I appreciate the recommendation. I've actually looked quite a lot into these issues, as I seriously considered becoming Orthodox at one point; and I still have a vast appreciation for the riches of Orthodoxy, and the evident holiness of very many Orthodox Christians. Certainly I'm uninterested in trying to dissuade anyone who feels called to convert to Orthodoxy. Above all I don't want to derail the thread by heading into the tall grass of apologetics. Accepting for the sake of argument all that you say, it still leaves us very far from being able to say that the early Church knew nothing of a concept like the age of reason; and light-years from any serious claim that the Church Fathers taught the salvation of unbaptized infants. For investigation of the latter claim, I can only recommend a general reading of the pre-Chalcedonian writings, to get a sense of how very alien to their thinking such a teaching would be.

Everyone stop with all this charitableness. At this rate Heaven will be too crowded.

I'm not sure I would entirely agree. The canons of the Council of Elvira, from around 300 AD, for instance, draw a distinction between adults and children who have fallen into heresy, with what looks very much like an "age of reason" grounds for that distinction (though that phrase is not used). I do agree that there is no patristic support for the withholding of the Eucharist from infants on the grounds of not having attained the age of reason. It's certainly incorrect to say--if I'm not misstating your assertion--that the early Church taught that unbaptized infants are saved. The early Church was unanimous in its teaching that baptism is necessary for salvation, without any hint of exempting infants from that teaching; and Gregory Nazianzen, Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, and others were explicit that baptism is necessary for the salvation of infants. (Note: I'm not asserting any particular soteriological proposition here; just appealing to the record.) I am no scholar, and if you know of patristic evidence to the contrary, I would be very happy for a citation. Regarding Original Sin, I'll forbear argument or citation (I'm not going to pick a fight with the Orthodox ladies here!), except to say that the patristic record, as well as both Orthodox and Catholic theologies regarding the Sin of Adam and its relation to baptism, are considerably more nuanced than simply a flat denial (or assertion) of the doctrine.

The combination of being imprisoned by her father in a tower, and her father being killed by a thunderbolt blast in punishment, made her the patron of miners: that is, the kind that dug underground and blew up towers. (And which incidentally is the source of a tarot card with the image of a tower struck by lightning.) Quickly this extended to anyone who worked with gunpowder or artillery and any type of miner, and the image of the tower now often resembles a cannon. Barbara is the saint for all guys who like to blow things up, and those who crunch the numbers to help them blow things up. When in a holy cause, naturally. Book-related: While I am enjoying The Bostonians, I am surprised and annoyed by how typo-ridden this Everyman edition is. They are usually very good at editing.

Two classics: Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year (Great Plague of London, 1665) Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed (Great Plague of Milan, 1629) Both quite readable and well worth it.

And when the Red River finally runs dry from the drought, we'll be pretty much united!

This seems to be a different person, who was a relative. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29467489 "When he left the country last month, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan filled in a questionnaire saying that none of his relatives were sick. But Liberia's assistant health minister said he had taken a sick relative to a clinic in a wheelbarrow."

The BBC is reporting that the Liberian government plans to prosecute the man for saying he had no sick relatives, when in fact he did. Sorry no link (I'm on my phone); maybe someone else can link it?

Here in l'ÃŽle d'Austin, organic vegan chili is common. Dh makes Frito pie with it. Organic Fritos, I'm sure; haven't checked. More and more I meet homeschooling Texans who made the decision because a child's health or family travel made compliance with the absence policies impossible. No doubt this idiotic policy increases enrollment at private schools also. If the Dallas Ebola scare raises awareness of the policy (see? on topic!), that will be a good thing. I doubt that this incident in itself will convince people to homeschool, but it will certainly be a tipping point for families already toying with the thought. And many families may discover, in providing 'bridge' teaching during the temporary withdrawal, that it it's kind of fun. I don't understand. Why would we want to leave?

Amy, how ghastly. I can't imagine. Prayers for you and your family, particularly the niece. May the Lord grant her father peace and rest. Jane, more beautiful photos! And thank you for your thoughtfulness. St Barbara is the patron of mathematicians (via her patronage of artillery units), so I presume she provides some backup coverage for St Catherine over dh.

I'll just sit here, in the corner.

Here you go. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1505-Medieval-P-Incunable-Golden-Legend-Legenda-Aurea-Voragine-Saints-Martyrs-/310407173847

Oh, and regarding these remarks from other states about their superiority to Texas. I have never heard a Texan taxing himself to explain why Texas is superior to Oklahoma, or Nebraska, or Kansas. He would be confused if you suggested he might do so. Also: Ann Richards.

The most recent news says the patient did in fact say, on intake, that he had just come from Liberia; but that the information got lost in the shuffle.

The Ryan translation is the one I have; it was the one the bookstore happened to have. Sorry not to have any better information than that.

