Now that I’ve completed it, here’s what my month-long artist’s residency looked like: Up at 5:30 for the stupendous sunrise, then prayer, then work, then usually 11:30 Mass, then lunch, then my chore of helping put away the dishes, then more work or a nap or a phone call, then the hour-long walk up the […]
TRAVEL
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 […]
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 […]
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Per usual, life has been moving at a faster clip than I’m able to keep up with. I do know this: I’m in Carson City, Nevada. That’s right. Holed up in the Forest Room of the Bliss Bungalow: “a charming inn for the discerning traveler.” Well, the first part is right. Carson City, the Historic […]
DC
I am back from my trip to Washington DC and, contrary to all expectation, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! I’m going to write a column for Angelus so will not elaborate here. But I can’t resist posting these photos of flowers that, nourished by East Coast humidity, dew, and rain, looked good enough to eat.
THE JOURNEY BACK HOME
Hey folks, here’s the link to my conversion story on EWTN’s “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi. Question: why does Marcus looks giant and why do I look like a midget? Speaking of journeying home, I’ve been in DC all week and HAVE LOVED IT! I’m staying at the Dominican Priory (not to be confused […]
THE JUBILEE MUSEUM
Columbus Ohio’s Jubilee Museum, a one-of-a-kind, must-be-seen-to-be-believed repository of all things Catholic, somehow could only have arisen within the one, holy, and apostolic Church.
BLOODY BUT UNBOWED
The above was taken at a glacial kettle (basically, a bog) outside Columbus, Ohio. I met my Columbus chum, Mary Beth Paul, at Corpus Christi this morning for 8:30 Mass and then she took me for breakfast to the Fox in the Snow and then we went and visited some of the “habitats” outside the […]
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 […]
A FIELD TRIP TO BEVERLY HILLS: THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA
Here’s a fun thing to do on the Westside: The Paley Center for Media, smack in the middle of Beverly Hills.
The minute you step up to the desk, one of the welcoming ladies there will usher you over to a camera, shove a mic in your hand and snap a promote-the-Paley pic.
MISSION TO THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS
In an attempt, to partial avail, to escape the construction noise at my apartment, I took off last week for the Central Coast. In Santa Maria I visited with my dear friends Tensie and Dennis and made an abortive attempt to purchase a cemetery plot in the adjacent hamlet of Guadalupe (that it was MLK […]
WE KNOW NOT THE DAY NOR THE HOUR
[A] certain German-speaking Trappist abbey in the last century was smothered with frescoes of the most alarming kind. Symbols of death and dissolution confronted the eye at every turn, and in the refectory the beckoning torso of a painted skeleton, equipped with an hour glass and a scythe, leant, with the terrifying archness of a […]
BEYOND THE NOISE OF ANY POSSIBLE INTRUSION
I have had many months of “coping.” You know what I mean–day after day of administrative, car, computer, medical, and people snafus. Plus it is finally dawning on me, at my age many men and women have “retired!” That is not in the cards for me. I own no home. I have no spouse, no […]
“IF YOU CAN’T STAND YOUR PROBLEMS, TRY KNEELING”
Back from Pittsburgh–loved it, loved the people, loved the whole experiences. Just stellar. Possibly more later, after I get some sleep. While there, I put in a request to be an honorary Yinz. ***** The three best pieces I’ve read on the sexual abuse in the Church. “Here Comes Everybody: On prayer, the lessons of […]