It’s where my wife and I were married 27 years ago: the chapel at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rockville, Md. We paid a visit today, before heading back to New York, and had the privilege of praying during Adoration and sharing in the celebration of the mid-day Mass. There were about 70 or 80 people there for Mass. Many were parents with small children. After, I walked over to the small cemetery next door, to see the grave of... Read more
Give this gal an Emmy, stet. From KUTV in Salt Lake City: KUTV Reporter Brooke Graham works six days a week and is one of our hardest workers. She is doing fine following this instance and has given us permission to post the video on her behalf. She later tweeted: I just passed out in middle of my live shot. I guess I shouldn’t try reporting when I’m not feeling well! Check it out. What a trouper. Read more
Some great insight from Tyler Ward in Relevant magazine: I used to think I had my stuff together. Then I got married. Marriage is great—but it rocked everything I knew. I quickly realized my basic goal in life, prior to getting married, was to simply remain undisturbed. This “disruption” came suddenly and was disguised as a 5-foot-nothing Swedish-Filipino woman. When I decided I’d rather not live without her, I proceeded to ask her to marry me—that is, to officially invite... Read more
From Vatican Radio: Pope Francis on Sunday invited the faithful to join him sprititually in prayer for the upcoming Concistory and for the next Synod of Bishops which will focus on the theme of the Family. Celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family on this first Sunday after Christmas, the Pope entrusted the work of the bishops to Jesus, Mary and Joseph and recited this prayer: PRAYER TO THE HOLY FAMILY Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the... Read more
Photo: Karen Schwarz/Arkansas Catholic Wow, from Arknasas Catholic: When Jack Sidler Sr. was discerning his call to the priesthood, he ran across a plaque inscribed with a quote from C.S. Lewis: “You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” On Dec. 14, three years after entering Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corner, Wis., and just one month shy of his 70th birthday, Sidler was ordained as a transitional deacon by Bishop Anthony... Read more
Bad idea: Never mind the cassocks – vicars could soon be conducting services in shell-suits, shorts or even football shirts under radical plans to overturn centuries of Church tradition. Rules requiring the clergy to don traditional vestments are set to be swept aside as part of a ‘makeover’ designed to make services more relevant to modern congregations. If the Church of England Synod approves the reforms, vicars could wear whatever they deem appropriate for all their services – including weddings,... Read more
This marked a rare Sunday when I was away from my parish in Queens. For once, I had a chance to just sit in the pews as an ordinary Catholic instead of puttering around the altar as a deacon. We attended Mass today at St. Mary’s in Rockville. We were married in the tiny chapel next door 27 years ago, so it was a homecoming, of sorts. It’s very different from my church back home. When I was growing up,... Read more
He may not be that different from a growing number of Americans, in fact. From The New York Times: President Obama celebrated a low-key Christmas in Hawaii this year. He sang carols, opened presents with his family, and visited a nearby military base to wish the troops “Mele Kalikimaka” — the Hawaiian phrase meaning “Merry Christmas.” But the one thing the president and his family did not do — something they have rarely done since he entered the White House —... Read more
20th Century Fox gave this producer $25,000—part of the promotional budget for “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”—to help the Philippines. Take six minutes and watch how lives were changed. Incredible. Read more
His 2013 Year In Review is, once again, an instant classic. My sides hurt. Snip: FEBRUARY … Washington faces another crisis in the form of a “sequester” that will happen automatically unless Congress can agree on a budget, which seems unlikely inasmuch as Congress cannot agree on what planet this is. If the sequester goes into effect, federal spending will continue to rise, but not quite as fast as it would have risen without the sequester. To a normal human, this... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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