Scribbles, &c.

catholic theology

: I wonder what it would take for the Holy See to start posting PDFs of encyclicals and other …

: Bishop Erik Varden of Norway delivered the Navarra Lecture recently and every bit of it is worth …

: Backlit stained glass in the chapel

: After ditching FreshRSS and riding with just plain old newsboat for a while, I’m giving …

: I’m in San Jose for work at the moment and remembering being here for a conference in 1996 called - …

: I took a closer look at Pi-hole’s administrative tools and set up per-client domain blocking. …

: This past formation weekend was very fruitful. God spoke through spiritual direction, homilies, and …

: Pondering Taylor’s formulation of porous vs. buffered. In the first, meaning is carried by the …

: Currently reading: A Secular Age by Charles Taylor 📚

: Everybody say cheese!

: And here it is, in situ. Initial tests show a beautiful, strong signal with practically no errors at …

: Antenna for GOES imagery. Got the whole kit (including SDR and amplifier) for Christmas. Will work …

: This years book haul. Another Girard book is on pre-order and will get here whenever. Plenty to …

: Burning down the year’s accumulation of brush on NYE. This is way more fun than fireworks and I will …

: I’m now midway through the third year of formation. I submitted my final assignment for the …

: Currently reading: Wanting by Luke Burgis 📚

: The Council of Ephesus, 431

: Seasonal Auden

: When the final dish matches the picture…

: Currently reading: Dominican Life by Walter Wagner 📚

: Advent is here, which means that it is about time for the annual reposting of William Tighe’s …

: Little sundog

: Almost time to drop the bird…

: Can’t resist one more.

: Having some fun with Bing and Dall-E. It doesn’t do well with text, these were the least-gibberish …

: Big pot of feijoada to feed a crowd tonight. Been going for about 5 hours.

: The pears out front are putting on a real show this year.

: It’s been a hot minute or two since the last update. First, the big news: another grandson! He …

: Bill-a-palooza continues….currently reading: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner 📚

: Finished reading: Snopes by William Faulkner 📚

: Annular eclipse beginning here…

: Sunday studies…

: Smoking some briskets, drinking beer, and sitting around the pool listening to Jimmy Buffet. He made …

: Guilty, defiant, and ejected from the pool…for their own safety since the salt and chlorine will do …

: August, being rich arrayd …in August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when …

: Must be time for another permanent #deacon formation weekend. #nashvocations #coffee #diaconate

: Annual Cicada, rescued from the web of a bored spider outside my office window.

: Enjoying the last bit of relative calm before classes resume this weekend. I’m ahead of the …

: Eastern Fence Lizard

: Our parish celebrated our patroness today with a procession - this is one of the designs our …

: Big shelf cloud action heading our way.

: Currently reading: Snopes by William Faulkner 📚

: Rickhouse, Nearest Green Distillery

: #catholic #iykyk

: Warm sidewalk lazy dog cross post test

: Reading Girard and then hitting the whole plankton zoo of socials.

: Finished Selected Short Stories last night. On deck: Snopes by William Faulkner 📚

: I've been thinking a lot about fictional geographies lately. I don't mean fantasy or sci-fi worlds - …

: A wee Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad, which is actually a terrestrial frog and not a toad.

: Rainy day rabbit vibe

: Science we can all get behind. One of his studies had led him to an unusual conclusion: Among …

: For 20 years now, I have been heading from my native Vermont to the American West—Utah, Arizona, …

: Overheard in the frozen food section of the supermarket today: Little boy: Oh! Do we need ice cream? …

: Grand Isle, LA

: Currently reading: Selected Short Stories by William Faulkner 📚

: I finished The Gulf last night, and it was great. I felt like I was reading the history of an old …

: Hesiod's late summer vibe We were just blessed with a couple of breezy, low-humidity days, lack of nearby mountain peaks …

: The apples are coming along nicely. These are either Gala or Liberty, I can’t recall which. We have …

: St. Charles St

: Two from Evagrius 32. Many times while I was at prayer, I would keep asking for what seemed good to me. I kept …

: The mystery of patience Fr. Michael Casey, OCSO writes about the virtue of patience throughout the Western monastic …

: The Three Angers The Sayings contain several mentions of anger and the importance of controlling it. Abba Hyperichius …

