“Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which you give sustenance to Your creatures.” — St. Francis of Assisi, “Canticle of the Creatures” (1225)

As the fallen-away followers of our Lord Jesus Christ might have said, this is a hard teaching, especially this week. How do we praise God for “every kind of weather” after the devastating and deadly floods in Appalachia this past week? How did St. Francis do it in the face of the trials of his day? This week the ladies of the Mosaic Ark discuss St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is today (October 4). Was he simply the tree-hugging, animal-loving hippy portrayed by Franco Zeffirelli in his 1972 film? Or was he the devout but shrewd son of a wealthy merchant who founded a world-wide movement? Spoiler alert: He was both! Join us as we talk about why people still love this saint so much, and what he has to teach us about the modern world. — Streamed October 4, 2024

Mimetic Desire. This was the phrase used by René Girard to describe the human condition of wanting to obtain that which others have already obtained; not to be confused with envy, mimetic desire is simply an extension of the way we learn what we should and shouldn’t want — food, shelter, love, etc. Can this be observed in everyday life, in fiction, in geopolitics? Yes, yes, and yes, through a phenomenon called Mimetic Rivalry. Join the ladies of the Mosaic Ark as we discuss some of the more famous mimetic twins, and tell us in the comments if you can see what we see in these pairings: Indiana Jones and René Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Simone de Beauvoir and Mother Theresa of Calcutta (two single ladies and historic contemporaries with two very different ideas about love) and the trifecta of mimetic twins — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, leaders of the Allies during World War II. —Streamed September 27, 2024

Isis and Osiris. Apollo and Artemis. Donald and Kamala? Twins are memorable features in the world’s mythological systems; they are symbols of duality, balance, and integrating opposites. One might say our myths have conditioned us to look for similarities when presented with two choices. On last week’s Mosaic Ark, we discussed the visual image presented by presidential candidate Kamala Harris and how it might appeal (or not) to women. This week we compared her tweets to those of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Did we see stark contrasts in the messaging of each campaign? Yes and no; we saw twinning. Want to find out what that is? Watch tonight’s stream and peer into the looking glass with us.— Streamed September 20, 2024

“It’s our time.” Vice President Kamala Harris is quoted as having said this recently to her fellow women as she seeks to win one of the most powerful positions of authority in the world, President of the United States. However, the time of powerful women’s leadership has already come and gone… and come and gone… and come and gone again, has it not? The ladies of the Mosaic Ark remember a time not so long ago that the Anglo-American empire lost the longest reigning queen in British history, her late majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We also remember the second longest reigning monarch in British history, Queen Victoria. But the most iconic British ruler, also a queen, has to be Queen Elizabeth I, and it is with her that Anglo-American women all over the US most closely identify, and why they yearn for a strong, independent woman as their leader. Why? Watch the stream to find out! —Streamed September 13, 2024

What is the Mosaic Ark? What kind of a livestream is it? The best way to describe it is this: it is a cruise ship! The Mosaic Ark takes its viewers on a cruise through an ocean of information, images, art, science, history, and (very occasionally) political events. Professor Rachel Fulton Brown, Medievalist and Tolkien expert, is your cruise director bringing you to interesting ports of call every week with her co-hostesses. They discuss what they see, what it means, how each port is connected to the other ports and how all are oriented towards Christ and His mother, Mary, the Star of the Sea. Come aboard! We’re expecting you! —Streamed August 16, 2024

Watching the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, many people were outraged by the display of drag queen camp and hedonism included in the show, particularly because it was done in a way that many claimed mocked Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” Christians world-wide demanded apologies in the strongest of terms. The ladies of the Mosaic Ark were also outraged—but not for the same reason! Presuming that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness,” we argue that the Paris Bacchanalia show was merely trying (poorly) to grasp what it could not reach: the scandalous joy of the Liturgy of the Lamb. —Streamed August 8, 2024

“’Twas our Right!” to write poetry, and thereby speak our creative world into being. In this week’s Mosaic Ark, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown speaks about J.R.R. Tolkien’s creative process, how it began and how he was able to create an entire world using both poetry and prose. But, most importantly, how without his poetry there would’ve been no story; poetry was the engine that drove the vehicle of his prose and without it, there would be no Middle-Earth. So how did he begin? He began at the beginning of course, by first learning how to scan. —Streamed August 2, 2024

Who elects a King? Is it God or the Barons? Who elects a President? Is it the billionaire class, the tech oligarchs, the “donor class”? Is there a difference between any of them and the Barons; between a King and a President? If one looks at the rhetoric of the past and present, there doesn’t seem to be a difference. But there is another similarity between the power struggles of the past and present that might be overlooked: the power of the people to assent to their new rulers or reject them. This is a constant that all would-be rulers know about and use to support their cause of self-promotion. Join the ladies of the Mosaic Ark as we discuss how image and rhetoric can turn a commoner to a King, and a King to an “also ran.” —Streamed July 26, 2024