As if the Church doesn't have enough to deal with, lay and clerical faithful have recently turned up the heat on a debate that the average Catholic had no idea was going on in the first place: which form of the Mass is the better one, the Extraordinary Form ("Latin Mass") or the Ordinary Form… Continue reading Extraordinary vs. Ordinary: A View from the Pew
Tag: Faith
The Way the World Ends
She knew very early on, as women sometimes do when pregnant, that she was going to have a boy. She and her husband chose a simple and strong name for him: William Joseph. On the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, William came into this world stillborn. He had twenty-four weeks, in the womb… Continue reading The Way the World Ends
Teaching the Cardinal Virtues: All Fun, No Fuss
I am currently preparing to speak on two topics at a diocesan conference for the first time, ever! I'm a giddy mess of facts, anecdotes, and random tidbits of far-flung Church teachings that I am organizing as a coherent narrative for my audience. Oh, and one of the two topics is that perennial favorite: Catholic… Continue reading Teaching the Cardinal Virtues: All Fun, No Fuss
Profound Quotables from BXVI’s “Jesus of Nazareth”
Long on my "need to read" list, I chose volume one of then-Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth for my Lenten reading, and finished it right after Easter began. The book shook me to my Church-nerd core, and I think my head exploded after every third page or so. For instance: offering evidence that Barabas… Continue reading Profound Quotables from BXVI’s “Jesus of Nazareth”
Magic in the Mundane
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return. -Leonardo Da Vinci There is something deeply compelling about the fantastical: the ideas, the possibilities, the inhabitants, of a world that is so like ours yet alien… Continue reading Magic in the Mundane
The Tree
On Ke'eamoku St. in Honolulu stands a tree. It is a large tree, with large, fanned roots that in and of themselves are impressive. I am always awed by this tree, and fascinated by its shape: one side obviously receives the brunt of the elements, and the other flourishes with leafy branches. I came across… Continue reading The Tree
New Theories and Old Traditions
In the protective recesses of Yale's museum is an ancient fresco fragment. To the average eye it is humble in appearance: the outline of a woman, bending down to what seems like a well. The long-held belief, logically, is that the fresco depicts the Samaritan woman at the Well, from the Gospel of John,… Continue reading New Theories and Old Traditions
