Lenten Study: God Hides in Plain Sight

Revised and updated from the Archives....

Back in 2013, my Pine Valley neighbor (hey, in a town this size, we're all neighbors!) Judith Dupree invited me to drive all the way to Saint Paul's Cathedral in downtown San Diego. Dean Nelson, whom Judith has known for years in the San Diego Christian Writers Guild, was going to be leading an adult Sunday School class at the large Episcopal Church next to Balboa Park.

Dean and I go way back as well. Brought into the Literature Department at Point Loma Nazarene University to start a journalism program the same year that I started at PLNU, Dean was my creative writing professor. In addition, a small group of students often skipped chapel to hang out in the faculty lounge and debate theological issues--and Dean was usually at the center of the debates. (And yes, I had to pay $70 in chapel fines after graduation before the registrar would hand over my diploma.) Plus, when I returned to PLNU after earning my Master's in English from the University of San Diego, Dean was kind enough to offer to share his office with me as my classes were first thing in the morning and his were...not. ;) 

Judith and I, along with our beautiful sidekick Kitty, now also an instructor at PLNU, have been faithful attendees at PLNU's annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Dean's brilliant brainchild. We've enjoyed hearing from such wonderful and varied writers as Ray Bradbury, Kathleen Norris, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Anne Lamott, Donald Miller, Amy Tan, Eugene Peterson, Calvin Miller, Billy Collins, Joyce Carol Oates, and many more. Dean has also been very kind in trekking up the mountain to lead several workshops for our little Writers' Workshop here in Pine Valley--and  he'll be gracing us with his presence once again on March 19 at our local library.

In 2009 Dean published an amazing little book called God Hides in Plain Sight. The last time Dean came up the mountain to speak to our group, I purchased a copy which he signed: "To Susanne--colleague, fellow writer, office-sharer, friend! Dean Nelson"

But I haven't had time to open the book, and from its place of honor on my desk, it's been staring at me, almost beckoning me to read it. But homeschooling, online classes to teach, essays to grade for co-op classes, etc., have kept me from opening the book and diving in.


Dean Nelson at The Writer's Symposium by the Sea

When Dean spoke about the introduction to the book at Saint Paul's back in 2013, it was to a room of about 60-70 attendees in which I was one of only about five people without white or gray hair. As usual, his humor was disarming and amusing--something I've always loved about Dean's lectures. But for the first time, Dean was speaking about faith and faith alone--unlike his usual talks about writing that I've attended in the past.

And as Judith said to me on our long drive home, "I didn't know that Dean and I had so much in common theologically." And I agree.

The subtitle of God Hides in Plain Sight is "How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World." He lays out this idea of seeing God in the ordinary, daily events of our lives through the seven sacraments in this order: vocation, communion, confession, confirmation, marriage, baptism, last rites, and, adding a new one, service. He quotes from Thomas Merton and Eugene Peterson, from Frederick Buechner to Walker Percy, and while his disarming humor is seen throughout the book, it leads us into a deeper place...a place where we see God not just in mountain top experiences or worship on Sunday mornings, but also in the most ordinary moments, during the most mundane tasks.

Although I haven't yet come across a mention of him (yet), Dean's main point reminds me greatly of Brother Lawrence and his little book, The Practice of the Presence of God, which, after the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, is perhaps the book that has influenced me the most spiritually. Brother Lawrence was a lowly dishwasher in a Carmelite monastery in the 1600's, but while he scrubbed pots, he basked in God's constant presence. He often complained about having to "go to the chapel for prayers" because he was already deeply in prayer whenever the bell rang.

And I was pleased to see several allusions to one of my favorite Christian books, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, which also started for me as a Lenten study many years ago. And then about seven years ago, my neighbor Sheri and I did a wonderful study of Celebration of Discipline together, meeting to discuss the readings and ponder our responses to the study guide questions. It was one of the most spiritually-rich studies I had ever taken part in, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

So back in 2013, I picked up the book but only managed to read to about page 45. I could tell even then that reading this book is going to be huge--perhaps even life-changing. Not to reduce Dean's importance, but the crux of this book isn't about the author although Dean relates a lot of personal anecdotes; it's about how we need to learn to see God differently than we do now. The meaning of this book is not about intellectual knowledge...although it starts there. It's about heart-recognition of God at work in our lives and about spirit-to-Spirit communication.

This quotation is from Dean's introduction to God Hides in Plain Sight:

"Grace pursues and precedes. It bends us toward God.... When we're paying attention, we see that grace is breaking into our everyday moments, making them different--sacred--drawing us into the presence of God. It's not about us getting a hold of the sacred. It's about the sacred getting a hold of us."

Dean's book has been sitting on my desk--the only non-school book there--for three years. So when I was praying about which book to study for Lent this year, Dean's book immediately sprang to mind. And I'm so glad that it did.

Now that God Hides in Plain Sight is off my "back burner" of thought and shifted to the front where it's at full boil, I'm reading 6-7 pages each day and letting it really sink in. In addition, I'm underlining passage after passage and making copious notes in the margins, so I pity anyone who will read my copy after I finish with it. With books of this importance, I tend to hold scribbled conversations with the author in the margins, but at least with this particular book, I may be able to chat with Dean face-to-face.

