After ditching FreshRSS and riding with just plain old newsboat for a while, I’m giving MiniFlux a go as a self-hosted RSS aggregator. It set it up on the old laptop running the GOES terminal and barely registers a blip in load. The presentation, moreover, is minimalist and clean. It also renders well on phones and various tablets. Some clients are available (newsboat, for one), but the browser UI is so nice and snappy I tend to just use it. You can tweak the CSS for it and customize it if you like. My feed count is hovering somewhere around 145 right now and growing, and it’s nice to have a consistent, centralized place to corral them all locally. Every so often, I back up the OPML file in case the thing goes toes-up.

Class this weekend on catechetics, and some rumination on the capstone project that lies ahead of me. There are several options available, but I’m leaning heavily toward a trio of textual analyses from the list of books provided. Though the papers will be standalone and graded by different instructors, I plan to link thematically, at least for my own purposes. I hope this will give me a larger framework for the semester’s worth of work, drawing from the others as I treat each one individually. Some texts by Augustine are the main contenders, but I have some time to decide. Originally I had planned to do this in the summer of 2025, but we’re thinking about doing some traveling then, and I’d like to have the decks cleared completely for that. This means doing it sooner, which will overlap with ongoing coursework.

I hope everyone is having a good, peaceful Lent. Last night at RCIA, I led the discussions on contraception, IVF, and other related topics. I’ve run with this one for several years now, and every group receives it a bit differently. There weren’t many questions or surprises. My theory is that this year’s cohort - mostly young adults and new families - has probably already Googled all of this. At the very least, they got to hear it live and in person. Next week starts the period of purification and enlightenment, then the downhill run to Holy Week. On the other side of that, I take over full time for 7-8 weeks of mystagogy.

I’ve managed to sneak into - assume myself - into serving at the 7:00am Wednesday mass. Last year, I noticed that the priest was alone, so I offered to help the following week and then just stuck around. I’ve spread the word to the other parish men in diaconal formation in the event they want to trade off with me, and we’ll make it A Thing. Everyone else is working then, so it’s just been me so far. I don’t mind the at-bats, though, and I greatly appreciate the chance to assist. Interesting to see up close the tiny differences and quirks of each priest in their particular styles - one moves quickly and efficiently, another a bit more slowly and reflectively. A third is newly ordained and still very careful. By now, I’ve internalized enough of the mechanics (“do this, stand here, go there”) to participate more in the liturgy rather than thinking two steps ahead about What Comes Next. It’s been a privilege and a blessing for sure.

De Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life has been very fruitful for morning prayer. You can’t go wrong with de Sales if you’re still looking for some Lenten reading. Read one chapter/meditation in the morning and let it sit with you throughout the day. It’s wonderful stuff.

God bless!