It was time for the annual renew-the-food-stamp-benefits phone call. I received the bi-annual notice in the mail that it’s time to renew my benefits. It came a bit too late to fill it out and mail it before the deadline, so I took it downtown on the city bus with Rosie in tow; Rosie turned somersaults across the dreary carpet as I waited my turn, waited for photo-copies, accepted my receipt, and left. The bus back to our house only... Read more
I believe I’ve mentioned before that I’ve never been entirely sure what an apologist is supposed to do. When I was a child, I thought the word “apologist” meant somebody who said they were sorry for things, but of course in practice it’s the opposite: an apologist is usually someone who defends things and explains why no apology is necessary. A Catholic apologist will tell you why Catholicism is the True Faith even though it can seem weird and eccentric–... Read more
I once read that, if you ever find yourself falling to your death, you should say “My Lord and my God!” It’s faster than the Jesus prayer or an act of contrition; it says what you need to say before meeting your Maker. I always wondered at the logic behind that statement. Shouldn’t we live a life of conversion at every moment, so we weren’t dependent on a last-minute repentance in case of emergencies? Wouldn’t Jesus understand, if I started an act of contrition and couldn’t finish... Read more
We’re all in luck. Our sainted president, TV’s Donald Trump, has announced that “We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values,” and there was much rejoicing. I can’t wait, can you? Thank God we’re stopping the attacks on Judeo-Christian values. My life will be so much easier when they ban usury. I’ll have much more money to throw around every month. I know just what I’ll use it for, too. I’ll use it for the upkeep of orphans and... Read more
Everybody’s talking about natural family planning, again. I have gone on the record as having nothing interesting to say about NFP. I do practice NFP every month with “just reason” in accordance with the Church’s teaching, and I intend to keep doing it, but I don’t have much to say. My friend Mindy did have quite a bit to say, and she said it. She’s promised to say much more. She wrote a well-researched article on the issues she has with the Church’s... Read more
My friend Anna is beautiful. She’s always posting selfies of her new makeup experiments– makeup is her hobby. Nobody needs makeup to be beautiful, but Anna knows how to look beautiful in makeup. She coordinates different vibrant lip and eye colors to match her whimsical clothes; she recently dyed her hair purple for even more color. She’s got a whole album of selfies on her facebook, posing with different combinations of lipstick and eyeshadow, a whole gallery of rainbow-adorned faces with bright hair. Awhile back,... Read more
A friend had a question: what do I say to a person, who is soon to be accepted into full communion with the Catholic Church, who keeps asking if the Eucharist is really a form of cannibalism? If I were you I’d be honest. You’d better tell him that it is cannibalism, in a sense. It is eating a human Body. It’s horrifying in its way. That’s why the Jews were so shocked when Christ brought it up; that’s why so many... Read more
Today, I am tired. I’m always tired; it’s part and parcel of having fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. But today I am exceptionally tired. I woke up feeling peppy enough to run errands, and then I made the mistake of running three errands instead of one. By the end of the errands I was sleepwalking; I got home very grumpy, quarreled with my husband, let Rosie watch Star Wars for the second time, and declared I was going to take a nap.... Read more
As usual, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that Christ is Lord of Heaven and Earth and He is coming back. The bad news is that that move to West Virginia I was talking about at the beginning of the summer, which should have taken place twice over by now, has fallen through for the moment and we may be stuck in Ohio at least as late as February. And we may be paying rent... Read more
Awhile back now, I wrote about the Legionaries of Christ and their lay organizations, Regnum Christi and ECYD. I described the heresies I had been taught there and how I was indoctrinated in disobedience to local bishops as if that was an important part of being a faithful Catholic. I received quite a few comments on that post; there was a lot of debate, which I usually welcome. However, one of the first comments I got was from a leader very far... Read more
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