November 2024 – Tony Lusvardi, S.J.

How all our holidays became Black Friday

I’m happy to have another piece appear in Plough, the wonderful magazine published by the Bruderhof community. I’ve had a few essays in Plough before, about travel and nature and spirituality. This time I’m writing about Black Friday. Last year, I blogged here about what a great holiday Thanksgiving is — expressing what is best in the American character. Black Friday, on the other hand, expresses just about what’s worst — and yet it’s the holiday that has been exported around the globe. Here’s the essay: What Religion Is Black Friday?

The essay begins, however, not with Black Friday itself, but by reflecting on the odd experience of arriving in Singapore on the day after Christmas a couple of years ago as I was on my way to Australia. The modern city-state was a delight to visit and my brief stop-over gave me plenty to think about. So check out the essay at Plough, and enjoy some pictures of the Singaporean sites mentioned here below.

Post-election thoughts from Rome

Augustus Caesar in the robes of supreme pontiff, Palazzo Massimo, Rome

As a follow up to my piece at The Catholic Thing on elections as civic rituals, America magazine asked me to reflect on how the US Presidential election looked from Rome. So here are my thoughts from an election morning walk to the Mausoleum of Caesar Augustus: Caesars, presidents and apostles: Viewing the presidential election from Rome. I was happy to see some pieces of our election rituals restored this time around; President Biden’s invitation of President-elect Trump to the White House was a gracious moment, more important as a symbol than because of anything said between the two men.

With the election now behind us, I also thought it worth sharing what for me was one of the more interesting–even edifying–reflections to come out of campaign. When he converted to Catholicism, Vice-President-elect JD Vance penned a thoughtful account of what led him to the faith in The Lamp (where yours truly has also published). Regardless of what you think of his politics, it is refreshing to read about a public figure’s faith journey, both personal and intellectual. I was particularly interested to read about the role René Girard’s work played in Vance’s conversion. From 2020, “How I joined the resistance” is worth a read.

Those who weren’t able to be at the book launch of Baptism of Desire and Christian Salvation last month might be interested to read Jonathan Liedl’s account of the event–with a tie-in to one of Rome’s most unique Jesuit relics–in The Catholic Spirit: What a severed arm can tell us about evangelization. A reminder that the discount code CT10 gives 20% off on new releases when purchasing directly from the CUA Press website. The book is also available on Amazon and seems to be in stock again. In Italy, it might be faster to order through IBS or La Feltrinelli. The Libreria Sole across from the Gregorian University was also supposed to order copies. I hope to have a video of the talks from the book launch up on the Baptism of Desire page soon.

M.C. Escher in Rome

We’re now smack in the middle of another busy semester at the Gregorian University, which doesn’t leave much time for getting out in Rome. (Seeing the hordes of tourists you might not believe it, but not everyone in Rome is on vacation!)

The Eternal City remains eternally fascinating, however, and every once in a while will throw something at you that you weren’t expecting. I thought I’d share a few pictures from a visiting exhibition at Palazzo Bonaparte from last year on M.C. Escher (1898-1972). The Dutchman is perhaps not who you think of when picturing an Italian artist, yet his travels in Italy between 1925-1935, especially in Calabria, were particularly formative for him. When you realize this, you begin to notice that the impossibly fantastical geometric architecture in so many of his works bears a striking resemblance to the look and feel of an Italian hilltop village.

(Below: Inside St. Peter’s [1935]; Mummified Priests in Gangi, Sicily [1932]; San Giorgio in Velabro [1934]; Still Life with Mirror [1934]. Note the holy card of St. Anthony in the corner of the mirror.)