: Killing time poolside while the smoker smokes…

: St Peter & Royal

: The road trip was lovely. We set the GPS to 'avoid all highways' and took our time meandering down …

: Currently reading: The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis 📚

: Currently reading: New Orleans Sketches by William Faulkner 📚

: Rowan Oak, Faulkner’s home

: Faulkner’s grave

: Roadside lunch from Harry’s Po-boys, Larose, LA

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: Summer reading: A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Nicomachean Ethics. For Spanish practice, still …

: Currently reading: St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns On Paradise by St. Ephrem 📚 #books #catholic …

: Currently reading: El Aleph / The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges 📚 I absolutely loved Ficciones and am …

: Still the Sears Tower, no matter what.

: I think these are fruit sets on the pawpaw tree. I found a few others too. Here’s hoping they …

: Charlotte

: Anole

: Currently reading: Cien años de soledad / One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 📚

: Currently reading: Introducción al cristianismo: Lecciones sobre el credo apostólico by Benedicto …

: Ad cenam agni providi Well, it’s been a hot minute or two since I last posted anything. Since the last time, we …

: οὐκ οἶδα Submitted my last paper for Johannine Literature, which brings this year’s long sequence on …

: My Carmelite deep-dive continues with The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila Vol 2 by Saint …

: “We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal …

: Currently reading: The Carmelite Way: An Ancient Path for Today’s Pilgrim by John Welch OCarm …

: Here’s a nifty fact for you: the Catholic diocese of Orlando includes the moon. Why? The …

: Currently reading: Carmelite Spirituality in the Teresian Tradition by Paul-Marie of the Cross 📚

: Pollo borracho, or “drunken chicken.” I think every country has a version of this. Black beans and …

: Would you like to hear what happens when AI versions of Werner Herzog and Slavoj Zizek converse? Of …

: Today I learned how to have 2 apps open at once on an iPad. Probably old news for everyone else, but …

: First week in my attempt to go paperless for classwork. Marking up docs and articles in Zotero has …

: Currently reading: Carmelite Spirituality by Cardinal Anders Arborelius 📚

: Pawpaw

: Cambridge MA

: Trying something new: feijoada, a black bean stew with pork and beef. It’s smells ridiculously good.

: To the Trinity and beyond! I'm still plowing through articles and sources for a paper on St. Augustine's De Trinitate, but I …

: Is your library fully equipped?

: Currently reading: The Trinity (Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century) by …

: Boreal chorus frog, according to Seek. Also showing a bit outside its normal range.

: Pivoting between two piles of reading this evening: Origen on martyrdom to one side; …

: Today was a strong-cocktail-before-dinner sort of day. This is a Boulevardier, which is basically a …

: Tonight’s food pic is an Asian-style mushroom omelet, also from Milk Street. There’s supposed to be …

: I should probably credit the website - both of these were generated by Stable Diffusion.

: One more bit of AI-artwork in honor of St. Meinrad Archabbey. I also thought these turned out …

: AI-generated artwork is occasionally amazing stuff.

: How much fun is a mobile in a math classroom? Too much! Too much fun! Beautiful artwork from …

: Having some fun in the kitchen as I’ve recently taken on main dinner duties. This is harira, a …

: What a bunch we are! Beautiful Mass and an important step along this path. Can’t do it without the …

: Breaking retreat silence to ask for your prayers - for me and all of the other men here with me …

: Currently reading: Citizenship Papers by Wendell Berry 📚

: Hackberry Emperor

: Currently reading: Understanding the Diaconate: Historical, Theological, and Sociological …

: It’s been awhile but we’re getting back in the saddle tomorrow!

: These pork shoulders about 5 hours in; probably about halfway there.

: Enjoying a short summer break in classes before things pick up again in late August. There'll be a …

: Red Spotted Admiral

: Currently reading: Ven Espíritu Creador: Meditaciones sobre el Veni Creator Prólogo de José Cardenal …

: Currently reading: The History of Black Catholics in the United States by Cyprian Davis 📚

: Currently reading: On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Restoring God’s Vision of Race and …

: Currently reading: From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age …

: Class is going well; we're covering a lot of ground but it's a small group (7 folks total), and Fr. …

: St. Meinrad Archabbey Church. Here for the week.

