Where To Order the Books of the Saga

Just in case you are having a hard time finding how to order, I will leave this at the top. See below for the main "bloggy" part of this blogg.

To order, please use the "e-stores" reachable by the following links.


1. The Wreck of the PHOSPLOION

The Three Relics:
2. The Black Hole in the Basement
3. The Creatures That Live in the Walls
4. The Horrors in the Attic

5. The Tree of Virtues

From Darkness Into Light:
6. Three Things Which Go Well
7. What More Do You Want?
8. Os Olhos do Condor (The Eyes of the Condor)
9. 13.0.0.0.0
10. The Elements Fight for the Virtuous
11. Ite Milites Audaces... ("Go, daring Knights")
12. Esto Miles Pacificus ("Be a Knight of Peace")
13. Et In Luna Pax ("And on the Moon, Peace"; subtitled "How the Pope Went to the Moon")

And these companion works are also available - these are collections of short stories:
Quayment Short Stories
I Will Lift Up My Eyes
More Quayment Short Stories

Joe the Control Room Guy


And, if you prefer non-fiction, there are these:
Subsidiarity
The Problem With "Problem-Solving Skills"
An Introduction to Heraldry
A Twenty-First Century Tree of Virtues


Halfway between these is this remarkable volume:
A Guide to the Ambrosian University
which contains a good deal of non-fiction in that it reveals an implementation of Cardinal Newman's "Idea" of a University - but it also contains the thrilling tale of how Mike, Matt, and Mark Weaver attend orientation week at the Ambrosian University in Milan, Pennsylvania. Exciting for both hemispheres of every functional brain.


Finally, if you are curious and want to TRY some stories before venturing into the world of the Saga, there are four short stories over at Loome's:
The Story of Driftwood
The Story of Serendipity
The Story of the Wreck of the Argent Eagle
The Story of How Mark Earned a Dragon


One more thing: there's more to come... stay tuned!

A Guide to the Ambrosian University

If you have been a patient reader of this blogg (alas so rarely updated) and a patient reader of the Saga and its related works, you will know of the famous Ambrosian University in Milan, PA - a school attended by certain people such as Joe Outis (the Control Room Guy), Mike, Matt, and Mark Weaver, Steve Brown Chuch Weller, Malc Jones, Chris Reynolds, and so on. But there is very little told about this famous school in the Saga itself, except that it is a "Newman School" and is located in the rugged mountains of northwestern Pennsylvania. (Note: the author suggests you not bother hunting for Milan using your favourite map quest tools. It is not there to be found.)

Now, however, all that has changed. A Guide to the Ambrosian University is now available! This book presents a useful guide to the Ambrosian University: its history, its physical layout, its intellectual designs, and much more. There are maps of the town and the campus, and several pages of the questions everyone asks about this remarkable and highly ranked school. There is also a chapter on its sole varsity sport, the strange and greatly entertaining game of Gype, invented by no less intellectual masters than H. G. Wells and G. K. Chesterton!

Finally, there is a lengthy narrative on the experience of the Orientation Week for incoming freshmen - as seen through no less than the Weaver triplets. Strange and unexpected activities occur - and you will find out what they are, though at the end you may still be wondering (as the Weavers did) why such things are done: why they had to measure blocks of wood, why they had to make and bake bread.

Once you read it, you will want to attend - or at least visit. And sooner or later, it may be possible for you do to so. There is no reason why the Ambrosian cannot exist in this world...

It can. It should. But then somebody has to do the hard jobs.

The campus of the Ambrosian University. (NTS)

Christmas joys – More Quayment Short Stories

Hurray! A new book for your delight!

The book is called More Quayment Short Stories: a new collection of short stories about our favourite triplets - Mike, Matt, and Mark Weaver - in that famous old seaside book-town, Quayment. Lots of fun, and lots of new details about the Weavers and their friends. A trip to Kentucky, a flight in a helicopter - well, actually two flights, for two rather different reasons - a complex mystery involving Morse and our heroes in some very unusual situations - and then, a tale of how Mark gets lost in a snowstorm on the south side of town and finds himself haunting a bookshop...

Stories about St. George are NOT about cruelty to crocodiles!

Wow, I read that line in GKC some years ago - it is in a most excellent little study about adventure stories, a study which could easily be said to be the foundation-stone of my Saga. I will give you just the concluding paragraph:

