With the kids and Kris still getting over the last sniffles of their second bouts of colds this season, and with a few days yet to go before the flu shots kick in, I can't help being paranoid about getting sick. I never used to think about it. I rarely got sick, and when I [...]
Continue reading about The Cold Paranoia Season and (non-) Antibacterial Holy Water
Historian Will Durant writes in the Lessons of History that almost every vice was once a virtue, and so our proclivity to vices today is a reflection of man's rise, not The Fall. It's an interesting idea to ponder – not that I think Durant was speaking theologically; The Fall made for a strong metaphor [...]
Continue reading about Vices and virtues in the philosophy of history
There has been much written about Mother Teresa's long, long dark night of the soul recently (see the Time article here). A new book containing correspondence between Mother Teresa and her confessors reveal, according to Time, "that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as [...]
Continue reading about ‘Feelings’ of God don’t make or unmake faith
The newest issue of Wired (not on the site yet, so I can’t link to it) has an essay called “Down with Happiness” which criticizes the possibility of technologically or pharmaceutically eliminating unhappiness. As self-evident as the horror of a soma-fied society ought to be (but probably isn’t); it’s a good piece. What especially caught [...]
Continue reading about Happiness Is… Being Almost Good Enough
From yesterday, a good piece on confession in the Union Leader. The first graph really says sums it up nicely: "Puzzled by the national obsession to confess dark secrets on television talk shows and in tell-all books, the Roman Catholic Church still offers its ancient antidote: confession." The pastor of our church, Father Marc, is quoted: [...]
This has been an amazing Lenten journey this year — which I'm not feeling eloquent enough to explain without descending into cliches, so I'll skip that for now. There are two weeks and some days left in the season. So while we're waiting for Easter, I'm going to repost the piece I wrote at the [...]
… Well, not really. Here's a link to an amusing post by Mark Shea on this and all the other "shocking truths" that have been revealed about Jesus over the years, including the fact he was woman, was never executed, was a space alien and was buried in Japan, etc. Shea leaves out that Jesus [...]
Continue reading about James Cameron Disproves Christianity…
Here we are again, another Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove (shrive means to hear confessions) Tuesday, call it what you will, it marks for me another struggle to figure out what to give up, what to add in and how to somehow make the next 40 days not just about symbolic change and preparation for [...]
Continue reading about Lent and Liturgical Seasons; Time Management For The Soul
Kristen’s mom has been out visiting for the past four days, which meant Kris and I got to go to Mass sans kids this morning. It was lovely to be able to reflect on (heck, just listen to!) the readings, the homily, to immerse ourselves in the magnificent prayer of the liturgy
Continue reading about A Little Quiz Regarding Kids and Church
Back when Rick and I were neighbors in Concord, N.H., I used to pack David into the backpack and we three used to go on long Saturday morning walks to the Borders for book browsing and coffee. On the way, we’d argue about theology, philosophy and pop culture, or more normally, some amalgam of all [...]
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