Category: fb

  • Take Up and Deny

    A Patristic Homily for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday.From the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas, and the words of Sts John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Bede the Venerable, Gregory the Great, and Theophylact, and also of Origen, the Teacher of the Fathers.If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up…

  • Do not Display Yourself

    For the Gospel for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18): A homily from the works of St John Chrysostom, Bishop. And when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Here we do well to sigh aloud, and to wail bitterly: for…

  • The Dream

    I was sitting in the second seat on a bus taking notes. Someone was in the first seat. The bus was stopped in a parking lot. The driver got off the bus and the buss started to roll forward. I was not scared: the bus would stop from the little rise in front of us.…

  • Blogistratory Administrivia

    Dear Readers –  Three important things!  First: the name has changed.  I’ve been Doxos since 1998. I’m done now. In fact, the domain is up for sale (not the server space, just the name).  It’s going to be up for auction. I’ll keep you posted. In the mean while if you want a five letter…

  • The Ark Option?

    Today’s readings: Hebrews 11:1-7 Mark 9:2-13 By faith Noah… with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Hebrews 11:7 We had a baptism at Mass last Sunday, a rejoicing with the family and a chance to renew our vows as adult Christians making our covenant with the the new Child of God, to…

  • Tower Crossing.

    Today’s Readings: Genesis 11:1-9 Mark 8:34—9:1 Take up your cross. This phrase comes up whenever I meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. As I contemplate the Mystery of Our Lord carrying his Cross for us I hear this reminder that I must carry my cross as well. We don’t do this “for Jesus”…

  • On the Road to Babel

    Today’s readings: Genesis 9:1-13 Mark 8:27-33 Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. Genesis 9:2-3 One way to view Genesis…

  • A Massage, Please Lord.

    Today’s Readings: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22 Mark 8:22-26 Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.Mark 8:24-25 Once a preacher described this as Jesus committing malpractice. Of…

  • Forty Days and Forty Nights

    Today’s Readings: Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10 Mark 8:14-21 …Great was man’s wickedness on earth, and… no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil… We will be reading about Noah (or Noe, as the Latin text calls him – which I like because of Noe Street, here in SF) over the next few…

  • Mark of Cain

    Today’s Readings: Gen 4:1-15, 25 Mark 8:11-13 Why are you so resentful and crestfallen. If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.Genesis 4:6-7 This story of Cain and Abel is so…

  • Twerk It!

    Today’s readings: Sirach 15:15-20 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Matthew 5:17-35 If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.Sirach 15:15-16 The traditional understanding of man’s freedom is set…

  • Take yer meds, bro.

    Today’s Readings: Genesis 3:9-24 Mark 8:1-10 Adam, where are you? Genesis 3:9 This is such a scene as no writer could invent. Sure, an all powerful Creator, that’s OK. Paradise is easy to imagine, as is a willful creature who runs away. But what writer (save one who knows this story by intimation or intellect)…

  • Who’s Yer Guy?

    Today’s readings: Genesis 3:1-8 Mark 7:31-37 I’ve been re-experiencing JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit: this time in the glorious audiobook recording by Rob Inglis. He’s long been the “canonical” voice of Middle Earth for me. Back in the Wild West days of the Internet (’97 or ’98) I found a downloadable (illicit) collection of audio files,…

  • Have You a Spare Garret?

    Today’s readings: Genesis 2:18-25 Mark 7:24-30 “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”Genesis 2:23 One of the Greek Myths that so parallels our creation story is, I think, from Plato: the gods…

  • Straight Outta Red Clay

    Today’s readings: The Spirit Over the Waters: 2008 DHRpainter’s tape and ink on cardboard Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17 Mark 7:14-23 The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.Genesis 2:7 There is a whole anthropology in this…