Quotations
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Critical Mass
A natural part of aging together as a married couple is the increase in conversations about how things will be when one of us dies. We’ve explored what Mrs. Orr might likely do if I go first, and what I might do. It’s obvious and natural that my beloved wife would want to be near the boys and the grandchildren, and this would be a good thing — good for her to have loved ones near her, and good for the young ones to enjoy the benign influence of so saintly a grandmother. I am a horse of a different color. I love my family very much, but the older…
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Let’s Go, Jinxie!
All of my coworkers are women, and without exception, they are observably addicted to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. They post and like and Tweet and share and upvote and forward until they lose track of who they are, where they are, and of what they’re taking notice. Just watching them makes my arthritic thumbs ache. And yet. Out of the entire gossipy solipsistic backstabbing shallow juvenile selfie-taking gaggle of them, not one — not ONE, mind you — knew what “Let’s Go, Brandon!” means, nor anything about the phrase’s origin, nor why it’s considered funny. Not one. I have a firm grasp of the concept of duty, and…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Dreams, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections
Despair, Sleep, and Heavenly Mother
Bruce Charlton has posted a really good essay over at his blog, one of those posts that stopped me in my tracks. I commend it to you. I’ll include here the checklist Bruce wrote to assist in spiritual re-encouragement, and then a couple of thoughts. 1. Reality is ultimately created by God – and continually being-created by God; and I participate in this creation (as a sub-creator) insofar as the world is understandable to me. I look around and remind myself of this. 2. The world is Not dead, mechanical or random; the world is alive and conscious: this is a world of beings. Every ‘thing’ is actually a being, or part…
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Intact Routine
Yesterday was one of the most perfect days I can remember. When we awoke, a cool front had blown in and it was raining steadily. After feeding the dogs, my wife started breakfast (breakfast burritos from scratch…just one more element in a perfect day) and I took the spotted menace out for a soaking ramble through the hills. The mist was curling like Fafnir’s breath, silver and sinister, reaching into hidden places erupting from black chasms in the slick rock. We padded along, Jinx’s paws making a curious leatherlike sound on the wet leaves. We walked and looked and stopped and gazed and strolled and smiled — yes, Jinx smiles…
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All The Wistful Creatures
Today is the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Catholic monk best known for his intentional poverty and his association with animals. One of his most famous prayers, offered on behalf of animals, is this: Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends, the animals, especially for those who are suffering; for animals that are overworked, underfed and cruelly treated; for all the wistful creatures in captivity, that beat their wings against bars; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted, or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death. We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity, and for those who…
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Leaves Change, Dogs Lie
As I write these words, Jinx is sleeping in the recliner on the back porch. I came out here to do a bit of writing and he came out with me. As is his custom, the spotted menace hopped up in my lap to snuggle, and so scribbling with my pencil in my notebook became nigh impossible. We rocked and watched the rain and the birds and the chipmunks, and we rested. I needed to go inside at one point so I could put clothes into the dryer, and when I stood up, Jinx got back into the chair and made himself comfortable. When I returned, he was asleep, but…
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First Day of Fall
The summer is gone, and it will never return. Until next year. But that summer will not be the same as this one was, and nothing is ever the same, but there is nothing new under the sun, whether a summer sun or a winter one, and the full moon waters the earth with its silver light tonight. Silver light tonight. Mrs. Orr and I sat and talked for a long time about the forces that are prodding this country and this world down certain paths. It’s difficult to talk about these things, but it has ever been difficult to deliberately choose to defy evil. Hamlet defied augury; Mrs. Orr…
- Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Music, Photographs, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections, Saints
Squinting Towards Armageddon
“I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” ~ Flannery O’Connor Before I set down the day’s thoughts, I want to express my humble gratitude for the many warm and supportive comments I received on my most recent post (the most comments I’ve ever received, in fact!). When I say “humble gratitude,” I mean exactly that. I am grateful for the kindness, but I am also humbled by the display from you, my readers who mean more to me than you can know. I also wanted to say that I’m somewhat chagrined after re-reading the post, which I had composed at the end of a weary…
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A Catholic Christian
Jinx and I walked this morning under the coverlet of humidity that has parked itself over these mountains and announced that it will not be leaving anytime soon. The crickets and locusts rasped on in a steady note from the damp fronds of green in all directions, and we both walked more slowly than usual. I saw in my missal that today is the feast day of Saint Augustine, the revered Doctor of the Church. I prayed for family members as I walked, and I thought on the sorry things that mar the days in this age. While evil overtakes the Western world, the Roman Catholic Church has paralleled the…
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No Warmth, No Comfort
Dorothy Day reveals in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, that she craved the deep faith and the spiritual discipline she observed among the poor and the immigrants with whom she lived in New York City during her young years as a radical socialist. Many a morning after sitting all night in taverns or coming from balls at Webster Hall, I went to an early morning Mass at St. Joseph’s Church on Sixth Avenue and knelt in the back of the church, not knowing what was going on at the altar, but warmed and comforted by the lights and silence, the kneeling people and the atmosphere of worship. People have so…