My rose bush is still blooming. So I picked a rose for St. Therese and put it in a vase on my little altar-shelf and found a holy card and put it with it. Then Bella and I prayed a little prayer to one of my favorite saints. It was a very little way to keep the feast; but I think Therese will approve of our small gesture.
Happy feast to my sister, Theresa, and to my dear Sophia Therese!!!
God our Father, you have promised your kingdom to those who are willing to become like little children. Help us to follow the way of Saint Therese with confidence so that by her prayers we may come to know your eternal glory. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Okay, I’ll bite! My favorite moment (how can I pick one??) is when Anne rejects Gilbert’s first marriage proposal. So morbid of me, but I always thought LMM described Anne’s feelings so perfectly. Of course, it wouldn’t be my favorite if later on all as not put to rights and they ended up with boodles of children!
Oh, I have to pick… I’ve only read the Emily books once, so we’ll leave those out entirely. Even just a favorite moment from the Anne books, though. *SIGH*
When I was younger, I loved Anne of Green Gables (i.e., the first book in the series)…my favorite part was probably when she told off Rachel Lynde.
But then I reread them when I was older…and now I can’t pick. I can appreciate Rachel better, and Marilla…isn’t it exquisite how Montgomery made her adults so very adult from the child’s perspective but still so very real from an adult’s?
When Anne realizes that she loves Gilbert.
Anything with Phillipa Gordon.
The antics of Anne’s children in Rainbow Valley.
And, now that I am in the habit of writing love-letters, I want to reread Anne of Windy Poplars. When I was in second or third grade and first reading it, I skimmed over all the love-letters to get to the interesting parts. Now I think I’d skip over the narrative to get to the interesting parts.
I probably just disqualified myself for long-windedness.
Oh, so long since I’ve read the whole series. I have an anthology of the first 3 books, was a gift to me, but the first, Anne of Green Gables, is my forever favorite.
So many great moments. I think I love most when Marilla decides to keep Anne and not send her back, even given her great misgivings. I love how Marilla’s heart softens over time, even as she tries to maintain her stiff demeanor. When she bursts out laughing over Anne’s mistakes, finally seeing the humor in the poor girl’s sincere tries to do the right thing. As I recall, she laughed uproariously when Anne “set Diana drunk”, realizing the girl’s sincere mistake, one anyone could have made (and Diana was most at fault!)
I love how Anne saw so much beauty in the world around her and I have to admit that her own imagination has fed my own over the years, especially when passing through flowery vales and past leaf-strewn roads….
I only wish I’d had the opportunity to break a slate over someone’s head, and then have the romance in me to marry that person years later….
I loved the Green Gables books. It was the great series fix that I needed in junior high after I had finished the Little House books from elementary school.
My favorite moments are so small but still sit w/ me after so many years. Anne wanting a pink dress despite her red hair. Not loving her red hair but being perfectly happy w/ her nose; I always liked to think I have an aquiline nose. When she is in college, I loved the names of the dog statues, Gog and Magog. (i have two japanese dog statues today named in their honor).
Of course, who doesn’t want to have a “bosom friend” such as Diana. I love their “David and Jonathon” relationship in the books.
And the romance to rival all literary romances: Gilbert and Anne. I loved how their “will they, won’t they” story played throughout the books until of course, we readers were rewarded.
All girls should be required to read the Little House books and then Green Gables. Perfect heroines and role models for girls. Forget Twilight!!!
Hmmmm, tough call.
I think my favorite would have to be in Anne of the Island—specifically, the chapter “Book of Revelation.” I get chills every time I read about Anne’s vigil during the night she believes Gilbert dying, and her realization of her love for him. Powerful stuff.
I adore the Emily series, Jane of Lantern Hill, and The Blue Castle as well.
As everybody is saying… tough call!
There are many funny episodes, but frankly, I think it’s the “themes” in the books that makes them so special to me (I’m talking about the Anne books – I don’t recall reading anything else): there is nature and what living close to nature does for your childhood; there is the theme of moral education, how Anne learns to live a simple life of simple virtues and love it (ah, remember the crush on Roy Gardner and all that he represented???); there are love and friendship, of course, and life in a close community, and a lot more. But I think my favorite thing is the heartwarming love of domesticity that permeates the books, making Green Gables and Ingleside wonderful places in my memory.
Thank you, Melanie!
Oh, can you believe that I am in the middle of reading Rainbow Valley right now for the FIRST time? I read the first few Anne books over and over as a child, but I never got past Anne’s House of Dreams until now. I love the Meredith children and Mary Vance! As for my favorite Anne memory, I think I’ll have to go with the selling of the neighbor’s cow episode. It still makes me laugh.
(Also, hi Melanie! I have never commented before but I’m loving this blog SO much. I’m a fellow UD alum (‘07). I think I used to see your sister around campus, although I never made her acquaintance!)
Of the “Anne” scenes, I think my favorite would be Matthew’s talk with Anne just before he dies, when he mentions how proud of her he is, and that he’s glad they kept her (despite her not being a boy.) It reminds me of my own dad, who is just as sweet!
Or would it be Matthew trying to buy a dress with puffed sleeves, and coming home with twenty pounds of sugar. I giggle just remembering it…
And yes, the first Anne book is my favorite of the seven. But the Story Girl and Golden Road are next in line, in my small collection of “not-Anne” books. I look forward to sharing them all with my daughter.
Living in Australia I don’t qualify for the prize but thought I would share anyway.
Anne of Green Gables was my favourite because my beloved grandmother used to have me in stitches telling me about the book as she walked me home from school when I was very young. I couldn’t wait to learn how to read so that I could read about Anne. My father, who used to travel, would bring me home the next book every time he returned from his business trip.
My grandmother also used to tell me about her favourite picture “Arsenic and Old Lace” with Cary Grant – it became a favourite with me also when I saw it on TV.
I was just thinking today that I need to get my Anne reading the Little House books so that we can move on to the Anne books. I can’t pick a favorite scene, but envy how LMM made vivid each scene. Matthew’s death just about made me quit reading.
Just recently read Blue Castle by LM Montgomery- LOVED IT!
I can’t imagine a girlhood without Anne and then Regina Doman in maturity of late teen years!
OK, I’m Maria on the puffed sleeves and Matthew bringing home 20 lbs of sugar….what could be more awesome? I think he’s one of my favorite characters EVER, transcending Anne of Green Gables to other fiction, too…
Is there anyone who DOESN’T love Matthew? Is there anyone who WOULDN’T wish he was in their real lives???? Seriously?
BTW, I’m not in the running as I don’t have time to read the book at hand and don’t remember the context. But..I can’t NOT talk about Anne….