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
Last week we talked about suicide and abuse. Now, for a moment, let’s turn our attention on how we, as people who are not clinicians, can help people who have been abused. I take it as fundamental that in an emergency you should call paramedics, and that people who are suicidal shouldn’t be left alone with knives or belts, and that it’s highly abusive to call 911 or use force on someone who isn’t actively suicidal but just expresses a desire for death.... Read more
I went to Mass downtown today, at the old Baroque-style church with the cavernous ceiling and the stained glass windows. The Mass was Novus Ordo but it was said ad orientem, with great dignity and formality. The church was awash in colored light; there were flickering candles in every corner. Most of the responses were said in Latin. I loved it. I look forward to that Mass every week. It comforts my soul in a thousand ways. There are a so... Read more
I found out something joyful today, namely that the archdiocese of Chicago is making a very concrete action toward a more whole life culture, and they are doing so in-house with a new parental leave policy. (H/t to Mark Shea, as I heard it first from him.) I believe that a major archdiocese modeling better parental leave policies is a great witness for our society. Regardless, it is a wonderful thing in itself – I hope that we Catholics can agree... Read more
When I first smelled the smoke, I thought it was the neighbors’ fireplace. Someone nearby has a wood stove; when the weather gets chilly, they burn logs and apparently trash. But the weather was not chilly that night. It was warm. We had all rickety unscreened windows open, propped with chair legs to keep them in place. This is the wreck of an economically depressed industrial town, as I’ve written about many times. It gets so you make up excuses... Read more
No time for a long meditation today, ladies and gents. I am typing this with freeze-dried chicken poop stuck under my nails, and you know what that means: I’m gardening. There was torrential rain and then an unexpected late freeze over the weekend, so instead of planting my garden in timely manner I hoarded all my unplanted seedlings indoors, hoping I didn’t get busted for being a drug house, and am in the middle of planting them all right now. My dear Michael... Read more
St. Joseph, look upon me and see in me, your son, Jesus Christ. Care for me and mine, as once in this life you cared for him. Obtain for me by your prayers the grace of the Holy Spirit working in my heart, that I might see my neighbor with the mind of Christ and thus seeing, as though through a sight-restoring lens, I might see Christ in my neighbor, and my neighbor in Christ. Prayer with me that every... Read more
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