When I was a teenager, I was privileged to take part in a special program of BFA acting classes at the Ohio State University, as part of the pretentiously named “Summer Institute for the Gifted and Talented in the Arts.” For two weeks, from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon, I got to study theater under guest artists. It was, hands down, the most fun I’ve had in my life to this very day. It’s one of the... Read more
You know you’re in trouble when a friend messages you in the middle of your busy day with a desperate request like the one I just received. “You have GOT to review The Encounter: Paradise Lost!” she said to me. “What’s it about?” I asked. “Sex? Aliens?” “No,” she said. “Jesus. It’s a PureFlix film.” I had just closed my PureFlix subscription, with the intention of not beating a dead horse any further, but The Encounter: Paradise Lost is available on Netflix,... Read more
The garden is growing by leaps and bounds; the zucchini seedlings are already doubled in size, set to conquer the world as zucchini always does. The corn is almost four inches. We’ll pick lettuce within a week. But the sugar snap peas are already abundant. Sugar snap peas always come first; you’re supposed to sow soaked peas in mid-March, so that they start bearing fruit in late May and early June. When they die off in the July heat, I’ll... Read more
Many of you likely remember this post from a couple of weeks ago, wherein Mary asked if you all could donate what you could for air conditioner funding. I am happy to say that you provided! As she put it over on Steel Magnificat’s Facebook page: “You know what Divine Mercy feels like? Divine Mercy feels like a spiffy high-powered air conditioner that my blog readers purchased for me through the donate button. It’s 87 degrees outside and I’m not swelling... Read more
First of all, I’m not going to talk about the allegations of the secret Fatima prophecy. I am not even going to go to my back yard, hew down the oak tree and fashion it into a ten-foot pole with which to touch the allegations of a brand new totally-not-the-other-one secret Fatima prophecy. Steel Magnificat is a Catholic blog. We are faithful to Rome. If Rome says there’s no super-dibbley-top-classified-secret prophecy, Roma locuta est. But every time Fatima is the... Read more
A very happy and blessed Memorial Day from Steel Magnificat to all of my readers, and thank you to all who served your country with honor over the years. May all who died in the defense of others be brought to everlasting life. Saint Michael and Saint George, pray for us! (Image via pixabay) Read more
It’s one of those Sundays where the only Mass I can get to is on campus. Those Sundays are hardest of all. It was cloudy when I left, and humid; most people in the neighborhood were sleeping in or at church. Very few cars passed me. There was almost no sound, save the constant, eerie burring of those seventeen-year cicadas. They were everywhere– underfoot and on trees, clinging to the weeds and trash as I took the back... Read more
I have such a find for you today, I hardly know how to begin. I was downtown at the Franciscan-sister-run thrift store, looking for shorts, and of course I was drawn like a moth to their “free book” bookcase in the back. There’s often not anything good there, but I always look. Today, there was a treasure. It’s an identical copy of a book I pored over when I was a very small girl, too young to read the text. In fact,... Read more
Okay, read this, for starters. (5/25 edit: thankfully, Catholic Mommy Blog has edited out the worst parts of the article from yesterday; the quotes in this one are from the original piece.) “Please Comment. What other important factors can you think of when discussing modesty with your child?” *hand raise* I have a few comments, but I don’t think they’d fit in your combox. I’m gonna discuss them here. okay? You’ll get some free publicity out of it, and I’m... Read more
Those who don’t understand why Christ came in the form of food, have never been poor. My little town here in the Ohio Valley has a unique, insular culture. I don’t think there’s another place like it in the world. In this town there are two major factions: the poor, who are born locally and are usually Protestant, and the Catholics, who have jobs at the local university and are most often middle class or above. I am poor and... Read more
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