Once you love a book, you’ll seldom like the movie based on it. That’s why I am impressed with Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” films: they are surprisingly close to my own imagination of them! That’s also why I was moved by the liturgy for Passion Sunday today. Because I had seen “The Passion of the Christ” again on Friday evening, and the film pales in comparison with the liturgy. Sorry, Mel.It helped that I experienced today’s liturgy twice:... Read more
I continue to write about Communion and Liberation (CL) because it continues to be central to my life as a Catholic Christian. The monthly magazine of CL is Traces, and the April issue carries a powerful editorial on recent revelations of abuse in Ireland and the Pope’s response to them. If you have not yet read the Pope’s letter, it is here. What follows is the response in Traces:Greater than SinThere would be much to discuss about the events that... Read more
OK, that didn’t take long. Our big announcement scheduled for 0500 hours on Sunday has already been scooped—by commenters, by EWTN, by Fox News—golly, the whole world knows. Someone even preempted our press schedule and posted a picture in the column to the left. (Who could that have been?) Yes, Allison Salerno, a.k.a. Batgirl, has joined the YIMC team, making us an unholy trinity. We thought we’d share our first official team picture: Read more
Post by Allison My parish choir’s alto section – all two of us – came a half hour early Thursday night to rehearsal to work with our music director on Georg Friedrich Händel’s Hallelujah Chorus. As we sang, with our church enveloped in darkness and the world outside dark too, I realized being able to sing Alleluia – which means Praise God – is one of the reasons I am Catholic.This Lent has been a long and lonely time for... Read more
Synchronize watches, YIMC-ers! We have a big announcement scheduled for 0500 hours on Passion Sunday. That would be tomorrow. You don’t want to miss this. No, it has nothing to do with immigrants. Or scandal. Or soccer. Itching to find out? Desperate to know? Can’t wait another second? Well, we’ll give you a hint, but we’re betting you’ll never guess. . . . Read more
10.000 feet still? What the heck just happened! Ladies and gentlemen, don’t be alarmed. The last time I spoke to you I had said that we would be cruising at 10,000 feet again this week. Instead Webster and I had to land this puppy due to a fire warning light on our starboard engine. How’d you like the landing? Webster and I really get a kick out of carrier landings (and take-offs too)! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAW! Oh, and one of the ground... Read more
Guest post by Warren Jewell I have five Crucifixes on my walls. They represent my favorite icon of my God, as Son and Savior, as Brother and Servant. In my suffering of one thing and another, the Crucifix reminds me just how much suffering God Himself bore for me. No simple cross, without a corpus, is enough, for a simple cross is but a marker, as in a graveyard. The Cross is His most evocative throne. Now, you tell me:... Read more
Allison recently wrote a good post about soccer and sports. I want to be clear: This is not a rebuttal to her post. I agree with much of what she had to say in that post, and with many of the comments as well. But forget sports, school work, home work, our careers, our relationships, our involvement in society, our intelligence, our physical gifts or impediments for a second. None of it matters unless our love of Christ is the... Read more
Guest post by Allison Because my own family has roots in both Latin America and Europe, it has been painful for me to hear some Catholic friends tell me how they fear the influx of Latinos into their churches. I wish these fellow travelers could have come with me and my son Friday night when we visited Saint Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Princeton, New Jersey, for Spanish Stations of Cross.As part of their CCD programs, our sons must attend two... Read more
This afternoon my friend Carol led my fourth-grade religious ed class through the Stations of the Cross. Teaching this class this year has been a revelation, and while I look forward to the summer break, I will miss these kids. They continue to teach me.They have surprised me in so many ways: Boys who didn’t seem to give a hang in October now reading along attentively with Carol. Look at my pal C at left! Not to mention the other... Read more
Why I Am Catholic
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