:12:00.001-06:002011-02-18T13:12:00.786-06:00

Number Five in the countdown of best animated silent shorts is Dianne Jackson's The Snowman, nominated for an academy award in 1982.  Beyond the introduction and the famous song "Flying through the air" there is no dialogue.  Below is the first part of the version as it was first aired. Read more about this British classic here.  26 minutes. Watch Part II here: And Part III:

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-58182616908101725052011-02-17T13:10:00.001-06:002011-02-17T13:10:00.469-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-9268406582480798962011-02-16T13:08:00.000-06:002011-02-16T13:08:30.005-06:00

Trying to find a use for all the scrap paper I accumulate, I finally discovered a solution that served something I was already doing.  I did not want to purchase origami paper but doing origami with looseleaf is only so satisfying. My creative sister suggested water-color spatter with toothbrush to make scrap paper interesting.  So in ten minutes last night I made the following.  On the back of

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-32411164257170417002011-02-15T10:33:00.000-06:002011-02-15T10:33:00.409-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-57471661939459068002011-02-14T12:29:00.001-06:002011-02-14T12:32:16.781-06:00

Once I posted about an animated wordless short The Little Matchgirl.  This was nominated for an academy award in 2006. I got curious about the other shorts which won the award or were nominated for it. Looking for beauty, technical skill, depth, and whether they can be shown to kids, I collected a top five silent animated shorts list and a top five animated shorts with dialogue list. Here for

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-24362057994767003612011-02-12T10:34:00.004-06:002011-02-12T10:34:00.869-06:00

I recently showed my students The Scarlet Pimpernel. I asked them what they liked to drink. Hot chocolate was easy but where was I going to get apple cider in January? Turns out, a man at the Farmer's Market was selling jugs of the stuff he'd made earlier. He simply freezes the jugs until sale time. So I warmed that up with this pomander. You can't do this kind of thing in the summer, so count

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-37177116306447335652011-02-11T10:28:00.001-06:002011-02-11T10:28:00.296-06:00

Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and so darn funny, reads his poem "The Lanyard."  When I read that Poetry awarded him the Mark Twain Prize for humor in poetry, it made sense.  I was trying to think of what Collins reminded me of and voila!  But of course!  The depth, the pathos, and the humor that Twain can wrap up in Huckleberry Finn is the kind of thing Collins can do. 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-47814728015311035952011-02-10T10:03:00.002-06:002011-02-10T10:03:00.999-06:00

During these winter months, my sister has been experimenting with colored chalk on white paper, black paper, brown paper, etc. This lone goose was very evocative. What would you call it?

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-639072601339913792011-02-09T10:59:00.002-06:002011-02-09T10:59:00.268-06:00

the landscape vanished, not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness, and beyond these windows the government buildings smothered, schools and libraries buried, the post office lost under the noiseless drift, the paths of trains softly blocked, the world fallen under this falling. In a while I will put on some boots and step out like someone walking in water, and the dog will porpoise through

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-60188933670113916072011-02-08T10:52:00.000-06:002011-02-08T10:52:00.398-06:00

Here you can find a great article on teaching and learning--what's the right relationship between teacher and student--what's not so good--and who the ultimate teacher is.  The author was Marcus Berquist, a founder of Thomas Aquinas College. The term "sword and cape discipleship" was very apt and very interesting.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-37935711594127482512011-02-07T10:31:00.000-06:002011-02-07T10:31:00.112-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-48440862267621285742011-02-06T10:46:00.001-06:002011-02-06T13:48:35.787-06:00

Here is a wonderful map charting the travels of Odysseus from Dr. Fajardo-Acosta at Creighton University.  This is helpful for teaching mythology (or The Odyssey) as well as Ancient History.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-46953802676856750592011-02-05T09:39:00.002-06:002011-02-05T09:39:00.168-06:00

What I used to do was post new ideas on the Grizzlebeard, Sailor, or Poet sites.  Then, once a year, I'd export all the posts to this--the master blog and archive everything.  Now I am reversing the procedure.  I'll keep the sister sites open, but only as archives.  Christian Integration, the home site, will have all new items, and once a year, I'll archive the different posts to their respective

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-24637319285887836012011-02-04T10:17:00.002-06:002011-02-04T13:02:14.460-06:00

Here is a fabulous extra credit assignment Professor William Major gave his students:  hand over the cell phones for five days.  Read here what happened! This is one favorite part: "Of the students who thought it a useful enterprise, several mentioned noticing the campus for the first time—that there are trees, plaques, and signage, and all manner of people in their midst, many of whom are

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-47927100894106397142011-02-03T10:16:00.002-06:002011-02-03T10:16:00.758-06:00

At left Bishop Timothy Doherty of the Lafayette-in-Indiana diocese receives his crosier from Bishop Buechlein.  Bishop Timothy Doherty's column for the weekend of January 22-23 meditates on human life, noise, and "the one thing needful."  He begins: Last week we briefly turned off the electricity at the chancery for maintenance reasons. The quiet was profound. We lost the hum of overhead lights

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-63726781606266747112011-02-02T10:08:00.001-06:002011-02-02T10:08:00.627-06:00

by Jessica Hickey, (c. 2011) Wednesday, 26 January 2011 "Have no anxiety, man of God, about stripping off that man who is made of earth, the one who presses you earthwards and would indeed press you down to the regions under the earth. He it is who plagues and burdens and makes war on you. What need have you of earthly garments, you who are on your way to heaven, and have a robe of glory to put

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-72153880424841724022011-02-01T10:03:00.002-06:002011-02-01T10:03:00.066-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-49918464024194356812011-01-31T09:13:00.000-06:002011-01-31T09:13:00.498-06:00