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: Currently reading: Tu palabra me da vida by Raniero Cantalamessa 📚

: Ahora, una cosa diferente Quiero escribir un poco en Español. Estoy tratando a mejorar mi vocabulario spiritual y al mismo …

: Just finished the last class of the year - a two-month session on the Old Testament. The teacher was …

: Grilled paella - one of our go-tos when we’re feeding a crowd.

: Reflecting on Girard I've been noodling on René Girard's memetic theory of desire for a little while now, and the more I …

: Currently reading: The Lonely Man of Faith by Joseph B. Soloveitchik 📚

: Gray ratsnake. One of the kids spotted it the other day and I’ve been trying to catch a look at it …

: Muscadines are really taking off this year. This is ‘Triumph;’ we also have a ‘Tara Gold’ that’s …

: Pitcher’s Stitchwort

: Just got the email that Emergence Vol. 3 is available for pre-order! Pre-ordered! Such great work …

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: Currently reading: The Institutes, translated and annotated by Boniface Ramsey by St. John Cassian 📚

: So I’ve ventured back into the Fediverse after some time away. Pros/cons about enabling the …

: Kitchen is out of commission while some work is being done so I'm using the green egg as an oven …

: When you cannot see clearly and openly whether the sin is deadly, you must not pass judgment in your …

: Common Star-Of-Bethlehem

: Welcome back, peonies

: New strawberry patch!

: Two pollinators at once

: Currently reading: The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World by …

: Just finished another paper that will close out my online class, clearing the decks to start the …

: Currently reading: I See Satan Fall Like Lightning by Rene Girard 📚

: Currently reading: Work by Louisa May Alcott 📚

: 7-year-old: I have a lot of reading to do. Me: Same, brother. Same. The reading doesn’t stop until …

: “Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love.” — St. John of the Cross

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: Currently reading: Jane Eyre (Enriched Classics) by Charlotte Bronte 📚 This one’s long overdue …

: When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that …

: Christopher Alexander, a towering figure in architecture and urbanism—one of the biggest influences …

: In him the Old Testament finds its fitting close. He brought the noble line of patriarchs and …

: Currently reading: St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns On Paradise by St. Ephrem 📚

: Latest paper for Foundations is nearly in the can: revisions, a run-through with grammarly, more …

: Currently reading: In the First Circle by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn 📚 It always pays to ask …

: Radio nerd aside: this Twitter thread is bananas. TL;DR: lots of the Russian military is …

: “Teach us to be loving not only in great and exceptional moments, but above all in the ordinary …

: Currently reading: Fundamental Theology (Sacra Doctrina) by Guy Mansini 📚 This came up in class this …

: RSS, classes, Synodality, and Spenser I have an unabashed love of RSS feeds and track about 40 right now. I used newsboat, which is a …

: Currently reading: Idylls of the King (Penguin Classics) by Alfred Tennyson 📚

: Not sure what I was expecting out of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, but given its famous opening line, I …

: “Be glad then that you are overwhelmed, and do not be saddened because he has overcome you. A …

: “When I notice something wrong in my brother that cannot be corrected - either because it is …

: Still working through the Tolstoy collection. So far The Cossacks is my favorite, followed closely …

: Draft of one paper (Liturgy!) is done. Will sleep on it, review/edit it tomorrow, and submit …

: Current state: I have to write a paper for a class that just ended, start the reading assignments …

: “And suddenly he was overcome by such a strange feeling of causeless joy and of love for everything …

: Facebook, said the director of diocesan media, is where the people still are. So after this latest …

: A little more nerd stuff - I've fallen down the Home Assistant rabbit-hole. Not really interested in …

: Currently reading: Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy 📚 Found it on one of our …

: Spent most of Sunday and Monday installing a new ceiling fan. Difficulty level: 16' ceiling. This …

: We finished up season 4 of Fargo and season 6 of The Expanse, so we decided to give Peaky Blinders a …

: And now for something completely different. I wrote a dumb little shell script to watch the USCCB’s website for any updates to their …

: Someone on Metafilter just referred to NFTs as “Dunning Krugerands” and I don’t …

: Today’s Wordle needs to be kicked to the curb. There needs to be an indicator of some kind, if you …

: The retreat for this weekend was canceled. The priest set to lead it came down with Covid, as did …

: A sunny 40 degrees today and I took a few minutes to uproot an apple tree which finally gave up the …

: Ordinary Time Trying to put a few thoughts together on cycles and liturgy. Having started a new liturgical year …

: Currently reading: The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger 📚

: A heavy snowfall was nice, but nicer still is listening to it all melt at once.