Thus a real adventure story cannot be made on a certain moral or immoral model not uncommon in modern books. I mean the sort of story in which the hero is the villain. The hero need not be directly dealing in morality, but his own moral position must be by implication secure and satisfying; for it is the whole meaning of adventure that his soul is the fixed point in a wildly agitated world. Stevenson, who can be quoted so profitably about all romance, may here be quoted against himself. The adventures of the Master of Ballantrae among pirates and hunters are not adventures in the boy's sense, and do not satisfy any boy. And that is simply because he cannot sympathise with James Durie as he does with David Balfour. And if we cannot make such romance out of the Master, who was at least a gentleman and a fighter, we need hardly look for it in the miserable modern attempt to make a romance of business out of the tricks of hucksters and swindlers. A man may make excellent comedy out of the evasions of a rascal; but a comedy is a totally different conception from an adventure story. There must not obviously be any irony in an adventure story. When I read in my boyhood books like those of David Ker, or like those of Kingston and Ballantyne, they had to be read with the single eye with which a man sees danger, and not with the stereoscopic squint with which he sees incongruity. I rejoiced whole-heartedly when the brave English sailors captured the slaver; and I was right, because bravery is a good thing and slavery a bad thing. With fuller historical knowledge, I can easily find irony in the incident. I have come to know something about the English Press Gang and the English Poor Law. But that has nothing to do with it, any more than sympathising with St. George against the dragon has to do with cruelty to crocodiles. The child or the boy is quite right in believing that there really is a dragon somewhere, and that the harder he is hit the better.
[GKC ILN Sept 23 1922 CW32:453-4]

Now, anyone who knows about fantasy stories and dragons will understand, as GKC did, that we often need to have dragons in our adventures, even if they are the far more nasty sort which look like human beings from the outside. There are other things which we also need, and some of them are well worth spending serious time examining, just as any computer scientist has to spend time examining the theory behind the algorithms and data structures which he intends to use in an actual piece of software. Sometimes (ahem) yes, SOMETIMES, these things work a little differently in practice.

But we were talking about dragons, and of course whether we consult Tolkien (whose grandmother, I believe, taught him that we always say "the great green dragon" not "the green great dragon") or Chesterton (who taught us that "if there was a dragon, he had a grandmother" - whoever we consult we learn that dragons must be used with extreme caution, like recursion.
Us computer guys like to point out that using recursion requires what is known as the "terminating condition", which no less an authority than GKC also declares:

...if in the course of his adventures he finds it necessary to travel on a flaming dragon, I think he ought to give the dragon back to the witch at the end of the story. It is a mistake to have dragons about the place. [GKC "The Strangeness of Luxury" in Alarms and Discursions]

Just to give you an example for your study, you can see one way of handling these creatures

in my short story, How Mark Earned a Dragon, courtesy of Loome Books - or you can get the tactile edition here.

And if you want to know more about recursion, check out my Case Studies The Problem with "Problem-Solving Skills". Remember, you have to know how to give the dragon back when you're done... or you may risk - ah - confronting an army of brooms carrying buckets full of water.

Finally, an artist's conception of the Chivalry Club!

Even the best authors often leave "wiggle room" in their descriptions of even their greatest and best known characters. Some of the most famous characters of literature have gone through variations, sometimes due to the author's approval of some artist's approximation - I am thinking of Sherlock Holmes. There are others where the rendition (especially in movies) does not agree with even the more sparse descriptions - and here I am thinking of... well, never mind.

Anyway, I am finally able to present you with an artist's approximation of the 13 members of the Chivalry Club, as of the fall of 2016. I am not going to tell you where this is, or what is going on... if you're read far enough you will know. Otherwise, you might be curious enough to want to find out.

And if you do know what's going on, and what that large gray odd-looking thing in the foreground is, you might try guessing who is who.

A brief update

Just in case you were thinking perhaps I moved to Quayment - or maybe Milan - no, not yet, anyway. Things are 3+7i right now, and a lot of kettles are simmering.

The continuation of the Saga is slowly advancing, though we are not very close to a new book in the series. However, there are short stories coming, and that may help satisfy your curiosity. I am also trying to get further on the next installment of my "Case Studies in Computer Science" series of monographs; I have just completed a little study of the "object-function" which is used in a new technique known as "quantum computing" - as you may expect, that study serves both my non-fiction as well as my fiction, and you can expect to hear from Malcolm Jones about this topic. (By this point in time - 2017 - he has completed his doctorate in computer science and is a professor at a university in Texas; he is probably going to write a review for the school technical journal about a recent journal article by a Thylerian scientist...

My own QC study, however, will probably be a bit disappointing to some who have saved up a lot of small change to buy one, but then it will probably be almost too exciting for those who are wondering what Jilly and the Lowerarchy (a.k.a. the Infernal Court) are up to. I suggest re-reading Boethius's great work The Consolation of Philosophy for a clue or two about randomness in such applications, and any standard text on Boolean Algebra or introductory logic circuit design for a clue about where the technical difficulties arise. The nice thing is the project kept my machine busy while it investigated all 7¹⁴ = 678223072849 cases... but perhaps I ought to reserve that sort of detail for the book.

Also... I am continuing to advance through the primes... which is something that I like to have running in the background, since I don't like my computer to sit there DOING NOTHING while I am thinking up what to type next! Oh yes. So we are past 28 trillion, and all of the 930-plus billion primes are stored on my hard drive in less than a terabyte - though withOUT compression. Yes, indeed - I will explain that trick in a future CSCS volume too.

