Asperges Me I was thinking about aspergillums recently, the sprinklers used at Mass (and elsewhere) to disperse Holy Water. I didn't imagine a silver stick with a ball on the end, but an old-fashioned aspergillum made of a plant. The sort of thing Moses would have whipped up to sling blood on Israelites. And I thought: [...]
While reading accounts of the developing events in Egypt, I notice repeated references to the Qasr Al-Nil Bridge, a popular meeting-place in Cairo. I like the word 'Qasr' because it shows up with the Arabic definite article al in Spanish as Alcazar, meaning castle, fort. Many, if not most words in Spanish starting with al-, such [...]
This recent review of the play Freud's Last Session may be of interest to StAR readers: "In Freud's Last Session, Prof. Lewis (Christopher Oden), the bluff Oxford don turned Christian apologist, pays a visit to the office of Dr. Freud (Dennis Creaghan), the religion-hating inventor of psychoanalysis, who has fled to London to escape Nazi persecution. [...]
I teach 6th grade Catechism. A standard theme in our class is: Love Creates. Begin with God. God is Love; hence, God creates. God is all Love; thus God creates all. As Dante observed, "L'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle/ Love that moves the sun and the other stars." Acting as God's agents, husbands [...]
One night decades ago I was watching TV; that nun, Mother Teresa, was on Leno. I knew she'd won a Nobel prize, took care of scabby people all day, and looked grim as cancer. What could they possibly talk about that would be, if not entertaining, at least not unpleasant? Curious as to how this was [...]
Reading epic poetry has always been something of a slog for me. This short video provides a stimulating glimpse of how compelling such tales can be when told, not read. The centuries just melt away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13cES7MMd8 Which reminds me, as tale is related to tell, so is saga related to say.
For the last 10 years or so, I participated in the Ministry to the Sick, bringing Jesus to the ill, the shut-in, and whichever Catholics were in the hospital on my day of the week. Most memorable were the visits to those who lay in the Intensive Care Unit. A few minutes in ICU will have [...]
