How are you, tired? Yeah, the Triduum, with the Vigil and then the houseful of company is kind of the Christian Olympics – tired here, too. Will write later. Right now I am busy reading the 90 comments my piece at Pajamas Media elicited on Easter Sunday, of all days. In the article I merely suggested that adopting the political tactics of the left was perhaps not providing great spiritual fodder for Christians, but either I wrote it badly, the... Read more
He is risen! Truly, He is risen! The Morning of the Resurrection by Edward Coley Burne-Jones Graces of the Resurrection Jesus…says of his death: I go away, and I will come to you.” It is by going away that he comes. His going ushers in a completely new and greater way of being present. By dying he enters into the love of the Father. His dying is an act of love. Love, however, is immortal. Therefore, his going away is... Read more
A quiet day of sorrow; Christ has left us and descended into the netherworld. We remember this, and go about our preparations for tomorrow with hollow hearts. Pirates take another vessel: I am trying to eschew politics, but as we pray today, let us offer – along with prayers for others, prayers for our nation, and for our president who seems to be channeling Jimmy Carter’s years. Last seen bowing to the Saudi King and flying a personal pizza chef... Read more
Christ of St. John of the Cross, Salvatore Dali (via Magnificat Magazine) I have a little bit on Good Friday below, but here is a link-around. In L’Aquila, the people who have survived the terrible earthquake are suffering through their own sort of Passion this Good Friday. Pope Benedict has visited, and they have been given a special dispensation to be allowed the comfort of Holy Mass on this day. Deacon Greg has an affecting picture. Richard John Neuhaus: Your... Read more
There is, of course, no Mass on Good Friday, but there is an extensive Liturgy of the Word, which includes the long Passion from the Gospel of John. The extensive readings of the liturgy may be found here. Good Friday always makes me feel a little abandoned; we have no Eucharist, and without the Eucharist we have the word, but not the Word made Flesh. In the afternoon, there is Veneration of the Cross – a most moving experience –... Read more
So, this afternoon I had the pleasure of spending some one-on-one time with Buster, who came home from school asking if I wanted to take a drive to Montauk with him, revisit old haunts and eat some blueberry pie, as is our tradition. I worried a little about it. Why would he want to do that – does he have bad news to break to me? But no. He just wanted to retrace old steps, take a look at the... Read more
“The mystery of the greatness of God is seen precisely in the fact that he can be small…Only when power is changed from the inside, and we accept Jesus and his way of life, whose whole self is there in the action of foot-washing, only then can the world be healed and the people be able to live at peace with one another.” — Pope Benedict XVI Buster just got home and I’m taking the afternoon off! :-) Read more
The Lord is faithful. He comforts his spouse, the Church; he holds us with a firm hand, and leads us up to the way of death. It is a reality: what happened once is always happening; not always again but always the one same event; not today as then, but then and today. Yesterday we entered Jerusalem with the Lord. We spread out our clothing, our egoistic shells, on his way, and we met him in the bareness of a... Read more
Some may have seen this already, but I was saving it for this week: Have we found the site of the Garden of Eden? David Lewis-Williams, professor of archaeology at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, says: ‘Gobekli Tepe is the most important archaeological site in the world.’ … The site of Gobekli Tepe is simple enough to describe. The oblong stones, unearthed by the shepherd, turned out to be the flat tops of awesome, T-shaped megaliths. Imagine carved and slender versions... Read more
I recorded today’s readings from mass, the Isaiah, psalm and Gospel reading are all podcasted here, for any who are interested. From Magnificat Magazine: Judas Judas is the symbol in the human world, as Satan is in the spirit world, of non-being, of self-destruction, of life-refusal. Moved (as seems most probable: we are told in the Gospel that “he was a thief”) by an ignoble greed he commits the most ignoble of sins, betraying his master and friend with a... Read more
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