Speaking of tricks makes me think of the Weavers... at present I am trying to help Mark get through a snowstorm, Mike to start learning Morse, and Matt... well, I think he will have a somewhat different sort of adventure. It's a cold and snowy December in Quayment - stay tuned.

A Famous Date

Joe the Control Room Guy

in

A Famous Date

 

"...a date that ought to be among the most famous in history - September 11, 1683..."
-- H. Belloc, The Great Heresies

"...part of what historians call 'the specious present' for Muslims."
-- in an essay by W. Cinfici in The Annotated Lepanto
 

The Control Room, the Big Dish, and a Headend

 

It was a Tuesday in the fall of 2001, 08:01 by the big red master clock in the corner of the Control Room of a cable TV company somewhere in the greater suburbs of southeastern Pennsylvania. Joe checked over the four big display screens which showed the status of the hundreds of computers in the Field - computers which played the commercials on some 40-odd cable TV networks. Normally scheduled for nights, Joe had the day shift today, having swapped with Al, who was home with his wife and new daughter. All the displays showed normal status - all the telltales were green, so things were running fine. The ever shifting eyes of CUSTOS the system guardian were placid. In a long row of equipment racks below the four big screens, 48 black-and-white monitors showed the various cable networks, a random flashing collage of entertainment and information. Nothing abnormal there. Joe nodded to Jeff, his supervisor, who was talking on the phone, then he went out to the lunchroom to get some coffee.

Joe nodded to co-workers he passed - some in the halls discussing current projects, some sitting in their cubicles talking to customers.

"Ain't seen you for a while, Joe - on days now?" someone asked.

"Just while Al's out this week," he explained. He got some donuts from the vending machine, helped himself to the coffee, and headed back to the Control Room.

Joe was looking over the displays again when Bill from Traffic came in pushing a cart loaded with dozens of video tapes. "Whole lot of spots today, Joe," he said.

"A little early in the week, aren't they?" Joe asked. Bill only shrugged and left the room without a word. Joe shrugged too, then pushed the cart over to an encoder, and began the boring task of converting the tapes into the electronic form for satellite distribution to all the remote locations where they were needed.

He had just put in the first tape when Jeff came over. "Hey, Joe - I have a meeting with my boss, so it'll just be you in here for a while. Everything looks fine right now, but 'Doc' said to let him know if PUMP goes down - he's back in the lab if you need him."

Joe nodded and Jeff left for his meeting. It sure was great to have someone around who took care of the machinery. Joe had talked to "Doc" several times, day or night - he was the developer of the company software, and PUMP was the main satellite transport program, so named because it was the "heart" of their system. Joe didn't even have to watch anything; the CUSTOS monitor had a special audio alert to warn him if something failed. He sat back and began the encoding.

Tape followed tape as Joe worked. Then a woman's voice stated: "Attention: Pump is not running." Joe got up and looked at the big screens - sure enough, the CUSTOS eyes were red, as was the little telltale for PUMP. He took a quick scan over the rest of the displays - everything else looked as it should - then grabbed the cell phone and headed back to the lab.

* * *

Joe went into the lab - it was kept colder than the Control Room because of all the racks of test equipment. The Doctor, in a white lab coat, stood by one of the racks, talking with Ian his boss - they were looking at a new piece of equipment, connected to a row of 16 tiny tv monitors.

"Hey, Joe," Ian said. "What's up?"

"Pump just went down, and Jeff said to let Doc know."

The Doctor nodded. "Thanks Joe - yeah, I had to fix something, and I expected this. Just hold on while I..." He turned to a keyboard and typed furiously.

"Hey, what's that?" Ian asked. "Looks like a plane just hit one of the world Trade Towers."

Joe peered intently at the little screen.

"Some kind of disaster flick? the Doctor commented, busy with the machinery.

"Nah - it's one of the news networks," Ian said, switching the machinery to bring that network to the lab monitor. He turned up the volume and an announcer was talking about the strange event which had just occurred.

"This is strange," Ian said. "How's that PUMP situation?"

"Just ready now," the Doctor said. "It's already corrected and running fine."

"C'mon Joe, Doc; let's get over to the Control Room," Ian said. "Something's going on.

* * *

The three went back into the Control Room. As he glanced at the 48 little monitors, Joe knew something was going on. The same strange shot - a glimpse of a plane, then smoke billowing - was appearing on several different networks.

"Put it up on the big screen," Ian ordered. Joe sat down at the main console and pressed buttons, then adjusted the volume. On the big screen the horrible view was even more intense and nearby - it was strange to think that they were only a couple of hours drive away from it.

Then the view changed - another plane had hit the other tower. The reporter said something about a third plane hitting the Pentagon, and there was some report of yet another plane crashing somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Joe shivered slightly, not just from the cold of the Control Room. He looked up at the Doctor, who had made the sign of the cross. He's Catholic, Joe thought to himself. He heard the main door click open, and Jeff came in, followed by several members of higher management. No one said anything - all eyes were intent on the strange view being shown on the big screen.

