The man who buried the talent was like this. His life was blameless, but he was of no service to others.
How can such a person be a Christian?
EXISTENTIAL CRISES
THE GLOBAL GARAGE SALE
“Before the 1960s, Japanese had a feeling of mottainai, a difficult-to-translate Japanese word that expresses a sense of regret over waste, as well as a desire to conserve,” reports Rina Hamada, editor of Japan’s Reuse Business Journal. But that was before the living standard in Japan shot sky-high. Now people are way more acquisitive, though they’ll buy second-hand if it’s of high quality.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
One thing I really liked about being married was having a guy around the house with a toolbelt. There’s always some niggling thing or two around the house that needs fixing, and around which I can become weirdly paralyzed. I’ve become obsessed in my new rented home, for example, with replacing four Venetian blinds with […]
PRESSURE RELIEF
Does that ever happen in your world–that you’re stuck or struggling or have just come to some major epiphany, and on the instant practically you come upon a passage that seems specifically, directly, written to/for you?
EVOLUTION AND FAITH
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: “Evolution and Faith: What Is the Problem?”, an essay by Georgetown University Distinguished Professor of theology John F. Haught, was published earlier this year by the Portsmouth [RI] Institute for Faith and Culture. Having asked the same question myself many times, I read the article with […]
CORPUS CHRISTI
Servant of God Adele Dirsyté (1919-1955), tortured and martyred in Communist Russia, wrote the prayer book “Mary, Save Us” while imprisoned in Siberia.
MAGELLANICA
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Magellanica is a five-part, four-hour audio drama, streaming for free through June 30 on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Sticher and other major podcast platforms. Adapted by the award-winning playwright E.M. Lewis, from her 2018 World Premiere play, the drama is based on an actual expedition: the scientists […]
CONNECTING THE EXILES
Subscribe if you like to my YouTube Channel. I’m going to call it my Demented Catholic series and hope soon to be an “influencer!”
TAKE UP YOUR MAT AND WALK
Then he added, “I knew in my heart that my life couldn’t quite move forward until I went to the dentist.”
RESURRECTION, REPARATION, AND RECOVERY
“Mea culpa” without Christ becomes a kind of travesty. Snitching, shaming, the imposition of groupthink, the hatred and fear of truth, especially from the safe preserve of online anonymity, simply gouge the original wound deeper.
In fact, the credo behind woke culture’s judge-jury-and-executioner modus operandi isn’t “My fault” at all, but rather “YOUR fault.”
FEMALE VISIONARIES WHO SAVED THE WORLD
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World (2018), by journalist Andrea Barnet, is a fascinating read. Rachel Carson (1907-1964) parlayed her curiosity and love for the outdoor, in particular the ocean into an important and lasting contribution to […]
HOMEGIRL
Whoa. Here’s some advice. Do not EVER move. Just kidding! What I really mean is: Do not ever move unless you have as your moving crew Dennis, Tensie, Donald and Alan. I am safely in my new place in Tucson, as of a week ago today, and I am still reeling from the way that […]
NEXT DOOR
As I pack up more and more stuff, it’s also interesting to see what’s left; what’s essential as I more or less camp out for a few days. Six 12-ounce packages of Starbucks French roast (I buy them expired on ebay). A giant container of pure cane sugar. A glass of roses from the garden. My portable prayer box (breviary, Magnificat, candle, incense, matches). A small old wooden crucifix. Three rosaries.
CRUNCH TIME
Crunch time means devoting an inordinate amount of mental space and physical exertion to “stuff” for a while. One function of the Incarnation, I’ve been thinking, is that we are constantly constantly carrying stuff from one place to another. Take a look around next time you’re out. Guys with plastic bags dangling from their handlebars, kids with backpacks, mothers with strollers, pickup trucks laded with rakes, shovels, trash barrels, all of us hauling bags of groceries into the kitchen after a Trader Joe’s run.