I’ve said it at least a thousand times since we left the house for Tot Time. It started when I saw another woman at the bus stop. Rose is shy and doesn’t like saying hello to strange grown ups; she hadn’t got much sleep, and was already promising to be cranky. Mommy got even less sleep. Mommy was on the verge of dozing off as I walked. “Rose,” I hissed, “Be sweet. Mind your manners. Say hello.” Rose did not... Read more
You may recall that last week I went to see God’s Not Dead 2, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t have time to mention that I met a new friend on the way to my movie. There was a talkative gentleman sitting in a new electric wheelchair at the front of the bus, and I heard him ask the driver for directions to the Social Security office behind the mall, the bus’s last stop. I told him it... Read more
I am an unabashed lover of films. Films are among my favorite things. I am obsessed with Stanley Kubrick; I am very fond of the Coen brothers. I like to memorize Hollywood musicals and sing them in the shower. If you ever see me in public not watching a late 90s J-Horror movie, be assured that I’m only planning the quickest way to get home and watch a late 90s J-Horror movie. I love films more than just about anything... Read more
Okay, get this, you have got to hear this. You have got to hear this one. A Dominican priest walks on to a college campus and is mistaken for… oh, you’ve heard that one? Never mind. How about this one? A Franciscan TOR from the local university and a Byzantine Catholic priest from the church across the river walk into a Chinese restaurant. The host says “Is there a Star Wars convention in town?” Yes, that really happened. This one... Read more
Father Reginald* was a young Franciscan priest in a long brown cassock, with sandals on his feet and three knots on his belt to represent the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Father Reginald was also very tall and spare with buzzed hair and a short brown beard. He didn’t look much like the real Saint Francis is supposed to have looked, but he looked quite a bit like the standard kitschy representations of Saint Francis on prayer cards. I was... Read more
a meditation based on Matthew 25: 14-30 A man was going on a journey, so he called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To the first he gave ten talents; to the second, he gave five. To the unwise and unprofitable servant, he gave only one talent, and went on his way. The servants with ten and twenty talents took the gold and went to the nearest city to trade, taking the main road and moving slowly, for... Read more
This is my first year to plant potatoes. “When do they go in the ground?” I asked the lady at the garden shop. “Around Saint Patrick’s Day,” she said. I found that oddly appropriate. In the Ohio Valley, Potatoes go into the ground on Saint Patrick’s day. Onions go in earlier, as soon as you can work the soil; Candlemas is not too early if you can manage. Garlic should be planted with the onions, or plant it during Advent,... Read more
At the time of our Visitation it was two O’clock in the morning, the night after the Carmelite feast of Holy Father Saint Elijah. As on most feast days, I’d been too sick to pray the Divine Office; now that it was night, I was wide awake, worrying. My husband Michael was downstairs, reading. Our daughter was asleep. The windows were open, because it was hot and we couldn’t afford air conditioners. All was quiet as the tomb. Then I heard a... Read more
I will never become a grown-up, because I don’t like hot drinks. When I was a little girl, I tried to drink hot chocolate after coming in from the snow, but it burned my tongue every time. I let it cool down and then drank it, but it was neither warm nor comforting; regular chocolate milk was much nicer. Along with every child my age, I watched the BBC’s dramatization of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when... Read more
I don’t know where to begin. I had resolved, when first I began to blog, not to mention the belligerent yam or any other presidential candidate. But now I find he’s suggesting that post-abortive women should be punished for their abortions, which will, mark my words, only lead to even more suffering for women who miscarry. And I find it’s almost April First, so waggish young couples are going to make joke announcements about fake pregnancies. Also, a total stranger... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In