Miss Ella of a Blue Sunday Evening: UPDATE: So, I get an email, “Anchoress, why you blue?” Oh, baby’s blue for many reasons, but I’ll write about them tomorrow because I’m too wiped out just now. Why am I wiped out, now? Because the long-awaited blogroller redesign was an epic fail by my lights, and so I had to simply sit down tonight and force myself to reconstruct my entire blogroll. Was Mama happy? Mama was not happy. Mama is... Read more
I love this simple definition of grace from Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart, a French Carthusian. This is the secret of peace, after committing a fault. What is past is past. And if we accept the consequences, while bracing our will, we can be sure that God will know how to draw glory even from our faults. Not to be downcast after committing a fault is one of the marks of true sanctity, for the saint knows how to find... Read more
Yes, I know, you don’t want to think about Mother’s Day just yet, but as the ranking Daughter-in-Law around here, I must think about it now, or before I know it, I’ll get stuck cooking for 25 people, most of them named Joe, Joey or Joseph, Salvatore, Sal or Sally. And those are just the boys. So, Mother’s Day is coming and money is a little tighter this year than last year, and chances are the $125 an-ounce perfume you... Read more
So, yesterday I was all-but-out of commission thanks to the server move and my own haplessness, but Thursday I was in Brooklyn taping the last two episodes of In the Arena. The show was only slated for ten episodes, but we squeezed out an eleventh; it ended with Lizzie and the priest (Fr. Kieran Harrington) gettin’ loud in a passionate exchange on whether Catholicism is community-focused or deeply interior. Being Irish, we both rather enjoyed that noisy exchange. I’m not... Read more
I am getting the oddest variety of emails. Many, many good wishes from people who appreciate First Things and agree with me that I’m privileged to be part of it; a few people who liked me better as a lone wolf and don’t know if they’ll come around too often, and a lot of really angry folks looking for specific pieces they want to read on a Friday night and a bit miffed that they can’t find them. “Why are... Read more
I really like this lovely meditation from St. Gregory the Great (died 604) and wanted to share it with you. Via, once again, the invaluable Magnificat Magazine, which I cannot recommend to you more whole-heartedly. …The question also rises as to why, after his resurrection, the Lord stood on the shore, while his disciples were laboring int he sea, when before his resurrection he walked on the waves of the sea in his disciples’ sight. We quickly perceive the reason... Read more
So, last night I hit that wall all of us mothers hit, from time-to-time, and just could not think of a single thing I actually wanted to cook or to eat for supper. My Elder Son wondered what I had in mind, and if anything I was planning could be well-served with a generous slathering of Monastery Mustard, which he was craving. “I got nothing,” I said. “I’m out of ideas and can’t bear the idea of cooking chicken again... Read more
We all know the story of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine who prayed for him, for years, to finally be turned to Christ. Last weekend I picked this CD up from church – Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea talking about how the prayers of his own mother led him out of a terrible life (he was a streetfighter and a union thug) and into the priesthood. I have to admit, I was a little put-off at first by his... Read more
A few readers had already seen the announcement in the magazine, and a few more picked up on it here, but it’s time to spell it out, as First Things editor, Joseph Bottum – touching on changes to the magazine – does here, in his broad-ranged and interesting note: Several other friends have agreed to take on new roles and add their names to the masthead. James Nuechterlein, the editor of First Things from 1990 to 2004, assumes the new... Read more
So, from 2006 onward, President George W. Bush tried to push a free trade agreement through Congress, and Mrs. Pelosi and her crew resisted and obstructed and vowed “no way” would it be allowed to happen. And Candidate Obama decried it. Mostly because Bush wanted it, you understand. Thankfully, President Obama – who, since his candidacy, has reversed himself with stunning frequency – has – as in the song “Simple Gifts” ‘turned, turned to come ’round right’ on this issue,... Read more
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