In today’s episode, I sit down with Maria Gilicinski, someone I’ve never met before, but who comes highly recommended by my producer, who is also her former thesis advisor at Thomas Aquinas College. Maria is currently an Assistant 5th  Grade Teacher at Archway Veritas Academy, mere feet from my home. I ask her, “How Did You Get Here?”

Note: some links lead to my Amazon affiliate page, which has generated precisely zero dollars in the 10+ years I’ve had it.

Note 2: My old college roommate says, “Talking to Rob is a lot like listening.” In this episode, I once again prove him right.

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall  of hostility,

Ephesians 2:13-14 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

• Brideshead Revisited:
  • The Book
  • The Audio Book (Highly recommended)
  • The Miniseries (Considered by some to be the best television adaptation ever.)
  • The 2008 Movie From Wikipedia:
    Comparing the film to the earlier television adaptation, A.O. Scott of The New York Times called it “necessarily shorter and less faithful to Waugh’s book, and also, for what it’s worth, more cinematic. It is also tedious, confused and banal.” 
  • The Blog Post (Password is “Brideshead.”)
• Read more Chesterton! The story that figures prominently in Brideshead Revisited is “The Queer Feet.” It is included in Chesterton’s book The Innocence of Father Brown.
• Harry Wong’s First Days of School. Solid, super-practical advice for new teachers.
• Thomas Aquinas College Good. True. Beautiful.
• Eye of the Tiber articles poking fun at TACers:
  • TAC Student Put In The Stocks After Admitting She Did Not Enjoy Reading Kristin Lavransdatter
  • Female TAC Student Can’t Believe You’ve Never Read Kristin Lavransdatter
• R.I.P. Fr. John Becker, S.J. Ora pro nobis!
• The Little World of Don Camillo (A marvelous start to a wonderful series of charming books by the late Giovanni Guareschi.)
• Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Revelation” is from her book Everything That Rises Must Converge. Her essay on the dangers of reading contemporary literature in the eighth grade is called, “Total Effect and 8th Grade” and can be found in her book Mystery and Manners.

¹⁷ But Sis′era fled away on foot to the tent of Ja′el, the wife of Heber the Ken′ite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Ken′ite. ¹⁸ And Ja′el came out to meet Sis′era, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. ¹⁹ And he said to her, “Pray, give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. ²⁰ And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is any one here?’ say, No.” ²¹ But Ja′el the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, till it went down into the ground, as he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died.

Judges 4:17-21 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

• “So he died.”  I love this sentence.
• Mark Twain on heaven: Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven
• Rummaging for God: Praying Backward Through Your Day
  See also: The case for taking up the Ignatian examen in the New Year 
• The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
• Re: Chesterton on St. Francis giving creation back to the world, see chapter 2 of St. Francis of Assissi.
• Maria likes the chapel at Mundelein Seminary.
• The most beautiful song in the world: Mache dich, mein Herze, rein
• Apples of grammar. Alcuin of York, in a letter to Charlemagne, wrote about his efforts to educate the illiterate monks of his day:
  To some who are beneath the roof of St. Martin I am striving to dispense the honey of Holy Scripture; others I am eager to intoxicate with the old wine of ancient learning; others again I am beginning to feed with the apples of grammatical refinement; and there are some whom I long to adorn with the knowledge of astronomy, as a stately house is adorned with a painted roof.
  
  Another translation uses the word “fruits” instead of “apples,” but that’s nowhere near as charming…

• Don’t forget to pray for Jake (Episode 3) and his fiance (also Maria) who are getting married on Saturday, March 14, 2020!
  
  
• RCIA at St. Thomas the Apostle: http://staphx.org/becomingcatholic

• Leave us a message here. Or email me [email protected] 

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• Rob’s Blog: www.robdrapeau.com

• Pray for Us!

Special Thanks

To BPD for producing the show and procuring our guest.

To Maria’s roommate Kathryn, for almost keeping the dog from barking.

To my very generous in-laws for the use of their home.

Cut for Time

The Cave. Watch to remember that humanity is fallen and unbelievably noble at the same time. If this story doesn’t move you to empathy, you’re probably one of those lizard people. The movie is gut-wrenching and free on Hulu.com.
Summary from Amazon:
The Cave paints a stirring portrait of courage, resilience and female solidarity inside a subterranean hospital in Syria run by a young, female pediatrician.

The Last Word

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)