: Just a quick little board game that the kids have underway…

: Reflections on St. Gregory the Great "But in the midst of these considerations, we are brought back in the zeal of charity to what we …

: “A certain philosopher asked St. Anthony: Father, how can you be so happy when you are …

: Into the Silent Land This past weekend was a deep dive into the main themes of Christian spirituality, with a particular …

: We are perhaps too talkative, too activistic, in our conception of the Christian life. Our service …

: This sense of separation from God and from one another, this profound ignorance of our innermost …

: I decided to splurge on a new keyboard for the office and opted for a mechanical one to replace the …

: Very busy around here lately. Among other things, we welcomed our first grandson to the world! …

: So that's one more essay test and a final draft of a paper into the books to close out a class on …

: Visiting our niece, who is studying engineering, and taking a stroll through the campus bookstore. 👀

: Traveling for work for the first time in nearly two years! Feels kinda good tbh.

: Day 3 of a formation weekend which has focused on OT exegesis.

: Mushrooms, Montgomery Bell State Park

: Moths taking off at 6000fps, (h/t metafilter). Did you know moths were so fluffy? Now you do!

: Habanero jelly!

: All of my radios are croaking! Recently the scanner had to go back to Uniden for a repair that …

: This is another formation weekend - the second part of a church history survey course. Reading …

: Tickseed Beggar-ticks

: White-marked Tussock Moth caterpillar

: Last step in the formal graduate admissions process is the interview, which has now been scheduled. …

: Passionflower, one of our state symbols

: First formation weekend complete. A thousand years or so of church history in a weekend (not …

: Fig tree is showing some fruit! It’s grown like crazy this year - easily over 7’ as of today. I …

: Took a small break from studying to dip into Emergence Vol 1 and devoured Winds of Awe and Fear by …

: Beautiful mild afternoon with low humidity here. Chipotle chicken on the grill for tacos. Praise God …

: I am flexing some essay-writing muscles I haven’t had to use for 30+ years, and this as part of the …

: We attended the first formal meeting last night in the diaconate formation program. It was great to …

: Jumping spiders - new phone does pretty well with macro stuff

: Amazing bit of music here: Voodoo Child on a clavinet with a whammy bar. As described! (h/t …

: We’ve welded together Loki and Lovecraft Country over here. Don’t try to change our …

: Sunset cumulus, adjusted slightly 📷

: Poolside reading

: As usual, I overthought this completely. curl https://micro.blog/micropub -d “h=entry” …

: For clarity - I’ve been happy with the iOS apps (micro.blog and sunlit), and tend to favor …

: Is anyone posting to micro.blog with a text editor or IDE-type tool? Before migrating, I used a …

: Re-reading: The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges, OP 📚

: John of the Cross and detachment I've been slowly working my way through The Ascent of Mount Carmel and have been turning over a …

: It’s Sunday, which means something is going on the grill. Today that thing is paella. We use a …

: Fox kits

: Fox kits And one more for good measure (with extra bonus kit)

: Fox kits Re-post of some fox pics that were gumming up my blog’s feed - I took these earlier this …

: I have a .edu e-mail address again after 30 years. Also a Moodle account! And the syllabus for my …

: Currently reading: Agency by William Gibson 📚

: Wild blackberries are coming in strong. We picked a bunch the other day and turned them into …

: What fun! Thanks, @jean!!

: Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I fired up rtl_433 and a couple of really …

: Currently reading: The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross (includes The Ascent of Mount …

: Someone posted a Spotify playlist that neatly approximates the big AOR station of my Atlanta …

: These just went on the grill - dry brined overnight, then covered in an apricot glaze. I’m using …

: Late June Finished Zinn and am still trudging through Gramsci. It's dense to say the least, and I can't say …

: And we're (nearly) off! The vocations office dropped a note last Friday: forms from St. Meinrad (library and network …

: This, that, and the other. Wrapped up Mystagogy tonight with a session on basic apologetics. Got to the church with enough time …

: Three sisters

: Currently reading: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore 📚

: Currently reading: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn 📚

: Beautiful summer cumulus

: The Church Forests of Ethiopia Churches in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition inherited many of their ideas of sacred space from …

