My little town in the Ohio Valley is just big enough to have its own bus service– eight to six, two bus routes, seven actual buses, a transfer across the river to West Virginia twice a day, an abbreviated schedule for Saturdays. It’s not a big city bus, just a fleet of strange vehicles bigger than a Handicap-access van but smaller than a truck. Fifty cents gets you from downtown to the mall, fifty cents gets you back. If you know the driver, you... Read more
Scrambling around for something to post about today, I stumbled on an in-depth list of patron saints for July. These things fascinate me; I love to read the more obscure hagiographies and make new Heavenly friends. A friend of mine has a theory that the more obscure saints answer prayers very quickly, because they have so much extra time on their hands. Someone should really conduct some kind of experiment to verify this. The first thing I’ve discovered, is that there... Read more
I hope that you all follow Chase Padusniak , Patheos Catholic blogger at Jappers and Janglers. Just this week he has written this: “It’s a shame, since social justice, respectful liturgy, and orthodoxy can quite easily go together. An idolatrous, as opposed to a constructive, relationship to Liberalism blinds us to this reality.” (Read the rest.) And introduced me to a saint about whom little is known, but who will from now on be one of the saints dearest to my heart.... Read more
Michael touched his voltage tester to the light socket in the kitchen. There was a small flickerof green lights, which I tried to look like I appreciated. “See?” said Michael. Nothing came to mind except a line from James Thurber. “The electricity is pouring out of the socket, making a costly leak?” Michael sighed, and tried to explain to me about wiring for the hundredth time. I tried to listen, for the hundredth time. I am an absolute dunce at... Read more
There’s been so much to talk about this week– so much I’d rather not talk about, with the Daesh bombings and the horrors in our own country– that I didn’t get to tell you what I did on Independence Day. I know, you were probably on the edge of your seats. On Independence Day, I went to a Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy. Our wonderful priest announced it the day before, after Sunday Liturgy. “You all know,” he said in his... Read more
Everybody stop what you’re doing, right now. Stop scrolling, stop typing, stop spreading conspiracy theories and stop arguing against people who are spreading conspiracy theories, stop a minute. Now, pray for peace. I like to pray with music, so here’s some inspiration for you if you’d like. I’ll wait right here. Okay, now that you’ve prayed, what does the Holy Ghost place on your heart to do? Our Lord desires mercy, not sacrifice. Why does He desire mercy, not sacrifice? Because... Read more
I said earlier that I didn’t know how to react to recent news. I still don’t, even though that has yet to stop my reacting. On Facebook tonight I found that my friend Sam had written some things that struck me deeply. I don’t think that there is any one right way to react to horrors in our day, but I think his is a right way of doing so. One way of bearing the witness that needs to be... Read more
I am watching the news in mounting horror. As it stands right now, eleven police officers have been shot at what began as a peaceful protest against police violence in downtown Dallas; three of the officers are dead so far. One shooter is also dead and the other may be close to being apprehended. I don’t know anything more about it at this time. The past 24 hours we’ve seen horrendous violence and injustice, and now we’re seeing more violence that seems... Read more
I got up too late to read the news online, and ran some errands with my daughter. So I’m just reading the news now, and I’m sick to my stomach. Michael has already posted his own reaction– how am I, as an over-educated white person, supposed to react when a police officer murders yet another black man? How are we supposed to react when it happens again and again? How can I respond with empathy to a person in many ways different from me,... Read more
“An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates In seeing the heart-rending accounts of yet more cop-on-black violence early this morning my heart was torn. Shouldn’t I say something? Should I curl up in ball and curse the day the human race was... Read more
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