Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God the Father of Heaven Who created all people in His image, have mercy on us. God the Son, redeemer of the world, who descended to earth to suffer with us, have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, have mercy on us. Holy Mary, pray for us. Holy Mother of God, who carried the... Read more
We hadn’t had a Catechism lesson in awhile. Homeschooling is rather disorganized in the Pezzulo household. We have a series of unit studies on ancient history and biology going on bit by bit, and for Catechism we’re reading the Gospels straight through and memorizing certain passages. But when I’m under the weather and when there are a lot of activities going on, unit studies and Catechism tend to go by the wayside and we only do reading, writing and... Read more
It’s two days til Halloween, which I have frequently opined is one of my favorite holidays. The fall leaves are glorious. The air smells of wood smoke and rotting pumpkins. Front yards are awash in spooky bric-a-brac. On Twitter, EWTN’s own Raymond Arroyo is complaining about Christmas carols. Specifically he’s complaining about a re-cut of “Baby, it’s Cold Outside,” which is attempting to take out some of the lyrics that make it sound like the female character is... Read more
The convent chapel was ugly, the ugliest I’ve ever seen. The walls were some kind of lumpy sandstone that hurt when you bumped into them, and the windows were small and dark. All the lighting was yellow and unpleasant. There was a monstrance on the altar in the front of the ugly wall. It was covered in what looked like a plastic grocery bag, but when somebody touched it I could see it was actually white cloth. The nun I... Read more
Do you know what it’s like to get medical care in West Virginia? It’s not easy. There just aren’t many doctors there. The state is sparsely populated and extremely poor. If you live in West Virginia and need a specialist, you could be waiting months. Psychiatrist are rare as hens’ teeth and obstetricians keep moving their practices out of state. And if you have an emergency, good luck. Hospitals are few and far between. Out in the mountains... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke: Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even... Read more
I once met a lady who came to the Ohio Valley from Europe. She’d raised her children in south Burgundy and then come to Steubenville to study at the University. “When I first came here,” she told me, “I missed beauty so much it physically hurt.” I have been here thirteen years, and felt the same way. I did see some beauty today, however. I drove to Bridgeport with my driving instructor to take my driving test. There’s no testing... Read more
The past couple of days, I have discovered a bit of a mystery: nobody knows who to blame for the killing of Christ. Everybody wants to point the finger at somebody else, even at the expense of sounding ridiculous. In one of my comment threads, over on the Patheos Catholic facebook page, I encountered an Italian woman who read my recent blog post and said that this was the first time that she’d heard that Jesus was killed by Italians.... Read more
I’ve seen a lot of talk about the Cristeros War lately, for all the wrong reasons. On Twitter, Traditionalist Catholics who approve of the vandalism of the statues called “Our Lady of the Amazon” are all praising the vandal, using the hashtag “#WeAreCristeros,” which seems ridiculous to me for a number of reasons. I’ve chosen a few tweets nearly at random, but there’s a whole host of them out there. For those of you who don’t know, the Cristeros... Read more
This image is one of my favorite paintings of the Virgin Mary. Please, just admire it for a moment before we get into an art history lecture. I love her expression, the gracefulness of her pose, the sumptuous Renaissance dress, the solemn or bored angels, the sweetness of that chubby Baby Jesus. I like to imagine Our Lady looking just like this sometimes when I pray to her. This painting is the “Magnificat Madonna,” by Sandro Botticelli, painted in 1481.... Read more
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