I’m home sick today with something normal for a change, sore throat, which means I have to get into the box of Korean teas a friend of mine keeps me supplied in, because I have awesome friends this way. So here’s something: I never really understoood low-literacy cultures. I’d read about kings who could barely read, or not at all, and I’d scratch my head and think, “Um, how does that work? I mean, what did he do with his library... Read more
Good news: If your Lent needs some improvement, there’s no law that you can’t adjust your personal penance mid-stream. Here are a few things I’ve found helpful for ordinary Catholics to consider when figuring out whether a chosen penance is realistic or not: 1. Is it consistent with my state in life? A lot of spiritual writing is done by people who aren’t, say, on call 24/7 caring for young children. While it is good to examine your responsibilities and ask... Read more
I know these people who don’t love ashtags. People like Monique Ocampo, who is even giving up selfies for Lent. I get it, but I am not these people. Five reasons, six for the intrepid, and the first one will shock you: Reason #1: I like people. I particularly like the people I’m friends with on social media. So I like to see photos of them. It makes me happy to be able to see you with your cat, or your birthday... Read more
My young daughter, whose cuteness makes her look even younger, sat on the stool at the jewelry store, stone still, waiting for the two gloved salesladies to punch holes through her earlobes on the count of three. Stoic child, but if you can read her you knew she was nervous. This was something she wanted, very much wanted. She knew it would hurt, because we all reminded her of that fact, repeatedly. She also knew two other things: Her older... Read more
The book I’ve just finished reading is Margaret Rose Realy’s Cultivating God’s Garden Through Lent. I’m going to concede it took me a long time to open this one, because I had several stupid book-fears: That the book would be tied to the upper Midwest’s seasons, and would be all out of sync for a southern gardener. That the book would be too nice for me. Margaret is a really nice person. That I wouldn’t like it, and that would be... Read more
Fr. Longenecker writes here on why Catholics can’t have good music, and he makes a decent historical argument: Suddenly we were flooded with new hymns–most of which had banal lyrics, crappy folk music and trite sentiment. The Catholics didn’t sing the old hymns because they didn’t know them. In the meantime they were having lots of awful new songs shoved down their throat and they (quite rightly) didn’t bother singing them because they knew deep down that they were either... Read more
Under increasing pressure from the Vatican to come up with something better than “definite progress” and “robust discussion” concerning the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the United States Council of Catholic Bishops announced this week that they’d contracted with staff from the National Labor Relations Board to, “help sort things out about those Catholic Colleges and stuff.” “It was divine intervention, really,” said the USCCB President, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz. “Here we thought the Obama administration was yanking our chain... Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has released his second Screwtape-style novel, Slubgrip Instructs. C.S. Lewis fans are understandably wary: Is it possible to write a follow-on work that’s more than a pastiche? The answer is yes, and there are good literary reasons why Longenecker has succeeded. Quick Background: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a novel told from the perspective of the demons charged with tempting a young man. It’s a humorous and insightful look at the pitfalls and glorious reality of the Christian... Read more
(Quick update to remind the catechists: This is a blog for adults, not kids. Patheos is not a site for children. If you want to share this particular post with your class, just print it out and read aloud. For goodness sake don’t send a twelve-year-old here. But grown-up to grown-up? Share away.) *** My son and I were talking about click-bait. If only the Catholic faith were presented more like internet news. We brainstormed a few possibilities, as gleaned... Read more
If you browse among the purveyors of sex toys, which you most emphatically should not do, among the offerings you’ll find all the regalia of oppression and humiliation. BDSM as a variant on traditional women’s porn as sold at the grocery store didn’t come out of nowhere. Long before the intelligentsia were conflicted in their literary analysis by the clash between “cutting edge” and “terrible writing”, the neighbors were busy acting out sexual fantasies straight from the annals of Amnesty... Read more
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