: Nice! Emergence Magazine vol 1 is back in stock! ✅ Ordered

: My seeds came early so I was able to get started on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The corn is in, …

: Foxes and suchlike There have been several sightings of foxes in and around the yard; yesterday I found their den. Or …

: Oxeye Daisies

: Stonecrop

: Corn, Bean, and Squash You can tell they are sisters: one twines easily around the other in a relaxed embrace while the …

: Mulberries and whatnot It turns out there are quite a few red mulberry trees in the yard, all of them female, and thus …

: Charisms Last night's Mystagogy session explored charisms. I was frankly a little nervous - so many lists! …

: Currently reading: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 📚

: Long Hunter State Park hike

: Grand news! So I guess the big news first: we're to be grandparents! Our daughter and son-in-law gave us the …

: It’s raining today so I’m building the raised beds in the garage. They’ll eventually be moved …

: Currently reading: How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea by Gooley, Tristan …

: …and the vineyard (lol) is also done for now.

: First peony has opened!

: Got the grape trellises in. I’ll do the wire tomorrow and maybe plant the pair of vines on Sunday. …

: Beautiful morning for a 5K. Negative splits, too! I’ll take that any day of the week.

: Expanding our orchard! Today we picked up a pair of Arkansas Black apple trees, along with a …

: Currently reading: Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri 📚

: First pawpaw blooms!

: Swarm trap

: Top-bar hive

: For the perpetual excuse of Adam for his fall — “My little Eve, God bless her, did beguile me …

: Dick Hoyt, RIP Associated Press: Dick Hoyt, who inspired thousands of runners, fathers and disabled athletes by …

: Currently reading: Stories of the Old South by Ben Forkner 📚

: …which means ‘Sent’

: Liliana Porter The Frist Museum here in town is hosting Picasso: Figures, showcasing all of the wonderful (and …

: Keeping the World in Being I’m attracted to Cassian’s writings and the work of other early monastics because they reveal …

: Come, let us reason together.

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: Tonight I teach the contraception and IVF session for RCIA. Should be a good one. We did it last …

: In this big family, Daft Punk’s music was something that every single person could get behind …

: Currently reading: Photographically Speaking by David duChemin 📚

: I don’t think I’ve heard anything as lovely as the sound of all this snow and ice melting all around …

: Beware the pogonip!

: Today's birds The striped birds are female redwinged blackbirds. You can just make out the bit of rose on their …

: The bicolored redwings I saw yesterday are much more likely be females of the 'standard' redwinged …

: Been eyeballing the bird feeder and have spotted some bicolor red-winged blackbirds. Sibley says …

: No barbecuing today I guess.

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: View from inside…this is my amateur radio antenna.

: Thwack You ever read something and then hear the whistling of an approaching clue-by-four? This is from …

: “The Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too.He will …

: Elderberry cuttings are coming along nicely

: Currently reading: John Cassian, The institutes by John Cassian 📚

: Tonight’s tasting selections…

: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, …

: I've been thinking a bit about the HBO series The Leftovers recently, probably because part of the …

: I never understood the QAnon stuff. For me, big conspiracies tend to assume a level of competence …

: Currently reading: Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton 📚 On deck: The Holy Week volume of Benedict …

: A list of text-heavy sites I visit regularly: Text-only NPR Drudge Readspike news aggregator …

: A reminder: social media is not the Internet, and you can use the latter without the former pretty …

: The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory, And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware Of …

: The Real Deep State I added Rod Dreher back to my RSS list and today he referenced this excellent open letter to the …

: Is it just me, or is half the fun of a new book finding the next things to read in the footnotes?

: A Little Office for Evening Prayer Our family prayers at day's end have developed into the following routine, which I am calling here A …

: Guardini on virtue Finished up Romano Guardini's Learning the Virtues. Father Schmitz referenced it in Made for Love, …

: Happy New Year, everyone!