In fact, I'm rather counting on it...even though I won't have it completely finished by the time he comes up the mountain in March since his next workshop with us is the Saturday preceding Palm Sunday.

God Hides in Plain Sight is exactly the book I need right now as our family is going through a very difficult time and may very well be upending our lives in ways we can hardly imagine, possibly including moving out of state, despite our kids being sixth-generation San Diegans, within the next few months. So I need to see God at work right now...more than ever.

Reading with you,

Poet Nikki Giovanni at 2016 Writer's Symposium by the Sea

Photo by Susanne Barrett at PLNU

I've attended the Writer's Symposium by the Sea many times over the 21 years since Dr. Dean Nelson, my creative writing professor and later office-mate at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), started inviting some of the most renowned authors to share their thoughts on the art and craft of writing.

Of course, PLNU is a place where I have nestled, heart and soul, since first hearing of the college during my senior year of high school when I escaped from Algebra II with friends to view yet another college presentation. (However, any college presentation was a vast improvement over Mr. Winters' droning on and on about algebraic formulas I'd never see again.) But by the time that the PLNU presentation was over, I knew that I'd be throwing aside my plans for the famous English departments at Dartmouth and UC Santa Cruz (Go, Banana Slugs!) in order to attend this Christian college that was half the population of my high school.

And I adored every moment of my time at PLNU. I cried on graduation day as I didn't want to leave this family of people who loved all things literary as much as I did. So I returned with my Master of Arts and began my teaching career.

That was nearly 24 years ago, and walking on campus this week made me feel as though I had never left.

This year's Writer's Symposium by the Sea featured four writers: sports writer/announcer Dick Enberg, young adult writer Robin Jones Gunn (whose event we attended), African-American poet Nikki Giovanni (we attended two of her events), and Christian feminist blogger/writer Sarah Bessey (whom I really wanted to see, but it just wasn't possible). My lovely friend, poet and author Judith Deem Dupree, kindly purchased my tickets as an early birthday present, and we attended the three sessions together.

(I'm assisting Judith with various aspects of her new book, Sky Mesa Journal, to be published by Wipf and Stock later this year. It's a joy to work with her on this amazing piece of prose-poetry ponderings.)

The talk by Robin Jones Gunn was wonderful, but the two talks we attended with the legendary Nikki Giovanni were amazing! She's a 72 year old black woman who speaks her mind, no matter who her audience may be. On the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's, Nikki does not mince words. And she drops the most amazing names: she babysat for Morgan (Freeman)'s kids; she went to Maya (Angelou)'s house, she interviewed Rosa (Parks) in her living room, she entertained the Queen of Ghana with a bottle of Utopia beer ($250/pint), she met with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (at their request), etc.

The afternoon session with Nikki Giovanni, which was supposed to be for faculty and students (but Rachel, the departmental assistant, smuggled Judith and me in) was definitely tamer than the evening session, but it was still memorable. I snapped the above photo just before Nikki began reading some of her poems--and does she ever read her poems in an interesting manner (this reading was posted on YouTube; it's not from the Writer's Symposium, but I will post the interviews and readings as soon as they are available):

In all of the interviews Dean Nelson has done over the 21 years of the Writer's Symposium by the Sea with writers as varied as Garrison Keillor, Ray Bradbury, Amy Tan, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Yancey, Anne Lamott, etc., I've never seen him lose control of an interview. Until now. It wasn't a bad thing--it was interesting and rather hilarious to watch Nikki grab onto one random topic and then another so fast that I don't think that anyone could have caught up with her.

She read more poems in the evening session, and Dean started off the interview by teasing her about being mentioned in a Kanye West song, and it happens that Nikki is a very good friend of Kanye's mother. She quickly moved through Downton Abbey, mentioning how hilarious it was that Mr. Carson had to cook in last Sunday's episode, to having a bat named after her, to taking Barack Obama to task for plagiarizing her phrase "We shall overcome."

"Poems have work to do," she says. They are to inform, delight, and leave something with people. When asked about the lack of punctuation in some of her poems, she advised Dean that these poems "work on the breath" like a song. "Poets build bridges," she says next, then applauds Pope Francis for his bridge-building.

Yet she was a history major in college. But she does say about African American feminism, "We want to be part of the ones who forgive, not to be the ones who put Jesus on the cross."

"Very few dumb people quote me," Nikki asserts with a wicked grin before complaining that the Fisk Jubilee Singers should have been on Downton Abbey last season. A professor at Virginia Tech, she glories when her students are successful.

"Poems are right there with good wine and caviar" she advises, but she means red wine only, for earlier in this interview she had asked rhetorically, "Whoever fell in love over white wine?"

"Black women are the best things that ever happened in the world. It's a great thing to be black. I recommend it," she says with another mischievous smile.

In both the afternoon and evening talks, Nikki made this statement: "I married my mother, and she widowed me." She openly describes her mother as a victim of physical abuse...a situation which gave her an innate skepticism about men. "We have to be willing to tell the truth," she says.

Then she's talking about having no interior doors in her house. Not even on the bathroom. "It's my house, and I plan to live in it." She continues, "Doors are stupid. They're a waste of wood."

She advised us at both talks to read something every day. In the afternoon talk, she recommended the comic strip "Zits." Nikki is also a Trekkie, yet in the next moment she says that all of the recent talk about race is "tiresome."

