While the Tucson summer is of course baking hot, Ireland by all accounts is perpetually freezing, so I have purchased a little rain poncho and will definitely layer and bring a couple of scarves.
TRAVEL
INSIDE MADONNA HOUSE’S LAY COMMUNITY OF LOVE
I visited the house in Combermere several years ago and was awed by the community’s self-sufficiency. They grow or raise almost all of their own food. St. Benedict’s Acres, the community farm, boasts vegetable beds, cows, chickens, and sheep whose wool is sheared, cleaned, dyed, spun, woven and knit into products for gift shops.
THE LAST HOUR
I think many stop short at the brokenness, fallenness and failure of the Church (and how could it be otherwise, as the Church is comprised of us?) to live out the Gospel message. But I don’t see how anyone could go to Christ–to his heart, his life, teachings, death; the parables with their inexhaustible levels of meaning, and fail to be electrified.
WHERE, LORD?
“Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding male together; one will be taken, the other left.” The said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures gather.”
OJAI’S BEST-KEPT SECRET: TAFT GARDENS AND NATURE PRESERVE
I felt as if I were a guest at some exotic villa where the owner had discreetly left me to explore and marvel on my own. If I’d had any idea of the range and distinction of this one-of-a-kind horticultural haven, I would have scheduled my day so as to to spend way longer.
HEAVEN IS OUR HOME
Don’t get me wrong. All three homes were wondrous. I wouldn’t have missed them for the world. Still, I couldn’t help reflecting afterwards that the effort to preserve in amber any human life carries a touch of the absurd.
OUT EAST, BACK WEST
So I tracked the guy down outside, hobbling on my injured leg, and literally brayed, “Do you have a COFFEE MAKER!!??” And when he said No, I brayed even louder, “Well then, do you have a CONE????” LIterally like a crazed banshee. Like I even wanted or needed coffee right that minute, or obviously, ever.
A SHORT WALK
Speaking of travel, I myself am setting off next Tuesday for a two-week jaunt to the East Coast! A bit of a working holiday as I’ll be visiting lots of museums, gardens, and suchnot, but I’d do that anyway.
LOURDES, A DOCUMENTARY
“Lourdes is a place for everyone, not just well-mannered religious people. You have firefighters, gypsies, the motorcyclists’ pilgrimage. The prostitutes of Paris make an annual pilgrimage and it’s the highlight of their year.”
SANTA MARIA NOVELLA: THE WORLD’S OLDEST APOTHECARY
There are deep burgundy bags of potpourri, fragrance diffusers, and cleansing sprays–a different scent and mood for each season of the year. You can buy Iris Toothpaste (20 bucks a tube), Crema de Barba (shaving cream) at 71 dollars a pop, and Sapone allo Zolfo—sulphur soap—with which to scrub off after, say, an exorcism.
MAGELLANICA
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 and engineers, led by American climatologist Susan Solomon who converged […]
MONUMENTS, MARVELS AND MIRACLES
Catholic road trips worth taking: and when you visit those monuments, marvels and miracles, don’t forget to hang around for Mass: the biggest marvel and miracle of all
SO MUCH WE DO NOT SEE OR UNDERSTAND
I also learned only recently that pineapples don’t grow on trees. “They’re grown from the center of a leafy plant. They are an aggregate fruit, which is formed from a cluster of flowers, or inflorescence.”
I mean after a lifetime of opening Dole cans, who knew?