How would you like it if someone picked you up kicking and screeching and stuffed you in a crate?

Please bear with me, friends. Last week I moved out of my apartment and back home to Alabama, my graduate coursework being at an end and it being expedient for the completion of my thesis. My whole life has been taken apart and put in boxes, and I’m now faced daily with the disconcerting feeling of not knowing where the things I need are. It’s going to take a little time to settle back in.

In the meantime, I am deeply honored and humbled to accept from Jessica her award as one of the Blogs of the Year. I strive to teach and to share the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith with anyone who might happen to stop by, and it’s gratifying to be recognized by someone with such an admirable blog as she. I thank her deeply and kindly for what an encouragement she has been to me.

I don’t understand all the rules that are supposed to go with this award. The only thing that really matters to me is thanking and recognizing the one who nominated me for the award, and passing it along to someone else. She named three people; I am also going to name three people, mostly because the two blogs to which I’m most inclined to give the award, the ones that have meant the most to me this year, have already received it: Jessica’s All Along the Watchtower and Laura’s Catholic Cravings.

Every day Jessica or her brother (in the Lord, and by marriage) Chalcedon451 posts some illuminating reflection on faith or history. The Watchtower (not to be confused with this Watchtower) blesses me daily, either with the sheer radiance and beauty of her thoughts and observations, from the point of view of a Catholic-leaning Anglican, or with the piercing brilliance and depth of his knowledge of history and the Church. Jessica is also my most faithful commenter and encourager here, and her blog and her friendship mean very much to me.

She also posts a lot of beautiful artwork. Christ Carrying the Cross (c. 1578), by El Greco.

Laura’s Catholic Cravings is also a blog that blesses me as often as she posts. She, like me, is a recent convert to the Catholic Church, and I have gained a lot of insight into my own conversion by following along the road with her as she has recounted it, as well as purely enjoying the journey. She has a way of formulating and ordering thoughts and arguments for Protestants in favor of Catholicism, succinctly and sharply, yet gently, that I can only hope to emulate. She is also always full of lovely observations and connections and a ready and delightful wit. She posts a lot of beautiful paintings, too, and I like to think hers is a sister blog to mine, as I’m glad to have found in her a friend and sister in the Lord.

Benjamin Morgan Palmer.

Okay, hmmm — one more? There are many to choose from. I think I’m going to pick one I’ve just recently discovered, that has amazed me and inspired me: Southern Reformation, whose author is known pseudepigraphically as Benjamin Palmer. He is perhaps the most hard-core of all the hard-core Presbyterians I have ever met, bearing a passion and dedication that is delightful and invigorating to see. So being, he is also less than friendly to Catholicism, but he has nonetheless been friendly and welcoming to me, in Christian love and Southern hospitality. I do not know his whereabouts, but any fellow Southerner, as well as a brother in the Lord, is a friend of mine. He is a brilliant scholar and theologian, armed with a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew that puts my amateurish pickings to shame, and a sharp and critical mind to discover error and see the truth. It is plain to see his love and devotion for the Lord and for His Church: I can only pray that he might examine his preconceptions and find that the Catholic Church serves the same Lord and is a part of His Church also. 😉

Hmm, and there was something about collecting stars (?):

I think you’re supposed to add a star every time you receive this award? I guess that means Jessica and Laura can both add a star.

Oh, and there’s another thing: exciting news and a post that’s rushing out of the barrel — soon. Stay tuned!