"Life is interesting--why not enjoy it?" she states at the end of the afternoon talk. And she finishes the evening talk by citing the title to one of her books, Chasing Utopia, which wasn't philosophical at all; rather, it was about trying to obtain a bottle of the world's most expensive beer, Utopia, at $250/pint.

The entire evening interview will be shown on UCSD-TV in about six weeks, and then will be posted on their Writer's Symposium site where we can watch all of the previous interviews Dean has conducted since the Symposium began 21 years ago: UCSD-TV Writer's Symposium by the Sea. The interview with Nikki Giovanni and the other speakers will be at the top of the page when they are posted.

So it was a lovely week--especially staying with a dear friend who now works at PLNU in the Literature Department as an adjunct. We spent both evenings chatting while grading essays and preparing lessons for our students. Perhaps we can get together when the pressures of teaching are not quite so manic. Leaving her home after praying together lightened my stress-load considerably.

Wishing you all a wonderful week,

Keeping a Holy Lent

From multiple posts in the Archives....

Lent is a precious, precious time for me--I look forward to it with even more anticipation than Advent and Christmas.

Don't get me wrong--I adore Advent and Christmas: the family traditions, the Christmas carols (especially the carols!!), the snugness of the house as winter approaches, the scent of cinnamon and baking wafting from the kitchen, and the anticipation of unveiling the secrets wrapped under the tree.

But while Christmas is an amazing time of year, I admit that the excessive busyness and the hype get to me, robbing me of the joy I should be feeling in celebrating Christ's Incarnation...which is why I look forward with such anticipation to Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter Sunday.

There is little hype and full concentration on living out God's Word in our lives, of God-at-work in the Spiritual Spring Cleaning which is Lent.

Several years ago I read an incredible post about something dear to my heart--written by the wonderful Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience (my favorite blog). She shared about the process of making Easter as meaningful in our lives as Christmas.

That's a convicting thought, isn't it?

If we invest all this effort, time, money into Christmas, celebrating the Incarnation, how can we not do at least the same, if not more, to celebrate the Resurrection?

Ann writes:

And Advent completes at Lent.

When Christ completes what He came to do.

She continues:

We call it the “spirit of Christmas,” the spirit of giving, and we try to contain it to holly and poinsettias, when it is holy and it is more. The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Easter, the Love that so loved the world, that He gave.

And the words that stings heart and motivates soul:

The Incarnation of Christ was meant for the Crucifixion of Christ and we never incarnate Christ until we abdicate self.

And "abdicat[ing] self" is the whole meaning behind the practice of Lent.

And I think it's perhaps why Lent feels so precious to me. For in the abdication of self, we may gain the merest glimpse of His glory--the swirl of His cloak, His whisper in the wind, His hand on our shoulder as He nudges us onward in His holiness.

And thus Lent is one way to join Christ on His journey to Calvary. It's a gift, really--to become one of the weeping women of His beloved city, the city He wept over, clad in dusty garments and worn sandals, the women of Jerusalem whom He took the time to greet and to warn despite searing pain and the weight of the world on His shoulders--beaten raw, seeping blood.

"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming...." (Luke 23:28-29, ESV)

Lent allows us to join Jesus on the Road to Calvary, sharing a minuscule bit of His pain as we follow in His footsteps, only imagining what He willingly bore for us--the agony, the betrayals, the sin of past, present, and future generations--of all humanity. Even the mere visualization stabs my heart...much less the real experience of Christ's obedient suffering.


The following was composed in 2007-8 by myself and Pastor Stephen Sammons of Lake Murray Community Church on Ash Wednesday and Lent:

Irenaeus (125AD–195AD), mentions the idea of spending some time fasting in preparation of Easter. This developed into the observance of Lent (Council of Nicea, 325AD). Lent is the forty days (not including Sundays as they are always days of celebrating the Resurrection) preceding Easter. The forty days of Lent are used to parallel the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting and praying, before starting His earthly ministry. “Ash Wednesday” has been historically recognized as the day to initiate the period of fasting and repentance known as Lent. It's called "Ash Wednesday" because ashes were traditionally used to mark the foreheads or hands of those who attended church on that day.

In the Old Testament, ashes are a sign of humility and repentance of sin. (See 2 Sam. 13:19 and 15:2; Esther 4:1-3; Job 42:6, Jer. 6:26 ). Jesus mentions repenting in sackcloth and ashes in Matthew 11:21. A mark is a sign of ownership; in Ezekiel 9:4-6, a mark on the foreheads of the people provided protection to those who served God. Therefore, a mark of ashes was used to show repentance of our sins and complete ownership by God.

God calls us to do spiritual housecleaning everyday. Our spiritual life is a day by day (in fact, moment by moment) walk with our Heavenly Father. However, this day can serve as a good reminder of the need for us to take a spiritual inventory. Take this occasion to come quietly and reverently before the Lord, offering your life to Him to examine. Ask Him where He wants to work. Ask Him what He wants to change. Maybe there are some patterns of thinking and habits that you have fallen into that need reevaluated; maybe God is calling you to some new habits and a new manner of investing your precious time so it can reap eternal benefits.

