Another Prayer Request

Thomas Aquinas college has been evacuated due to fire hazard, please pray for everyone involved. My mom has more complete coverage here.

A Tremendous Trifle

We received the September issue of St. Joseph Messenger today. The first notice for its annual writing contest was published in this issue. On the announcement page they always have a quote on writing, the author varies. And this time it was.... (Well you ought to be able to guess, after all this is ChesterTeens) .... G.K. Chesterton! The quote was:

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The
aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.

And I have just learned a new Chesterton quote, another favorite (I have so many favorites).

Note: If you are interested in the contest you can find the rules here( it's on pg. 12) if you move all the dates up 3 years, it will be exactly as it is in the newest issue, e.g. January 31 2004 should be January 31 2007.

In which I finally introduce myself.

Age: seventeen

Gender: girl

Interests: music, botany, books, many other sundry things which escape my memory at the moment. Oh, yes, and lest you have not deduced it, Chesterton.

Introduced to Chesterton: probably by reading Regina Doman's Shadow of the Bear (someday we'll have to let her know how influential that book seemed to be), a book recommended to me by Ria's mom. My interest was aroused, and I searched our house for anything by him. I happened upon Father Brown, and ... I guess that was that.

Other stuff you may want know: I go by Margaret right now, because I haven't thought of anything better, but I'm trying to think up something different because of how many people around the blogosphere go by just Margaret, so don't be alarmed when I change my name. Also, I don't have the time to read much extra right now, so I don't know how often I'll be able to post or comment. But I'll do my best. Perhaps things will be better once the school year progresses some...

A new way to read Chesterton this is!!!!

Please read this How to Read Chesterton post, it's hilarious.

Hat-tip: Dr. Thursday

The Third Man

The Gilbert Magazine came yesterday! and today I read a very interesting article, The Third Man. The 'third man' was Maurice Baring, a close friend of GKC. The reason he is called the third man is because of a painting of three men. Two of them are easily recognized as Hillaire Belloc and GKC, but the third is less easily recognized, he is, as you probably guessed, Maurice Baring. He was, like Chesterton, a Catholic convert but he converted 13 years earlier, in 1909. When Chesterton converted in 1922 Maurice Baring sent him a letter of which there is an excerpt in the Gilbert Magazine and I will give you an excerpt of that excerpt:

I have hardly ever entered a church without putting up a candle to Our lady or to St. Joseph or St. Anthony for you, And both this year and last year in Lent I made a Novena for you. I know of many other people, better people far than I, who did the same. Many Masses were said for you and prayers all over England and Scotland in centres of Holiness. I will show you some day a letter from some Nuns on the subject. A great friend of mine one of the greatest saints I have known, Sister Mary Annuncitiation of the Convent Orphanage, [would] always pray for you.

Isn't that neat? And here is another interesting quote from the same source.

People used to conceal their ignorance decently. No longer. This is due to the spread of what is called Education. More people are taught things, but they are taught less. In fact, they are taught hardly anything;in former times they were taught little, but that little they learnt.

Well that's all for now, but I will hopefully be posting on the Gilbert magazine this week, but I can't be sure, school is starting soon and I am going to be busy.

The Man Who Was Thursday Discussion 1

A discussion on the Man Who Was Thursday was discovered by Lewis the editor here. But sadly it was closed. Therefore I am going to start one here.

Now the only topic for discussion I could think of was the last chapter, so this is my question:

Was Syme's adventure all a dream, or did it only seem like a dream, or does it matter?

Any thoughts, answers or additions to the question??? Please comment.
Oh, and any ideas for the next topic?????