But duty calls, Joe thought to himself. On one of the desk computers, he flipped through the various monitoring displays. Everything seemed to be running normally, except that there hadn't been any cues for some time. Joe understood - when the networks go to live coverage, they do not send the "cue" signals to indicate a time when a commercial could be played - and the machinery was dutifully reporting this unusual state. There was nothing to be done - something historic was occurring, and lesser matters were of no importance. Looking over the 48 monitors, Joe was surprised to see even the music-video networks were showing live coverage from New York - he had never seen so many networks all showing the same thing.

From among the higher management came a whiney pompous voice - "What a terrible thing. I am surprised that such things occur."

The room was silent for a moment, then Joe heard the Doctor's voice. "As Chesterton once said, 'I am never surprised at any work of hell." [GKC, "The God of the Gongs" in The Wisdom of Father Brown]

But he did not stop there. "Ian, I'm going home. I'll be at church - if you need me, I have my cell. God bless us all, and protect us."

"Amen," Joe murmured.

* * *

The next day, Joe was in the Control Room when the Doctor wandered in and sat down at a computer. He seemed to be mumbling to himself, though Joe knew that was normal behavior. He started some program running and began typing.

"Let's see... barry of 13 gules and argent..."

"How's everything, Doc?"

"Fine, fine. Everything OK here?"

"Yeah."

"Good," the doctor replied. "A canton azure..."

Joe shrugged. "Real strange not seeing any planes flying..."

"Sure is. Yesterday coming home from church I heard some Air Force jets scream over our city. OK, now, I need a mullet - ah, that's just a pentagon..." Joe shivered at the word, "... but visiting alternating vertices..."

Joe asked "What's going on, Doc?"

"Oh, nothing... just a little addition I thought of last night... You have a piece of scrap paper around?"

"Sure." Joe handed him a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Six by five, five by four..." the Doctor chanted. "How nice. That's why God made DO-loops... er, I mean FOR loops," he corrected himself, somewhat embarrassed. "I guess my age is showing," he chuckled.

Joe sat back, watching the code that seemed to pour out of the fat man's fingers. "How the heck do you know what you're typing? I can't even see the cursor."

"Oh, you get used to it. And anyway, this sort of thing practically writes itself..." he murmured. "They assign this in first-semester ... oh, I guess not. People don't have enough geometry any more. Or trig," he shrugged. "There. All done. Now let's try it."

He pressed a key, and the usual WATCHER screen appeared, which Joe knew was the main monitoring program which "watched" all the hundreds of field machines.

But the screen was different. Instead of a quippy Latin quote appearing in the upper right hand corner (Joe had the translations somewhere, he was always losing it) there was an American flag!

WATCHER, after September 11 2001

"Hey - the Latin isn't there!"

"Just for the next 10 seconds or so; the flag alternates with the Latin. I thought it was a good idea to have an American flag in here somewhere." The Doctor looked over at Joe with a certain meditative look in his eye.

Joe nodded. "Yeah. That's a really good idea. I'll put that one up on the big screen." He pressed buttons. In moments, the doctor had installed the revised program on all the other monitoring computers.

"It's not just flags, of course," the Doctor said, getting up. "There's work to be done."

Joe nodded. "Oh, yeah."

(Yes, that's really how the flag got into WATCHER. See here for the actual code.)

Note: this story will eventually appear in a collection of short stories about Joe...
Stay tuned.
And don't forget what Mark Weaver said:

Somebody has to do the hard jobs.

A New Book: A Twenty-first Century Tree of Virtues

Oh man! (as Marty would say.)

Yes, there already is a book called The Tree of Virtues in the Saga, but that is fiction.

This one is titled A Twenty-first Century Tree of Virtues, and it is non-fiction, though I am happy to tell you that there IS a short story in it, with the Weaver triplets.

Oh yeah... but it is merely an introduction to the topic. The book studies the matter of organizing the entire realm of human actions - the VIRTUES - which includes the vast collection of disciplines, the Arts and the Sciences, the Crafts and the numerous branches of Engineering, as well as all those things usually considered Virtues. It contains a study of some dozen treatments over the last two millennia, and in particular a detailed study of the famous Generalis Divisio Virtutis in the Cursus Theologicus written by the Carmelites of Salamanca in the early 1600s...



famously photographed by my friend Andrew Poole of Loome Theological Booksellers.

That tree is augmented with the huge collection of inter-related disciplines which have branched forth in the last four hundred years. Alas, it still awaits an artist, but without this detailed study, the artwork will never occur.

Eventually, this new tree will give forth its fruit... perhaps in the form of the Ambrosian University...

Visit: here to order.

I Will Lift Up My Eyes: the Bill Grosjean stories

Just in time for the new school year there is now a NEW collection of short stories that happen at Howell College in Stirling, Pennsylvania... stories featuring Bill Grosjean as a young college student. Find out more about him and the mysteries of Old Main, and even the role played by Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

Visit here to order.