Set aside some time and let the Lord work in your heart. Then, as the Lord leads, pray about not only what to do, but also, how the Lord would have you implement the ideas into your life. An added value is for each of us to share with one another what God is doing in our hearts. In this way, we can develop accountability and have partners in the journey who can hold us up in prayer.

I have written many posts on Lent; check out these links if you'd like to read more about this practice--and how I personally have practiced it. I also gave a talk on Lent for a ladies' Bible Study at Lake Murray Community Church several years ago; it's linked under the header: On Lent

Quotations for the Week and Lent 2012
The Discipline of Fasting: Lent 2011 
On the Road to Calvary: Lent 2011
My Lenten Rule: 2011
Ash Wednesday Retreat: Lent 2011
My Lenten Satchel: Lent 2010
Mid-Lenten Thoughts: Lent 2010
First Week of Lent: 2010
Lenten Reflection: Part 1 (2010)
Ash Wednesday: 2009
Evangelicals Seeking Ancient Paths (including Lent!)
Why Lent? Act 3 Ministries Article: Lent 2008
My Lenten Rule: 2008 (Father Acker explains Lenten Rule)
Ash Wednesday: 2008 (co-written with Pastor Stephen Sammons)
Lenten Reflections: 2007


After poking around online for a bit, looking for some new additions to my Commonplace Book, I've chosen two quotations about Lent for this week (see sidebar):

"The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare."

~Pope Benedict XVI

"The Lord measures our perfection neither by the multitude nor by the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them."

~Saint John of the Cross

During this Lent, may we walk with Him as He stumbles forward, humanly-weak but divinely-strong, as "he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8, ESV).

And may we be so obedient in our Lenten disciplines, empowered by Christ and not ourselves as He molds us into His image, cutting away the sinful dross that accumulates in our lives all-too-easily.

Stumbling ever onward in His sacred footfalls,

Downton Drama....

The Cast of Downton Abbey, Series Six

Yes, I admit it. I am a Downton Abbey addict.

This post merely lays out who's who as the series begins and will not contain spoilers beyond the basics revealed in Episode One of Series (Season) One.

Elizabeth and I watched the first season, which we checked out from the library, in the week before the second season started on PBS. And we've both been glued to the joys and tragedies and loves of the Crawley family and their servants ever since.

It's been quite the rollercoaster of a ride, after all. We start with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 in the first episode and the death of the Earl of Grantham's heir--yes, the heir to the Earl's title and to Downton Abbey, a ginormous estate in Yorkshire. The present Earl, who married a wealthy American socialite to keep Downton in the black, is father to three young women, but only a male heir may succeed to the title and the lands. Mary, the eldest, is quite put-out that she cannot inherit, and thus she is unofficially engaged to the male cousin who is Lord Grantham's heir so that she can assume the title and the lands through marriage. However, tragedy (the first of many!) strikes when the heir apparently perishes at sea during the Titanic's maiden voyage.

It doesn't help that the second daughter, Edith, is truly in love with the heir apparent, and she resents Mary for needing to marry the man she loves in order to gain her birthright. Mary really could not care less about her sister, and they are always at each other's throats. (It doesn't help that Mary is beautiful--and she knows it--while Edith is the rather plain middle child.) The youngest daughter, Sybil, is "a darling" who has a bit of a rebellious streak when it comes to politics. She sees all people as equal...and as fundamentally good, and everyone adores the gentle and kind-hearted Sybil.

And all of the events at Downton are surveyed by the Dowager Countess of Grantham, portrayed by the incomparable Dame Maggie Smith, who zings one-liners as if she were constantly in a duel...and often is. Fortunately, she usually wins the decision with a single deadly thrust, delivered with great aplomb and often with wisdom, despite her snark. We can see immediately that Mary is definitely her grandmother's protege.

And now a new heir must be traced through the family tree...and we meet Matthew Crawley, a rather middle-class lawyer, who lives with his widowed mother, Isobel. Matthew's father had been a doctor, and Isobel a nurse, so the family is of the professional class, not of the nobility.

Until now.

Of course, if Mary wants to assume her "rightful" title of the Countess of Grantham, she will have to marry this rather abrupt stranger. He quite likes her at first sight, but she takes an instant dislike to him. Needless to say, sparks fly.

Meanwhile, downstairs we have the butler, Mr. Carson, the housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes, and the cook, Mrs. Patmore, all of whom keep the great house running smoothly. There are several footmen, namely Thomas and William, along with several housemaids, including Anna and Gwen, plus the scullery maid, Daisy, who is ruthlessly ordered about by Mrs. Patmore. Miss O'Brien serves as lady's maid to the Countess. As the first episode opens, a new valet for the Earl arrives, a man with a cane named Mr. Bates who served with His Lordship in the military. Doubts regarding the new valet's ability to do his work properly start circulating immediately. Oh, and a chauffeur is also hired for the first time at Downton, a handsome young Irishman with decidedly socialist political leanings.

And now as tonight's episode takes us to the halfway point of the sixth and final series/season, I applauded with tears in my eyes as the cast of Downton Abbey won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast in a Television Drama. I really don't want to see this amazing show end, but end it must. Julian Fellowes, the creator and writer of the series, is simply brilliant, and the $1 million cost of producing each episode (usually 8-9 per series/season) is worth it.