: Last few books of 2020 are arriving today: Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, Merton on contemplative …

: Rachel Somewhere in these unending wastes of delirium is a lost child, speaking of Long Ago in the language …

: Monday thoughts A beautiful run on a mild late-December morning, with the echoes of this morning’s Office of the …

: Quite a temperature drop over 24 hours…

: Currently reading: Learning the Virtues: That Lead You to God by Romano Guardini 📚

: Merton twitter.com Commonweal Magazine (@commonwealmag) Tweeted: On this day, in 1968, Thomas Merton died …

: Calculating Christmas Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church …

: A politics of conversion Like alcoholism and drug addiction, nihilism is a disease of the soul. It can never be completely …

: Currently reading: Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI 📚. So short I’ll have to pace it at …

: Books and thoughts on Lectio Incoming books: Race Matters by Cornel West Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Pope …

: Race day!

: This is powerful, powerful stuff. The Last Children of Down Syndrome by Sarah Zhang. I'm a subscriber and try to hold off on reading …

: Building Bridges, Made for Love Just finished (in near-record time) both Building A Bridge by Father James Martin, SJ and Made for …

: The mint has grown back so I guess it’s mojitos in November. The cold will be here for good at some …

: RIP Rabbi Sacks Very sad to read that Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks passed away over the weekend. His Erasmus speech …

: It’s 75 here today so we’re barbecuing and hanging around outside. Winter will get here when it gets …

: Sunny window nap

: Merton prays From The Sign of Jonas, a diary Thomas Merton kept during the first few years after making his …

: Currently reading: Compensating the Sales Force, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Designing …

: Ongoing gratitude Still working through David Steindl-Rast's book on gratitude and prayer. I'll have more to write …

: Books... Currently reading: Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness by …

: Political homelessness Timothy Keller, writing in the NYT a few weeks ago: So Christians are pushed toward two main …

: Low blow, Amazon. Low blow. Holiday wishbook? Chock full of toys?

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: Pickling and fermenting

: Working my way through Fratelli Tutti No. 70, from an extended meditation on the parable of The Good Samaritan, the Holy Father writes: …

: Running haunt

: What sort of thing? Abba Joseph on friendship, and in particular, the “silent treatment” in the Sixteenth Conference: …

: TU 599 TN 04 N.B.: this post contains nothing but amateur radio nerding, so consider yourself forewarned. This …

: Deus in adiutorium meum intende O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Every hour of the Divine Office begins …

: Oh happy day! The full trailer for Dune has finally dropped.

: Waxing gibbous cat

: Two briskets rubbed down and ready for the smoker tomorrow. Mesquite at the ready. Weather looking …

: We just found a baby snapping turtle on our back patio. This was a surprise, since there aren’t any …

: More on discernment Still chewing on discernment, and found this great essay by Sister Benedicta Ward which was very, …

: Maxfield Parrish evening

: Early into Cassian's Conferences Have you ever read something so carefully that it comes back to you while you're sleeping? This is …

: St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

: Approaching wall cloud, NW Arkansas

: What is gained by fasting is less than what is spent on anger From the first Conference of John Cassian, In a meeting with Abba Moses, the Abba says …If …

: Have you ever seen a pawpaw tree? Now you have. Pawpaws are a fruit tree native to North America and …

: An amateur naturalist's favorite mobile apps Seek: for identifying (via live camera or still photos) of insects, birds, spiders, reptiles, …

: Walker Percy I have since finished Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome. They were great. Love in the …

: Migrating from jekyll So I migrated over from github’s pages, which meant I had all of my old markdown posts stored …

: Cicada

: June Update I just finished Paul Elie’s The Life You Save May Be Your Own, which traces the respective …

: The Life You Save I recently ‘attended’ an online symposium marking the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis' …

: Sarah, Conrad, and St. Catherine of Siena It’s been awhile since I posted any sort of update, so here we are. After finishing Cardinal …

: Good Friday Picked up Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, her narrative history of 14th century France …

: St. Benedict in quarantine I want to use this post to develop some thoughts I’ve had recently on what the monastic …

: More on silence The silence of God is elusive and inaccessible. But the person who prays knows that God hears him in …

: Cardinal Sarah on Silence Am about halfway through Robert Cardinal Sarah’s The Power of Silence: Against the …

: After acedia I finished Nault’s The Noonday Devil last night. Really good stuff, and I’ll almost …

: Rediscovering acedia The retreat was good. As usual, I went expecting one thing and left with something different. The …

: New year, new books Christmas is done, Epiphany is finished and here I am with a stack of new books: Doors in the Walls …

: Tanquerey on Love Is it, indeed, so difficult to love Him Who is infinitely lovable and infinitely loving? The love …

