To my mind it’s the earliest images that most compellingly evoke the wonder and complexity of the human body. People were closer to God then, more aware of the divine plan. Death was a part of daily life, not hidden away and sanitized.
CULTURE
I LIVE NOW, NOT I
In one especially helpful passage, he proposes a new way of thinking about interpersonal conflict. “Well, if Christ is the focus, then everything is about Him and me and not about me and them!”
BACK TO WONDER: NOTES ON A MAGIC SHOW
I try to keep my eyes on his hands, which seem to be in sight at all times. Aha, he partly rolled up his sleeve! Wait, his palm was concealed for a second on an inner thigh! Is it possible for a human being to memorize the order of an entire deck of cards at a glance?
OPICA: AN INNOVATIVE PROGRAM FOR THOSE WITH MEMORY LOSS
Even when she could no longer get up and dance, or paint, Mary’s mother could still clap her hands. She loved the staff coming up and being kind. She even had a boyfriend in OPICA at one point.
What goes on in the soul of a person with dementia?
PHOTOGRAPHER JOSEF SUDEK, THE POET OF PRAGUE
“Luminous,” “mysterious,” “haunting,” “ethereal,” “otherworldly,” “timeless,” and “romantic” are a few of the words regularly applied to his work.
THE SAINT WITH THE ASH BLOND WIG
The day of my appointment, I found a seat and looked around at the ten or so others, perched stiffly on the edges of their chairs. “They know what it’s like to lie staring at the ceiling all night;” I thought; “they could die, too.”
ST. KATERI HABITATS AND PARKS
Saint Kateri Habitats and Parks is a ministry that “inspires Catholics and all people of good will to restore and manage homes, yards, gardens, parishes, schools, farms, parks, forests, rivers, and wetlands as healthy habitats for people and wildlife.”
MY VERSION OF THE PULITZER
Since 1900, the Xavier Society for the Blind in New York City has been providing free braille and audio books to blind and visually impaired people worldwide in order for them to learn about, develop, and practice their Catholic faith.
CRUCIFY HIM!
Interestingly, the scapegoat had to be internally robust and strong, in order to be worthy to bear, or capable of bearing, the collective shadow. So often it’s the family “empath”—the most sensitive, giving and spiritually evolved; the most “different” in some way—who is scapegoated.
EVERYONE’S WAY OF THE CROSS
I once prayed the Stations at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on a shaded allée leading down to the ocean, got bitten by a tick, and contracted Lyme Disease.
LENTEN ALMSGIVING: A CATHOLIC TAKE ON MONEY
The first rule is that it’s okay to save, say, for a house or a child’s college education. But money should be a placeholder. What is our money holding a place for?
CARYLL HOUSELANDER’S GUILT
The book contains passages on the mental suffering, among others, of serial killer Peter Kürten (“The Monster of Düsseldorf”), Hans Christian Andersen, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
TO CALL MYSELF BELOVED
“And all I ask for housekeeping
I get and pay no fees,
Leeks from the garden, poultry, game,
Salmon and trout and bees.”
FORTY DAYS IN THE DESERT OF A NEW CHILD
“The real bread is the sacrifice. Am I going to choose to help this child grow into who he or she is called to be? Am I open to growing into who I’m called to be because of them? That’s a hidden potency. The seeds are there. But the temptation is to take the shortcut, to give less than your full self.”