Truly, Downton Abbey is one of the best television shows ever produced; it's high-class all the way from the filming at Highclere Castle, to the fine ensemble of actors portraying interesting and intriguing characters, to the incredible twists and turns of the storyline, to the incredible detail invested into costumes and historical accuracy--all of these elements come together to create a drama of the highest integrity, quality, and brilliance.

And our television will once again be tuned to PBS at nine o'clock tonight to watch yet another episode in the lives and loves of the Crawley family and their servants.

And if you haven't yet experienced the magic that is Downton Abbey (which means that you must be living beneath a rock!!), my advice is to pop yourself some popcorn and get settled in front of the fire as you insert the first series/season DVD into your player. And then sigh with contentment as the lovely theme music begins....

Oh, and you should see my Pinterest Board of Downton Drama...with nearly 500 images. (But beware because those images reveal most, if not all, of the show's spoilers, so I advise that all perusing of this board be done by only devoted Downton fans who have watched the entire series until now and also have a pretty good idea how Series Six will end....)

Watching with you,

Book Talk: Reviews of Recently-Read Mysteries

I have long been a devoted fan of mysteries. From my very first Encyclopedia Brown books through my tween/teen obsession with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, and then into adulthood with the mysteries of Dorothy Sayers, P.D. James, Anne Perry, Victoria Thompson, and now Kate Carlisle, I just can't get enough of a good mystery.

And of course this love of the "whodunnit" has transferred to my TV viewing as well: all of the CSI variations, all three NCIS shows, Castle, Hawaii 5-0, Rizzoli and Isles, Criminal Minds, Bones, Elementary, and last season's favorite, Forever, plus the British shows Sherlock and Rosemary and Thyme and my Australian fave, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

So yes, mysteries are my thing. Thus, here are my thoughts on the mysteries I've read and reviewed recently on Goodreads, some definitely better than others....


The Remains of the Dead by Wendy Roberts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fairly good mystery series. I grabbed the first two books in the series about a Seattle woman named Sadie who started her own crime clean-up service after the suicide of her brother. After discovering her brother's body two weeks after his suicide, and having to clean up what was left of his remains, Sadie starts the bio-cleaning service so that other bereaved families do not have to do what she had to do: clean up the blood, bone fragments, decomp, etc. of their family members.

But after Sadie starts this business, she discovers that she can both see and hear the dead. Helping the dead to cross over is a rewarding sideline to her business although her one employee, Zach, one of the few who knows her secret "gift," tries to not consider her crazy as she often speaks to what seems like thin air. It doesn't help that she also has a crush on Zach, a very handsome former cop who developed a drug addiction after being injured on the job.

So the first book in the series was decent--not terribly exciting but intriguing. I'm almost finished reading the second book in the series as well.


Devil May Ride by Wendy Roberts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second of the Ghost Dusters Mystery series I've read, and I doubt I'll read more. They're okay, but I'm not particularly enamored of the characters, the plots, and the gross details of bio-cleaning crime scenes.

The paranormal aspects along with a fairly good mystery and a decent vein of humor make this series enjoyable enough, but not stellar. I mean, if there was nothing else for me to read, I wouldn't mind. But that's not enough for me to seek out the rest of the series. I happened to pick these two up as a reading friend at the library turned them in, and she said that they were decent. And they were.

But I think I'm done. After I finish up Anne Perry's The Angel Court Affair, I'll probably return to my Pride and Prejudice variations as I continue writing my own Austenish tale....


The Angel Court Affair by Anne Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Unfortunately, The Angel Court Affair is not one of the most exciting stories in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery series by Anne Perry. In fact, this book is the first one in the entire series of thirty-some books that I didn't gobble up in fewer than 48 hours; I had to renew it from the library for another three weeks in order to finish reading it.

I'm not sure why I felt that The Angel Court Affair wasn't as intriguing as the rest of the series...probably because I've been missing Charlotte too much in these last few books. In the vast majority of this series, Charlotte was able to assist Thomas with his cases, often navigating the upper-crust victims and suspects far beyond Pitt's social reach but not above Charlotte's (even though she married "down"). For the past few books, Charlotte's been barely on the periphery, and I miss her caustic sense of humor, love for her family, and intrepid fearlessness. With her husband as the head of Special Branch, she is by necessity excluded from his work, and every case could end his career with an abruptness that would cause the whole family's heads to spin. At least Pitt's former boss, Victor Narraway, is still available for consults, especially since he retired and has married Aunt Vespasia, the Pitts' "aunt" more by affinity than by marriage through Charlotte's sister, Emily, who has also assisted with many a case in the past.

So I miss Charlotte and Emily's intrusion into Pitt's cases, and although the new "girl" serving the Pitts is nice enough, she's no Gracie who also assisted in Pitt's cases before marrying Pitt's former sergeant. Although this series was never humorous, the "shine" of this series is missing--the heart of the series, I guess. It's as if everyone grew up and moved out of the neighborhood. And that absence leaves a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth.

I'm not sure what will happen in the next Pitt mystery, but I hope it's an improvement over this one.