: Thomistic Christology Because God is not wholly alien to human thought and freedom, therefore the freedom of Christ can …

: Books For many years, I have been contending with a call to the vocation of deacon, and stepped into a …

: Maturity Maturity comes only when confronting what has to be confronted within ourselves. This is where the …

: Thoughts Our technologies have specific ends to which they are ordered. What are they? Are there multiple …

: September When the thistle blooms and the chirping cicada sits on trees and pours down shrill song from …

: Maus We recently moved our oldest son into his university dorm, our first child to go out of state and …

: Scripture with the Fathers In the home-stretch of Daniélou’s From Shadows to Reality, a series of studies in the main …

: RCIA, Yeats WINE comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That’s all we shall know for truth …

: Be Local I’ve kicked Twitter to the curb for the most part. I deactivated my main presence there and …

: Nothing where there was something I regret not keeping a pencil alongside while reading Black Lamb and Grey Falcon; it’s chock …

: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon I’m not quite a quarter of the way through Rebecca West’s monumental travelogue of …

: A Rabbi Talks With Jesus From a place of profound respect, Rabbi Jacob Neusner tells the story of an encounter with Jesus, of …

: The Wisdom of the Desert A certain philosopher asked St. Anthony: Father, how can you be so happy when you are deprived of …

: Going to the Dead Having pruned my Twitter list back to what I consider the bare essentials (namely: friends, other …

: chmod 0444 twitter Twitter has pretty much been my only social media presence for some time now, though I consume way …

: Origen The Office of Readings today included a portion of a homily by Origen on Leviticus. At Mass …

: The Beatitudes Jesus of Nazareth, a personal meditation by Pope Benedict XVI on the person of Christ, focuses on …

: Symbol or Substance? A friend of mine loaned me a copy of Peter Kreeft’s Symbol or Sustance: A Dialogue on the …

: Switching Books I’m laying the Nouwen collection aside for awhile. He’s a good writer, but I’m …

: A bit on prayer Today’s Office of Readings included a homily from St. John Chrystostom, bishop: Our spirit …

: The Lonely Man of Faith I started and finished Joseph Soloveitchik’s The Lonely Man of Faith over the weekend. I was …

: Stability What is it then to be stable? It seems to me that it may be described in the following terms: You …

: Meeting People Stability, as the Rule describes it, is fundamental. It is something much more profound than not …

: Seeking counsel Do to no one what you yourself dislike. Give to the hungry some of your bread, and to the naked some …

: 1 Samuel 15:3 Go, now, attack Amalek, and put under the ban everything he has. Do not spare him; kill men and …

: The Leftovers We recently finished The Leftovers, and I’ve been deep in thought about it. A few thoughts …

: New Year's Eve For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy …

: Update Nearly done with the Hannah Arendt anthology and I’ve liked it enough to maybe go back and …

: Choosing Books The stuff I read falls into the following categories: Theology, Philosophy, Religion, and History By …

: A Grammar of Assent I’m about halfway through Newman’s An Essay in Aid of a Grammer of Assent, and I am …

: The Liturgical Year I joined our parish’s RCIA team this year and will be delivering my first topic - The Church - …

: ...amid the twilight of the present More Newman: …yet a Faith, which generously apprehends Eternal Truth, though at times it …

: Newman on Faith and Reason I’m working my way through Fifteen Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford by John …

: von Balthasar Finished Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Mysterium Paschale. Much of it was beyond me; I can’t …

: June Update Lots going on around here. I’ve whittled away my social media activities to nearly nothing. …

: Lent When I was a boy, there were only a few ways to learn something. You had to ask someone else - a …

: Learning When I was a boy, there were only a few ways to learn something. You had to ask someone else - a …

: Arduino stuff Radio stuff went on hold for a bit while I rebuilt the workstation I use to drive all of my apps. A …

: Happy January Then came old Ianuary, wrapped well In many weeds to keep the cold away; — Spenser We are settling …

: Hiatus due to bugs So we had a lovely still stomach bug sweep through the household in 3 waves. First it came for the …

: /AE, MacIntyre on Aristotle on friendship This past weekend I passed the Amateur Extra license exam, the final level of the three licenses for …

: Antenna update We live on a great piece of property with an unfortunate shape: wedge-shaped, with the fat end on …

: Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem I must have read the following quote — or something very much like it — before, because I have been …

: CQ CONTEST, Man as gift The 2017 CQ WW DX SSB contest was a few weeks ago. On the last afternoon of the contest period, I …

: Back on the air and ready to run The Signalink arrived and is performing great. Good signal reports, zero ALC, very precise control …

: Music For Sweating For the last couple of months, I’ve been training for a half-marathon which takes place in …

: Digital Woes, Weapons of Math Destruction, JP2 I was running a WSPR beacon the other day and another ham hit me up on email with a screenshot that …

: Smol Update Radio’s back and good as new. Having quite a bit of fun with the new FT8 digital mode. Also seemed …

: Pieper and Sheed I finished Josef Pieper’s The Four Cardinal Virtues and liked it very much. I foresee going …

: On Justice All just order in the world is based on this: that man give man what is his due. On the other hand, …

: Honey Time Went ahead and robbed the hive. The top brood box was 60-70% full of honey, no brood at all, and …

: And Then There Was One Colony, that is. The questionable one petered out and that was that. Pulled the comb and put it in …

: Bees The questionable colony seems to have laying workers, which means there’s no queen. Not much …

: Weekend Recap Checked on the hives this weekend and went ahead and supered the big one. At the rate they’re …

: Radio and Bees I gave up on getting the EARCHI to tune up on 20m for now. As it is, I was able to make enough …

: Further EARCHI work... I added back an RF choke (“big ugly balun” style) on the EARCHI antenna and seem to be …

: Earache My Eye I recently bought an “EARCHI end-fed antenna”:www.earchi.org/proj_home… put it …

: Something completely different Two nice things. First, a blessing from the 1946 Roman Ritual that was originally for a telegraph, …

: Digital modes, continued So the DIY digital modes cable seems to be a success. I’ve been working JT65 on 20m and 40m, …

: Digital Modes Just cobbled together a BOM for a homemade USB/sound interface for the FT450D. I was all set to buy …

: Ham and Bees I think I finally have my head around most of CQRLOG, and especially its integration with LoTW. …

: More victory I significantly adjusted the 20m legs and re-tied them so that they’re not quite on the same …

: Victory …at least according to the meters. After some sanity checking from a couple of youtube videos …

: Bleargh The ham tickets are frequently described as a license to learn. The impatient guy in me just wants …

: Antennas and whatnot Reviewing the FT450 docs and scrounging around online, I think the SWR readings for the 40/15 and 20 …

: Putting the Amateur... …in “Amateur Radio.” After a couple decades of putting it off, I got my Tech and …

: Reclaiming Advent In reality, Advent is a preparation for the threefold coming of Christ; that is, it is commemorative …

: Eberstadt I finished Mary Eberstadt’s It’s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies …

: Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society I have just finished reading R.R. Reno’s Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society, and …

: Early stage status report? I started my reading project with the intent of re-sharpening some mental tools and perhaps …

: My Sheep Hear My Voice I traveled for business today and landed early enough in the day to find a church where I could hear …

: Lazarus One may look upon death, as did antiquity, as a shadowy, inexplicable fate hovering over existence …

: Into the desert Filled with the power of the Spirit, he hastens to be alone. There in the deep silence of the …

: ...and unto dust thou shalt return The ascent of the Easter mount is the by far the most serious and difficult climb the Christian will …

: Restoration The Gospel reading for today (Mark 5:1-20) is the story of the Gadarene swine. A man is tormented by …

: Reactions Jesus came with his disciples into the house.\ Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for …

: Take, eat …human action is a part of time, and when its hour has passed, the act is also a thing of the …

: But they remained silent The Gospel reading (Mark 3:1-6) tells the last of a series of encounters between the Lord and the …

: Silence It is better to remain silent and to be than to talk and not be. Teaching is good if the speaker …

: Humility and Charity Woe to me if I say “I am a Christian” – possibly with a side-glance at others who …

: The healing of the leper The Gospel for today, Thursday of the first week of Ordinary Time, is Mark 1:40-45, the healing of …

: Finding a way to the mother Perseverance in faith even on Calvary – this was Mary’s inimitable greatness. And …

: Into the waters Perhaps he comes to sanctify his baptiser; certainly he comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. …

: The genealogies of Christ St. Paul says of the Lord: “For we have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our …