(image via Pixabay) There is a Protestant church near my house, whose kiosk boasts “explosive services” and a choir known as the “Gospel Glamor Girls.” The explosive services happen during Sunday’s Divine Liturgy time, or else I think I would sneak out and attend one of them– there’s something very holy and wholesome about a modest brick Protestant church in the middle of a very poor neighborhood in Northern Appalachia. I like to go on my walks down that street in the evenings,... Read more
(image via Pixabay) What if I told you I’ve learned how to become invisible? I’ve joked about wanting to disappear, but at the time I’d forgotten that I actually had become invisible, once. It’s not the sort of thing you can turn on and off at will. It’s what happens to you, if you’ve had certain types of misfortune. Once, for a brief time, it happened to me. And while I was invisible, I learned how to see invisible people. It happened about... Read more
(Image via Pixabay) As some of you might have guessed I am little conflicted about writing in response to the news- sometimes I do, other weeks I fall silent. I haven’t necessarily settled that I like writing about news, but by now regular readers will know what all my friends have already learned to their sorrow – I don’t know how to shut up if I think something needs saying (or even might be worth saying). In this instance I... Read more
(Image via Pixabay) Chase Padusniak over at Jappers and Janglers has just written an awesome introduction to a desert father and saint about whom I had previously known nothing, Abba Moses the Strong. As a teaser here is an anecdote of the saint’s witness and teaching that Chase has included in his account: A certain brother committed an offence in Scete, the camp of the monks, and when a congregation was assembled on this matter, they sent after Abba Moses,... Read more
(image via Pixabay) I have a terrible confession to make. I don’t really like reading picture books aloud to children. I suppose I’m not being honest. I do enjoy reading picture books under the right circumstances, to certain types of children. If a child wants to sit quietly with rapt attention while I read a book I truly enjoy aloud in my most dramatic voice, I would like that. But this never happens in real life. In real life, my daughter gets fixated on a... Read more
(image via Pixabay) We’ve established, by now, that I had a weird childhood. Most people do. I think if we took an honest and empathetic look at the traumas and strangeness surrounding any given childhood, at any time in history, we would wonder that any adults are able to function as adults. Or perhaps we would just understand why so many adults don’t. In any case, my brand of weirdness started with run-of-the-mill scrupulous Catholicism; then we migrated to the... Read more
(image via Pixabay) …And I’ve been seeing memes asking just that question all week, with photos of cheerful nuns in full habit frolicking on beaches, so I know it’s on everybody’s mind… …it does. The Catholic Herald just reported that the deputy mayor of Nice, France, stated that nuns aren’t allowed on the beach, either. People are welcome on the beaches of Nice, France, wearing bathing suits and nothing else. A public expression of religion is considered a “provocation” in... Read more
(Image via Wikimedia Commons.) When it comes to moral, political, and religious controversy, I am not the sort to rush to the fray. I have as many strong opinions on these things as most people I guess, but I highly value being able to enjoy friendship and camaraderie with a variety of people representing sometimes very different views. I would just as soon maintain the peace most of the time, so I choose my battles very carefully. That said, as... Read more
(image via Pixabay) We’ve already established by now that I am the only critic on the whole of the internet who liked the re-make of Ben-Hur. Even I admitted that it was cheesy as all get out, but I still liked it. And I stand by that. I like a good cheesy film now and then. Cheese is good for you. Taken alone, it’s constipating, but in combination with other foods? Cheese is great. Nobody appreciates a good cinema cheese... Read more
(image via Pixabay) Steel Magnificat offers our prayers and condolences for the victims of the Italian earthquake early this morning. Padre nostro che sei nei cieli, sia santificato il tuo nome; venga il tuo regno, sia fatta la tua volontà, come in cielo così in terra. Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano, rimetti a noi i nostri debiti, come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori e non ci indurre in tentazione, ma liberaci dal male.Amen. Saints Catherine of Siena and... Read more
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