Ad cenam agni providi

Well, it’s been a hot minute or two since I last posted anything. Since the last time, we completed the two-month sequence in ecclesiology. I started out lukewarm on the topic but got quite into it by the end. Our next class - the Sacraments - is in a few weeks, and I’ve nearly completed the required reading (Lawrence Feingold’s Touched by Christ: The Sacramental Economy). I also have one of the ‘recommended’ texts on tap (Colman O’Neill’s Meeting Christ in the Sacraments) and will probably dive into that next. All of the books for my summer course are sitting here as well, but the professor hasn’t posted the syllabus yet so they’re sort of on hold.

For fiction reading, I finished Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, which I thought was terrific. This started something of a Russian streak, so I read Crime and Punishment next and am determined to actually finish Doctor Zhivago on this go-round. I’m about halfway through it. Not sure what I’ll look at next. A few of us were discussing Graham Greene in class last month, so probably one of his novels. I read The End of the Affair years ago and remember liking it. The Power and the Glory came highly recommended, as was The Heart of the Matter.

Still enjoying Greek, and have added daily practice of reading the day’s Gospel aloud in Spanish as well. A Spanish translation of Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity arrived today, which looks challenging stuff.

Holy Week was busy for us - Palm Sunday, the Chrism Mass on Tuesday, a senior banquet for one of the kids, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Just a few moments to catch our breath and bask in the glow of it all. The sun’s out and things are finally drying off a bit. Everything outside is growing like mad. Famliy is mostly health, save for the odd cold bug here and there. The cat has a clean bill of health from a stubborn ear infection. Dog snoozing the sun.

Every day the rooster gets out and parades past my office window. Then I chase him right back into the coop. It’s become something of a routine. He starts to make a run for it as soon as he hears me unlocking the front door.

All is well, all is well. All manner of things are well. I hope the same for you and yours.