Hey there! This is the final stop in the Small Steps Blog Tour, hosted at CatholicMom.com to celebrate the release of the latest CatholicMom.com book, Small Steps for Catholic Moms: Your Daily Call to Think, Pray, and Act, by Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss. Think: “Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world that passes like a shadow.” Pray: Infant Lord, the world becomes noisier and noisier as we approach your birthday. Help me to remember that infants... Read more
It has been my awesome and humbling privilege to live as a professed Benedictine Oblate for over a decade, (here is what that means) but living so far away from my monastery, and having no Oblate friends nearby, I’ve always felt like my formation was slip-shod — half-duncecap, half-seat-of-the-pants. Here at Patheos we’re growing our own little community of Oblates — Father Dwight Longenecker is one, and Margaret Rose Realy is an Oblate Novice (and there are Benedictines in the... Read more
This is excellent, from Rebecca Ryskind Teti . . .the women asked to speak to me privately. Candidly, although I couldn’t imagine what I’d said that gave offense, I expected a rebuke. What actually came melted my heart. First, she sheepishly admitted she had no idea where to find Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in her Bible. Then she got to her real question. Eyes welling up, she asked, “I am a recovering alcoholic who has made a total mess... Read more
A month or so ago I was doing a book-signing — which, believe it or not, is actually a fun thing to do, even when you’re shy — and as people came up and we greeted each other, they would ask me to inscribe a copy of Strange Gods to “Mary” or “Anna” or “Joe”. About 60 books or so into it, I declared that I loved signing books for Catholics, because we tend to use rather conventional names of... Read more
You know, I had seen an episode of King of the Hill wherein Hank Hill and Ladybird got caught up in a dancing competition, but I had no idea this was a thing! This morning I was sulky on Twitter and demanded entertainment; Fausta shot this to me. Watch it to the end. It’s unnatural and entertaining weird and beautiful and disturbing, all at once. I’m not sure how I feel about this, overall, but…well…I’m not sure. What do you... Read more
There is a moment in the dawn — and it comes again in the gloaming, the evening twilight — when a stillness falls, and for just the merest second it seems like the veil between heaven and earth has thinned out and may be more easily pierced. The birds chirp; the leaves rustle; the crickets cheep. It is a moment. If you happen to be taking part in Lauds or Vespers at that time, you can particularly feel it slip... Read more
Recently there was a dust-up among some Catholics who wondered what exactly Pope Francis meant when he, during an interview with La Repubblica editor Eugenio Scalfari said that proselytizing was a “solemn nonsense”. Clearly, what he meant was that preaching at people doesn’t work; while being a reflection of Christ among us is powerful evangelization. If anyone needed the proof of it, recall the ill-reception proselytizing Christians received in 2008, when — instead of living and working within the community... Read more
I’m having a bad day over here, for a couple of reasons, and I really needed to laugh. This did the trick. New York, by the way, is the only place I would ever try this. Read more
You might think it takes a peculiar sort of mind to find common themes uniting an interview with Antonin Scalia and an exhortation from Pope Francis, and you’d be right. My piece at First Things this week brings these two divertingly counter-cultural men together on the subject of narcissism and idols: After his election to the papacy, notes were released outlining the pre-conclave intervention delivered by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, which many of the Cardinal-electors said impressed them greatly, particularly in... Read more
So, people have been asking me what I think about the Common Core curriculum and seriously, the little research I’ve done, it doesn’t look so bad. I see that grammar, after taking a hit these last two decades, is back on the menu, so that’s good. They should bring back civics, too, but I know they won’t. That fairy tale above you see above, though, –a “core curriculumn aligned” worksheet that recently turned up in a Long Island elementary school... Read more
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