Ripped From the Pages by Kate Carlisle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another wonderful mystery (the 9th!) in Kate Carlisle's Bibliophile Mystery series, Ripped from the Pages takes place in Dharma, a commune-like town in Sonoma's wine country. Brooklyn Wainwright, a restorer and binder of antiquarian books, comes across--yes--another dead body. Her boyfriend, hunky British former MI-6 agent, Derek Stone, joins Brooklyn while their San Francisco apartment is being remodeled, and they settle down to early harvest time. An expansion of a wine storage cave yields a secret room full of pre-World War II treasure...and a dead body. The mystery is afoot!

I just love this series of mysteries, partly because I am addicted to books (the older, the better!), and partly because I love a good mystery, and partly because I adore quirky characters.... And Kate Carlisle has come up with quite the assortment of quirk in Dharma (where Brooklyn and her numerous siblings grew up)... everyone from Brooklyn's mother who is the "Grand Raven Mistress of her local druidic coven" to the founder of Dharma, affectionately nicknamed "Guru Bob" by Brooklyn and the other young people who grew up in this artsy little village (which seems to have more than its share of homicides).

Antiquarian books, a good mystery, and quirkiness to the nth degree...what isn't there to love in this ninth installment of the Bibliophile Mysteries? (Except having to wait for the tenth installment in June 2016, of course...especially after the final sentence of this book!)

(Write quickly, Kate!)

This last one is more ghost story than mystery, but I wanted to include it here....


The Tiny Steps: A Ghost Story From The Tiny Staircase Series by David J. Schmidt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story was of great interest to me as I not only attended Point Loma Nazarene University as a student, but I also taught there as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Literature, Journalism, and Modern Languages.

As a freshman living on campus before marrying my husband, I worked on the yearbook staff and experienced some spooky stuff happening one night when we were working late on a deadline for the sports section. Our office was upstairs in Cabrillo Hall...which I found out later was supposedly haunted. The building had been the home of Madame Tingley, the leader of a Theosophist colony on the peninsula of Point Loma, not far from downtown San Diego, in the early 1900's. Cabrillo Hall and the administration building, Mieras Hall, were both original to the Theosophist society.

Thus, this ghost story, expertly revealed detail by detail by David Schmidt, a far more recent student of PLNU, was gripping, especially as it was interspersed with the history of Madame Tingley and the Theosophists. Mr. Schmidt separates fact from fiction as he slowly rolls out the story of the experiences of a campus security guard he interviewed after Cabrillo Hall was relocated as part of the refurbishing of the campus for PLNU's centennial in 2002. (The university had started as Pasadena College in 1902 and moved to its present location, the former Cal Western campus, in 1972/3.) Cabrillo Hall was a music building when I was a student; after its move across campus in the wake of building a new student commons and music building with a performance hall, it became classrooms on the main floor (our daughter Elizabeth had her German class in Cabrillo) and staff offices on the second floor. The basement, which had been used for storage when I was a student, has been converted to studios for art students.

I won't retell the bizarre experiences of the unnamed security guard, but this short story would be a perfect story to read aloud at a spooky mountain camp out, a beach bonfire, a Halloween get-together, or a freshman prank. ;) The perfect mixture of superb story-telling and historical background, The Tiny Steps deserves a place in the lore of PLNU...and will also be enjoyed by those who have no connection to the campus at all.

Happy reading, everyone!

The Value of Church History

Revised Post from the Archives....

Earlier this month, I was praying from one of my favorite prayer books, John Baillie's little gem, A Diary of Private Prayer. The second half of the prayer for the morning of the fifth day is a prayer I would never have considered praying before I started learning about the liturgical church. Now it's an idea that encourages me more than I can possibly express:

"O Thou who wast, and art, and art to come, I thank Thee that this Christian way whereon I walk is no untried or uncharted road, but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. I thank Thee for the finger-posts and danger-signals with which it is marked at every turning and which may be known to me through the study of the Bible, and all history, and of all the great literature of the world. Beyond all, I give Thee devout and humble thanks for the great gift of Jesus Christ, the Pioneer of our faith. I praise Thee that Thou hast caused me to be born in an age and in a land which have known His Name, and that I am not called upon to face any temptation or trial which He did not first endure.

"Forbid it, Lord, that I should fail to profit by these great memories of the ages that are gone by, or to enter into the glorious inheritance which Thou hast prepared for me; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen."

Benjamin and I have been reading about the Reformation in his ABeka World History textbook. It's a well-known text used by many Christian schools and homeschooling families alike, but I cannot emphasize enough how disappointed (and sometimes downright angry!) I was at their treatment of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in the Lord. (The other three kids read this textbook as well, and while we definitely discussed these points, B and I delved into the nitty-gritty of the topic and the way in which it was mishandled because I'm reading the text aloud to him.) Because I know church history fairly well (also another subject in our home school this year--again for the fourth time), I was alert to their obvious bias which, to my perhaps over-sensitive spirit on this topic so near and dear to my heart, seemed to border on hatred and was definitely built on exaggeration and half-truths.

I'll not get on my soapbox about "majoring on the majors" as far as evangelicals and Roman Catholics go (besides the fact that we share 85% of Christian doctrine in common), so I'll focus on the topic at hand, This journey through the Reformation highlighted one of the weaknesses of evangelical "tradition" (for lack of a better word) in that it often seems to divorce itself from church history and Biblical tradition. How can we move forward as God's ambassadors without knowing where the church has been? As an evangelical, I knew nothing about the church from the end of the New Testament to Martin Luther posting the 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg. Nothing. I truly appreciate the church history review we had in Lake Murray Community Church's adult Sunday School class many years ago, but I had already invested several years of study into the topic on my own before the class was taught. To me, the overall ignorance of evangelicals regarding church history is lamentable and decidedly unhelpful in being an ambassador for Christ.

