Monday Motivation: Dolly

With the passing of Dolly Parton last week, it truly felt like the world came together in a moment of mourning. Especially here in East Tennessee, Dolly was more than a legendary musician. In fact, her six-decade career was remembered secondary to her kindness and generosity. That's what made her so beloved. She loved openly. She did so much good with what she had:

• She established Imagination Library, sending children books every month for their first five years. More than 300 million books have been given. 
• She brought economic investment to the region through Dollywood and offered employees free tuition for higher education.
• She supported the school children of Sevier County, bringing the dropout rate down from 35% to 6% through incentives. 
• She supported Gatlinburg wildfire victims who lost their homes, giving families money for six months as they rebuilt. Her telethon raised another $13 million. 
• She poured the residuals from Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" into the black community of Nashville.
• She funded marching band uniforms for black schools.
• She established an eagle sanctuary for non-releasable bald eagles. 
• She funded pediatric cancer and infectious disease research that led to the Moderna vaccine against COVID. 
• She gave more than $1 million toward disaster search-and-rescue and relief following Hurricane Helene in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. 
• And so, so much that never got the credit it deserved.

To be remembered for joy and kindness above all other accomplishments is a true blessing, and the world was blessed to have someone like Dolly. May her legacy and music continue to inspire others to live such a good life. 

"Better Get to Livin'"

"Coat of Many Colors"

"Jesus and Gravity"

Blessed James Duckett

Blessed James Duckett was born in the 16th century in the English Lake District.  He was raised Protestant. As a young man, he moved to London to become an apprentice to a book printer. There, a friend lent him a Catholic book, The Foundation of the Catholic Religion, which led to his conversion to Catholicism, which was banned at the time.

Twice he was arrested for failing to attend Protestant services. Both times his employer interceded and got him out, but he then asked Duckett to leave. He went on to make a living as a tailor. In 1590, he married Anne, a Catholic widow. They had one son, who would later go on to join a Carthusian monastery and become the abbot.

Duckett used his skills as a tailor and a printer to support the underground Catholic Church. He made vestments and altar linens for priests, and he printed illegal copies of Catholic literature. He was arrested several times for printing and distributing Catholic literature. He spent nine out of twelve years of his marriage in prison.

In 1601, a bookbinder, Peter Bullock, who had been arrested himself, turned in Duckett in order to obtain his own release. However, the plan of betrayal did not work, and Bullock and Ducket were taken to their executions at Tyburn in the same cart on April 19, 1601. Upon arrival at Tyburn, where Catholic martyrs and other criminals were killed, Duckett forgave Bullock and urged him to accept the Catholic faith. He did not.

James Duckett was hanged on April 19, 1601. He is a patron of booksellers and publishers.

Our Lady of Africa in Ceuta

Ceuta city has a fascinating history as the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and it has come up a few times in the past week through reading a book about Al-Andalus and in current events. A small peninsula off the African coast that juts into the Atlantic and Mediterranean, Ceuta has had a presence since the time of the Phoenicians. It fell under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 700s, when Muslims moved through North Africa and conquered a large portion of the Iberian peninsula. The division between Africa and Europe was less distinct. The Umayyads were known for their pluralist society of science of arts, where Muslims, Christians, and Jews intermingled freely. After the fall of the caliphate, it fell under various Muslim rulers who were more restrictive with the Christian and Jewish populations.

Then, in 1415, Portugal conquered Ceuta. King John I gave a statue of Our Lady holding the crucified Christ to the city. This statue became known as Our Lady of Africa or Our Lady of Ceuta. A few years later, Prince Henry the Navigator, who participated in the conquest, sent a sacred image/statue to the city to consecrate the continent to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Portuguese conquest shifted Ceuta’s position from a northern post for Muslim, African rulers to reach Europe to a southern port for Christian European rulers to stage further expansion into Africa.