And help the rest of us put things into proper perspective. How small we are. And how great. Too often we live as though we are looking through a constant spyglass — things far away (and mostly irrelevant to our lives) seem huge and urgent, while our ordinary everydays can seem so small and dull. Here, a brave mom writes a song to her dying 18-year old daughter; it lands on Youtube and helps us to turn the spyglass around... Read more
Today’s Office of Readings from the beginning of a letter to the Magnesians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr: “All things have an end, and two things, life and death, are side by side set before us, and each man will go to his own place. Just as there are two coinages, one of God and the other of the world, each with its own image, so unbelievers bear the image of this world, and those who have... Read more
Last night, I logged off fairly early and missed a big donnybrook on Facebook that had to do with people angry at me because of this piece from yesterday. Lots of namecalling and screaming in my direction, mostly because I dared to find anything worthwhile in Obama’s speech, even as I identified it as a cynical move to divert attention away from his awful presidency. Apparently my near-constant criticisms of the man since 2007 were insufficient bona fides to allow... Read more
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. — Ecclesiastes 3:1 Via Deacon Greg, we get this terrific story out of Missouri: A former monastery for Catholic nuns is preparing for new life. It will now become home to Life House Crisis Maternity Home, which has partnered with Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri. For more than forty years, it was a quiet place of prayer. “They were here praying, praying for all of... Read more
This afternoon, President Obama showed up before the White House Press Corp and talked about the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case. You can read the full text, here. I agree with much the president says. Racism is — and always has been — “a God-damned thing”. As a nation we should be under no illusions that just because we’re no longer in a Jim Crow era, that we are living on the Starship Enterprise where racism is a thing of the... Read more
Friends, please whisper up a prayer for Thomas Peters of Catholic Vote: Thomas was involved in an accident yesterday evening and has sustained major injuries. He is awake, responsive, and in stable but critical condition. Family and friends are with him. Pray for his family, too, including his father, Edward Peters, and Thomas’ wife. The first time I met Thomas was in Rome in 2011 at the Vatican/Blogger meet-up, which is pictured above. I complimented him on looking so handsome... Read more
Still stuck in my writer’s block, the only way I could write a column this week for First Things was to format it as a playlet — a little one-act thing called “Suitable Recommendations” — wherein I try (and I have no idea whether I succeed) to showcase a story we’re increasingly seeing being played out as gay marriage becomes more common: the business owner whose conscience can’t let him or her provide services to a same-sex couple planning a... Read more
My son and I were enjoying the sunset on the porch and talking about many aspects of many things. Somehow we got to discussing commercial jingles and I related how easily I can remember old beer and cigarette jingles — and McDonalds and Breakstone Yogurt. And Tang Breakfast Drink, too: “Do the Moonwalk like the astronauts! (Tang!) Join the space gang, drink your energy Tang! (Taaang!)…So if you want to do like the astronauts do, join the space gang, and... Read more
A little gift from my son, that I share with you to start off the weekend: About that music: Baba Yetu the first song written for a video game to win (or even be nominated for) a Grammy. Also: That’s the Soweto Gospel Choir singing, and the lyrics are actually the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili. Read more
I happened to be talking to Julie Davis — who is the primo go-to person when pondering any book, because I do believe she may have read them all! — about what collections of “lives of the saints” we would recommend. I have a few that I like a lot, and they’re all well-known award winners: Father Jim Martin’s My Life with the Saints, Colleen Carroll Campbell’s My Sisters, the Saints and Robert Ellsberg’s All Saints. And I’ve always liked... Read more
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