While he was still a long way of, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. – Luke 15:20 We all know the story of the Prodigal Son. It is (as Msgr. Charles Pope says here) almost “overly familiar”. At mass today Fr. Dyspeptic -my favorite homilist, because he is scholarly but witty, and always blessedly brief- suggested that it is easy for us to identify with... Read more
I can’t remember where I came upon this video -it might have been from First Things’ Evangel blog– but I like it a lot, and I think y’all will, too: Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, doing the convocation at Houston Baptist University. An excellent video for an extended Sunday Coffee Break. Read more
Some wonder why I post Nun News but so little on priests. Probably because I’m a girl, but I do take a great interest in men’s vocations, too, and I pray for the Pope and every priest and deacon I know, every day, and for more priests, of course. But here’s some priest/friar/brother/deacon stuff for you, starting with a Day in a Priest’s Life video courtesy of Deacon Greg: Since losing out to Bill and Melinda Gates on a desirable... Read more
Reposted, by request, from 2007, before any changes to English translations: It’s struck me for a while, now, that we Catholics, who begin each Mass with a Penitential Rite meant to free us from the lesser – not grievous or mortal – sins, have been short-changing ourselves by our choice in how we do it. In most parishes today, the Penitential Rite will be a series of affirmations tied in to the Kyrie, so you might hear something like this:... Read more
It’s not prophecy. It’s not a fine or proved economic theorem. It’s not even life imitating art. It’s simply the way one Master Grifter recognises the cynical underhandedness of another Master Grifter. And how a very smart novelist understands the constant con: From Terry Pratchett’s inventive and smart novel Going Postal, at that point where the sympathetic shyster, Moist von Lipwig, charged -on pain of death- with re-tooling the defunct Ankh-Morpork postal service, understands the depth of the corruption of... Read more
If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the centre of the silent Word. O my people, what have I done unto thee. Where shall the word be found, where... Read more
Well, St. Catherine of Siena, who was a Dominican Tertiary, did say “run, run, run”. The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration of Our Lady of Solitude Monastery, currently being built in Tonopah, AZ, have chosen a unique way to raise revenue. As they have more young women aspiring to enter than they can currently house (with one new novice and a postulant hoping to enter, soon, they are full-up), the sisters need to fund the living quarters that will attach... Read more
Took this with my phone. Came out well, didn’t it? I know, I’m very quiet. Sorry. It’s a quiet Lent. I feel so disinclined toward reading or writing about politics, and spiritually this has been a very stillpoint/nothing, emptying sort of Lent; often (and this may come as no surprise, to some of you) there is just nothing going on in my head. You could roll bowling balls through there and hit nothing. Drop a penny on my skull, you’ll... Read more
UPDATE: Crunching the numbers Read more
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