Everybody hold onto your socks. I’ve got some shocking news. Pour yourself a stiff drink and sit down. Go ahead and clutch your pearls right now, save yourself some time. You’re not gonna believe this. Ready? Beauty and the Beast is going to have an openly gay character. I’m sorry, I know that’s not the proper nomenclature. I mean, Beauty and the Beast is going to have a character who openly struggles with same-sex attraction but not really struggles come to... Read more
This morning I found that someone had posted a friend’s complaint in one of my Facebook forums: I wasn’t entirely sure what the New Saint Thomas Institute was. It turns out that the New Saint Thomas Institute is run by Doctor Taylor Marshall. Marshall is a Catholic professor who’s been both to the Vatican and on EWTN, and he now has an online subscription service for video theology lessons. Twelve months of 30-minute video lessons gets you a nice... Read more
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by Your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. God is God, and can do whatever He wills. He said “Let there be light,” and there was light, days before the stars... Read more
I went downtown, to apply for utility assistance. The last time I called that department, they assured me that they do not take appointments anymore; they take walk-ins and walk-ins only. I wrote down their hours and all of the documentation they needed. Then I had one of my autoimmune attacks and didn’t go downtown for some time. Winter is a very expensive time. We did very well over Christmas and in January; I felt hopeful about getting through. February was... Read more
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I... Read more
Here’s an experiment for those of you who are over thirty. The rest of you, sit down and listen; you’ll learn about history. I want the over thirty crowd to cast your mind back to the bad old days. Way back. I’m talking about all the way back in the late 1990s, when the internet was brand new, referred to as “the information superhighway” and made marvelous squeaky fax machine sounds for five minutes every time you turned it on. We... Read more
How do you repent of your sins and ask forgiveness? Badly. Horribly. It’s par for the course. Repentance is turning away from the path you know, to take the path you don’t. You will necessarily look like a fool, and this is grace. How do you do your prostrations, at Forgiveness Vespers, in a Latinized church with pews in front of you? Badly, almost comically, making a fool of yourself, that’s how. You bow halfway. Or, you notice that the... Read more
I am a Benedictine monk, and I’ve been perplexed ever since I first heard of Rod Dreher’s proposal of a “Benedict Option.” (Dreher answers frequently asked questions about his “Benedict Option” here.) He turned to St. Benedict after reading Alasdair MacIntyre’s recommendation of the monastic saint. Dreher states: The ‘Benedict Option’ refers to Christians in the contemporary West who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American empire, and who therefore are... Read more
It begins tomorrow night– Wednesday for you in the West. Lent is beginning. Christ is going out into the desert. Why is He going into the desert? He is going to meet you there. You are a fallen creature in a fallen world. Heaven is your home, but you were not born in Heaven. You were born on the fallen earth. You’ve felt it all your life. You’ve known that it’s there. You ought to be in Heaven, but you’re not.... Read more
Anyone who’s read my blog before knows I’m not a fan of party politics. I’ve been particularly hard on Republicans because they’re the ones who claim to be the champions of Christianity while persecuting the poor and the migrant. I refer to 45 as the Tangerine Menace or Manitos Cheetos. I trust that I’ve earned enough street cred that I’m not going to be accused of being a Republican shill. Now, that said, I need to say something about Democrats. My... Read more
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