Saint Thomas Aquinas Catalan Turron Hipster Briefs

Reflection

..intellectu conspicere

imitatione complere..

LH III:1167

This attractive reflection comes from the Oratio of the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church. Every one of these words is nutrient-rich in the classic composition, and concentration of this liturgical element.

Catalan Turron

The dessert for my dinner was apricot, date, and Catalan Turron, a sort of gastronomical expression of the riches of the Mediæval Doctor's gifts. I am wiser of Saint Thomas' gifts because of the late Reverend Professor Father James McEvoy. Two books of collected essays co-edited by Father James I own:

Thomas Aquinas: Teacher and Scholar (The Aquinas Maynooth Lectures volume 2, 2002-2010)

and

The Irish Contribution to European Scholastic Thought 2009

Mediæval Richness

Father James McEvoy so reflected Scholastic Richness in its most humble and fullest. Rightly, in the foreword to The Irish Contribution to European Scholastic Thought, HE Cardinal Daly made stern observation of a creeping market mentality toward University funding. (My Mediæval Studies' Journal f18, f19)

Lo bello es difícil

Professor Emilio Lledó wrote a magisterial essay on this topic La belleza de la escultura in El Pais Semanal Domingo 18 de enero de 2009 (My Mediæval Studies' Journal f.04, f11). European Scholastic thought in so many ways had a beauty not dissimilar to that of sculpture: vital, polychrome, rich in its spirituality, dispersed through all the Schools, and latterly, Universities, about the major Archdioeses of Europe.

Hipster Briefs

Not irreverently, the analogy of the modern palette and cut of hipster briefs for men, and the intellectual polychrome of Saint Thomas' day suggested itself. After buying myself a collection of new underwear and marveling at the fabric pigment, and anatomic modulation of the cut of the hipster briefs, I studied the ethno-sociological aspects of this garment and its evolution since the mid-nineties. This extra-compass of my interest must add new material to the knowledge graph of my web providers, as the personalised advertisements hinted at during this study.

There is ample material for a full dissertation. But to continue my analogy, there is a frisson of playfulness, and masculine vibrancy in these garments, and in their designers' many expressions and inventiveness, just as there is in the emporia of Scholastic Intellectual riches. Something for every taste, and mood. Really!

The Last of Catalan Turron

The fine food purveyor said to me that's the last of the Catalan Turron!

Why, didn't it prove popular, its my favourite? I enquired.

No, its just that you have to buy it in such an enormous block.


Did the christianising Spanish take with them Catalan Turron when they landed in Ireland, and so sweetened the ensuing wholesomeness of the Jewel of the North's contribution to European Scholastic thought? Who can say.

Like the accretion of a beautiful pearl, the Irish Pastors invested a unique spiritual intellectual magic in the patrimony of Europe. No fine layer chromatography can now separate the ingredients of this, for it is part of the mystery hinted at by Mr Hugh O'Neill's personal tribute to Father James

Above all, he was a priest of the Diocese of Down and Connor.

..intellectu conspicere

imitatione complere..

LH III:1167

Grateful Acknowledgement

Liturgia Horarum

El Pais Semanal Domingo 18 de enero de 2009

Thomas Aquinas: Preacher and Scholar McEvoy, J; Dunne, M; Hynes, J Editors

The Irish Contribution to European Scholastic Thought 2009 McEvoy, J; & Dunne, M Editors

Photographs

Fuji X-100 macro setting Provia film simulation Catalan Turron, Apricot and Date Dessert

Fuji X-E1 macro setting Provia film simulation Hipster Briefs

Saint Vincent Deacon Martyr and Marrakesh Olives

The Feast

Saint Vincent Deacon and Martyr's Feast falls today. The Liturgy Reflection:

dilectione valida potiantur

LH III:1148

make strong our delight..

Marrakesh Olives

On the rural bus, a fortnight ago, a gentleman leant over the bus seat and said to me Three months ago you were reading a book on Morocco. I'm from Morocco. We introduced each other, shook hands and went to a coffee house to enjoy a fascinating conversation.

So opened out my Etudes Marocaines a study journal, so too, my almost being washed away by the collected volumes of Revue Africaine (Société Algériénne) Office des Publications Universitaires (Alger).