Almost all evangelicals would state that our main focus of study as Christians needs to be the Bible, God's Word, and our personal relationship with God. And they are right. But church history may be compared to a map of our Christian walk, allowing us to recognize and thus avoid some of the pitfalls and detours as well as the traps set by our immortal enemy along the way.

So where do we find this road map? For beginners, I recommend Bruce Shelley's Church History in Plain Language. It reads delightfully like a novel and is very fair-minded in not "taking sides" in the many issues that have cropped up over two millennia. For those who want a more in-depth resource, The Story of Christianity by Justo Gonzales (in two volumes or both volumes bound together; the link takes you to volume one only) is a great read.

If you appreciate beautifully-illustrated books, The Story of Christianity by Collins and Price is both informative and gorgeous. This is the volume that Sonlight, our main homeschool curriculum, uses as the "spine" for their high school church history course, and it's the book that Benjamin and I are reading now for our church history elective. One author of this lovely book is Protestant, and the other is Catholic, so an excellent balance is maintained. Our other three kids have either read this book or I've read it aloud to them during their school days

Knowing the "Pilgrim Pathway" is of the utmost importance to our Christian walk. The French writer, poet, and politician Lamartine stated, "History teaches everything including the future." I think the same case can be made for church history. As the prophet Jeremiah wrote, "Ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way in, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16).

One of my favorite Scripture quotations is from Psalm 84;4 in another of my devotional books, The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle (a series in three volumes)in which this verse is translated beautifully as:

"Happy are the people whose strength is in you! whose hearts are set on the pilgrim's way."

~Psalm 84:4, The Divine Hours

Wishing you all a blessed week in the love and grace of our Lord Christ!

Happy Epiphany!

Updated from my archive...

Today, January 6th, is the celebration of The Epiphany, or The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the Anglican tradition. Below you'll find an excellent description and explanation of Epiphany from the CRI (Christian Resource Institute) website which I edited down to cover the basics. (The author, Dennis Bratcher, was a professor at Point Loma Nazarene University from which I received my undergrad degree and also at which I taught as an Adjunct in the Literature Department when my children were quite young.)

The Collect for Epiphany from the Book of Common Prayer 2011 reads:

O God, by the leading of a star, you revealed your only eternal Son to the peoples of the earth; In your mercy grant that we, who know you now by faith, may after this life behold your glory and power face to face; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (References: 1 Corinthians 13.12; Matthew 2.7-11; Luke 2.30-33; Psalm 63.2)

From the CRI website:
The Season of Epiphany
Dennis Bratcher

In western Christian tradition, January 6 is celebrated as Epiphany. Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of December 25th until the morning of January 6th, which is the Twelfth Day. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany. The Season of Christmas begins with the First Sunday of Advent, marked by expectation and anticipation, and concludes with Epiphany, which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity. The one or two Sundays between Christmas Day and Epiphany are sometimes called Christmastide. For many Protestant church traditions, the season of Epiphany extends from January 6th until Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent leading to Easter. In some western traditions, the last Sunday of Epiphany is celebrated as Transfiguration Sunday.

The term epiphany means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. In some Central and South American countries influenced by Catholic tradition, Three Kings’ Day, or the night before, is the time for opening Christmas presents. The colors of Epiphany are usually the colors of Christmas, white and gold, the colors of celebration, newness, and hope that mark the most sacred days of the church year.

As with most aspects of the Christian liturgical calendar, Epiphany has theological significance as a teaching tool in the church. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to "show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.

The day is now observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church in reaching others by "showing" Jesus as the Savior of all people. It is also a time of focusing on Christian brotherhood and fellowship, especially in healing the divisions of prejudice and bigotry that we all too often create between God’s children.

********

In past years, we have given our children their "big gift" on Epiphany. When Keith's business was doing well, we gave them an X-Box or a the complete set of Star Wars movies, or something else "big" for them all to share. This year we can't do that, but while we usually take down the Christmas things (always a somewhat depressing job in itself), we're more focused on the serious El Nino flooding happening in San Diego today.

Last night I attended the Twelfth Night party with Blessed Trinity, celebrating the final evening of Christmastide with fellow Anglicans and with the Father Acker and Alice's neighbors in Alpine. Despite the rains, we still managed a small bonfire as we burned the greens, then we enjoyed a lovely dinner and finished with Alice's amazing Christmastide trifle. :)

But now we must return to the life of common days, with teaching and grading and everything else that comes with life with a family of six.

I wish you and yours a blessed Epiphanytide, and also blessings as we all return to the joy and work of ordinary days.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." -- St. Matthew 5:16, KJV

Warmly,

Books I Read in 2015

The most erudite of all of the variations of Pride and Prejudice that I read this year, the New York Times Bestseller Longbourn explores Austen's famous novel from the point of view of the Bennets' servants

I've read quite a few books this year...yes, quite a few. According to my Goodreads list, I've read nearly 70 books although the list below includes only 55.

