5 Quick Things #432 👻

callings, convents, candy, & the cosmos

Believe it or not, Hallowtide this weekend also means Advent is exactly one month from yesterday... What? 🤯 It always, always sneaks up on me (especially because it’s usually the Sunday right after American Thanksgiving, as it does again this year). To me, Halloween kicks off the holiday season, one of the best times of the year. In the hubbub of getting candy to hand out + sewing last-minute costume additions, sometime this weekend perhaps you can find a smidge of time to think through a basic game plan.

So, heads up: Thanksgiving in the U.S. in Thursday, November 26, followed by the first Sunday of Advent a few days later on November 29. If you haven’t yet, order your Advent family devotional read now so you’re not scrambling (I have a little suggestion for you). Go ahead and order those candles and wreath, too (I’ve got some favorites linked here)—now cross it all off your to-do list and breathe a sigh of relief.

Next, take an uncarved small pumpkin and set it somewhere prominent in your house. Starting this Sunday, November 1, use a sharpie and write on the pumpkin one small thing you’re grateful for each day—ask the family throughout the month and share the process. By Thanksgiving Day, you’ve got a perfect table centerpiece: a pumpkin covered in the scribbles and scrawls of your family, all dedicated to gratitude.

Snap-Apple Night (1833), by Daniel Maclise #

---

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. No new episode of Drink this week, but I did give you a primer on why and how Hallowtide is a Christian feast—so fellow believers, make merry and celebrate this weekend! Fear not. “As I moved into early adulthood, I felt conflicted about the day: how does one celebrate it as a Christian? Does one celebrate it at all? …I’ve now been Catholic for nearly six years. And I love Halloween more than ever. Why? Because I’m a history nerd.”

2. Trent Horn agrees—I appreciated this new episode of his about scary movies (even though I personally don’t usually love most of them because of how they stay lodged in my brain).

3. Even though Peter Graziano’s title of his essay is jarring to me, as a teacher of upperclassmen where we literally unpack the idea of vocation and how to better understand how we’re wired—I do agree with his explanation about why you don’t have a calling: “God has a plan for us, but we cannot find the whole thing out. We have a yearning for the whole plan, and can, in some high moments, perceive a touch of it, but cannot stay there. And so, ordinarily, all we will need to know is what to do in the moment.”

4. “A group of cloistered nuns in rural Pennsylvania who trace their history back to 16th-century Spain are building a sprawling monastery meant to last 1,000 years—and they’re doing it almost entirely by hand.” —this is absolutely beautiful, both the architecture and the spirit of the hard work involved.

5. And finally, this week in my humanities class we unpacked the medieval worldview of the cosmos, how and why they saw it as full (not empty, like our idea of ‘space’) with each of the spheres playing a harmony in tune with a universal, God-orchestrated symphony—and how C.S. Lewis dipped his pen into this ink for much of his writing, especially the Narnia series. This quiz was a delightful add-on, just for fun… I’m in Sol, followed by Mercury.

---

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📖

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck (the audiobook is excellent!)

---

---

Quotable 💬

“Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.”

- G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

---

What’s best about cooking & eating at home? 🧑‍🍳

This question was suggested by my newlywed daughter, and I thought it was apropos for her life stage—my theory is that your answer depends on your particular stage of life. As for me, my main reason is like the majority of you: making the food how I want.

I also feel like dining out has gone downhill the past few years, both in quality and price... It just doesn’t feel nearly as worth it as it used to be. Maybe this is just me.

• Making it how I want: 36.8%

• Not leaving the house: 31.4%

• Saving money: 29.2%

• Tasting as I go: 1.7%

• Eating from the pan: 0.9%

Find the next poll question here.

---

Summer 2027: The Tuscan Region of Italy 🍝

One excursion from next summer’s pilgrimage itinerary: the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome—come join us!

---

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

---

---

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

How can you celebrate in and with your community this weekend?

---

Have a good one,

- Tsh

p.s. - Pepper’s monster.