Posted by Webster How often does it happen to you that you’re thinking of a spiritual topic—and within minutes or hours you hear a homily or read a book about just that topic? This morning I wrote about the Second Coming. Tonight I was reading Michael O’Brien’s Father Elijah (too long for the YIMC Book Club) when I came across a passage in which the title character is meditating on the Book of Revelation: Whether or not the revelation of John... Read more

We have two chapters left in Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton, and Webster will post on these each of the next two Thursday evenings. Which means that by Thursday, January 14, we should know what book we’re reading next! We’d like your suggestions. What would you like to read and discuss together? There are a few considerations: The book should be relatively short, like Orthodoxy, so that it doesn’t take forever to read. It should be something that can be read... Read more

Posted by Webster When I was a child, I worried about the day the sun burns out. When I was a teen, my worry was population explosion and in my 20s nuclear war. Now I think about the Second Coming. I don’t worry about it. Skeptic alert: I do not have the date circled in red on my calendar. Not for 2010, anyway. Hear me out. Today in the Catholic Church (at least in our diocese) we celebrate the Feast of... Read more

Posted by Webster In his homily for New Year’s Day, the octave day of Christmas, Father Barnes said there is so much joy in Christmas that the Church calendar cannot contain it all in a single day. I’m not sure the same could be said of the Catholic blogosphere in the past week. There was less posting than usual. Many took vacations. But here are some pickin’s from the Good News pile. I have written many times that I am a... Read more

Posted by Webster Recently, I wrote a piece on Pandora Radio, a Web service that allows you to create your own personal “radio stations” tailored to your musical taste. I posted a link to “Bingen Radio” on our FaceBook Fan Page, and I invite you to check that out. Now let me pose a question: What music, liturgical or non-liturgical, inspires you as a Catholic or non-Catholic? I’m prompted to post this question thanks to a couple of reader comments. In... Read more

Posted by Webster As I head to our first men’s group of 2010, I come across today’s reading in honor of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen. Like many readings from the Office, I begin it half asleep and finish it fully awake. This excerpt from a sermon by St. Gregory speaks to our men’s group, in particular, and Christian friendship between men, in general. Today’s meeting is my first as secretary, which means, in theater parlance, that I book... Read more

Posted by Webster This is my favorite chapter in the book, partly because it highlights two things that are important to me, even if they are often opposed: levity and marriage. Let me begin with levity and end with marriage. Chapter 7, “The Eternal Revolution”Anyone who has ever been a stage actor, as I was in my youth and still am in both my dreams and my nightmares, knows that no truer words were ever written:   Pride is the downward... Read more

Posted by Webster One of my favorite discoveries of 2009 is Pandora Radio. It’s a Web service that allows you to create your own radio station. As a Catholic I find it useful because I can gather in one place the kinds of religious music that I find most inspiring—stuff I didn’t even know existed. You start Pandora with a “seed” and it proposes other similar music to add to your station. You accept what you like, reject what you don’t,... Read more