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 […]
THE TRAGICOMEDY OF THE CROSS
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 […]
LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING
Oh the season of Advent has been deep. I find I’m spent. Not from buying presents, eating, or showing off/arguing/sniping on social media. Rather from the deep prayer of the last four weeks… “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.” And then the Gospel today, the beginning of John: “The true […]
CAMBRIA, CA
Hi. I’m in Cambria on the California Central Coast, on terrible circadian rhythm where I get max five or six hours a night of sleep. No matter. Those are the things of this world. Had fugue state pleasant drive up yesterday on about four hours of sleep, wheeled into town, sprang into action, explored both […]
WHAT WE ARE
“[I]t is true, for better or worse, that we affect others in the last resort by what we are. From us too power will go forth in our small measure, to heal or to hurt, in accordance with our state of being. Too easily we forget this central fact of life: that always and inevitably […]
CONFLICTS AND CONTRADICTIONS
“[C]ontrary to what I might have hoped or expected when I was younger, life does not in fact grow simpler as one gets older, its complexities and contradictions do not actually decrease as time goes on.”–Esther de Waal, Living with Contradictions: Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict How I do not know, but I […]
THE ONGOING SLOGGING JOURNEY
Hey folks, my “Journey Home” conversation with Marcus Grodi will air this coming Monday, June 17. You can watch it on Monday night at 8PM Eastern on EWTN, and if you don’t have cable, you can still view it for free at EWTN.com. The full episode will then be available online–I’ll post the link once […]
THE AVERAGE CROWD
This then is how it is when God descends to men! The apparent folly and danger of it are so great that the just and orthodox prepare for legal condemnation. The event is not even clothed in the dignity of genuine poverty. That would also have been impressive, for side by side with the power […]
MISADVENTURES AT MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
More than 20 years ago my (now ex-) husband and I took a road trip to Big Sur, cutting off the 101 north of Paso Robles to take the scenic Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. Then newly Catholic, I swooned when we came across what at that point was the largely abandoned, picturesquely derelict Mission San Antonio de […]
RAVISHED, ANOTHER EXCERPT
Monday, June 3, I’ll be on Jon Leonetti in the Morning on Iowa Catholic Radio, 7:15 am CT. 1150 AM 88.5 FM 94.5 FM. Discussing my new book RAVISHED. HERE’S AN EXCERPT: PREFACE I’m an ex-gutter drunk who graduated from law school in a blackout, sobered up, quit my job as a Beverly Hills litigation […]
RAVISHED: NOTES ON WOMANHOOD
My arts and culture column this week purports to be an excerpt from my new book: RAVISHED: Notes on Womanhood. Except they changed the title of the piece, switched out the cover for another image, removed the link, and neglected to actually mention the title of the book. My eyes glaze over at the phrases […]
TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS
The first thing I turned to in the newspaper as a kid was Ann Landers’ advice column. I couldn’t get enough—still can’t—of human dysfunction. The letters were longish but Ann’s advice was always succinct, practical, and to the point. “You have every right to tell your in-laws that they cannot smoke in your home.” “That […]
DATELINE COLUMBUS, OHIO
Further evidence of God’s sense of humor: I am flying to Columbus, Ohio this coming Sunday to tape an episode of “The Journey Home” with EWTN’s Marcus Grodi. That’s right. I’m going to hit the Eternal World Television Network Airwaves. (That’s assuming the taping goes okay, which you never know). I feel my own story […]
SAINTS WE MAY OR MAY NOT FEEL
Am I alone in this? Or do you, too, have certain saints you just can’t cotton to? God forgive me and I’m sure she’s praying for me in heaven, but I cannot for the life of me for example get the appeal of St. Faustina and that corny Divine Mercy painting. She’s always telling some […]