Risking Enchantment

"Our Lord began his public life on the Mount of the Beatitudes and closed it on the Mount of Calvary. This books tells the story of how he practiced the meekness, the mercy, and the poverty of the Beatitudes." - Ven. Fulton Sheen

In this episode of Risking Enchantment Rachel and Phoebe discuss the short book by Ven. Fulton Sheen called The Cross and the Beatitudes. In this book, Sheen correlates the Beatitudes to the seven last words of Christ, and in so doing he illuminates how Christ embodied the Beatitudes not only in his ministry but in the Passion itself. It is a book full of insight and wisdom, and at under 100 pages it is an ideal devotional to read this Holy Week. 

We wish you all a prayerful Holy Week and a blessed Easter Season.

Works Mentioned:

The Cross and the Beatitudes by Ven. Fulton Sheen

The Beauty and Ugliness of the Cross - Risking Enchantment

Sacred Songs for Sorrowful Times: Music for Holy Week - Risking Enchantment

The World’s First Love by Ven. Fulton Sheen

“The Beatitudes Confront the Seven Deadly Sins” by Dennis and Rose Wingfield

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

"The Seven Words Spoken by Jesus Christ on the Cross" by St. Alphonsus Liguori

What We're Enjoying at the Moment:

Phoebe:

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Pints with Jack: Season 4 - The Screwtape Letters

Rachel:

Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway

Boreas/Zephyrus Vinyl by The Oh Hellos

"I will smite Egypt with all my wonders"

- The Prince of Egypt

For this episode of Risking Enchantment, we are joined by animator and friend Robyn Conroy to talk about the 1998 Dreamwork's film The Prince of Egypt. A fantastic film in its own right, it is also an interesting modern example of a biblical story becoming a prestigious entertainment and artistic event. We talk about the incredible visuals and music of the movie, as well as the filmmaker's faithful and accurate adaptation of this sacred story. An excellent family movie for Lent, The Prince of Egypt is a masterful example of both animated and musical storytelling.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Robyn Conroy

Follow Rachel on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow Robyn on Instagram: @robynconroyart

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

The Making of The Prince of Egypt (YouTube)

"An Ecumenical ‘Prince of Egypt’" By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times

Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton

What We're Enjoying At the Moment

Robyn: Principium, Album by The Arcadian Wild

Rachel: Dubliners by James Joyce, audiobook read by Andrew Scott

"We are not here to triumph by fighting, by stratagem, or by resistance,

Not to fight with beasts as men. We have only to conquer 

Now, by suffering. This is the easier victory."

- T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

In this episode, Rachel and Phoebe delve into two texts, T.S. Eliot's verse drama Murder in the Cathedral about the death of St. Thomas Becket, and the opera Dialogues des Carmélites by Poulenc, about the execution of a community of nuns towards the end of the French Revolution. Drawing on both of these texts we discuss the moral dilemma of 'doing the right thing for the wrong reason' and how these fictional accounts of martyred saints can help us prepare our soul for martyrdom and a life led in obedience to God's will.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

“A Temple of the Holy Ghost” A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

Dialogues des Carmélites by Poulenc 

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot 

Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton

“Patience - Our Share in Your Passion” The Joy of Believing by Ven. Madeleine Delbrêl

Orthodoxy by G.K Chesterton

What we are Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: Risking Enchantment: A Pilgrimage in Paintings: Tissot's “Life of Christ"

Rachel: Taskmaster

"The joy of the festival, drawing together the memory of both earthly and divine blessings, points to the eternal joy of heaven by giving us a small, imperfect glimpse of the eternal feast.

"Why We Feast: A Matter of Life and Death", R. Jared Staudt

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

Comfort Food by Jamie Oliver

"Why does God care if you give up chocolate?" Called to More, by Rachel Sherlock

"Why We Feast: A Matter of Life and Death", R. Jared Staudt

In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity by Josef Pieper

"Go deeper: Food in children’s books" by Imogen Russell

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Food and Faith by Norman Wirzba

Brambly Hedge: Spring Story by Jill Barklem

Brambly Hedge: Autumn Story by Jill Barklem

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques

"The Lost Art of Feasting" by David Mathis

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

"Lower Sacraments: Theological Eating in the Fiction of C. S. Lewis" by Gregory Philip Hartley

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

"Nourishment, Delight, and Fellowship: The Purpose of Food in The Chronicles of Narnia" by Jonathan Darville

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

What We're Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: Alice and Wonderland ballet, Royal Opera House recording

Rachel: High Society (film)

"Men reverently doffed their hats; women wept and knelt before the pictures, and some even crawled like penitents through the show."

Jesus, Illustrated: Tissot’s New Testament" by Ken Johnson

In this episode, Rachel is joined by Shane Jenkins, who was previously on our Risking Enchantment episode 'Time and T.S. Eliot: Modern and Eternal Poetry'. In this episode they discuss the life and work of painter James Tissot. Once famous for his paintings of materialistic extravagance, Tissot had a profound and dramatic conversion in the middle of his life, after which he dedicated his life to chronicling the whole of the life of Christ through painting. In the episode Shane and Rachel discuss the various elements of his work that particularly interested him, and also offer a counterpoint to his work in the work of Gustave Dore. Also discussed is the need for art to accompany the Bible's words, and the newly published Word on Fire Bible.

