I went to the car, feeling apprehensive. “Apprehensive” is different than “anxious.” Anxiety is an aura of fear looking for a problem to surround. The fear is prior to the fearsome thing and it doesn’t go away once the fearsome thing is taken care of. Apprehension means you’re nervous about something, that’s all. I was apprehensive because Serendipity has been acting up since Jimmy banged her back together. She’d been going into “limp mode” for a few moments when... Read more
I had a hard time on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. We all know how I feel about holy days of obligation. They are a matter of extreme anxiety and scruples for me. For years, I would drag myself to Mass on Sundays and holy days, despite religious trauma, despite chronic illness flares, sometimes despite not having a car and sometimes having to walk both ways for miles. Sometimes I would go to Mass twice because I... Read more
The Scrapper came back to see Holly the Witch, at her house on the South Side of Columbus. He wanted to know if there was any work he could do for her to earn a few dollars. She asked why he was clenching his teeth. “Some guy cracked out and broke my jaw and shot me in the armpit. They wanted me to stay another week in the hospital but I’ll lose my room. I need money to buy... Read more
We need to talk about the pro-life movement again. Or rather, we need to talk about what it’s like to be a pregnant woman in America, now that Roe versus Wade has been reversed, and what the laws that the pro-life movement has clamored for are doing to those women. I want to draw your attention to the case of Brittany Watts, right here in Ohio. Watts is a woman who experienced a late miscarriage. She went to the hospital... Read more
Hey folks! This is not a real blog post, it’s just blogkeeping. I’ll be on with one of those later today. I had to make an emergency appeal last month but this is the real, every-three-months blogkeeping note. The first thing I wanted to let you know is that if you follow my X or Twitter account, there’s a troll account imitating me right now that will probably be zapped by the time you read this. I am not... Read more
We did not get to the Christmas parade on Saturday. Steubenville has a really excellent Christmas parade, one you look forward to all year. I’d also been looking forward to a browse at the bookstore and a visit to the new store front that sells farmer’s market produce. It was going to be a great day, and then it wasn’t. We were in the car coming back from grocery shopping and the laundromat, intending to dump the groceries in... Read more
En una noche oscura, con ansias en amores imflamada, ¡oh dichosa uentura! salí sin ser notada, estando ya mi casa sosegada. A escuras y segura, por la secreta escala disfrazada, ¡oh dichosa uentura! a escuras y ençelada, estando ya mi casa sosegada. En la noche dichosa, en secreto, que nadie me ueya, ni yo miraua cosa, sin otra luz ni guia sino la que en el coraçon ardia. Aquesta me guiaua mas cierto que la luz del mediodia, adonde me... Read more
I want to draw your attention to an important article by Dan Sealana, about a pastor in Lansing, a Father Jim Rolph. Dan writes that Rolph had allegedly been spiritually and emotionally abusing a woman named Nadja, through a kind of manipulation known as “deliverance prayer.” Deliverance prayer, at least the kind practiced by Rolph and many others, involves convincing the victim that they are being “oppressed” by a demon and that only the person doing the praying is qualified... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at... Read more
I want to make one more statement about the ongoing dumpster fire at Church Militant, just to be absolutely clear, and then I hope I never have to write or think about them again. Since the time I wrote that blog post, less than 24 hours ago, David Gordon has switched his video back to public, announced as much, and compared himself to Theoden. I think people who chose to work for a scandal rag for years and are... Read more
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