There’s an article going around with the click-bait title, “More Than BFFs: When Friendship Goes Too Far.” Honestly, that title feels like it should have a “Bum bum BUUUUMMMMM!” after it. Anyway, after some discussion on Facebook, I decided to write a little bit about the problem I see with the article as it stands, and my own analysis of the functional and dysfunctional relationships–with peers and with God. You can read Part 1 here, at The Personalist Project. And here’s Part... Read more
Today is Ash Wednesday. In a little while, I will go to Mass and receive ashes on my forehead, a reminder of mortality and my own weakness. It occurs to me that, for all the scoffing at people who are “only Christian on Sundays,” that it might be true that the only time any of succeed in being entirely unhypocritical is that moment each week when we stand alongside everyone else and say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you... Read more
It says something interesting about Catholic culture that Pancake Tuesday and Shrove Tuesday sit comfortably alongside each other as alternate names for the same day. Indulgence and confession, enjoyment and penitence, on a single day of the calendar. “Shrove” and “Shrivetide” refer to the practice of using the time immediately before Lent to examine one’s conscience and attend confession. In Catholic England (carrying over into Anglican England), the Shrive bells would chime in the village church to both call penitents... Read more
Yesterday I wrote about meeting life’s small thorns with grace in the pursuit of virtue. So naturally, my day so far has included: My oldest son waking up several hours before the rest of us were ready to get up, and forgetting how to turn off his alarm clock, to his brother and mother and sister’s shared chagrin. Tired, cranky arguments over the course of the morning. Running out of pancakes at breakfast before everyone was full. A child... Read more
What is the use of giving up something like dessert? Dessert is not an immoral thing under most circumstances, and moderate enjoyment of physical pleasures can help us to be contented and pleasant to the people around us. Self-denial does not obviously or directly make us more loving or kind or generous to others, so what IS the point? But perhaps that is the point. Self-denial takes away some of the comfortable props we lean on to... Read more
There is a scene in Henry Poole is Here where the protagonist comes to a breaking point. Weeks before he was diagnosed with a rapidly fatal terminal disease, and he has come to spend his last weeks in a run-down house in the neighbourhood where he grew up, getting drunk and coping in relative obscurity and anonymity. Of course, this being a movie, his life is quickly populated and complicated with and by a motley cast of quirky neighbours... Read more
I wrote yesterday about why I don’t write a ton on specific theological controversies. I had a conversation today that made me think a little more deeply about that, and about how I would “give answer for the hope that I have.” It’s easy to burn out on theology and doctrine and all the rest of the trappings of faith, I think. I’ve certainly been burned and burnt out by the confusion of trying to rationally break down and comprehend... Read more
A friend called me recently and challenged me to defend Pope Francis in light of theological controversy over some of his writings on marriage and pastoral options in complicated situations. I demurred–mildly at first, and then with what was probably surprising vehemence. To be fair to my friend, much of our friendship was built over frequent debates on theology, history, liturgy, Church politics, philosophy, and the like. We’ve disagreed at least as frequently as we’ve agreed, but it’s only recently... Read more
“The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do.” – George Orwell, review of Mein Kampf Since the horrific mosque shooting in Quebec City a few weeks ago, I’ve been wondering how it is that ordinary young men (and women) get swept up into violent ideologies. Past that, I’ve been wondering how we can counter those ideas and... Read more
In my earlier post, I asked, “How does a modern, educated, middle-class child become an ideologically-motivated potential killer?” If you were to put together a mental image of someone vulnerable to radicalization, what would that look like? Young, isolated, lonely? Mentally ill? Uneducated, under-employed? We have ideas and expectations about who is–and therefore, who ISN’T–at risk for falling down the rabbit-hole of extremism and violence, but are these impressions accurate? Fortunately, I’m far from the first or only person to... Read more
Peace and Pekoe
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