Bad Catholic
The rules video for a retreat my friends and I are running. Unprofessional and ridiculous, it might be the best thing ever: Also, I plan on releasing a series of, er, sermons by Spaniel Biter on this blog, so look out for them. Read more
The rules video for a retreat my friends and I are running. Unprofessional and ridiculous, it might be the best thing ever: Also, I plan on releasing a series of, er, sermons by Spaniel Biter on this blog, so look out for them. Read more
With apologies to the various back-to-nature promoters of whose fervor knows no equal; we aren’t natural people. And this isn’t a natural world.On the contrary, we’ve lived in a supernatural world with supernatural souls for so long that we’ve decided it natural, and thus boring, when nothing could be further from the truth. We are a book read twice, and the antidote to this monotonous re-read can only be a third read. Then we will see ourselves for the first... Read more
I’m very, very excited that I get to give a talk at my parish’s high-school retreat. My talk is on forgiveness and reconciliation. And, as I’ve been thinking/praying about this, a big thing that’s been coming up is the John Paul II quote posted in a comment by http://brilliantzenith.wordpress.com/, on Pictures of Naked Women. Here it is again: Did I mention that your boy goes hard?I bet he listens to Polish trance-core whileskiing. That or Gregorian chant. “The problem with pornography... Read more
The Annunciation. The Visitation. The Nativity. The Presentation in the Temple. The Finding in the Temple. I was thinking, as I am apt to do, of a cool metaphorical meaning one might get from these fantastic mysteries of the Rosary. They could be easily seen as a solid 5-part lesson on life in the Holy Spirit. 1. The Annunciation. Our Lord asks Mary to bear His Son, and Mary says yes, saving us all. There’s enough meditation on this incredible moment... Read more
First of all, many apologies for my prolonged vacation. I wanted to get my life in order so I wouldn’t feel quite so hypocritical posting calls to holiness. It’s not in order, but it’s better, which is really the story of holiness, and what it means to be a bad Catholic. It’s all screwed up, but it’s better. That sounded depressing. My bad. Anyhow, this post is for a girl who has a profoundly special place in my heart, to... Read more
It was truthfully said that if Catholicism had not elevated wine to a sacrament, another religion would have. But as it turns out, it is Catholicism that heightens the romance of things over their physical nature, and so of course it is in our fantastic Church that wine is God. What a radical statement that is! And yet how understandable. It’s as if the world was preparing for wine to become salvation. Actually, if you’ll forgive the stream of consciousness, let... Read more
Chesterton tirelessly noted that we could look at a thing a millions times and never see what it truly is. How incredible and terrible would a snowy day be if seen through new eyes? Everything drowned in white, the ground as bright as the sun, everything stopped, everything muffled, as if the world were a bad-tempered child cleverly subdued and restrained with a fluffy white blanket. Indeed, when it snows our broken world receives a virginal purity it never deserved;... Read more
Blogs are stupid, mostly because of this: But also because of the word blog. It just sounds immature. The worst subtitle for a blog, ever, ever, ever would be as follows: Random Musings on Finding God in Unlikely Places. I will mock the crap out of that blog if I ever find it. Anyways, my point is – though like most of my points, it comes a little late – that many Christians have a habit of expressing the desire... Read more
In which I justify this guy’s existence. There is an underlying theme in the word of God and an underlying principle in our religion that might be considered shocking: in all things go hard. Or, in an attempt to give Catholic hard-liners something to toast with; omnia valere. (Or, in an attempt to relate to teenagers of 1999-2004: Go Big or Go Home.) In matters of sin and virtue the greatest crime is not to be evil; it is to... Read more
Are not here, you dumbass. You get Hillaire Belloc instead, just for clicking on something you shouldn’t. Actually, let’s be honest, he is quite attractive… What is here is a post inspired by a guy who runs a blog, The Problem of Porn, about his experiences growing up in a family running a porno shop. I like reading what he says, because it’s very honest, and it got me to thinking about the real problem of porn: The greatest crime... Read more
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