When Buster was pretty small, perhaps three or four years old, a priest asked a rhetorical question during his homily–I don’t remember the question; it might have been “why are we here, today” or something like that–but the boy was determined to answer it, and his hand shot up and remained there, like one long skinny flagpole wavering, while the priest tried to ignore him. After a while, Fr. Patient–who had baptized Buster and knew him well–sighed and said, “okay,... Read more
“You too left Egypt when, at baptism, you renounced that world which is at enmity with God.” — St. Augustine The Benedictine Nuns at Oxfordshire had a silencing snow to bring a profound stillness to the start of Advent: The mantle of snow lying over much of Britain this morning will not be welcomed by all but it is the perfect gift for the beginning of Advent. Snow is mysterious, beautiful, silent. It both conceals and reveals. It draws us... Read more
For your pre-Thanksgiving/Thanksgiving reading, a little scattershot for time-constraints: Gwen John; Art & Faith in the Shadows Jonah Goldberg: a poignant, lovely post on his father’s appreciation for the papacy, and thoughts on Benedict XVI. It’s oddly in tune with the Thanksgiving theme, and even as he clearly aches for his missing father, Goldberg manages to display a surer grasp of why the church does what it does than many, either inside or outside of it: As for the Church’s... Read more
Did Pope Benedict know he was sparking a debate with his responses in Light of the World? I suspect he did. Benedict is not stupid, and he’s not unsavvy about media; he knows the press is reactionary and slavish to the sensational – that they would grab his answers to Peter Seewald and run with them, and that after their first noise, some of them would actually settle down and seek to understand, while others never would. Meanwhile, the faithful... Read more
As we have for the past couple of years, Gabriel Malor from Ace O’Spades HQ and I are exchanging Thanksgiving recipes. This year, Gabriel is featuring a delicious-sounding Squash Stuffing. Gabriel notes that last year, we had our dishes reversed, with me looking for new veggie recipes while he was looking for the sweets. That stuffing recipe really does sound swell! I’m a sucker for sour cream! What’s nice about doing this–aside from the inter-blog sharing–is that these sorts of... Read more
With a title like that, what else could I be talking about but my Tuesday column: I had been driven to the crucifix because I had become overwhelmed with the media/internet cacophony that had followed L’Osservatore Romano’s weekend revelation of Pope Benedict XVI’s thoughts on the use of condoms in certain situations, and by the uproar over newly put-in-place TSA regulations on pre-flight searches and pat-downs. In both cases, reactions were swift, and they varied according to agendas but fell... Read more
Yesterday at Mass, my husband noticed that on the floor of our pew, by our feet, was a quarter of an unconsumed Host. He picked it up and consumed it. Discussing it on the way home, my husband chose to think the best, not the worst. “Maybe [at a previous Mass] the wedge was part of Consecration Host, and it somehow got picked up with another one and missed, or dropped onto a sweater, or something.” My husband is always... Read more
A while back we had a little fun with the 123 Meme, which works as follows: 1. Pick up the book nearest your hand ( of at least 123 pages). 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the next three sentences. 5. Tag five people. I’m not going to tag anyone – it will be interesting enough to see your responses in the comments section. Tonight while looking through my archives in search... Read more
“O Lord, in your light we see light itself.” –a 1st Antiphon of Lauds In the comments section of the post below, the subject of Humanae Vitae has arisen. I am of the opinion that Paul VI’s encyclical was prophetic, but poorly taught and too quickly dismissed; its message was unwelcome in an “if it feels good do it” era. Deacon Greg notes that what Pope Benedict has said in Light of the World is not appreciably different from what... Read more
The press loves its “Rottweiler narrative” on Benedict, but he has confounded them on it, over and over again. Sooner or later they will realize he was never the hammer they claimed he was. He has always been extremely pastoral; wedded to the truth while aware of human complexities. And here he is, proving it again: As a book launch it is certainly bound to move some product, but expect the usual clarifications that always appear about 4 days after... Read more
The Anchoress
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In