Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column (which in fact is not in defense but rather a critique of) begins: Let me say up front that I am not one of these people who feels oppressed, discriminated against and marginalized by the mere fact and station of another’s existence. That you’re a man and […]
DIVINE INTOXICATION
HAPPY ALMOST VALENTINE’S DAY
“When I finally got wind of how things were, I wanted to be sure. And I was mad. Why should everyone know but me? I found my mother upstairs in my bedroom, butting new white sheets on my bed. ‘I want you to tell me where babies come from,’ I screamed. And I made her […]
ST. ANDREW’S ABBEY
ST. ANDREW’S ABBEY IS A BENEDICTINE MONASTERY IN THE HIGH DESERT OUTSIDE OF LA. I HOPE TO BE BURIED THERE.
“OUTSIDER” ARTIST JAMES CASTLE
DEAF SINCE BIRTH, IDAHO ARTIST JAMES CASTLE LEFT AN ASTONISHING, 70-YEAR OUTPUT OF DRAWING, ASSEMBLAGES AND TEXT PIECES.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Last night, while searching for an Albert Dürer composition entitled “Strange Bird with Scroll,” I came across a whole cache of interesting stuff. The above seems especially apropos for today, January 1, Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Here’s the bird. And another bird. And here’s a self-portrait of the artist at 22, […]
IN THIS PLACE CHRIST WANTS TO BE BORN
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: “Now he comes to be born in the narrowness of our lives, to be incarnate in us, to give his love to the world through us, through our flesh and blood. That is one meaning of the Incarnation. The reason why we are where we are this Christmas, […]
THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER
“But it is in the old story that all the beasts can talk in the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the morning (though there are very few folk that can hear them, or know what it is that they say).When the Cathedral clock struck twelve there was an answer—like an echo of […]
THE TOOLS FOR GOOD WORKS
A RADIO INTERVIEW AND AN ADVENT REFLECTION FROM ESTHER DE WAAL’S “SEEKING GOD: THE WAY OF ST. BENEDICT.”
THE SRIRACHA SAUCE EMPIRE
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Sriracha sauce is a crown jewel of Southern California foodie culture. You’ve seen the plastic bottles. They’re filled with bright red sauce, emblazoned with a rooster, stamped with text in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese, and topped by a green squirt cap. For many, this blazing […]
COAST TO COAST
I always laugh when people say “I hope you enjoyed your retreat!” or “your vacation!” I do enjoy it, all of it, but my life and my travel are almost militarily disciplined and at all times retain a pilgrimage aspect. I often fast in my way, I always walk miles. This last trip to NYC […]
FOOLS FOR CHRIST
Last week I was talking to my dear friend Greg Camacho, of San Antonio, Texas. During the course of our conversation, he said “I was looking for one of your books the other day and saw the title Fools for Christ. Which looks like it’s hot off the press. Did you bring out a new book […]
GAUDÍ ON TECHNOLOGY
I am winding down my intense month of work, silence, solitude, and prayer here at the Monastery of St. Gertrude. Much of my time was spent refining and editing a little ms. I’ve been working up over the past couple of years: HARROWED: Misadventures in an Urban Garden. (Come on, who would not want to […]
THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE
How quickly my time has gone at the Monastery of St. Gertrude. I leave early next Saturday morning for four days in Boise, then down through Nevada to the Bristlecone Forest in the Eastern Sierras, a night in Independence, CA (home of Mary Austin, author of Land of Little Rain), then home. The schedule here, which […]