Here is the "blurb" from the back cover:

High in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is a small town named Stirling. It is the site of Howell College, which was founded shortly after the Civil War. Howell is not a big college, but it is part of a Plan - a plan devised by a brilliant engineer named John Fisher, a complex and far-reaching plan to confront Evil and advance Good – a plan which had become all but lost in the passing of years, amid the wars and struggles and turmoils and changes of the 19th and 20th centuries.

And so Howell's hidden treasures awaited a future generation. Perhaps the greatest and least-known of those treasures was the Chandler Bells: a ring of nine bells made soon after the founding of the school. The bells were hung in the tower of Old Main at Howell, and they were never rung except in dire need – but when they were rung, remarkable things occurred.

However, by 1996 the very existence of those bells had been forgotten. Forgotten by the town. Forgotten by the college administration and by its faculty. Forgotten by the students, even by those students in certain organizations whose existence depends upon remembering, upon the passing on of minor local traditions in the style of a family – that is, forgotten even by the fraternities. It was a terrible thing to forget the bells, because there was dark evil at work, and more than anything else the enemy wanted to thwart Fisher’s Plan.

And then a young man named Bill Grosjean entered one of those fraternities, a very young man, a man with a most remarkable gift: the gift of a powerful and perfect memory. And so, just as it says in one of that fraternity’s songs:

With the help of brothers dear
And of God, we’ve naught to fear...

Was it all part of the Fisher Plan? Read on, and learn for yourself.

Announcing a new book on heraldry

I've been busy recently assisting a good friend with his own book (see here for details), and now that it is released, I was able to complete my own, far smaller work, which, strange to say, actually has some relevance to the first one.

The work is called An Introduction to Heraldry.

It is small, just a brief introduction, but it contains a good number of outlines for the reader to color, and a Chesterton-size serving of Chesterton quotes. In fact, it includes just about every excerpt I could find using AMBER which relates to heraldry and coats-of-arms; some of these are quite interesting, and it is handy to have them all in one place.

I have posted this announcement here with the Saga since the book also contains an appendix which discusses the use of heraldry in the creation of fiction, using five of my coats-of-arms from the Saga as examples. Those are discussed, and I give some background (though NO spoilers) about the underlying meanings of the arms, which are shown in full color on the front cover of the book.

Anybody need 800 billion primes?

If you do I have them. All the way from 2 to 25,000,000,000,013.

Some very cool stuff out there in the six-byte region of integers...

New non-fiction: The Problem With "Problem-Solving Skills"

Problems, my friend- I say we've got problems. Big, big problems. Right here. With a capital P that rhymes with C that stands for Computers.

So, knowing the "Little Red Hen" Principle as I do - that if one needs something done, one should do it one's self - I have started a new series, "Case Studies in Computer Science." After all, a doctorate and over thirty years of experience (not to mention a knowledge of GKC and an adventurous mind) ought to bear all sorts of interesting fruits!

So... I am now very happy to anounce that the first volume, called The Problem with "Problem-Solving Skills" is now ready for purchase. Strike up the band!

(Band? What band? Ah... I always think there's a band, kid.) Yep, Professor Harold Hill gets to play a part, as does a huge cast of characters - Winthrop Paroo, Aquinas, Henry of Langenstein, Robinson Crusoe, Hugh of St. Victor, Boethius, Milo (from The Phantom Tollbooth), Gauss, Jaki, Babbage, Captain (ahem, Admiral) Grace Hopper, Seymour Cray, Danny Dunn, Rovol of Norlamin, the Abominable Snow Monster of the North - and eight Russian dolls...

Very tech, very bizarre, and a pleasantly curious selection of strange problems and even stranger solutions. Now you will know some of the things you can add to your own toolbox of "problem-solving skills" even if you aren't a computer scientist.

See here for details, or my website, http://www.DeBellisStellarum.com.

A Public Exorcism, your Excellency!

It's quite amazing to read that a bishop in the Real World has performed a public exorcism, as reported by Father Zuhlsdorf.

You might wish to compare this with episodes like this and especially this and this.

Clearly we need to pray for our bishops, who ought to defend Truth as this one has done - and for all of us who are constantly beset by our powerful adversaries. We must also reassure each other, as Bernie did, that "we have allies who are far more powerful" than our enemies.

We us start, as our heroes, with the appropriate antiphon:
Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
Qui fecit caelum et terram.

Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Who made heaven and earth.

(All Field Agents know what to do when the Dean rings the bells...)

About the College

Tiffany at Life of a Catholic Librarian has posted a "linkup" appeal, so I will add my own 2 bits. (Tech humor)

She asks several questions:

(1) How you got started in social media; (2) How you started your blog or podcast
I answer: I am a computer scientist and a Chestertonian, and it was through Nancy Brown at Flying Stars back in 2005; she's a Chestertonian and the great biographer of Frances Blogg, who was of course Chesterton's Favourite Blogg. Since 2005 I have sporadically posted comments there, or elsewhere, and have also written a periodic column on the old blogg of the American Chesterton Society. More recently I have been busy with writing the Saga, as mentioned here or on its own site, http://www.DeBellisStellarum.com; a new series called "Case Studies in Computer Science" is about to be launched. One of my readers remarked that he had never read a book on such a technical matter which quoted Chesterton so often... so you may know what to expect. But it is a tech book, NOT a meditation; it also has a good deal on pedagogy and related matters. (I hope to have it ready in the near future.)