Is there a better way to learn about and study Napoleonic Conquests? This amazing project speaks for itself. When you make a flipbook, start at the back of a stack of post-it notes and work forward. To get the information and see maps, we used the free downloadable animated Napoleonic Conquest map from Centennia's www.historicalatlas.com. The flipbook is silent, of course, unless you hum while

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-70928352060992939502011-01-30T10:01:00.002-06:002011-01-30T10:01:00.225-06:00

I've been busy designing this ad below for the amazing new 4th edition of The St. Michael Hymnal coming out this spring. Their website is new and improved and features wonderful recordings of their diverse new selection of masses. The new edition has more than fifteen masses in Latin and the new English translation. If you are looking for a hymnal faithful to the guidelines of Vatican II, full of

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-69673951030679232472011-01-29T10:58:00.000-06:002011-01-29T10:58:00.196-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-22303180922407729242011-01-28T10:53:00.001-06:002011-01-28T13:00:37.594-06:00

An easy and fun way to review was this Events Tournament I held for French Revolution events. Student teams chose what they thought were the top ten events and made ten individual cards. The decks were shuffled. The teams then competed to have the shortest average time, first reorganizing their own decks and then working through the decks of all the other teams. 49 rounds were held in total.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-78378144278773981842011-01-27T10:59:00.001-06:002011-01-27T10:59:00.255-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-32707016254006524352011-01-26T10:46:00.002-06:002011-01-26T10:46:00.483-06:00

Reading Mortimer Adler's The Paideia Proposal gave me some excellent second semester resolutions, including:  keeping to this ratio: 1 part lecture to 3 parts subsequent Q&A; teaching students to compose verse; have the students keep running vocabulary lists; no more permitting slovenly homework; and finally--making sure the surroundings are beautiful.  A fellow teacher always hangs beautiful art

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-56421564511462601962011-01-25T06:41:00.000-06:002011-01-25T09:16:58.792-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-89426301944781020352011-01-24T11:00:00.003-06:002011-01-24T13:07:52.112-06:00

Just like with Faces of the Reformation, which I posted last semester, here are Faces of the French Revolution.  I set these before my students and let them sketch out their likenesses.  A little bio is available with each one so the students can figure out who is who.  I think this helps them when I am explaining the history to picture what people look like.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-85278098823630764642011-01-23T19:02:00.006-06:002011-01-23T19:08:00.286-06:00

I just began Robert Penn Warren's Understanding Poetry.  Between that and A Child’s Anthology of Poetry, (ed. by Elizabeth Hauge Sword) and running into many other poems 2010-2011, I've revised the List of Best Poems to Memorize.  See the first list and second list.  And here is the fully updated list with twenty-five new poems. LIST I: By age 7, know 6 of the following. A dillar, a dollar. As I

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-90496394135524465982011-01-22T19:09:00.000-06:002011-01-23T19:14:56.978-06:00

Perhaps you noticed that I stopped posting on the "sister sites." After two years some of the new ideas can't be easily fit into one of the Grizzlebeard-Sailor-Poet categories.  And why visit four sites when you can just visit one, which what seemed to be happening anyway, if the blog statistics mean anything. I haven't dropped the other blogs but am thinking about it.

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-3370674487712682292011-01-11T12:26:00.002-06:002011-01-11T15:43:31.391-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-63482434674157293922011-01-10T12:23:00.000-06:002011-01-10T12:23:42.256-06:00

I did not make this great crane.  It was a gift. But I did find this fun origami website features all kinds of traditional and innovative designs, formatted for easy printing.  A good winter craft.  I like using up scrap paper for it, too. Next Christmas, origami boxes will convey cookies, candy, etc. to various friends.  This year, I didn't have time to figure out how to make the pentagonal

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-60051406503170734012011-01-07T06:58:00.000-06:002011-01-07T06:58:00.929-06:00

Speaking in Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Newman discusses the teaching authority of the Church. His remarks speak well to this Victor Hugo line "nothing can resist the power of an idea whose time has come": "There is a time for every thing, and many a man desires a reformation of an abuse, or the fuller development of a doctrine, or the adoption of a particular policy, but forgets to ask himself

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-7692992396978552152011-01-06T14:19:00.001-06:002011-01-06T14:19:00.338-06:00

A friend of mine showed me how to make these beautiful blocks from a tree limb.  They are beautiful to hold and fun to play with.  You can make little structures or platforms with them or fit them together like a puzzle.  These blocks constitute a good way to use a tree if a beloved one is lost during a storm. Directions:  obtain a good dry tree limb of any size.  Try not to use green wood. 

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-88894497171584593732011-01-05T12:12:00.001-06:002011-01-05T12:12:00.560-06:00

Not if men's tongues and angels' all in one Spake, might the word be said that might speak thee. Streams, winds, woods, flowers, fields, mountains, yea, the sea, What power is in them all to praise the sun? His praise is this--he can be praised of none. Man, woman, child, praise God for him; but he Exults not to be worshiped, but to be. He is; and, being, beholds his work well done. All joy, all

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-60026650500315032582011-01-04T13:57:00.000-06:002011-01-04T13:57:11.139-06:00

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-927178208211402868.post-64318555553525766182011-01-03T12:56:00.000-06:002011-01-04T13:58:14.484-06:00

"A Gossip on Romance" is Stevenson's attempt to get at what makes for epic fiction--the images and scenes that haunt our imagination and call us back to reread them.  Here is a great excerpt: Crusoe recoiling from the footprint, Achilles shouting over against the Trojans, Ulysses bending the great bow, Christian running with his fingers in his ears, these are each culminating moments in the

Gwen Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14466145212110342344noreply@blogger.com0