Feast of St. Alvarez of Corova I know. This is a weird title for a post. What does the Lord of the Rings trilogy have to do with Live Action? Maybe nothing, or maybe everything. Bear with me for a moment and I’ll try to explain. The other day, I wrote a little post that I titled Because All of the Big Questions Have Been Answered. There, I stated simply that, “what is left to do, and one which takes... Read more
—Feast of St. Alvarez of Corova Yesterday I shared the Sign of the Cross with you, and today I promised an explanation of Holy Water. I’m glad I found this little book The Visible Church by Fr. John F. Sullivan. And not just for trivial pursuit question ammunition either. You see, RCIA class is very good, but there is a lot of material to cover in a relatively short period of time. So Fr. John’s book is really helpful to... Read more
—Feast of St. Simon As a convert, when I was first considering becoming a Catholic, some of the little physical things Catholics did were of interest to me. I would think, why do they do that? The Sacramentals were mysterious to me. I found a little book by Fr. John F. Sullivan entitled, The Visible Church. Published in 1920 as a text book for Catholic schools, it’s perfect for a beginner like me. In it he explains these sacramentals. Today... Read more
Feast of St. Onesimus I’ve been reading John C.H. Wu’s The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love. This morning, I caught the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the bus stop right outside of my office back-door. As I was drinking my coffee during the ride, I dipped into my book bag and flipped open John’s book. Guess what I found? Before my eyes were the words to a little ditty that John suggests “when spiritually interpreted, will... Read more
Feast of St. Claude la Colombière As I discover the Psalms anew, I am reminded of St. Augustine’s saying about the Church: “late have I loved thee.” When I was younger, see, and when I thought I knew everything, I used to skip these sacred, inspired, and often times prophetic, poems. Nowadays, I turn to them and find comfort and instruction.A few days ago I shared a kind letter that Thomas Merton wrote a 6th grader, and noted that being... Read more
—Feast of St. Valentine So the Grammy’s were on last night. Just when I thought my wife was going to force me to watch a new PBS series, instead she made me watch the Grammy Awards. It wasn’t all bad either. Lots of musically talented children of God were there. For instance, two of the selections from the MfM post last week won awards. The Black Keys won “Best Alternative Album,” and Arcade Fire won the “Album of the Year.” So you... Read more
—Feast of St. Catherine de Ricci I don’t exactly remember where I found what follows, so forgive me for not providing footnotes. I was reading Jesuit Fr. Jim Martin’s, recent blog post reflecting on today’s gospel reading. The reading from Sirach applies as well. The message is simple, yet paradoxically difficult, like most of the tenets of our faith. As Father Jim notes, it is simply “be kind.” Simple, but my kids (and I) are still working on doing this... Read more
—Feast of St. Buonfiglio Monaldo It is getting ready to be a very busy time for me and my family. That’s because Spring is just around the corner, and around my house this means our children’s sports teams will begin hitting the ground running. Not everyone gets involved in such things as sports for their kids. Not every child enjoys organized soccer, or baseball, or softball, volley ball, basketball, horse riding, or any of the other myriad possibilities to turn... Read more
These past few weeks have been difficult for reasons I am not at liberty to explain. Suffice it to say people I love have been facing pain-filled circumstances and I have been spending what free moments I have praying to Christ that these loved ones might understand His immeasurable love surrounds and lifts them. This afternoon after running some errands, I parked our van in front of our home and was going to indulge myself in a few moments of... Read more
Feast of St. Teilo I think you will be surprised by this, because I know I was.Yesterday, I shared a little something that the atheist, and self-described “aesthetic Catholic,” George Santayana wrote. Today I’m going to do the same. It seems Professor George really wanted to be known as a poet and he wrote a good number of poems and sonnets, which were published by the Herbert S. Stone & Company publishing house. I “discovered” his poem The Hermit... Read more
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