When we were kids, and grieved some ill or injustice, my mother would say, “This too shall pass.” We never believed her, and she was always right. I need her back. I’m feeling stuck in all kinds of impossibilities and griefs at present. That’s why my friend Jean’s photo—the phrase THIS IS ONLY TEMPORARY stenciled on a concrete barrier by the Great Miami River—speaks so strongly. The phrase carries the weight of consoling prophecy, and Jean’s discovery of it was... Read more
When the Vatican Congregation of Rites revised the liturgical calendar in 1961, removing a whole list of saints from universal commemoration, it hit my little corner of the world pretty hard. There was the demotion of Mr Christopher, valued among us preteens not as the patron of motorways but because the giving of his St Christopher medal by a boy to a girl was the Catholic sixth-grade mark of Going Steady. (“He LIKES me likes me!”) St Vibiana, patroness of... Read more
Particle man, particle man Doing the things a particle can What’s he like? It’s not important Particle man Is he a dot or is he a speck? When he’s underwater does he get wet? Or does the water get him instead? Nobody knows, particle man ~ “Particle Man,” They Might Be Giants As much as I love having TMBG as the soundtrack to my understanding of science, that last line is not quite so true today, at least when... Read more
After listening to (and participating in, God help me) the dissonant chorus of response to this morning’s Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act for 6 hours, I need to go Somewhere Completely Else. It’s my contention—though I’ve been called today, so far, morally reprehensible, ignorant, a socialist, and a cricket(!) for holding to it—that the ship of state and the barque of Peter are in no worse state now than before the decision came down, and that Chief... Read more
First up, thanks for all the support from my sisters and brothers in Invidia Anonymous. My post the other day flipped a light switch and revealed just how capacious and densely populated the Envy Closet is. Once one of us came out, the whole clattering mess followed, like the contents of Fibber McGee’s cupboard (a reference only boomers will recognize from their parents’ stories of radio days; the rest of you can Google it). Turns out Dean Martin (Google... Read more
“Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.” ~ Joseph Epstein Envy really is just miserable. Dante punishes the envious by having their eyes sewn shut with wire, because in life they drew pleasure from watching the downfall of others. In my experience, though, envy doesn’t even involve the dubious pleasures of schadenfreude. It’s less about wishing ill on others than it is about feeling the ills of being “less than others” too severely. It’s ingratitude... Read more
O God, who raised up Saint John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord, give your people, we pray, the grace of spiritual joys and direct the hearts of all the faithful into the way of salvation and peace. ~ Collect for the Solemnity of the Nativity of St John the Baptist OK, I get that the foam finger is fun. And I can sort of understand the kind of jonesing for F4F swag that... Read more
New York is where I’d rather stay! I get allergic smelling hay! I just adore a penthouse view! Darling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue . . . Like Eva Gabor’s Lisa on the TV series Green Acres, I’ve always preferred the penthouse to the henhouse. A cornfield is a place that creepy Twilight Zone kid played by Billy Mumy will wish you into if you cross him. I’ve camped twice, once at Big Sur and once in... Read more
Yesterday, on Day One of the USCCB’s Fortnight 4 Freedom, Archbishop Charles Chaput pounded one more nail into the crucified Church in Philadelphia—which means, of course, that he pounded that nail into himself as well, and into the rest of us fingers and toes and noses and hangnails on the Body of Christ in Philadelphia and around the world. In the light of a $17 million deficit that excludes “extraordinary” legal and restitution costs incurred to deal with Philadelphia’s... Read more
CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, has just published some speculative demographics (h/t New Advent) on Catholic reverts—those of us raised as Catholics who leave the Church for a time and then come back. The numbers are interesting to me, as is CARA’s contention that reverts, and not just immigrants, are helping to keep Church membership numbers steady in the face of attrition by mortality, low birth rates, and drift away from the Church. Who are the... Read more
Egregious Twaddle
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