Earlier today, I posted on the remarkable note Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin left behind in his locker—containing a famous lesson in living often attributed to Mother Teresa. As with so many famous quotes, its provenance is more complicated. The “Paradoxical Commandments” were not written by Mother Teresa, though she did help popularize them. A reader sent me this:  The Paradoxical Commandments were written by Kent M. Keith when he was 19, a sophomore at Harvard College. He wrote them as... Read more

I caught part of the Anderson Cooper show last night and thought I must have heard wrong. But no. A prominent pundit, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, made this comment last night about Ted Cruz: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz continues his appeal to religious conservatives. “If we awaken and energize the body of Christ,” he recently said, “we will win and we will turn the country around.” It’s a line he’s used before in various ways, but pundit Kathleen... Read more

This is exceptional:  He had nothing to say on Sunday. He had nothing to say on Monday. But soon-to-be-former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III left a note in his now-empty locker at team headquarters. Robert Klemko of TheMMQB.com has posted a photo of the note, typed up with various-sized fonts and a team logo in the background. Here’s the text of it: “People are often unreasonable, irrational & self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you... Read more

What a perfect concept for people in the business of saving soles. And, yes, it’s true:  Church has taken on a new look in Taiwan, where a giant Cinderella-inspired glass slipper has been built as a house of worship, hoping to entice more women to church. The church, which was completed yesterday, is located next to the sea in Budai Town, on the east coast of Taiwan. It towers over the surrounding buildings at 55 feet tall and 36 feet wide. The... Read more

A compelling excerpt from this morning’s homily:   Francis described an event that happened in the Shrine of Luján, in Buenos Aires, where there was a family with a nine-year-old daughter who was very ill. “After weeks of treatment”, the Pope recalled, “she did not manage to escape that illness, it had worsened and the doctors, at around six o’clock in the evening” said that she had only a few hours left to live. So “the father, a humble man,... Read more

From The Washington Post: Two members of the order of Catholic nuns waging a court battle against President Obama’s signature health-care reform law will attend his final State of the Union address Tuesday as guests of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis). The Little Sisters of Poor are challenging the health law’s requirement that group insurance plans offer contraceptive coverage at no additional cost. The order runs 30 nursing homes in the United States, and while it has invoked a... Read more

Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday: An ice skating nun is taking the world by storm after her amazing display of skill in Slovakia went viral on the internet. The nun in question was videoed with several of her sisters in the capital Bratislava dressed in their full habits skating gracefully at a public rink. But she stood out among the rest after showing off techniques more suited to the Winter Olympics including a 12-spin pirouette. It was later... Read more

It seems only right to remember David Bowie with a classic performance tied to the season that just ended. Below, his iconic duet with Bing Crosby from 1977. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbJLo4x-tk The backstory is worth retelling: The track was recorded on September 11, 1977 for Crosby’s then-upcoming television special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged scripted dialogue about what they each do for their family Christmases, before singing “Little Drummer Boy” with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the... Read more

Could you have imagined something like this a few years ago? From The Catholic Herald:  A Vatican official paid tribute to David Bowie, the British rock star who has died at the age of 69 from cancer. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, tweeted lyrics from the singer’s 1969 hit Space Oddity. The tweet reads: Ground Control to Major Tom Commencing countdown, engines on Check ignition and may God’s love be with you (David Bowie)... Read more

This essay by Msgr. Charles Pope has attracted a lot of attention, and generated a lot of ink (and a fair amount of criticism in some circles). In sum, he offers the opinion that the Traditional Latin Mass—or Mass in the Extraordinary Form—may have hit a ceiling: Explanations abound among the traditional Catholics I speak to about the lack of growth in attendance at the Traditional Latin Mass. Some say that it is because more options are now available. But... Read more