There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men are at home. The crazy stable close at hand, With shaking timber and shifting sand, Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand Than the square stones of Rome. For men are homesick in their homes, And strangers under the sun, And they lay on their heads in a foreign land Whenever the day is done. Here we have... Read more
The last in my series on John the Baptist for The Catholic Weekly: John the Evangelist’s gospel is chockablock with nuptial imagery. He begins his gospel by carefully drawing our minds back to Genesis with the words “In the beginning” (John 1:1). He then audaciously takes us back not merely to the beginning of creation, but to (if we may speak of it this way) the eternity behind creation. That is, where the Word was with God and the Word was God. ... Read more
Here’s an old perennial that responds to another old perennial of the season, the “Everybody knows that Christmas is really just a warmed-over celebration of the Feast of Sol Invictus” chestnut. Guess what? Everybody’s wrong! Another little excerpt from my book Mary, Mother of the Son (sans footnotes, but trust me, the citations are all in order): Pseudo-Knowledge and “Pagan Christmas” Time was when I, like most people, took it for granted the winter solstice and, in particular, the Roman Feast of... Read more
I’m strongly motivated by the Church’s call to evangelize. I think Pope Francis is the bee’s knees because he has tried very hard to place before the Church the imperative to evangelize. That’s why he launched his papacy by issuing Evangelii Gaudium. I have said since the start of his reign that you can basically sum up everything he has to say in the words, “He has preached good news to the poor.” What so many find “confusing” about him... Read more
As the walls close in on Trump, his Foundation is subjected to the corporate death penalty, his thieving kids are punished, his cronies go to jail, his crime syndicate, subjected to 17 investigation, his stupid wall unfunded, and his promised shutdown collapses like a house of cards, only one demographic could be stupid enough to keep standing with him: good white conservative Christians, who have been wrong about everything and who have pigheadedly refused to learn anything from it. Case... Read more
The third in my four-part series on John the Baptist for Advent: Back in my agnostic days, I used to think that one good solid miracle would make a lifelong believer out of the most hardened atheist. I myself was never able to embrace atheism since the world was simply too mysterious and strange a place for me to declare “There is no God” without trial. It was too cocksure a sentiment for me. So I thought that there might... Read more
As you read this, Sandy Hook Elementary has been evacuated following a bomb threat on the anniversary of one of the most horrific mass shootings in US history. Because the Gun Cult is satanic. But this is not about that. This is about the terrible reality of yet another massive evil for which the Gun Cult is responsible. Here is a heart-wrenching piece on the Shot and Forgotten: the devastating, life-long burden borne by the people who aren’t killed in... Read more
Today I ran across a little meme starring Lisa Simpson declaring, “If you claim that morality is subjective, then your moral condemnation carries no weight.” She’s partly right, you know. But she’s also partly wrong. Because Eupocrisy. What is Eupocrisy? The opposite of hypocrisy. A hypocrite is worse than his best word. A eupocrite is better than his worst words. Jesus tells a parable about a hypocrite and a eupocrite: “What do you think? There was a man who had... Read more
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 9th Century Chant: Read more
…and his movement is a Cult, far closer to a religious or messianic movement than a political one: And the greatest tragedy is that the Cult is almost totally composed of Christians who have rejected the gospel in favor of the worship of this visible from space moron, mob boss, sex predator, liar, grifter and crook. Christianism is a cult centered on the worship and defense of Donald Trump, the will to lie and cheat, abuse and even kill in... Read more
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