A journal of byzantine digressionS
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Life Just Keeps Coming
JMJ✙ The Readings for the 19th Sunday, Tempus per Annum Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side. Matthew 14:22 BY WAY OF DISCUSSING THIS GOSPEL, let me link back to the story we heard on Wednesday in the first reading from the Book of Numbers: sending the
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Universal Call
THE FOLLOWING is the “Alternative Second Reading” from the Dominican Propers for the Feast of Bl Jane of Aza, which was celebrated on 2 August. She is the mother of St Dominic which, as Father Michael preached on Wednesday, means she is our grandmother. This reading hasn’t, really, anything to do with Bl Jane. I’m
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Chevre Souffle
YOUR HOST STARTED MAKING souffle during Covid. Jacques Pepin said his Mom used to make it this way. I doubt that – I bet Jacques made this recipe: he always finds ways to cut corners. That’s ok. It’s not the full-on Trad Souffle. Let’s call his the Novus Ordo Souffle. The only difference in my
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I am my Beloved’s
DIGGING IN my journal, I found this poem from mid-2000. It was not what I was looking for. In fact, I was horrified at all the other crap I found. But in the middle was this reminder that, as my Mom said, “The Lord never let go of your hand, did he?” Even deep in
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Final Cause
Readings for Memorial of St Ignatius of Loyola17th Monday After Pentecost A day late, but I keep rewriting… Only the one who has sinned against me will I blot out of my book. Exodus 32:33 WHY DID GOD MAKE ME? It’s the first thing the Baltimore Catechism offers us. God made me to know Him,
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Homily for 8th Pentecost
Readings for 8th Sunday After Pentecost (Julian Calendar) These are notes… Delivery was different. Thank God 🙂 JUST BEFORE THE PRIEST says “Holy things are for the Holy” he says this prayer. I’m not sure if you can hear it outside of the altar. It can be said silently or softly. Hearken, O Lord Jesus
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Swords and Pieces
JMJ✙ The Readings for the 15th Monday, Tempus per Annum “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” Matthew 10:34 THIS GOSPEL CAN BE Unnerving – especially if you’re used to “Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild” or if you want to imagine that. He’s not. He wasn’t. He won’t be. Nevertheless, this Gospel
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Seeds and Earthlings
JMJ✙ The Readings for the 15th Sunday, Tempus per Annum “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 HOW OFTEN ARE WE ASKED in homilies “what kind of dirt are you”? The seed is the word of God and it
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Peniel
JMJ✙ The Readings for the Memorial of St Benedict, Abbot14th Tuesday, Tempus per Annum “Because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.” Genesis 32:30 THE AUTHOR is continually surprised at the different ways ancient stories are read by Christians as compared to Jews. The rabbinic tradition is
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Four Types of Men
THE SUMMER FEAST OF St Benedict is approaching (11 July) and, listening to the most recent Episode of Catholic Stuff You Should Know, I was reminded of how the Father of Western Monasticism begins his Rule. After the opening prologue, urging his spiritual sons to listen to his teaching, he lists, in Chapter 1, the
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Localist Milkshake
OK. OK. OK. I know – what we think of as hot here in SF is not hot anywhere else. But it was 22C today. The fact that it’s 20 (that’s 68F…) at 7PM is just hot for July. We can sometimes expect mid 60s here, but only in the midday. I’ve seen it hit
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Patristic Prooftexts
THE COVER IMAGE is one of my favourite books of all times, The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Fr Olivier Clement. I have owned three copies of it, I think. Maybe four. Until recently, I also had my original one: the cover was broken and almost every page was marked up. The writer, an Orthodox
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Magnitudes of Infinity
STRUGGLING WITH QUESTIONS OF Ecclesiology as I write my final paper, it seems that all things within the Theological Science are interwoven: can you discuss the Church without discussing the Holy Mysteries or the Mysteries without the Trinity, or the Trinity without the Saints, or the Saints without the Church or the Church without Prayer
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Tolkien’s Unintentional Allegory
JR.R. TOLKIEN REALLY DISLIKED allegory (really disliked may be too weak), “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.” It is possible he would totally reject this essay. I want to own that. But I think we can read
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Sunday #mood
Orthoparadoxy 