Grandma changes her religion … again!

Yesterday, to absolutely no one's surprise, Turkey's High Court confirmed the desire of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to revert Hagia Sophia from its current official status as a museum back to its previous function as a mosque. It would appear that Erdoğan is losing no time, and plans to open it for public prayer by...

My morning nourishment before breakfast

I start the day with several email Newsletters. I recommend any (or all) to you. There are many more that I don't subscribe to - one can't have it all! Today, all of them seem to dancing around a common theme, which I would articulate as: Unwelcome Change and/or Necessary Transformation As my first course...

Independence Day Talks: 1997-2006 (2020 Edition)

To celebrate today, July 4, 2020, the 244th birthday of the USA, I’m republishing the Independence Day speeches I gave at Claremont’s wonderful annual celebration at Memorial Park. I pondered on faith and patriotism pretty deeply in preparing them each year, and, though dated, they may still have something to say today. While the speeches...

Holy Saturday: Waiting

Holy Saturday has always fascinated me. It is the one day that has no liturgy. (Easter Vigil is not on Holy Saturday. The Vigil should be celebrated after dark, which is already Sunday.) For Christians, used to the rhythm of celebrations, the Triduum disrupts that rhythm. And on this one day, from the rising to the...

Virtual Liturgies of Holy Week and Triduum

EWTN, Channel 460 Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020 1:00-3:30 am - Mass from St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, with Pope Francis Pope Francis celebrates the Solemn Mass of Palm Sunday, followed by the Angelus live from Vatican City. LIVE at 9 am, Rome time. (150 minutes) 5:00-6:20 am - Mass from EWTN Chapel The Franciscan...

Saint “Thank-God”

How can an almost unknown ancient saint with the odd name Deogratias ("Thanks be to God"), who died in North Africa in 457 AD, be a model for us in our world today? In reading a brief account of his life in Butler's Lives of the Saints: New Full Edition (1995) for January, I was...

The Holy Family, just a threesome? NOT!

We are all familiar with pictures of the Holy Family. Some are great works of art, some are pious holy cards, some are sweetly sentimental, and some are just cute or even silly. And they are all wrong! When we think of the Holy Family, we think of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – in a...

Retirement

This story on page 3 of today's LA Times caught my eye: Americans are retiring to Vietnam, for cheap healthcare and a decent standard of living More than 58,000 U.S. service members died in the [Vietnam] war, and since it ended in 1975, innumerable American veterans have returned to Vietnam, seeking understanding, forgiveness or reconciliation. Now some are coming...

“…every nation under heaven..”

Who are all these people, anyway? And where are all these places they came from? And why were they there when the Apostles, "filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in different tongues"? "We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the...