Only one son of thunder, Daniel Cornell, is present this week as the other, Kevin Kramer, is exercising paternal duties for his newborn child. Though flying solo, Dan covers a lot of ground in this 80-minute show as he touches on a variety of Catholic topics ranging from old to new: women deacons, the evangelization of Jews, participation in the Mass, the removal of verses from the Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi readings, ad orientem, attending the Latin Mass for the first time and the balance to be struck between the head and the heart.
This week's pick is not from the 2010's but the 1910's! After hearing the hymn "O God Beyond All Praising" at Mass some time back, my girlfriend pointed out that the melody is actually borrowed from a movement in the middle of an orchestral suite. The Planets, Op. 32 was composed by Englishman Gustav Holst and has seven movements, one for each of the planets other than Earth in our Solar System (Pluto was not considered a planet at the time... nor now). The mood of each movement matches Holst's interpretation of the astrological / mythological character of the planet's namesake, and "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" makes me jolly every time I hear it.
The Greeks have done it again! Just like in their previous episode, where the Steven and Christian of PCCH successfully steered me away from ever desiring to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, my media viewing was influenced when they promised spoilers and I went ahead and finished the second season of Daredevil. Their discussion was a good one, touching on the strength of the storywriting in both seasons, the lessons we can pull from Matt Murdok's struggle with identity and purpose and the present state of the superhero genre and movies and TV as a whole. They then shift gears to talk about the hero in art as an archetype for the Savior, would one be a superhero or supervillain if given the power and what superpowers are the most desirable.
My Spotify "Discover Weekly" playlist, where every Monday the site curates a selection of songs I'd enjoy based on my listening history, is slowly becoming an All Songs Considered playlist (it's as if my podcast history is recorded also...). One song from there that stuck with me was "Hollow Body" by Many Rooms off of their 2015 debut Hollow Body. This song was used at the beginning of a November episode of All Songs and though I didn't think much of it the first time around this time I was captivated by the slow build in this hauntingly beautiful and bittersweet folk single.
FINALLY!!! After 15 months of waiting, Fr. John Nepil has rounded out the trilogy of discussions on the theological virtues and their corresponding vices. Adapting the topic from the series of essays by the late and great Josef Pieper, it should be no surprise that it is pride and not hate which is the opposite of love. Pride it is also that the CSYSK duo in Rome spend the majority of their time tackling in this important episode.