. . . is the people you get to work with. Here’s a snapshot of the table of contents for Word by Word: Slowing Down with the Hail Mary, of interest because Sarah (the author) suggested we contributors get our names added as co-authors on Amazon. Backing up you can see just what kind of company I’m in, and that’s just page 1. Hint: If you don’t know some of these names, maybe you should. If you just can’t get enough... Read more
Point them to the internet. In class this morning, the kids got their formal introduction to Mr. Straw. We’re working through The Fallacy Detective, and the way we do most chapters is that the kids read the text at home, we discuss the definition of the fallacy, and then the kids each contribute an example they’ve either invented or endured. We do assorted exercises to practice identifying the various fallacies we’ve studied and to distinguish them from legitimate arguments. Because of... Read more
A year and some ago, I wrote this, now showing live at CatholicMom.com because it’s the 16th of the month: How often do my priorities get out of order? How often do I put needless worries ahead of my worship of God? . . . Lord, show me how to prioritize my day, my week, my month, and my year. Show me the right use of my body, and the proper care of my soul. Help me to give myself to... Read more
One of the red herrings of the culture of death is the, “What about those poor people over there?” argument. If you were really pro-life, they accuse, you’d care about orphans, and the homeless, and name-that-suffering-people-group. It’s not only a distraction, it is also a false accusation: The same people who campaign for the right of all innocent people not to be killed are also in the business of helping the not-dead-yet to live well. The distraction is likewise used by... Read more
I recently got a question about praying the Rosary that went something like this: If you pray the Rosary all the time, doesn’t it just become this kind of robot-thing, like doing the dishes or something? It certainly can. I’m very bad at praying, period, so my chief danger is not that I’ll pray the Rosary (or anything) badly, but that I won’t pray it at all. But sometimes I do manage to get my act together and behave like... Read more
Way back when I was a confused but zealous Catholic teenager, I considered whether I might have a religious vocation. I read some books from the parish library about being a nun, and maybe a few articles in the diocesan newspaper. Nobody at my parish made any effort whatsoever to talk to high school students about religious vocations or help them explore the possibilities, but in any case I came to my own conclusion: If women could be priests, I... Read more
The National Review has a snippet-article about “Recess Consultants” whose job is to improve the playtime experience for school children. Circulating elsewhere are reports of schools banning games of Tag, latest casualty in the war on scraped knees and egos. Before we get too wrapped up in our self-righteous huffing and puffing, let’s talk about Don Bosco. The background is this: St. John Bosco started schools for boys from the bad parts of town. Boys who weren’t growing up in loving... Read more
Friday morning we’re back at the parish, and this time the place is lively. A couple dozen teenagers and not a few grown-ups have turned out for the looming clean-up. This is for the elderly couple whose home was flooded Sunday; we’ve been waiting all week to be able to get in there and clean everything out. Debbie gives us a briefing: Expect it to be nasty, do not throw anything away until the owners have given thumbs-up or thumbs-down,... Read more
The way flood clean-up works is that you try to figure out where you can be useful, and you show up. Thursday we get the call for youth volunteers. For a change I don’t have anyone contagiously ill at my house and the roads are not blocked between me and the rally point, so three girls and I turn out. (The boy stays home stuck in school, price of doing your coursework online with people who aren’t centered in a... Read more
In the inbox I received this flood-issue special bulletin from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Columbia, SC, which sits just a few blocks up the hill from the most catastrophic flooding in the city. Donations page is here, where you can specify “storm relief” when you make your gift. Note on the parish page that they are also accepting donations in-kind, and if you are so inclined, non-perishable food and hygiene items do ship. You can be confident nothing will... Read more
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