Yesterday the 2015 Abide in My Word showed up in the mail. Nice thick glossy-cover paperback that looks like this: Wow. What a neat book. It’s nothing complicated, just the daily Mass readings for every single day of 2015. (Note: It starts on January 1, not with Advent.) Big print, and big, bold-faced date headings for each day. Very cool, and not very expensive. I was particularly excited about it because a friend of mine is trying to improve her English by going... Read more
The Gospels are written with only the sparest of details. When we use our imaginations to assign tone, gesture, and intention to the actions of Our Lord, we risk learning more about ourselves than about Him. In that perilous tradition, here I go. My words in plain text, this past Sunday’s Gospel reading in bold. *** Even living in a small town, there reaches a point when you cease to care what people think. It wasn’t the embarrassing public episodes... Read more
On the one hand, a certain child of mine spends way too much time on the computer. (Where does he get it from?) On the other hand: Boy: Mom, we really have to get that webcam for school. Class is going to start. You have to get this. Mom: Yes, that’s fine. Research webcams and have a proposal* ready for your father tonight. Boy: What’s the budget? Mom: Make us a set of best choices at each price point, with... Read more
Today’s pre-prayed Gospel at CatholicMom.com is the “Let the children come to me” passage in Matthew. Couldn’t have been more timely, I’m perpetually devolving into rehashed childishness. You know this Gospel so well you’re probably ready to throw promotional trinkets at the wicked DRE who tricked you into volunteering for VBS this year: Is there something new to be found in this reading? No. There is something very old. Just don’t even start with me about how this passage is... Read more
My friend John Hathaway recently hosted a conversation prompted by a classic comic from the New St. Joseph’s Baltimore Catechism on the serious spiritual peril you put yourself into if you go to confession but choose not to mention a mortal sin. There’s a difference, however, between forgetting and omitting. Here’s the scoop on how the sacrament works when you’ve got an unconfessed mortal sin: 1. If you are aware of having committed a mortal sin, make an act of contrition right... Read more
When we say something is a “type” of Christ, what we mean is that it in some way reflects the reality of Our Lord. For example, Isaac is a “type” of Christ when he willingly lets his father offer him as a sacrifice to God. (Early monotheists had to work through a few misunderstandings in how this whole “religion” thing was supposed to work. Hint: The real God doesn’t want you to ritually sacrifice your children, even if you’ve been... Read more
Happy Feast of the Assumption! It’s a Holy Day of Obligation, so get yourself to Mass someplace. Why does the Church do this to us every so often, insisting we turn up and worship not just on Sundays, but six other days of the year into the equation? It’s as if you’re expected to totally rearrange your life in order to attend Mass. It’s as if there were something so important about these feasts that we should make them the... Read more
PSA for those who don’t already know this tip: Pick someone and pray for them a little bit every day. Indefinitely. You can’t pray for everyone. You can pray for the whole world in a general way, of course. But you can’t pray specifically for every person in the whole world, because there aren’t that many seconds in the day. You probably don’t even have time to say a Glory Be for each person you personally know, unless maybe you are... Read more
Round about the moment of the consecration, there’s a massive case of identity confusion going on in the minds of many of the faithful. The Holy Spirit descends upon the altar, and something at the front of the church turns into the Body & Blood, Soul & Divinity of Jesus Christ. Hint: It isn’t the guy who was there the minute before. It’s the one who just showed up. (I mean okay, yes, God was hanging around the whole time.... Read more
A head’s up from Mrs. Curley: Hello Everyone, I have been asked by The Missionaries Of The Poor (MOP)http://www.missionariesofthepoor.org/index.php to spread the word about the concert they are sponsoring to benefit the poorest of the poor. 100% of the proceeds will go to Missionaries Of The Poor Homeless and Abandoned Children. I have tickets for the concert entitled “The MESSIAH!! THE GREATEST MUSICAL EVER” 2:00 pm Saturday, August 9, 2014 Halton Theater, CPCC 1206 Elisabeth Avenue, Charlotte North Carolina Suggested donation... Read more
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