Holy Days
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In the Lenten Season
Yesterday on Ash Wednesday, while Catholics were filing into churches (the few that are open, that is) to assist at Mass and to receive the ashes upon their foreheads. While this ancient ritual was going on, I was sitting in a podiatrist’s office, describing my symptoms and listening to the proposed treatment. The joint of my great right toe has been very stiff and painful for some time, and has been increasingly difficult to flex. It has begun to affect my gait, and I figured I’d better have it looked at before the warm weather arrives and my activity level increases with the arrival of grass and weeds and so…
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Shrove Tuesday
Jinx’s eyes reflect the light back with a blue tone. The warmth of the color is in keeping with his heart, reflected by his personality. Tomorrow begins the Lenten season, and I intend, as best I am able, to make a good Lent. I have not gorged today as some do, but have enjoyed a few small things and am actually looking forward to making a clean break tomorrow, with forty days of testing and self-denial before me. I plan to be much in prayer during this season, and I hope to benefit from a time of self-examination and reflection. Snow sits on the ground tonight, and the barest hint…
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CLXIII
Today marks 163 years since a young peasant girl, removing her stockings while preparing to wade into a stream in Lourdes, France, was visited for the first of several times by the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have long been fascinated by the story of St. Bernadette, one of the two young French maidens who have figured so large in my spiritual life, the other being Saint Joan of Arc, for whom I have a special and intense devotion. When I was a little boy, I watched the old black & white movie, The Song of Bernadette, on television with my mother. I was quite bored with the movie, except for…
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From Archbishop Vigano’s Pastoral Intervention
In this recently released pastoral text, Archbishop Vigano directly and forcefully addresses the manner in which the Church (and all the churches) has become indistinguishable from the corporate structures now clamoring to blend into the Great Reset. We have understood, in these times of crisis, that whoever is constituted in authority is now disconnected from those over whom he holds command. The so-called pandemic has shown that those who govern are obedient to the orders of supranational powers, while citizens are deprived of their rights, and any form of dissent is censored or psychiatrized, according to a recent felicitous expression. The same thing happens in the Church: the highest levels of…
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Sexagesima Snow
If you look closely (or if you can enlarge it) at the photo above, you’ll see a black spot near the bottom, just to the right of the center of the frame. That’s a black bear. I saw him while Jinx and I were out on our walk this morning. The bear was several hundred yards away, loping away from us towards the south, but I knew that if Jinx spotted him, it would be Katy-bar-the-door and every-botty would be kung-fu fighting. I yelled and made silly noises to distract the spotted menace while trying to snap a few pics of the bear. This was the clearest of the ones…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Movies, Quotations, Reflections
Blue Skies, Hidden Lives, Unvisited Tombs
The day dawned under a sheet of gray, with the clouds in the east giving way to the sun, as if a long florescent tube had been flicked on just beyond the mountains. Jinx cavorted in the snow and carried chunks of ice around as if they were prizes beyond compare. The roosters one farm over called to the brightening sky as I crunched my way past, and the breeze was slight enough that my face was not numb when we reached home. While drinking our coffee, Mrs. Orr and I finished watching a movie we’d started last night. The movie was A Hidden Life, directed by Terence Malick, and…
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The Epiphany of the Lord
While on our daybreak walk this morning, Jinx and I watched two men setting up chairs under the tent at the newly-opened grave in the little country graveyard. The spotted menace seems to take a special interest in the craft of the sexton; I was grateful he didn’t leap onto the tarp covering the grave. This time. The wind was chilly and brisk but not unbearable…about 43F. The clouds moved like a flock of sheep across the sky, low and swift and wooly, and the tang of silage came to me when I turned into the wind. As I walked, watching Jinx gallop in one of the pastures, I engaged…
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Auld Lang Syne
“Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away…” Isn’t that how the hymn puts it? Time to put away this exhausted year, my friends. I wish you all a very Happy New Year. May the Lord bless each of you and give you grace as we enter the next phase of our fading days. ~ S.K. Orr
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On The Feast of Stephen
The dogs allowed us to sleep late today –0700 — and after they had eaten and while the good Texas pecan coffee was brewing, I took Jinx for a walk. Not even a hundred yards into the ramble and I was wishing I’d worn sunglasses. The fresh-risen sun was slashing across the diamond-studded smooth white surface laying on the fields, and it hurt my eyes. All about me, though, was beauty of the pure shocking kind that only wintertime can produce. The snow lay all around, deep and crisp and even, and Jinx chased a cow that had somehow escaped her fenced pasture. My heart lifted as the sun lifted,…
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Merry Christmas
Several inches of snow, amongst which the Spotted Menace has streaked and slid all day long….a warm home, a beautiful and loving wife, friend and family who have written, texted, and called to wish us a Merry Christmas…the presence of birds outside at the feeders…the glow of the tree and the lights…the aroma of roasting turkey and pumpkin pie and dressing and green bean casserole and potatoes and all the other side dishes…wine in the glass and cheese on the plate….a beautiful and peaceful and blessed day. I wish the same for all of you, my readers,who mean so much to me. Thank you for visiting here regularly, and for…