That’s right–the night before Ash Wednesday I’ll be giving a talk at Holy Family’s St. Joseph’s Center in South Pas. Here’s the flyer: LENT WITH SAINTS AND ARTISTS: Selling All We Have to Follow Our Passion Heather King came from a blue-collar New England family, excelled in school, imagined God as a cold, distant, high-school […]
EXISTENTIAL CRISES
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 […]
I’VE MIGRATED!
Heather King narrowly avoids mental breakdown while now SUCCESSFULLY MIGRATING from ancient blogger platform to labyrinthine impossible-to-navigate WORDPRESS!
“ALL THINGS ARE PHOTOGRAPHABLE”
“I look at the pictures I have done up to now and they make me feel that who we are and how we feel and what is to become of us just doesn’t matter. Our aspirations and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columnists, some books, I look at some […]
HUMMINGBIRD IN UNDERWORLD, A MEMOIR
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: Deborah Tobola is known as a visionary pioneer in the field of arts in U.S. corrections. She is a graduate of the University of Montana, and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. Her prose and poetry have won […]
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 […]
FRENCH FRIES AS MUSE
From an interview in Insight, the magazine of The Sisters of Life, with Dr. Michael J. Brescia, Executive Medical Director and co-founder of Calvary Hospital, to talk about his experiences at the Catholic palliative care facility and hospice in the Bronx. I heard that you were responsible for a famous invention. I joined the VA hospital in […]
THE TOOLS FOR GOOD WORKS
A RADIO INTERVIEW AND AN ADVENT REFLECTION FROM ESTHER DE WAAL’S “SEEKING GOD: THE WAY OF ST. BENEDICT.”
PROJECTS AND PLOWSHARES
I haven’t much checked in as of late. This is in large part because I have many PROJECTS. One: I am making a will! That’s right: getting “my affairs” in order, a task upon which I’ve been procrastinating for probably five years. So the ball is rolling. That feels good. It’s a lot of work. […]
THE PROVOCATIONS OF CAMILLE PAGLIA
I’m no unalloyed fan of Camille Paglia. Her embrace of the New Age and desire to be a man leave me cold. On the other hand, I’m totally on board with her disdain for political-correctness-gone-awry and her recognition that without religion civilization is doomed. I just came across a wonderful piece by Emily Esfahani Smith–“The […]
GORDON PARKS: THE FLÁVIO STORY AT THE GETTY
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Through Nov. 10 at the Getty is a compelling exhibit based on the work of Gordon Parks, a Renaissance-man film director, writer, and photojournalist perhaps best known for his work for LIFE magazine. President John F. Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress,” launched in 1961, was an initiative designed […]
ON MARRIAGE: LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME
“But most vivid of all in my memory was the encounter with Dad’s friend, the Polish father from the Catholic mission at Old Mkushi. He caught me by the shoulders just as I was making my way into the garden for the photographs, as if he had an urgent message to impart. ‘The first year […]
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 […]