I enjoyed my Spring break so much that I decided to extended it … by getting sick! I had hoped to return with a How I Pray today and then Regularly Scheduled Blogging, but that will have to wait for a little while. In the mean time, enjoy this medieval illumination of a rabbit holding a snail-falcon while riding a dog. Read more
From my family to yours, may you have a happy and blessed Easter. Read more
Over at Outside the Asylum, Anthony Lane takes on the How I Work challenge: What has changed over the years since you started and what do you do differently? Oh, my, what hasn’t? I keep thinking of the song from The Mikado, “As some day it may happen”, in which Ko-Ko tells us that, among the people he could execute that would never be missed is “the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone, All centuries but this, and every country... Read more
One of the most striking traditions of Holy Week is the washing of the feet at Holy Thursday mass. Once again, we are reenacting something Christ himself commanded us to do, and the somewhat awkward and uncomfortable way the tradition is performed at many modern masses does nothing to undercut the potent symbolism of the act. Multiple layers of meaning and possible interpretations, from the purely cultural to the deeply symbolic, are found in John’s account of the washing of... Read more
This is cercis siliquastrum, the Judas Tree: It is, according to legend, the type of tree from which Judas hanged himself, and its once-white blossoms blushed with shame to be part of such a terrible history. Or perhaps it’s called the Judas Tree because the clusters of blossoms sometimes hang from the branches, suggesting a hanging man. Or maybe it’s all just a mistake: its French name–“Tree of Judea”–misunderstood as “Tree of Judas.” Legend is funny that way. The Wednesday of... Read more
Kevin Knight is the Sacramental Preparation and Education Specialist for the Archdiocese of Denver. He is also the founder and editor of New Advent, which will celebrate its twentieth anniversary on May 1st. Read more entries in the How I Pray series. Who are you? My name is Kevin Knight, editor of the New Advent website, staff member of the Archdiocese of Denver and loyal servant to the true emperor, Jesus Christ. Father to two wonderful sons, husband to a... Read more
This marginal illustration comes from Le champion des dames (A Defense of Women) by Martin Le France, 1451. Martin was secretary to both Antipope Felix V and Pope Nicholas V. His work is a 24,000-verse (!) poem extolling the virtues of women, but also condemning heresy and corruption. The witches are identified Vaudois, or Waldensians, who were accused of practicing witchcraft and celebrating the witch’s Sabbath. Flight was one of the powers given to demons and their minions, and thus was often associated with evil. The art is interesting because... Read more
Either Facebook or the worse texting plan ever. Read more
The latest moral preening about Indiana’s conscience protection bill comes from the Gen Con gaming convention, which is threatening to move to another state. To satisfy gamers, Indiana must choose to crush religious freedom so gay couples don’t need to pick the next caterer in the phone book. “Legislation that could allow for refusal of service or discrimination against our attendees will have a direct negative impact on the state’s economy, and will factor into our decision-making on hosting the... Read more
If you drive in Oakland, California, Ars Technica knows where you’ve been: In response to a public records request, we obtained the entire LPR dataset of the Oakland Police Department (OPD), including more than 4.6 million reads of over 1.1 million unique plates between December 23, 2010 and May 31, 2014. The dataset is likely one of the largest ever publicly released in the United States—perhaps in the world. After analyzing this data with a custom-built visualization tool, Ars can... Read more
God and the Machine
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