When I was a little girl, before we ended up homeschooling on the Planet Charismatic, I went to the local Catholic elementary school. I wasn’t popular, to say the least. Besides being unattractive I was shy, anxious, bookish and introverted. The other students reacted predictably to this. I got bullied and humiliated by most of the boys, snubbed and excluded by most of the girls. Now and then I got physically attacked, and I was verbally mocked daily. Teachers... Read more
Hi folks, I’ll be on again with a real post in a couple of hours, this is just your periodic reminder that Steel Magnificat and the adorable family who run it are both almost entirely reader-supported. We live on tips, and every so often I get on here to pass the hat and busk. Right now we’re coming to the end of the winter and the enormous gas bills, probably one more enormous gas bill before we open the... Read more
He thirsts. Knowing that everything had been accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, He said, “I thirst.” Of course He thirsts. He is bleeding to death. The blood is nearly gone. It’s an impossibility that He has made it this far. It’s an act of will– His will, His refusal to die before the appointed time, that has kept Him alive this long. It is an act of God– a bizarre, dreadful, terrible miracle. The Son of God... Read more
Michael once informed me that if the Pezzulos were a House on Game of Thrones, our House Sigil would be a dog, and our House Words would be “No Regrets.” We’ve never owned a dog as a family. I never had one growing up. Michael had a puppy for a few weeks when he was very little, but besides that there were no pets except his mother’s parade of guinea pigs. As for Rosie, all she longs for... Read more
It’s been one of those weeks. The other day on Facebook I was messaged another stack of alarming screengrabs from a group called “Banished by Mark Shea: A Support Group.” For some reason, the people in that facebook group think they’re in a highly covert top secret cabal even though it’s just a closed group that’s clearly visible on a Facebook search. Since this group has absolutely no secrecy, and since what they’re up to is so sketchy, some... Read more
It has been a bad Lent, so far. I resolved to abstain on the proper days even if I couldn’t fast, but my health has been too iffy even for that. I resolved to have prayer as a family in the evenings, but we’re lucky if we remember to say one Our Father before bed. I have only had the blessed combination of solidly improved health plus a ride to a liturgy once since Lent began, last week, and that... Read more
No one could understand what the dying man was saying. They thought He was calling Elijah. The Lord of Heaven and Earth took flesh in order to be with His beloved, and was given a blasphemer’s execution. He cried out in horror that God had abandoned Him, and no one understood. God is everywhere present. There is nowhere any man could be that He is not, not even in the pit of hell. God cannot deceive nor be... Read more
(Author’s note: This is a piece I wrote for Rare Disease Day, which was actually the day before yesterday. Blame the fibro head fog.) I started doing my yoga exercises again last week. I used my favorite video for beginners. I huffed and puffed through the 20 minutes of light stretching. I groaned in Downward Dog; I cringed in every plank. When it was over, my muscle pain was less, I was more flexible and I could breathe... Read more
A member of a mawkish-looking facebook group which is specially dedicated to complaining about my friend Mark Shea, recently handed me a screenshot that made my hair stand on end. People responded with relish to this idea, commenting that they ought to show the article and screenshots to the police and Mark’s archbishop. I don’t know what they expect the archbishop to do to a layman writing a blog with his own opinions on his own time. I never... Read more
I’m not really into decontextualized quotemining of the Old Testament to find out what Christians are supposed to believe, but I’ve met many Christians who are. For example they like to quote Leviticus 18:22: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” To them, I would like to submit two verses from that same lovely and lilting King James translation of that same book of Leviticus in the very same Bible, which are extremely relevant today.... Read more
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