That’s the title of this fine piece by Pat Gohn that looks at how she came to appreciate the rosary — and the woman behind it: My white-haired grandmother, Henrietta, owned a beautiful rosary with tiny delicate pearlescent beads. She kept it on her bedroom bureau in a small metal. Whenever I’d visit her apartment, I’d wander in and play with those beads. I had no real concept about prayer or its value at the time. But I dearly remember... Read more
“When I first met the Hopes 30 years ago, I was very impressed with the fact that their home had a chapel. Obviously it had been placed there completely by Dolores. Although the Blessed Sacrament was not reserved there in a private home, nevertheless the local pastors, who were great fiends of Dolores, often offered Mass there as I also did. “I had a warm friendship with Dolores because she was a girl from the Bronx and I grew up... Read more
A commenter in another post asked, “How is making it so financially difficult for people to marry and have kids ‘pro-life’?” Good question. Data just released suggests that the bad economy is forcing more people to think twice about having children. Details: A decline in fertility rates that began in 2008 is closely linked to financial woes that started at the same time, said a new Pew Research Center report issued Wednesday. Changes in personal income, per capita GDP, unemployment... Read more
Oh yeah. This isn’t a joke from The Onion. Kathy Schiffer has the scoop: Industrial designer Ben Forman (benformandesign.co.uk) has introduced a new dollhouse to help today’s modern preschooler prepare for the inevitable unhappy changes in her family structure. It’s called Detacho. Detacho families, like so many contemporary American families, can reconfigure themselves, either expanding with the birth of new siblings, or separating into smaller groups of married or divorced or cohabiting adults and their complacent children. And Detacho dollhouses... Read more
From a protester at Occupy Boston, who is either hungry or quoting Marie Antoinette… Comments are now closed. Read more
With so much attention focused on preparing the faithful for the new Roman Missal, it’s worth noting that it’s being translated into yet another language — the language of the deaf. The National Catholic Reporter notes: Across the country, deaf and hard-of-hearing Catholic communities and their interpreters are preparing for the November changes thanks to free online resources. The National Catholic Office for the Deaf served as the launching pad for a series of video clips as preparation and as... Read more
A friend passed along the picture above, from a recent ordination. Not sure where it was taken. But it is priceless. Read more
The men hailed as heroes a year ago are facing a very different reality today. From the New York Times: After his dramatic rescue from a mine last year, Jimmy Sánchez traveled the world, cruising the Greek islands, visiting Britain, Israel, Los Angeles, Disney World — all paid for by people who were moved by the Chilean miners’ story of courage and perseverance. But today Mr. Sánchez, like many of the 33 miners who survived 69 days nearly a half-mile... Read more
All the Patheos crew is here to welcome Frank “Why I Am Catholic” Weathers to his new port of call! Welcome, pal! Anyone who, within hours of arrival, cheerfully posts a picture of Thomas Merton’s grave is aces in my book. UPDATE: Read Frank’s own story right here. Read more
…what the world now knows as Vatican II began. For that reason, today is Blessed Pope John’s feast day. Deacon Bill Ditewig looks back: What the great Pope John brought to the world, and what the Council he called emphasized, was a “novus mentis habitus” — a “new way of thinking” — about the world and the Church. Pope John Paul II used to speak about this quite often in the early days of his own papacy: that the world... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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