Interestingly, I’m always way more comfortable writing for free than for money. For whatever that’s worth, which is maybe nothing.
THE CREATIVE LIFE
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.
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.
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?
ARE YOU ON MY TEAM?
Mary his mother, and John, and possibly a few others, were at the foot of the Cross. But in his final stupendous Agony, by far the most important Person on Christ’s team seemed absent.
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.”
THE GREAT FERMATA
At their first rehearsal after a two-year break, they wondered how they’d sound. But right away they started singing the “Kyrie” from the Frank Martin Mass and the music was right there. “It was as if that ‘Lord, have mercy’ had been resounding the whole time and we just picked up where it left off.”
MANNA IN THE DESERT
“True solitude is not the absence of people, but the presence of God. To place our lives before the face of God, to surrender to the movements of God, is to roam free in a space in which we have been given solitude”….
LENT
The other thing is I’ve been working a lot. I’ve signed on to write a study guide on St. Thérèse of Lisieux so am once again knee-deep in The Little Flower, the Little Way, the Holocaust-Victim-of-Love concept, and so much more that dovetails nicely with the forty days in the desert into which we’re collectively heading.
BUT BEAUTIFUL: ALTO SAXOPHONIST ART PEPPER
How did someone who seemed so seemingly morally weak and narcissistically disordered produce such sublime music?
THE TASSEL OF HIS CLOAK
Here’s a little something to listen to if you’ve a mind: a February 5, 2022 “Almost Good Catholics” podcast with Krzysztof (Chris) Odyniec and I entitled “Divine Intoxication.”
UP WITH RITUAL!
“Significant too is a second thing common among those who attend daily mass, they do not want a service that is too long or too creative. They want a creal ritual, a predictable one, and a short one. “