I had a conversation today, with a young adult in my family, a sweet-natured, gentle and very moral person with a highly functioning brain, who still favors free markets and a strong military, but has adopted some socialist leanings, nonetheless. We have many interesting and loud discussions about health care and global warming. Neither of us has ever managed to convince the other of anything, but we do argue respectfully, and we know when not to engage the other. This... Read more
Without intending to, Deacon Greg has brought into rather sharp focus -and for better or worse- how Catholics “work” on television these days, and what the past was like. First he gives us this rather charming video from the old television show, “What’s My Line.” As a tail-end boomer, I remember this only vaguely. What a little timecapsule; what a foreign, quaint and different era! Hosted by the efficient and often droll John Charles Daly, What’s My Line? boasted a... Read more
…and for heavy hearts and broken spirits, too. My Inner Eeyore is out today, and I don’t think I should inflict her upon you; rather let us find a balm here, from today’s Office of Reading: On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven... Read more
On this wonderful solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, our friends the Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ have clothed a new novice in the habit, and in religion her name will be: Sr. Mary Magdalene of the Immaculate Conception The pictures are lovely (the new sister is glowing and the whole community seems joyfilled), and the comments section is informative. In her first monastic Advent and Christmas season, the former Sr. Carri takes the names of the two women who remained... Read more
The New Republic’s James Gardner has taken a look at the drawings for the George W. Bush Presidential Library, and while the knee-jerk negativity is adolescent and predictable, it ends up on a rather bizarre note, for a grown-up, professional publication. We begin with the obligatory, “the last Democrat’s library is better,” sniff: There is a hard-edged and unapologetic modernity to the Clinton Library . . . Though some (including Clinton himself) have compared this long and rectangular structure to... Read more
Last year, I gave an 8 minute podcast talking about this solemnity. It’s one of the biggies in the church, and for a good reason. As St. Anselm teaches us from across the centuries in today’s Office of Readings: God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. WIthout God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed. Or, as St. John Vianney taught:... Read more
Snowflake Photos from SnowCrystals.com I know I need to be careful how I say this. Yes, they’re snowflakes. But when I first saw these pictures, all I could think of was: Look! Pictures of Christ! Pictures of perfection, they remind us of the joyful Antiphon for a Monday’s vespers: “yours is more than mortal beauty; every word you speak is full of grace.” They are -in a sense- pictures of Christ in Glory. He is the image of the invisible... Read more
Two apologies: 1) Yes, the site is having difficulties today; it’s a drag. It’s a real pain in the neck trying to work with, too. I apologize for this; it’s not my fault. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 2) I have taken down the “When Good Children Go Bad” post for reworking. I was trying to be funny, but it seems (according to a reader and one of my kids) that I had drifted into “mean.” I wasn’t trying to... Read more
Henrietta: Now, Eudora, you stand there and you just sing out – don’t you move a muscle – just sing out so that Baby Jesus can hear you! Myrna: Myrna, Mama! I hate being called Eudora! Henrietta: Your name is Eudora, and I don’t care what the Pastor’s wife says about letting you change your name. I’m only going along because Myrna is your middle name and it’s so pretty. It was my grandmother’s name and it’s respectable -not like... Read more
NPR does not understand why the public is not more panicked about Global Warming. It’s the cognitive dissonance, stupid! As we watch the world’s chummy elite eschew video conferencing in order to gather in Copenhagen while amassing a huge carbon footprint with their planes, trains, automobiles, printed programs, photographers, kleig lights, etc, we find it difficult to believe that the rest of us must hang our laundry out to dry and give up our incandescent light bulbs in order to... Read more
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