Holy Days
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Easter, A.D. 2020
Easter, A.D. 2020 So this is what legacy looks like The offspring of those who raised hymns while lions Tore their holy flesh now cower within Their antiseptic catacombs, heroes Devouring the crumbs of Nero’s hourly updates. Will they write epistles on toilet paper? Will they anoint themselves with hand sanitizer? They may as well — such empty sacramentals Well depict the razed rubble of faith. ~ S.K. Orr
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Consummatum Est
In the last few years before her death, my mother talked to herself. Or rather, she talked to someone. Throughout my life, during her years on this earth, the kitchen was Mother’s place of abiding. She spent most of her waking hours within its warm, productive walls. In those last years before she passed from this life, whenever I was home with her, if I came into the kitchen quietly, I would often find her talking quietly as she worked. It seemed that she was talking to herself, but perhaps she was having a dialogue with God, or with an angel, or with a long-dead loved one. I do not…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Reflections
Lourdes, Lourdes
I’ve avoided writing about the current health scare for the same reason that I’ve avoided talking about it at length. There are too many sources of disparate, conflicting information, almost none of whom I trust, and I lack both the intellectual rigor and the sort of personality that delights in wading through all this dismal stuff. I suppose my stance on this situation is akin to my grandmother’s. I remember one day in the Seventies when a young plumber tried to engage her in a conversation about diet and heart disease. He presented all sorts of facts and figures in an evangelist’s voice, his eyes shining in his earnest face.…
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The Most Catholic Thing
Tomorrow I will embark on the most Catholic thing I’ve done to date: I will begin the 33-day preparation for a consecration to Mary on the Feast of St. Loius de Montfort. I’m looking forward to the focus and the discipline of this preparation. So many of the events swirling in the air today have reminded me of exactly why I began to be drawn to traditional Roman Catholicism some years ago, setting in motion a series of broken friendships and relationships that still grieve and perplex me to this day. *** I saw my bicyclist friend on the side of the road yesterday morning, in the rainy dark. I…
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A Gift On Saint Patrick’s Day
Daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. But I fear nothing, because of the promises of heaven. — Saint Patrick of Ireland Contemplating this quote, I thought this morning of how real St. Patrick’s expectations were. At any moment, he could have lost his life or his liberty at the hands of those among whom he lived, by those whom he served. I doubt that he would have wasted a second wondering if the village market had sufficient hand sanitizer or toilet paper, even if such things had existed. He saw the opportunity to completely expend his life for Christ as…
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The Beginning Of March
The coffee tasted especially good this morning; my wife found a new variety at a local store and it is now a favorite. I stepped outside to clip my fingernails, careful to keep the sun behind me as it slashed across the needle points and glass shards of frost on the grass. While I was about my business, I listened to the birds calling to each other across the hollers. Are the back-and-forth songs merely a “Hello! How are you this morning?” or are they a communication of important information, the inflection and tone and volume carrying nuances that only an avian heart can catch and decipher? The feeders were…
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Prayer Request — With Update
My dear friend and spiritual adviser Father James Conner, who lives at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, advised me this morning that he has sustained an injury. He apparently blacked out for no discernible reason and struck his head, causing a gash that required 12 stitches to close. He’s now on a heart monitor for a couple of days so that the cardiologist can try to ascertain the cause of the syncope and the best course of treatment. If you pray, please intercede for Father James. He is one of the kindest, deepest men I have ever met. He is very much at peace over these events, but…
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Ash Wednesday
God has given different gifts to different people. There is no basis for feeling inferior to another who has a different gift. Once it is realized that we shall be judged by the gift we have received, rather than the gift we have not, one is completely delivered from a false sense of inferiority. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen And the season of Lent begins. May our loving Father bless all those who sincerely use this season to seek a more intimate knowledge of Him and His ways. ~ S.K. Orr
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Merry Christmas
A very Merry Christmas to all of you who read Steeple Tea. May your homes and hearts be at peace during this beautiful, quiet time of year. ~ S.K. Orr