We would like to take this time to thank you for listening to Risking Enchantment this year and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Shane Jenkins

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

Shane's blog article on Tissot and the link to his Slideshow of Tissot's paintings:

'James Tissot's "Life of Christ": The Complete Online Gallery and Introduction', In Praise of Follies by Shane Jenkins

"The risqué artist who found God" The Catholic Herald by Laura Freeman

"Jesus, Illustrated: Tissot’s New Testament" The New York Times by Ken Johnson

The Blind Leading the Blind by Tissot

Maltreatments in the House Caiaphus by Tissot

Behold the Man, Ecce Homo by Tissot

Let Him be Crucified by Tissot

What Our Lord Saw from the Cross by Tissot

The Annunciation by Tissot

Jesus Ministered to by Angels by Tissot

The Snow Queen by Vladyslav Yerko

Jesus Carried up to a Pinnacle of the Temple by Tissot

The Grotto of the Agony by Tissot

Christ Retreats to the Mountain at Night by Tissot

Inner Voices (Christ Comforting the Wanderers) by Tissot

A Wild Ride Through the Night by Walter Moers

'“From the Smallest Fragment”: The Archaeology of the Doré Bible' Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide by Sarah C. Schaefer

Word on Fire Bible (Volume 1) The Gospel

What We're Enjoying at the Moment:

Shane: How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

Rachel: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (audiobook read by Richard Armitage)

"The whole story of her life... It was here waiting for her …

She had never needed to think about it before. It had been quite easy to fill her life with unimportant trivialities that left her no time for self-knowledge."

- Absent in the Spring

In this episode of Risking Enchantment Rachel and Phoebe discuss two books: Absent in the Spring by Agatha Christie and Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. Both lesser known works by well-known authors, they were nevertheless esteemed by their authors to be among their best work. They also both share several core themes: the quest for truth, the need to know and understand yourself, and the dangers of love without grace.

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Follow Phoebe on Instagram: @phoebe_lucy_watson

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

Absent in the Spring by Agatha Christie

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

Agatha Christie: An Autobiography by Agatha Christie

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis

The Habit of Being by Flannery O'Connor

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

What We're Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: Pints with Jack Podcast

Rachel: Dialogues des Carmélites, opera by Poulenc shown on Met Opera

''Bless that good, good woman who hung the crucifix round my neck! For it is a comfort and a strength to me whenever I touch it. '' - Dracula

In this episode Phoebe and Rachel discuss the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, and delve into the use and misuse of sacraments and sacramentals in the story. Also discussed is Eleanor Bourg Nicholson's novel A Bloody Habit which takes a more Catholic approach to the vampire story.

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Follow Phoebe on Instagram: @phoebe_lucy_watson

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Works Mentioned:

Dracula by Bram Stoker

A Bloody Habit by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

"Oh, the Horror!" by Tom Riley

"Bram Stoker’s Dracula" - Crisis Magazine

"Vampires, demons, and the cross: Catholicism and horror" by Deacon Steven D. Greydanus

"Cinemanemia or Revenge of the Bloodsucked" by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

Delving into the mind of a catholic novelist with Eleanor Bourg Nicholson - Fountains of Carrots podcast

The Well and the Shallows by G.K. Chesterton

What We're Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Rachel: Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot

"This seeming paradox reflects two concurrently pervasive - and strikingly contradictory - perspectives. One is to be engrossed by the past, the other to dispense with it."

The Past is a Foreign Country - Revisited

By David Lowenthal

We are delighted to welcome Catholic author and writer Fiorella de Maria. To find out more about her, and for links to all her titles visit her website:

https://www.fiorellademaria.com/

In this episode we discuss the issues that the modern age has in the ways in interacts with history, from sanitising the past in books and films to tearing down statues.

Works Mentioned:

See No Evil: A Father Gabriel Mystery by Fiorella de Maria 

The Abolition of Women by Fiorella de Maria (written under Fiorella Nash)

Poor Banished Children by Fiorella de Maria

"History Versus the Historians" Lunacy and Letters by G.K Chesterton

The Past is a Foreign Country - Revised Edition by David Lowenthal

The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley

The Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

"On The Incarnation" Introduction to Athanasius by C.S. Lewis

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C.S. Lewis

We'll Never Tell Them by Fiorella de Maria

Things We're Enjoying at the Moment

Fiorella: Spending time with family

Rachel: Vanilla Ice-cream Recipe in the Financial Times

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite"

In this episode Rachel and Phoebe discuss Susanna Clarke's new novel Piranesi. Set in a mysterious world, all contained in one vast house of marble statues and rising tides, the novel gives a wonderful opportunity to examine the way humans interact with the world around them.

Works Mentioned:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, BBC miniseries

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

“This critique of progress was something I borrowed from CS Lewis” - Susanna Clarke, Interview in the Hindustani Times

Laudato Si, by Pope Francis

General Audience 17 January 2001, Pope John Paul II

"The Wobbly Chronology of Disenchantment" Church Life Journal, by Haley Stewart

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

"The House of Asterion" by Jorge Luis Borges

"The Library of Babel" by Jorge Luis Borges

Things We're Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: Season of Autumn

Rachel: The Labyrinth of Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Often dismissed as 'the Dark Ages' of the Church before the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Middle Ages was in fact a fascinating era for Christian preaching. Richly textual, highly informed, and even, entertaining, Fr Conor McDonough OP joins us on the podcast to discuss a Dominican perspective on preaching, especially in the Middle Ages, as well as the work of Humbert of Romans in his Treatise on Preaching.

“The Word Eclipsed?: Preaching in the Early Middle Ages” by R Emmet McLaughlin

Dominion by Tom Holland

Confessions by St Augustine

“Eynsham and Ælfric” Clerk of Oxford blog, Eleanor Parker

“Performing the Seven Deadly Sins: How One Late-Medieval English Preacher did it” by Alan J. Fletcher

Treatise on Preaching by Humbert of Romans

What we’re enjoying at the moment:

Fr. Conor: Pearl (poem)

Rachel: Farewell my Lovely by Raymond Chandler