We attend Mass there – not as often as I would like, but every six weeks or so. More often in the near future, as the boys are going to be trained to serve there. The apostolate is retreats, which means that your odds of hearing a substantive homily at Sunday Mass are pretty high. Plus, there is the music, which is mostly chant and polyphany, with some hymns thrown in, and it’s simple, not overbearing or self-aggrandizing.
Engineering Day at McWane was chaotic (many schools in attendance – which is the point!) but illuminating. Various engineering disciplines had table and demonstrations scattered throughout the museum, so the boys got a good taste of the variety, from materials engineering to nuclear to electrical and more.
House of Cards is really ridiculously awful. I’ve watched through episode five of this season, I think, and I’m done. It’s not just the pro-life terrorist angle, which is stupid but expected, and not just the amorality of the characters, but it’s the amorality of the characters in an amoral framework. Do you know what happens when you watch amoral sociopaths operate in a narrative framework with no moral tension?
My turn to be boring. Reminding you that Lent is coming, and here’s some pertinent stuff:
- Reconciled to God, a daily devotional from Creative Communications for the parish. You can buy it individually, in bulk for the parish our your group, or get a digital version.
- John Paul II’s Biblical Way of the Cross, published by Ave Maria Press. This, again, is available as an actual book and in a digital version, in this case as an app. Go here for more information. (The illustrations are by Michael O’Brien)
- This 6-week study of the Passion Narratives in Matthew. For some reason, the Loyola listing doesn’t list me as author, but believe me, I wrote it!
- The Word on Fire ministry is more than the Catholicism series – as great as that is! There are also some really great lecture series/group discussion offerings. I wrote the study guide for the series on Conversion – a good Lenten topic.
- Michael Dubruiel’s The Power of the Cross is out of print, but feel free to download it here.
- I have some contributions in this year’s Living Faith Lenten devotional.
- Free download of a teen-oriented Stations of the Cross. Explained here.
Also, if you missed my post on the fantastic app, The Mass Explained, go here.
We’re presently on a road trip and listened to this part of the way down. It’s “silly,” as the 9-year old says, but entertaining enough.
Speaking of reading, we finished Call of the Wild, which I really enjoyed (had never read it before), and have moved to this.
The “David” in the inscription is my late father. I had never read this before – or if I had, I’ve forgotten it. I have to say that for a book written in the bad old days of purported cultural insensitivity and paternalism…it’s very culturally sensitive and non-paternalistic.
The first day, we only got a few pages in since rabbit holes were immediately encountered: Chinese geography and foot-binding.
Speaking of China, you do read Jen Ambrose, don’t you?
Yes, a little-bitty road trip, squeezed in between basketball games and other obligations. Perhaps you’ll see a bit of it on Instagram on Friday….
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Charlotte was Both 