(3) Why you value our online Catholic community
One of the major mysteries in my Saga De Bellis Stellarum is a curious organization called the College. Now, as you may already know from Chesterton (ILN Aug 10 1907, CW27:523-8) there are three reasons why secrecy is permitted, and the first of these is the most famous, governing mystery stories and wrapped Christmas Presents: these secrets are kept solely in order that they may be revealed at the proper time; what we know as "the fullness of time". Anyone who violates this secrecy deserves the most severe punishment:

The man who tells the truth about a detective story is simply a wicked man, as wicked as the man who deliberately breaks a child's soap-bubble - and he is more wicked than Nero. To give away a secret when it should be kept is the worst of human crimes; and Dante was never more right than when he made the lowest circle in Hell the Circle of the Traitors. It is to destroy one human pleasure so that it can never be recovered...
[GKC ILN Nov 7 1908, CW28:210]

Hence, while I truly want to tell you more, I can only point to the Saga, and say, "The online Catholic community is valued by me because it is so much like the College." But since that is very self-serving, I will say it another way.

The Catholic online community - indeed every online community when it is well-ordered, honest and charitable and striving to be virtuous - provides a slight faint foretaste of the Communion of Saints, of that "great multitude, dressed in white, which no one could count" that St. John saw, and asked about. It would take me a dozen pages to discuss this at length; issues of things like the various networking protocols, the mysteries of communication between humans - and between angels! - things like how a woman of Nazareth manages to handle thousands of concurrent input requests in dozens of languages, some of which didn't even exist when she was alive... all this and more.

But especially since it helps demonstrate Subsidiarity: the idea that this marvel provides us with a way of transmitting an appeal for PRAYER to more people, in a faster and more wide-spread way, than has ever existed before! It is, as the great Marconi said when he introduced the Pope on the Vatican radio station, the idea that with this technical marvel God has provided the faithful with the comfort of hearing the voice of the Holy Father, wherever they may be.

The same is now true for us, in a lesser degree. We have colleagues who are as close as e-mail. (Or, supply your favourite electronic extension here.) By the very nature of the hierarchy of the Church, every single Catholic is related to every other single Catholic through no more than five other persons... and such a tool helps us relate in more direct ways, with greater convenience for all concerned.

Let us, therefore, as professed Field Agents of the College, sworn to "Watch and Pray" [see Mark 14:38] remember each other frequently in our prayers: we must face such enemies in our daily lives! But as Bernie Brown remarked:

We have allies who are more than a match for our adversaries.
[PJF Ite Milites Audaces]

What to do when "The Enemy is at large..."

Maybe due to the recent trio of feasts - St. Monica, St. Augustine, and the Passion of St. John Baptist - I was thinking about the Battle... you know, the one GKC warned about in his very last words: "It is between light and darkness and every one must choose his side." [Ward, Gilbert Keith Chesterton 650]

And so I thought I ought to post this so you will know what goes on when bad things happen in the Saga. (I hope you catch the Augustinian reference, hee hee) I think it wise for us to keep for reference when bad things happen in our cosmos, since it's really the same cosmos, you know, and as Bernie remarks, "We have allies who are more than a match for our adversaries."

Hence, we must be ready to go into action ourselves, since we also are Warriors. Huh? You say you are waiting for an invitation to join the College? Don't be absurd - you are already belong. (At least as a trainee; I dare not say any more here.) Like Uncle and Auntie, you are a Field Agent, and have the same tools as your disposal as they do. So get busy!

In St. Michael’s Orphanage, Father Bondost gathered the boys and had them pray in the chapel while he made some phone calls. First he called the monastery in Altiora and talked to the diocesan exorcist. Then he called his old friend C. B. Cardinal Tallisen in New York... and from these two points, ripples propagated over both very ancient and very modern networks of communication: The Enemy is at large, the Warriors are mustered.

And so, in certain far-flung places, behind high and thick and near-impenetrable walls, a tiny host of Amazons were marshalled and went into action. Few they were in number, many were no longer young, and most were weak physically, yet they were mighty in spirit and especially in prayer: like their foundress, they had chosen the better part, no less able to confront their Enemy for their seclusion than any others... indeed, perhaps more able, since they were far more single-minded in their discipline, and far less distracted than those who lived beyond their walls.

And in a tiny chapel in New York, a group of men gathered while the eldest among them put on the garb of an ancient Roman, including the stole of authority and the maniple of a servant. Then, now clad in what he called his “Altar-ego,” the Pontifex offered the One Sacrifice...

