this week’s reading

It seems almost unbelievable that we’re already 11 days into the new year! Soon enough it will be Easter, and Pentecost, and Advent again.

The year has gotten off to a quiet start, mostly, and I’ve had ample time to read (books in their own section here). The last few days’ articles have included:

• The secret music composed by medieval nuns, Michael White in the Catholic Herald / “Reciprocally, convents sought out novices with musical ability, sometimes waiving the dowry requirements if the woman came with particular talents – like the ability to sing a bass line or to play the bass viol in the consort of instruments that might accompany more elaborate polyphony”;
• ‘This music is in our blood’, on Westminster Cathedral’s 2015 recording of Alonso Lobo’s music;
• The epiphany of celibacy, Fr Paul Scalia in the National Catholic Register;
• The Catholic genius of JRR Tolkien, Joseph Pearce in the National Catholic Register (an oldie, I think, but still a goodie);
• Recalling America, St Teresa of Calcutta in First Things; and
• Solitude and Leadership, William Deresiewicz (an address later published in The American Scholar).