Yesterday I re-posted my piece on Christ as a victim of sexual abuse, drawing on what’s known about Roman crucifixion in history. And for the third year in a row, I had people accuse me of blasphemy and disrespecting Christ. I am used to this now. But I am not used to being tagged on purpose in a long complicated thread denouncing me as a blasphemer, so I took a look. Mr. Conte accuses me of writing the article this... Read more
One liturgical year ago yesterday, I stood in a parking lot in my sweatpants receiving absolution, and that was my last sacrament for months and months. We didn’t dare go to Mass again as a family until February. It’s been a difficult year. Most years are difficult, to be honest, but this one so much more so. Watching the absolute selfishness of so many for such a long time is exhausting. So many times in the past year, I’ve looked... Read more
The first week as a car owner didn’t start out very well. I was so excited over the car. I named it “The Neighborhood Trolley” since I got it on the birthday of my beloved Fred Rogers. I drove us to the evening Mass, the first time we’ve gotten to Mass on our own power without a long hike since we’ve lived here. I’ve wanted to drive to Mass more than almost anything else. I’ve daydreamed about going to... Read more
I gave Rosie the talk about the birds and the bees. This happened a bit sooner than I expected. Rosie is a smart girl who loves science and, specifically, biology. She wants to be a park ranger when she grows up. She is constantly watching nature documentaries. One evening, after a documentary on gila monsters laying eggs in the desert, she held up two rubber geckos and rubbed their tummies together where the cloacas would be. “They’re having sex!” she... Read more
Friday was Saint Joseph’s Day, so I prayed to him as I walked downtown to the bank. I took out a cashier’s check for the first time in my life. I put the check in my purse loose, because I’ve never thought to buy a wallet. I walked to the church to say “thank you” and to pray that nothing would go wrong the next day. They were tuning the organ up in the loft, as I sat in the... Read more
There has been another horrendous mass shooting. This one happened last night, in and around Atlanta. A young white man by the name of Robert Aaron Long reportedly gunned down eight people, all but one of them women, at least six of them Asian, at two spas in the Atlanta area before he was apprehended by the police. Sheriff Frank Reynolds of Cherokee County explained that Long has a “sex addiction” and that he had frequented these spas for sexual... Read more
We are buying a car on Saturday. Well, maybe not. There are a million and one things that could go wrong. We have our sights on an inexpensive car with nothing obviously wrong with it. We have a ride to the dealership with an extra grown-up in the car who will ride back with me in my ‘new’ car, since it’ll be my first drive as a licensed driver. We have a loan from friends, who offered to lend... Read more
I have a message for the Catholics around me who responded to the Vatican statement on not blessing same sex unions yesterday, and to other such statements, by gloating. And to the people who gloat whenever the Vatican releases such a statement. Not to the people who just fully realize this was re-stating Church teaching and then go about their business, but to the people who were excited that it hurt the feelings of LGBTQ Catholics whether they’re living... Read more
Tonight I am so sad. A friend, a Catholic who is gay, tweeted about a mutual friend of ours who has decided to leave the Catholic Church because they were so tired of the homophobic harassment. This was a person who was living chastely according to the rules of the Church, but it wasn’t enough for their detractors, and now they’ve left. My heart was broken by that tweet. And it was further broken by the dirty, nasty, ugly,... Read more
The doctor’s office called this morning, when I was half asleep and depressed. I had been a little depressed since Saturday when I took my walk, and it hadn’t gone away. I feel like we should be able to speak publicly about such things, because if we don’t, then people suffering them might think they were alone. I was depressed. Not the kind of depressed where you cry violently until your head hurts, but the kind of depressed where you... Read more
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