Your Assigned Reading for Election Day–UPDATED

breviaryWorn

It's all over but the shouting, which I imagine will go on for oh, another four years. I voted so early this year (on my birthday in October, in a one-stop-shopping visit to the Montgomery County Building to renew my car tags), and so reluctantly (see here and here for why), that this Election Day arrives not with a bang but a whimper. A political junkie in withdrawal, I anticipate a couple of bouts of the shakes tonight as I try not to spin through the spin of the "news" channels or unglue … [Read more...]

I’m That Guy: The Gunpowder of Being Catholic in Public

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On the eve of a contentious election, pondering the explosive nexus of faith and politics. Please to remember The Fifth of November Gunpowder, Treason, and Strife . . . Back when I was in my Anglican interim, I loved commemorating Guy Fawkes Day. A haunting little historical nursery rhyme, bonfires, the burning of effigies, and children in raggedy clothes with ash-blackened faces accosting householders, begging A penny for the Guy!---what's not to love? I had a vague notion of the … [Read more...]

A Journal of My Council: A Book Review

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My Journal of the Council by Yves Congar, OP Liturgical Press, 2012 Even as my arteries and my religious views harden with age, I remain a daughter of Vatican II. The first session of the council was officially convened on my 12th birthday in 1962, and the fruits of the council were the single most important influence on my faith formation. As I've written here before, I still consider myself a Catholic of the John XXIIIrd Generation, and proud of it. I carried a well-thumbed copy of the … [Read more...]