Later today I'm flying across the country to attend my friends' wedding. Beyond being the first of my friends to get married, this is also the first wedding where I'll actually know the bride and groom. Every other wedding I've been to has been for relatives that I've either never met or have only met a few times. They asked me to be a reader, and ( Read more... )

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10697Read more... )

Today I received a postcard from my old roommate in Chicago. The front has a picture of a cardinal. It says "Illinois State Bird" at the top and "Cardinal" at the bottom. The following poem is written on the back ( Read more... )

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare ( Read more... )

( SINCE I MOVED TO OREGON )

For the most part this article is a pretty run of the mill criticism of the culture of instant gratification, but I thought it was interesting that it drew a comparison between the values of consumerism and the values of counter culture, even in cases like the Beat movement where the rebellion was undoubtedly sincere ( Read more... )

"Few saints have reached the same heights of prayer as Saint Mary Magdalene who was lifted up to heaven each day by angels, and who had had the privilege of learning at the feet of our Lord Himself and His Blessed Mother. Yet one day when she asked God to show her a sure way of advancing in His love and of arriving at the height of perfection, He ( Read more... )

Which is the greater oppression -- sexual virtue imposed by the patriarchy, or sexual libertinism imposed by the matriarchy?"Today, the sexualization of girls begins in infancy with 12-month sized rompers announcing, "I'm too sexy for my diaper." At age four, it's The Bratz Babyz, singing 'You've gotta look hotter than hot! Show what you've got ( Read more... )

It is too bad that Eliot isn't read very often as a devotional poet. He is read by folks like Northrop Fry who have an interest in the religious dimension of poetry, but it is all very academic, meaning that it is not part of a devotional life. When people want devotional poetry they turn to Rilke, perhaps to the romantics or the transcendentalists ( Read more... )

Someone posted this link in sanatana_dharma today, and I thought I would share it. It's about prince Dara's Qur'an inspired quest to find traces of true monotheism in the writings of Hindu mystics. Very informative. There were many figures doing much the same thing at the time and throughout the rule of the Mughal. Some, most famously Kabir, even stepping outside ( Read more... )