[PJF Ite Milites Audaces]

Today: Sunday, August 25, 2013

Yes, the calendar of the Real World has caught up to the Saga... and we now embark on the same journey as our young friends from Quayment...

But finally, the day of transition came. Sunday, August 25, Bernie and Marty went to Mass at St. Ambrose’s up at the top of the north hill. They went with their parents for brunch at Shelly’s. After that, they loaded their gear into the old station wagon Bernie had gotten earlier that summer, and they set off on their four-hour drive north, into Pennsylvania, to the little mountainous town called Stirling, the home of Howell College.

 

                They parked behind the dorm and carted their things up to their room. They peered around the place curiously. It was a suite for three: a large central workroom with three desks, three chairs, and three comfy chairs by the windows. Open doors led to two smaller bedrooms with doorless clothes closets and chests of drawers: one room, slightly larger, had bunks, the other had a single bed. Obviously, the third person had not yet arrived.

                “I don’t see why we shouldn’t take the bunks,” Marty said. “I’d like the top, if you don’t mind.”

                “Sure, that’s fine. I wonder what our roommate will be like.”

                “We’ll find out soon enough, I guess. But let’s get moved in, then we can go get some dinner.”

                “Right.”

                “And the first thing after that is to check out the chapel. Remember what Dr. Grosjean told us?”

                “Oh yeah... It’s open round the clock... the founder wrote it into the college charter that the students were always to have access to the best possible means of assistance...”

                “Exactly. I guess it’s not Catholic, but they have Mass there, and it will be a good quiet place. We’ll need it.”

                “Oh yeah.”

[PJF Three Things Which Go Well]

New: Introduction to Heraldry For Chestertonians!

Due to overwhelming demand at the presentation on Heraldry at the just-concluded 2013 ACS conference, I am pleased to announce, as promised, a short introduction to Heraldry.

Visit http://www.debellisstellarum.com/heraldry/overview.htm

Please inform me if you wish any augmentation or further details. At some point I will try to devise a glossary, but not just now.  And be sure to check out the various coats of arms for the Saga, which are elswhere on that site...

Modern Knighthood (and the Worse Dragons)

A sample for your contemplation...

                Other than the presence of a cardinal and a bishop – and the youth of the deceased – there was little out of the ordinary about the funeral Mass. The cardinal had selected the usual scripture readings, but to the surprise of many his gospel selection was the healing of the centurion’s servant: “For I also am a man subject to authority...”[Mt 8:9] And, as perhaps only Father Bondost might have expected, his homily was surprising too:

                “Many of you will be wondering about all these men in robes, with swords at their sides – older men, mostly. Or about these young men with swords... men you may have already encountered here in Stirling, and you knew they were bold young men, ready and willing to do the hard jobs, to defend the defenseless and protect the innocent, to help in unusual circumstances. It may sound like some sort of exaggeration to call them modern Knights, especially since knights get some bad press in these decadent ages – but they really are Knights. Don’t go by the fantasy stories and movies – don’t expect to see them jousting on horseback.... but when dragons come to destroy, they will be in the forefront of battle. Dragons! You scoff. Maybe not the fire-breathing lizards of mythology, but these dragons are worse, for they are the kind which lurk in human disguise. Yes: they are Knights, not because they ride horses, wear armor, or have swords, but because they are men sworn to virtue.

                “And this young man...  put his own life at the service of virtue – and by divine providence, while he still breathed, one of these knights bestowed the dignity of knighthood on him... who died in defending a young girl from deadly force.

                “This is not the time or place to describe the formalities of knighthood. But there is another sort of knighthood – a sort which is not beyond the reach of anyone, male or female, old or young, strong and hearty or weak and disabled. It is the sort of knighthood to which our centurion alludes.

                “It’s a marvellous story, you know: the singular case in the gospels where someone had the audacity to preach a parable to Jesus! Think about it: this soldier gives quite a perfect little analogy about how obedience works, and very humbly appeals to Authority for assistance. The scholastics of the Middle Ages would cheer this most elegant intellectual presentation; the Popes of modern times would applaud the succinct application of the great principle of Subsidiarity. But there’s more.

                “The centurion did not expect Jesus to ‘join up’ in the Roman military. In fact, he hardly knew what to expect of Christ in the way of action. Certainly he didn’t expect to get that unique commendation ‘Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel.’ Our own case is similar: This daring young man was trying to do what he understood as the knightly thing: to safeguard that young lady from danger. He didn’t expect to suffer... nor did he expect to receive that unique commendation of knighthood.

                “All too often we come to our worship as we come to any of our ordinary duties, not knowing what we might expect. Certainly we don’t expect to run the risks this young man ran – nor do we come as the centurion, expecting assistance from Authority. But we do run risks... we need to recall what Chesterton said: The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one’s life. [GKC The Apostle and the Wild Ducks 165] We are always running risks, even in the safest and sanest occupations. But if we understand what the centurion understood: that there is one with Authority, Whose commands compel obedience – then we also know that utterly unexpected answers, marvellous answers, amazing results can come from such risks. We do not need to swear in our own blood to defend virtue. We are already obliged to live virtuously, as good Christians, as good citizens, as men and women who expect to live as good neighbors in our little towns... for this vast planet, nay, not even the planets of the entire universe, would be big enough for us to live together unless we are willing to live by virtue. Let us then proceed with our duties, and remember how the centurion phrases his request: ‘I am not worthy... but only say the word...’ May God make us worthy to live – and to die – as this young man did.”

