Why Welcome Sorrow? [Pope Francis Bookclub]

Last updated on: November 24, 2014 at 1:31 pm By Leah Libresco

In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. In this week’s chapter, I was particularly struck by some excerpts from St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises that Pope Francis decided to include: When Saint Ignatius treats of the mysteries of the passion in his Spiritual Exercises, he tells us to ask for “sorrow,... Read more

7QT: Time, Taylor Swift, and other deeply philosophical matters

Last updated on: November 21, 2014 at 7:07 pm By Leah Libresco

— 1 — Ok, move fast readers! The NYT is doing a wacky contest to supply the opening paragraph that you feel should go with this pulpy book cover. Full details are here, and the deadline is midnight tonight. Before any of you think of writing me into it — I’ll have you know that I happen to be a tough kid from Nassau. (If you do enter, feel free to cross-post in the comments here) — 2 — This is the... Read more

“It is Not Good for Man to be Alone” – a review of Gay and Catholic

Last updated on: November 18, 2014 at 3:04 pm By Leah Libresco

A few weeks ago, our Dominican-run Adult Sunday School tackled the topic of “Deadly Sins and Lively Virtues” and the brother teaching walked us through St. Thomas Aquinas’s classification of sins and their progeny (i.e. clamor (speaking so intemperately so as to lose the ability to say actual words) is one of the offspring of wrath). As our Dominican friar kept expanding the flow chart of faults, the most surprising branch turned out to be the cluster of sins rooted... Read more

Pope Francis’s Judith Leaves Me A Little Lost

Last updated on: November 17, 2014 at 2:30 pm By Leah Libresco

In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. This week’s chapter is only three and a half pages long, and I feel like it sorely needed to be expanded. As Pope Francis discusses Judith’s beheading of Holofernes, he emphasizes the way that her faith is guided by her “memory-soaked flesh,” her connection... Read more

Torn Between Two Saint Catherines

Last updated on: November 16, 2014 at 2:47 pm By Leah Libresco

My friend Catherine Addington (who followed me as an editorial assistant at AmCon and wrote this nice piece on using Native American authors in English class there) has committed to blogging every day in November, and this essay on her difficult relationship with her name-saint is particularly excellent. I’m excerpting a piece of it here, to persuade you to pop over and read the whole thing. The priest took my question [about why the parish banned female altar servers] seriously and... Read more

When Should “Effective Altruism Day” Occur?

Last updated on: November 15, 2014 at 1:59 pm By Leah Libresco

Ozy recently asked a fun question — how can people interested in effective altruism bring up the topic in a natural and inviting way. Other ethical choices (like vegetarianism) call attention to themselves in the course of an ordinary day, but deliberations over donations happen privately and calling attention to them publicly is usually regarded as gauche at best, jerky at worst. Ozy suggests trying to popularize some kind of holiday that would make it easy to bring up the... Read more

7QT: Artful Illusion and Clever Construction

Last updated on: November 14, 2014 at 7:49 am By Leah Libresco

— 1 — I totally understand if you read the first take here and then don’t get around to reading takes 2-7 for an hour, or even until tomorrow, because I’ve got good news: Monument Valley has released new levels! In case you’re not familiar with the game, its tagline is “An illusory adventure of impossible architecture and forgiveness” and here’s the little trailer for the original game: You play by exploring the MC Escher like landscapes and can often... Read more

Give Us Bread, Roses, and Benedict Options

Last updated on: February 17, 2015 at 10:47 am By Leah Libresco

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry has posted a question on his blog for people who like “the Benedict Option” and I’d like to take a crack at answering it. PEG asks: You have two extremes on the spectrum. On the one side, you have what you might call (humorously! don’t freak out!) the “David Koresh Option”: complete sectarian withdrawal, the Barbarians are flooding the Empire, and all we can do is huddle in the ark (mixing up my metaphors over here) and wait... Read more

Interviewing Eve Tushnet on Vocations of Love

Last updated on: November 12, 2014 at 12:10 pm By Leah Libresco

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing a Q&A with Eve Tushnet, author of Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith as part of her ongoing Patheos book club. I’ll be writing my own review of the book soon, but, in the meantime, enjoy the video above, place an order for the book, and check out Eve’s blog (especially the posts with “Book Extra” in the title). Read more

Falling in Love with the World through the Eyes of the Beloved

Last updated on: November 11, 2014 at 1:43 pm By Leah Libresco

There’s an interesting piece of research going around on what makes relationships grow and deepen (versus fracture and wound). John Gottman and Robert Levenson (the “Love Lab” researchers) were looking for the smallest kind of observational data that let them (fairly) reliably distinguish good relationships from bad. Here’s what they found had the most power to predict the success of a marriage over its first six years: Throughout the day, artners would make requests for connection, what Gottman calls “bids.”... Read more