Universal King

This year, just last month, we commemorated the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparition in Fatima. Many dwelt on the significance that the Mother of God’s message, accompanied by a spectacular miracle, still has for the world today, and so they should. However, fewer than 100 years ago Holy Mother Church, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, established the feast that we celebrated on Sunday October 29th. It comes and goes every year, but do we take notice and learn the lesson that Pope Pius XI thought so important as to address in multiple encyclicals, including Quas Primas, with which he ushered in the feast? It may take half an hour for a slow reader, but Quas Primas itself, off New Advent, is beautiful, highly informative and encouraging. “Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God's religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart.”

Domminique Santos provides a little light but sharp poetry to refresh you after the above heavy piece. Ode to the Dishwasher from Catholic Insight is not long, contains no big words and does not force you to put your imagination to great exercise, so no need to be scared off by the words “poetry” and “ode.”

The “Ivory Vikings” are artifacts that draw Scotland and Scandinavia together in an unsolvable mystery of origin. History.com presents The Enduring Mystery of the Lewis Chessmen by Christopher Klein, complete with many photos of the extremely intricate pieces. “Stout kings sit stoically on their thrones, while queens raise their right hands to their jaws in looks of shock or grief. Knights astride small horses brandish spears and shields. In the earliest known instances of bishops in a chess set, the religious figures clasp ceremonial crooks to their cheeks as they raise their hands in blessing.”

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