I've been immersing myself in variations and continuations of Austen books, mostly Pride and Prejudice, in preparation for writing my own book in this genre; the oldest Pride and Prejudice "fan fiction" novel here dates back to 1949, long before the term "fan fiction" came into being.

The source of most of these novels is the amazing website Austen Variations which features both short stories and full-on chapter books based on Austen's works, plus historical, literary, and sociological articles on the Regency period and on Austen and her family. It's a treasure-trove for Austen fans.

So here's a graphic of my list: Susanne's Year in Books 2015 on Goodreads

The Bibliophile Mystery series is definitely one of my favorite set of mysteries and features a bookbinder with a penchant for finding dead bodies and piecing together clues....

And here's the list I made on the sidebar of my blog. I think that the Goodreads list is more accurate if there are any discrepancies:

• A Darcy Christmas by Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan, and Carolyn Eberhart (2010)
• A Gentleman's Daughter: Her Choice by Reina M. Williams (2011)
• A Gentleman's Daughter: Her Folly by Reina M. Williams (2013)
• A Wife for Mr. Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen (2011)
• A Will of Iron by Linda Beutler (2015)
• Alone with Mr. Darcy by Abigail Reynolds (2015)
• An Improper Suitor by Monica Fairview (2008)
• Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Caitlin Williams (2015)
• Darcy and Elizabeth: Behind Pemberley's Walls (short story) by Mary Lydon Simonsen (2015)
• Darcy and Elizabeth: Lost in Love (short story) by Mary Lydon Simonsen (2015)
• Darcy Chooses by Gianna Thomas (2015)
• Darcy and Elizabeth: A Most Unlikely Couple by Brenda J. Webb (2014)
• Falling for Your Madness by Katharine Grubb (2012)
• Haunting Mr. Darcy by KaraLynne Mackrory (2014)
• Her Royal Spyness (#1) by Rhys Bowen (2007)
• In the Arms of Mr. Darcy (Darcy Saga #4) by Sharon Lathan (2010)
• Lizzy Bennet's Diary by Cassandra Grafton (2014)
• Longbourn by Jo Baker (2013)
• Longbourn to London by Linda Beutler (2014)
• Lord of Glory: A Lenten Devotional on the Names of Christ by Ray Pritchard (2014)
• Loving Mr. Darcy (Darcy Saga #2) by Sharon Lathan (2009)
• Most Truly: A P&P Novella by Reina M. Williams (2013)
• Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Darcy Saga #1) by Sharon Lathan (2009)
• Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride by Helen Halstead (2007)
• Mr. Darcy's Persistent Pursuit by Elaine Owen (2014)
• Mr. Darcy's Promise by Jenna Ellsworth (2014)
• Mr. Darcy's Refuge by Abigail Reynolds (2012)
• Mr. Darcy's Secret by Jane Odiwe (2011)
• Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds (2010)
• My Dearest Mr. Darcy (Darcy Saga #3) by Sharon Lathan (2010)
• Only Mr. Darcy Will Do by Kara Louise (2008)
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1992)
• Pemberley Ranch by Jack Caldwell (2010)
• Pemberley Shades by D.A. Bonavia-Hunt (1949)
• Pemberley or P&P Continued by Emma Tennant (1993)
• Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier (re-read) (1938)
• Remembrance of the Past by Lory Lilian (2011)
• Ripped from the Pages (Bibliophile Mystery #9) by Kate Carlisle (2015)
• Sketching Mr. Darcy by Lory Lilian (2015)
• So Gradually: A Pride and Prejudice Tale by Jessica Schlenker (2008)
• Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good (Mitford #10) by Jan Karon (2014)
• The Best of Relations by Catherine Bilson (2015)
• The Darcy Cousins by Monica Fairview (2010)
• The Late Scholar (Lord Peter #4) by Jill Paton Walsh (2013)
• The One Year Book of Hymns by Tyndale House (1995)
• The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairview (2009)
• The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen (2011)
• The Perfect Match by Lory Lillian (2014)
• The Red Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler (2013)
• The Tiny Steps by David J.Schmidt (2015)
• The Trouble with Mr. Darcy (Darcy Saga #5) by Sharon Lathan (2010)
• To Refine Like Silver by Jenna Ellsworth (2014)
• Twelfth Night by Shakespeare (1601) (re-read)
• Without Reserve by Abigail Reynolds (2004)
• Yours Forevermore, Darcy by KaraLynne Mackrory (2015)

Wishing you a joyous and healthy 2016,

Films Watched in 2015

Here's a list of the films I watched in 2015. I'm not much of a movie-watcher; I prefer television shows because they're shorter and take less time, plus I enjoy watching characters develop over several seasons rather than a mere two hours.

But here's my list:

Ant-Man (2015--in theatres)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

From Time to Time (2009)

Into the Woods (2014)

Jurassic World (2015-in theatres-twice!)

Kingsman:The Secret Service (2015--twice--in theatres and DVD)

Lost in Austen (2008)

Maleficent (2014)

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Series 1-3 (2012-2015)

Pixels (2015-in theatres)

Rebecca (1940)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015--in theatres-twice!)

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015-in theatres)

The Imitation Game (2014)

The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Valkyrie (2008)

Wishing you a blessed and joyous 2016,