As a writer with children, I receive lots and lots of Catholic children’s books, and nearly every time, I regretfully decline to review them, because I cannot deal with the way Mary and Jesus’ faces are drawn. The best of them are blank and insipid, giving the impression that the Holy Family was dabbled in narcotics; and the worst are goony and pandering. Take it from me: transferring Spongebob’s features onto a human body and slapping a halo... Read more
Becoming a parent both deepens and complicates your relationship with God. There ought to be a trophy for surviving Mass with an infant in tow. But if you do get to hear some of the Scripture readings, be prepared to hear them with new ears. God as tender father; the Church as merciful mother; Christ as the one who gives up his body because of love — suddenly these mean so much more when you’re a parent yourself. Maintaining a... Read more
Sorry for the lapse! I know the last installment (exercises in chapter six) were supposed to go up yesterday. We did the first one (the blind contour drawings) this morning, and I hope to get them up tonight. Then we will do the other exercises in the chapter later and get them up asap! Just a bit overscheduled here. Thanks for your patience! Here’s a post explaining what we’re doing. Read more
As far as the state is concerned, the statutory respect for the seal of confession is intended to protect the penitent, not the confessor (although an unscrupulous confessor could certainly take advantage of the privilege in order to protect himself, if he did something wrong in the confessional). As far as I can tell, the same is true as far as Canon Law is concerned: the seal of confession is there to protect the penitent, not the confessor. However, a... Read more
Most women bloggers have a loyal reader and commenter who can be described as “Issues Guy.” Like a dog has fleas, he’s got issues with women — and man, do they bite. My Issues Guy put himself right in the middle of this post on idolatry, in a tangential combox conversation which turned out to be far more interesting than the post itself (even though the post itself had “foreskin” in the title!). Issues Guy described his perfect potential wife... Read more
What with all the camping and decamping, I almost forgot to let you know . . . Robin’s Soap Shoppe is now open on Etsy! So many of you generous folks made this possible. (For any new readers, I introduced Robin here, sweetened (?) the deal here, and covered myself with glory on YouTube here.) Take a look at her first offerings, including this Super Gardener’s Soap: Robin says: This is a soap for the gardener or the... Read more
And we’re home from camping! Or, “camping.” Whatever, you tent-loving masochists. It was rustic enough for me. Nobody fell in the fire, nobody got permanently lost, nobody drowned, nobody got carried off by wildlife, we didn’t need to test whether our insurance covered out-of-state ER visits, and nobody even pulled anybody’s hair until we were – get this – two minutes away from reaching home. We managed to stretch a three-hour road trip into five hours, but we made... Read more
Along with Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould, which I only put into our Netflix queue to see if my husband really loved me, The African Queen has been languishing in the “saved” category for over a year, waiting until the movie should be released on DVD. We finally got to see it last week, and it was such a treat – all the more so now that I have 12 years of marriage under my belt, and can see that this is a movie... Read more
[Still not really here! We survived two nights in the wilderness and one day at the ocean. Aquarium today. The teenagers are revolting – even more than usual, I mean – so we may cut our stupid vacation short. In the mean time, here is a post from May of 2009. It originally ran at Inside Catholic, now Crisis.] I had a fleeting desire to see the movie Watchmen, until I heard that it was yet another in the... Read more
PIC man worshiping obelisk [I’m not really here! I’m stealing WiFi at Dunkin’ Donuts to post this on our way to beach. This seemed like the perfect post for a day when I’m not really here.] Today, a horrible new planet swam into my ken: foreskin reconstruction. It’s a thing. It’s a thing among a small number of men who suffer from rare disorder called “phimoses,” where the foreskin won’t retract fully, and it’s a thing among a small number... Read more
I Have to Sit Down
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