A Myth is a Window

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 1:13 am By Mary Pezzulo

(image via Pixabay) Remember that wonderful legend about the angel chopping a man’s hands off on the Dormition icon? There’s another popular version of the story, which was pointed out to me by alert readers Ksenia and Ryan. According to Susan Schneider of “Ask About the Orthodox Faith:” Bewailing their separation from the Mother of God, the Apostles prepared to bury Her all-pure body. A solemn procession went from Zion through Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane. Unbelieving inhabitants of Jerusalem,... Read more

Is This The Public Face We Want For Catholicism?

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 1:59 am By Michael Pezzulo

Image via Pixabay This post is a part of the Patheos Catholic Channel series, “Catholicity: Identity and Its Discontents.” Steel Magnificat both cordially invites and heartily encourages our readers to read more here. (Additionally this is the piece I was writing last Friday before several more urgent items turned up. I am aware of the irony of the first paragraph considering that, and hope it allows everyone a good chuckle.) When I sit down to write here and have multiple tabs up, it... Read more

And Now, a Serious Meditation on the Dormition…

Last updated on: August 15, 2016 at 1:44 pm By Mary Pezzulo

(Image via Wikimedia Commons) …from my Orthodox friend over at Morphodoxing. Whatever your disagreements with Orthodoxy or anything else, just click that link and read it through. It made my hair stand on end. My friend is a brilliant woman who knows what it’s like to suffer for a baby, far more than I do or most mothers I know. You who have borne a child will go to your grave filled with memories of the prototype for her life,... Read more

Pizza With The Pope: Konrad Krajewski, Papal Almoner, Practices Simple Wisdom

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 5:59 pm By Michael Pezzulo

(Image via Pixabay.) Some of you have probably seen the same headlines I have about the Pope treating the homeless to pizza. Scrolling past the large number of gratuitous Pope photos on the Independent (apparently some of them are links for other Pope stories), one quickly learns that – while this venture is done on papal authority and does include papal pizzeria visits – the protagonist of the story is actually Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner. (If the title is unfamiliar,... Read more

Why Is There An Angel Chopping a Man’s Hands Off On The Dormition Icon?

Last updated on: September 6, 2016 at 9:18 am By Mary Pezzulo

This is a public domain historic standard icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos (think the Assumption, Westerners), courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, and I love it. We have Mother Mary deceased in the foreground, on one of those elaborate violently tilted beds of which I’ve remarked before. I can’t quite tell whether she’s lying on a cushion or surrounded by a visible nimbus of light, and the ambiguity is probably deliberate. She is lying in a similar position to the... Read more

How Wonderful It Is To Set Aside All Earthly Cares

Last updated on: August 15, 2016 at 5:18 pm By Michael Pezzulo

(Image: St Macarius the Great with Cherub, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.) So last Friday I found myself in an unfortunate position for a blogger. I don’t want to write outrage stuff but I was sitting on a pile of stuff I really felt I ought to object to, and that it would be worthwhile to share my reasons for doing so with all of you. I didn’t end up writing it, because some news and such came up. I found... Read more

God Is

Last updated on: August 13, 2016 at 9:29 pm By Mary Pezzulo

(image via pixabay) A friend is suffering a lot right now, and there’s not much anyone can do. Pray for them, if you would. Thank you. I’m not doing so well myself. Pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Those of you who have been with me for any length of time know that I’m not the most knowledgeable gal on Patheos Catholic. I’m not an apologist. I don’t have a lot of answers. Snark, yes, and I like to... Read more

I Just Read This (And I Would Like You to Read It Too).

Last updated on: August 13, 2016 at 12:20 am By Michael Pezzulo

(Image via Pixabay) Rebecca Bratten Weiss of Suspended In Her Jar just wrote a fantastic post explaining things I wish a large number of otherwise well-intentioned Catholic men of my acquaintance understood. She writes: “Women who do not conform to societal standards for prettiness or femininity are reviled by those who think women should be objects for male pleasure – even supposedly chaste pleasures, such as enjoying a nice cup of tea with a nice girl who’s pretty in a way... Read more

No, Sex is Not the Nourishing Food of Marriage

Last updated on: August 3, 2017 at 9:27 pm By Mary Pezzulo

(image via Pixabay) Did you ever see something on the internet that upset you immensely? Something that grossed you out so much, you wanted to take a hot shower and scour yourself with steel wool? I just had one of those. This is worse than the time I googled “Trypopophobia.” Don’t google that, by the way. I just read this article from Aletia, which is usually a reliable source of excellent writing. This is my first exposure to Ryan Williams. For... Read more

I Invite You To Read

Last updated on: August 12, 2016 at 5:31 pm By Michael Pezzulo

(Image via Pixabay.) This heart-rending piece on the experience of depression and how to be compassionate to those who suffer. Michael J. Lichens writes: “If someone in your life is suffering mental anguish, I can tell you from experience what works and doesn’t work. Don’t try to cure them unless you are a doctor or a real wonder-worker, and for heaven’s sake do not try to tell them, “But how can you be depressed!” Instead, let them know that they do have a... Read more