Well, I’m back from a delightful jaunt to catch up with Dorian Speed and Rachel Balducci. Wonderful, nourishing and hilarious conversation!
Made a stop to visit another friend:
Some links which are going to be all over the place, promise:
It’s the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. More here.
Check out my son’s latest novel!
Speaking of novels, Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) has withdrawn publication of her new novel, set in Siberia during the mid-20th century, because it would be insensitive to Ukrainians today.
Pretty crazy. PEN expresses disagreement with the decision, which is good, but we’ll wait for PEN to step up the next time the social media mobs attempt to shout down a book critical of gender ideology and include books like “The Bible” when it declares The Sadz about BANNED BOOKS.
HBO (or MAX or whatever) aired a documentary on the University of Alabama’s sorority system. I didn’t watch it, but I’m telling you that on of the strangest things about living here is the fact that Greek – especially – sorority rush at both Alabama and Auburn gets front page (digitally speaking) newspaper treatment every fall. So weird.
Also, a friend who did watch it and is very well informed about the machinations of “The Machine” said it ended up being more about the documentarian’s medical issues than about the purported subject itself. Which, she said, could have been a decent metaphor, but wasn’t used effectively.
Right then, the alarming voice I had put to rest came back with a roaring fever pitch, and I could see the situation for what it was: college kids playing God, if God were a little bitch.
Speaking of the Bible – well, we were before that last item – from the Paris Review – an excerpt from a forthcoming book on the Bible and poetry.
From the Cultural Tutor, a fascinating thread on La Sacra di San Michele.
Finally – and this probably deserves its own post – a marvelous piece from Pillar about the “test pilgrimage” for next year’s massive Eucharistic Pilgrimage undertaking.
How, after reading this, could anyone say this kind of activity and devotion is passive? I have no idea.
The organizer said that his job is to ensure a set of walking pilgrimages accessible to all U.S. Catholics — and to which all U.S. Catholics feel invited.
But the Church has made much of “walking together” in recent years — with a focus from Pope Francis on the notion of synodality, the Church has encouraged Catholics to draw together in communion with one another, especially centered around the Eucharist, for prayer, and common discernment, and for a common sense of apostolic mission and identity.
John Donahue, 23, one of the event’s perpetual pilgrims, told The Pillar he’d experienced a prayerful sense of common cause as he traveled with his fellow pilgrims.
He’d experienced that as the group visited parishes as well, Donahue said.
“One of the very surprising things for me is that we really dive in to meet these communities — to know them. And it’s been such a blessing for me to get to know these families and communities, especially at the host houses, and to get to pray with them.”
“It’s been really cool to see how each parish has some kind of connection to the next one, through individuals, through people’s friends and families —- there’s a chain in between all of these parishes, always, within two degrees, it’s like people have these amazing connections,” Donahue said.
This is so on target and observant:
Rather than really on institutional structures, “I think people are much more trusting of their own grassroots organizations and groups right now,” Donahue told The Pillar. “And on the pilgrimage, we’re seeing how these communities are really linked in the Church.”