When Andy and I identify animals, we usually also imitate the sounds they make ( Read more... )

Eliza, confused and examining my medallion: He doesn't look like Paul.

Perhaps it has been my lack of long, flowing beard and first-century, Mediterranean garb that has been standing between me and canonization all this time.

This morning, I was wearing a T-shirt that features St. Michael. This archangel is depicted in Renaissance style: bright colors, classical armor, big sword, but it was the wings that really interested Andy. "Tweet, tweet!"

Andy's vocabulary is blossoming. Sometimes he likes to exercise it-- just to show that he can. He walks about the house naming things: "A wall." "A car." "Bottles." Today, I wore my St. Paul medal, as usual. I also wore my 2005-2006 honors program t-shirt, which sports the silhouette of a moose on the front. Andy pointed to one, then the other and ( Read more... )

So, liturgically, the Christmas season ends on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which was yesterday. I stopped in at St. Al's late this afternoon. The poinsettias, the creche and whatnot were still there. I'm sure that they would have been taken down more promptly had a significant event been planned for that space for today. Yet, as it turned ( Read more... )

Little disasters breed little acts of charity. Recent snow has brought a lot of great examples. Much good is done in the world on a mundane, regular basis, but there is something very different about immediate need meeting immediate help and meeting face to face. It reminds us of who and what we are before God and eachother. We all need help. We ( Read more... )

When faced with a question, I tend to either offer the best answer I have or simply say "I don't know" rather than waffling through a series of conceivable responses cited by a series of authorities. This evening, faced with an unresolved quandary and less than confident in an answer on my own authority, I found myself resorting to just that ( Read more... )

This morning, after examining, discussing and singing about the wonders of God's creation, the kids had some time to do some creating of their own. Under young, guiding hands, form emerged from clay and created wonders came to populate the land (green paper) and sky (blue paper). It was, indeed, wondrous to behold ( Read more... )

Discernment is not really something that one does once, figures it all out and then is set to go. Discernment has to be an ongoing, ever-unfolding endeavor. That said, it sure seems like there are points in time when discernment is a much more immediately pressing, at-hand sort of task and it seems like there are times when the more immediately ( Read more... )

Eliza and I were playing with glue and construction paper yesterday. There were no kiddie scissors to be found, so I was cutting out a bunch of shapes and Eliza was left to the task of applying the glue, a charge she carried out with a generous spirit. I cut some stars, some hearts and some spirals. I thought that the spirals would be the most fun ( Read more... )