Midrash

Today I took the train to the riverside town passing acres of wetlands looking like vast lakes, and, in the January sunshine, water fowl basked and preened, and rested content.

S had obtained for me Midrash Unbound Edited by Professor Fishbane, and Reader in Hebrew Weinberg. The distinguished contributors offer an exciting perspective on this venerable genre.

 

In the same breath, as I took the book, I asked S to get me Sayyid Qutb by James Toth, reviewed by Mr Irwin early December past in the TLS. This text is reading for my Moroccan Studies.

Before setting off to the purveyor of fine food in the riverside town, I also asked S to get me The Gift of Correspondence in Classical Rome by Amanda Wilcox, likewise reviewed in the December TLS by Dean for the Humanities Joy Connolly. This text is a sequel to my study of Professor Kathy Eden's The Renaissance Rediscovery of Intimacy.

Picnic at the River

The choice for lunch was my favourite restaurant, or the fine food purveyor and a picnic at the river. A dazzling noon sun decided the latter.

Choice Cornish pasty, tomato and basil soup, Marrakesh Olives, Catalan Turron, a giant Sussex-grown Bræburn apple, crisp, juicy; water.

And the sun was regal. I stripped to my T-shirt and sat on the stone ruin of the Dominican Friars' Priory with its mediæval bustle at the water's edge of the river that receives the tidal pulse hushed to silent wonder.

My lunch was a splendid repast. I wrote two letters as a charm of cyclists stood and marvelled.

Theologians and A Noble Rum

This rum is seven years aged. It comes from Cuba. At my supper this evening, to enjoy it I used my Boda whisky tumbler: pour a small quantity into the tumbler and swirl to appreciate the aroma; add a very little water, swirl again, savour the new notes, and taste. Accompany with dried fruit and nuts.

Signore Vito Mancuso richly reports the Commissione Teologia Internazionale meeting in Rome last week, the human search for meaning, as Vatican News noted.

la purezza religiosa della fede nell'unico Dio può essere riconosciuta come principio e fonte dell'amore fra gli uomini..

La Repubblica Martedì 21 Gennaio 2014 R2 Cultura p.31Vito Mancuso

dilectione valida potiantur

LH III:1148

make strong our delight..

Grateful Acknowledgement

Liturgia Horarum

Revue Africaine (Société Algériénne) Office des Publications Universitaires (Alger)
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
The Times Literary Supplement

La Repubblica
Vatican News

 

Photographs

Taken with my Fuji X-100

Sepia simulation, Monochrome simulation

Both images with macro setting

Sed per Fidem

Saint Clement I in a Letter

Non, per nosipsos iustificamur.. sed per fidem

LH III:58

Saint Clement I, Pope describes in his letter, it is not the constellation of my attributes, God-given as they are, but by Faith, (fides, trust, loyalty, honour, conduct,) that I can be harmoniously balanced.

HH Benedict XVI Pope Emeritus talked richly of Fides in his address to HM the Queen at Edinburgh, and in Glasgow, September 16, 2010. See my Latin Words and Topics' Journal.

Since the start of Ordinary Time, the Lections in the Liturgy of the Hours have come from The Book of Sirach. An arresting touchstone of personality is sketched of our Father Abraham:

In carne eius stare fecit testamentum

LH III:56

This signals the spiritual arousal of the Bris, described by a rabbi, and Ben Sirach mystically reports this quality.

Supper

The picture was taken with a Fuji X-E1 at supper. Mr G comes round to the farm each Saturday just before three in the afternoon with vegetables, most from neighbouring market gardens. The produce is rustic, rude, but nutritious and full of flavour. Fresh beetroot I prepare in the pressure cooker, dress it with cider vinegar, demerara sugar, and salt.

Take a tin of  black beans, and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Pour them into a plastic storage container for refrigeration, after placing a serving in a pan to heat carefully.

The salad ingredients are local, save for the exquisite Kalamata olives.

I am what I eat. In many more ways than alimentary. As Father Abraham:

In carne eius stare fecit testamentum

LH III:56

The mystery of a simple repast..

Sed per fidem

LH III:58

Acknowledgements

Liturgia Horarum III