[PJF Et In Luna Pax]

Petro-Pauline Novena (June 29-Nones of July)

Jesus told us to "pray always"... (see Lk 18:1, repeated by St. Paul in 1 Thes. 5:17) – and every time of day, or of year, is a good time to pray.

But there are certain paradigmatic arrangements of dates where the very great, mystical, and symbolic numerical structure called the NOVENA (from the Greek for "nine") seems to be especially suited - such as the dates between Saint Ignatius of Loyola (July 31) and Saint Dominic (August 8). Another is the one which begins today, from the great Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul to the (old) feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius on the Nones of July. And though there is not a lot of prayer in most fiction, even most Catholic fiction, it is good to bring this most essential action continually to our attention.

For example, in that most wonderful story called The Miracle of the Bells (by Russell Janney) our hero William Dunnigan prays to someone he calls "St. Michael the Scrapper"... and if you haven't read it yet, you ought to make haste, it is quite splendid. And speaking of novenas, and in particular the one which starts today, you might enjoy this excerpt.

[Scene: Mark's room on the third floor of the Weaver home, the evening of June 28, 2008. Mark is struggling with – ah – let us say – his future.]

[Mark was getting ready for bed when] he heard a knock and his sister Mary’s voice, and he pulled on his robe.
 “Come in.”
 “You OK? You were so quiet for so long – I thought maybe you had fallen asleep with the light on.”
 “No... I was... uh... kinda lost in another world.”
 “Oh, I understand,” she smiled, and he stared at her curiously. “I wanted to talk...”
 He sat on his bed, his arms around his knees. “Sure. Have a chair.”
 She sat, her eyes downcast. “Mark, I’m still struggling... you think I’d have worked all this out long ago. But it’s getting hard.”
 “What do you mean? The idea of going into Carmel?”
 “Yes – well – no. The idea of saying good-bye to so many good things. Mom and Dad. You and your brothers. This house. The store. The town. The bay.” She chuckled, but with an odd tone in it. “Even that horrible siren on the roof.” Then she shook her head, her eyes beginning to well with tears. “Thy will be done, O Lord... It’s rough, being attacked like this, with just three weeks to go!”

...

 Mark stared, wondering. Could she know? Was the College behind all this? But he did what he had to do, even though he began to hear his own words being applied to himself: “Mary! Didn’t you tell us – isn’t it in the gospels, about seeking God’s will and gaining a hundred times more what you give up? Are you in love? Is Ted? Aren’t Mike and Joan in love? Aren’t Matt and Catherine in love?”
 “Yes, Mark... yes, I am in love. I want to do this. But this part of the world – this little town, our family and our home and our store – is lovely.”
 “Sure it is. That doesn’t stop when you go into Carmel. You add to it, not lose it!”
 “I know that,” she sniffed, pulling out a handkerchief and blowing her nose.
 Gently he said, “Look, Mary – I understand what you’re going through. I’m trying to make a decision about something too – something about the rest of my life.”
 She looked up, her eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
 “I don’t want to say just now, all right? It’s kinda hard to – well, kinda unconventional, perhaps...” Staffs and floating teatrays; ellipsoids and atomic brooms and duels; that huge, ornate cathedral, and the crucifix in Uncle’s room...  and miracles. “But definitely orthodox.”
 “Really?” Her whole face had changed, as the sky changes as the storm departs. “I’d love to hear more.”
 “Not just now. But here’s an idea. Let’s do a novena – I’ll do mine for you, you do yours for me.”
 “For what?”
 “That we’ll know what we’re to do. That we’ll be given a sign.”
 “A sign? It’s a faithless and evil generation that seeks a sign,” she quoted. [See Mt 12:39] 
 “We’re only asking for it, Mary, not seeking one. God can grant it or not; it’s up to Him. But in such a critical matter we ought to ask, in order to be sure that we are not making a mistake.”
 “That’s a good point, Mark. All right. We’ll start tomorrow, it’s saints Peter and Paul.”
 “Great.”
 “Thanks, Mark. Good night.”
 “Good night – and thanks.”

[from The Psephy in the Dome. Note: don't bother trying to find a book of that title by any normal means, it will not avail. You will have to proceed into the Saga in the ordinary manner if you want to find it.]

Now Available: Part 13: Et In Luna Pax

Good news on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Announcing part 13, the "final" installment of the great Saga Se Bellis Stellarum:

Et In Luna Pax

which is subtitled "How the Pope Went to the Moon".

(There's really nothing I can add to explain further – you will have to read it to find out what that could possibly mean.)