: 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 …
: 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
: 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.
: 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? …
: 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 …
: 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…
: 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 📚
: Roadside lunch from Harry’s Po-boys, Larose, LA
: 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 …
: 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 📚
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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 …
: Just got the email that Emergence Vol. 3 is available for pre-order! Pre-ordered! Such great work …
: 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 …
: 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
: 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!
: 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 …
: 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 📷
: 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 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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 📚
: 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.
: 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 📚
: 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 📚
: 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.
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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?
: Working my way through Fratelli Tutti No. 70, from an extended meditation on the parable of The Good Samaritan, the Holy Father writes: …
: 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.
: 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, …
: 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 …
: 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 …