How I want to visit Prague! So very, very envious. Beautiful pictures, beautiful food descriptions.... Okay, books about saints. There are two classic compendia of saints' lives. The first is Butler's Lives of the Saints, which will give you the factual information about every saint on the calendar (up through the date of whatever edition you have), along with some pious meditations. Butler's is where you go to find out that, for example, St. Frances de Chantal founded the Order of the Visitation. http://sacred-texts.com/chr/lots/index.htm The other one is Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend from the thirteenth century, which is the source of the classic tales of the saints that informed the iconography of the late Middle Ages and beyond. This is where you go to find out that St. Martha, having left the Holy Land with Mary Magdalene to hang about near Avignon, slew a fish-dragon that was annoying the locals. Which is why a scaly, finny dragon under a saint's feet tells you it's St. Martha. I recommend the latter.

We've red-shirted Wee Girl, who would be in second grade by age in our ISD. But she has a mid-July birthday, barely speaks, is very fearful of new experiences, and had her writing badly delayed by (and this was odd) learning to read before she could speak--so she didn't really make the crucial sound-to-letter connection. Plus lots of time on speech therapy and trying to desensitize her from her various anxieties and weird phobias. All this means practically for us is that she's doing a first-grade curriculum--definitely the right level for her--in everything but math, where she's wrapping up fractions and about to start pre-algebra. :)

Y'all are some beautiful women, you know that? Thank you for your support right now. Things are a lot better. Now if we can just get some useful test results. Double-reading right now: wallowing in Henry James again, with The Bostonians, and, in an attempt to just once comply with the monthly topic, The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. The stories are in chronological order and Sir Walter Scott and Le Fanu didn't let me down; so far, so good. A few thoughts on last week's books: I nominate Samuel Johnson as patron saint of TBR piles. Because the year he died--while he was very ill and knew he wasn't likely to live more than a couple of months--he placed an order for a set of thirty books which he had seen displayed at a bookseller's, and thought he might like to look into. (Boswell has the list of titles, and they actually sound pretty intriguing! "Curiosities of England." "Unparalleled Varieties." "Surprizing Miracles of Nature and Art.") Amusing Ourselves to Death was, as you'd expect, pretty dated. I must be the last person in the country to have read the book. The first, speculative, half, wasn't bad; the rest was a series of the kind of rants that made me think how much better ranting has gotten now that folks have the internet to practice on. I did enjoy his frequent insistence that it was Aldous Huxley's dystopian future, not Orwell's, that we are (were) living in, as it's our televised empty pleasures and entertainments that have robbed us of our freedoms, not some sort of militarized surveillance state (how absurd). 1985 was such a sweet time.... So I only read the Postman because I was clearing off Great Girl's shelves and noticed it. For the same reason I read Red Shift, which seemed oddly familiar all the way through, and Wikipedia told me it was because Garner also wrote a not dissimilar YA novel called The Owl Service, which I read when I was twelve and liked very much. I think I would have liked Red Shift more at a younger age.

We're getting on all right; thanks for asking. Dh has gone back to work, but he isn't allowed to drive for a good while, which makes some days a little trickier. I read and clean when stressed, so here I am in my gleaming house with three (three!) completed books: 41. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson 42. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death 43. Alan Garner, Red Shift

PM'ed you.

Boswell's Life of Johnson is very topical for me this week. We're near the end - of the book, and of Johnson's life - and he has just had a stroke, which leaves him unable to speak. Yesterday morning, my husband collapsed while out running. The attending and the neurologist are at odds about why. He is back home now, pending some more tests, and will be unable to drive for the next two months, but he is alive, thank God, and his mental faculties are returning. It was very hard to see a man whose astounding intellect I have known for more than thirty years unable to form sentences or to remember anything at all. In a darkly humorous moment, the resident neurologist, after asking him for information which he struggled and failed to give, suddenly realized dh had once been his professor, and asked, "Do you remember me?" And then of course realized with a look of horror what he'd asked, and introduced himself quickly; and the whole thing was very awkward, and yet somehow funny. Anyhow, if you are so inclined, please offer a prayer for him. It has been a difficult weekend.

Just wanted to reiterate a point 8 makes above. Great Girl likewise is in an honors STEM program, but we did very little science. Around middle school age she read through a series of British general science texts, and she played a lot with a good chemistry set. I have no science education at all; I had to give up on BFSU for Middle Girl because I couldn't grasp concepts intended for first-graders. I teach our children the humanities; dh teaches them math. And strong math, not at all early science, is what prepared Great Girl for where she is now.

Spambot reported. Don't click on link.

It was kind of weird; like 48 hours of mild flu, then gone. I've heard that this sort of thing can be from a virus for which you've been innoculated, and so you only contract it mildly; but that may be nonsense. My understanding of medicine (and science in general) is right up there with my expertise in Tuvan throat singing. Anyway, all fine now, and thanks for the thoughts! More Johnson....

Ooh! Can mine just say "Bibliophage"? I'm trying to put Dr. Johnson's wise saying into practice.