I wrote this short story for Christmas in 2013. Hope you will share with your family. Audible link below My little cousin and I watch as my uncle washes away the blood and examines the wound. He is making that odd breathless noise — halfway between a gasp of surprise and a sigh of regret — that he always makes when an attack has been thwarted. My uncle, after all, is nearly 40, an old Read more…
It was a great pleasure to be asked to blurb the latest edition in Ave Maria Press’ “30 Days With a Great Spiritual Teacher” series of small devotionals. This one, Set Aside Every Fear, features the writings of Catherine of Siena, and her words worked powerfully on me, and so I gave it a very enthusiastic thumbs up: “Set Aside Every Fear not only helps us to become acquainted with the great St. Catherine of Read more…
The story goes that if the legendary composer and orchestrator Duke Ellington had met you and gotten his hands on your mailing address, you could expect a Christmas card from him. It may not come at Christmas but at some point during the year, his personally written and signed greetings would grace your mailbox. “Duke Ellington and I exchanged Christmas greetings each year,” wrote Joe Delaney of the Las Vegas Sun. “Mine were sent in Read more…
If this feels “long” to you, you can get the shorter version here In general when on social media, I have tried to have a care, and to say what I mean with sincerity and clarity, and I’ve been told that I manage to do so with some success, most of the time. But sometimes, it all goes splat. Yesterday was one of those times. I made a terrible mistake on Twitter — a big Read more…
Just received a copy of Leonard DeLorenzo’s new book, A God Who Questions, and I want to make a point of recommending this slender volume to everyone, because it is such an unusual, thoughtful book and one that can really reinvigorate your prayerlife or jump-start your practice of lectio divina. What DeLorenzo has done with this book is turned the tables on us a little, in a counter-intuitive but enlightening way. Our habit is always Read more…
I realize I don’t blog much these days — perhaps it’s true that blogs are dead — but it feels like I should at least make some effort, here, before the thing withers and fades like the grass that is all flesh… So… couple things… 1) My husband has advised me that the book situation is again out of control and it might be time for me to get rid of a hundred or so Read more…
I only just realized today that we have just passed the second anniversary of the shooting massacre in Las Vegas, a strange story — they’re all strange, but this one particularly so, because not only have all the questions gone unanswered, they are no longer even being asked as this particular event seems to have been tossed down a collective memory hole. It’s so easy to forget about the loss of nearly 60 lives when Read more…
Well, Happy Birthday to James Paul McCartney, who was born this day in 1942 and grew up to be one half of what became arguably the greatest songwriting partnership in popular music. What a gift he had, to seemingly exhale melodies. What a remarkable, innovative bass player, to boot. What unforgettable harmonies (so tightly wound, so perfectly matched) he and John Lennon (and George Harrison) brought to us out of their scrappy Liverpudlian backgrounds, all Read more…
Is there more “mad eros”* than that which led the Son of God to make himself one with us even to the point of suffering as his own the consequences of our offences?Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced in the cross! … On the cross, it is God himself who begs the love of his creature: he is thirsty for the love of every one of us.—Pope Benedict XVI, Lent 2007, Read more…
I write this just days after watching Paris’ Cathedral of Notre Dame become engulfed by flames and fearing that the most famous and treasured place of worship in all of Christendom after St. Peter’s Basilica would be reduced to stone and ash at the start of Holy Week. Thankfully, the Cathedral is not wholly lost, but as it burned, it truly did seem like familiar parables and lessons were playing out before our eyes: “In Read more…