All right, a good story now. We’ve heard so many bad ones. This happened to me awhile back, at a parish I used to go to a long time ago. I think about it when things get very hopeless, and it helps. It was Good Friday. I wanted to go to a Three O’Clock service, but for reasons we won’t get into I couldn’t. I just walked to a local church to meditate on the Passion of Christ in... Read more
I’ve been thinking for quite some time about an article I wish I hadn’t read. The article was published almost a week ago in Catholic Answers. It was written by Tim Staples, and it was supposed to be about when Catholics may or may not use birth control. But it contained one paragraph that was so alarming it has to be examined on its own merits. The paragraph has been edited; here it is in its original form: “Thus, for... Read more
There are so many different kinds of fear. I have felt so many fears in the past week. Part of my treatment for PCOS is a medication I take ten days of the month. If I don’t take the meditation, my breakthrough bleeding goes out of control, I’m more likely to miscarry if I get pregnant and I might get uterine tumors if I’m not pregnant. I’ve got to take it. But it makes me sick. The medicine contributes... Read more
It finally got cool in Steubenville. I love cool weather, but the sudden change always flares my chronic illness a bit. Today’s the first time in several days that I felt physically well. I was still more than a little depressed. I intended to mope about the house all day, living in one of my Walter Mitty fantasies. I do that a lot. One of the reasons I’m so awkward in public is that I’m constantly pretending things, and sometimes... Read more
A friend mentioned online that she had been sexually harassed in the confessional. She didn’t call it that but that’s what it was. She confessed a sin of a sexual nature. The priest asked “are you a toy?” and badgered her to try to give details about the event and to admit she was raped (she wasn’t). He insisted on knowing details. She felt helpless and argued with him instead of leaving. Apparently, she didn’t know that she could... Read more
It started when a neighbor messaged me late at night. She said that she hated to ask, but another neighbor I didn’t know very well was desperate for a ride to another city more than an hour away, and it had to be tomorrow, and she had to be there before noon. The neighbor had no car to get there and they’d tried asking everybody else. They could buy me lunch and give me fifty dollars for gas,... Read more
Yesterday, the discourse on Twitter was all about trans people. A few days ago, all anyone could talk about was abortion, and now it’s trans people. A few days ago, traditionalist Catholics with the Simpsons or pictures of Saint Pio in their profile photos were telling everyone that women who get abortions do so out of pure selfishness and there’s no need to try to understand them. They were only saying this because they loved women and children and... Read more
I’m turning thirty-seven in less than two hours. Maybe that doesn’t seem old to you. I don’t even know why it seems old to me. I have no idea in the world why this particular birthday is hitting me so very hard. I have felt depressed and more than the usual self-loathing this week, without good reason. Maybe it’s because this is my first birthday with a diagnosis, after suffering for decades without one. Finally knowing I have polycystic ovary... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark: As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud;... Read more
Here’s the plan for the weekend. I am turning 37 on Monday. That may not seem old to you, but it’s the oldest I’ve ever been and it’s making me very depressed. I don’t have many in-person friends and they have to work on Monday. I won’t be getting any cards or packages on Monday because of Columbus Day, and we all know how much I don’t enjoy Columbus Day. Despite what you might think, I’m not actually depressed... Read more
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