Ready to Light the First Candle

Back from Italy

Ready for the SEC Championship

Christmas Gifts

The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You

St. Paul and I Agree

Thanksgiving

My son Joseph, now seven, started praying the Blessing Before Meals at dinner in our home about four years ago, right after he learned the prayer at his Catholic preschool. Back then, when he first prayed it, he would say:
 ”Blessed O Lord and these my gifts which we are about to receive from my [...]

The Pope and I Agree

I was pleased to read the Pope’s exegesis of the Parable of the Talents and to see that my “Some Seeds Fell…” column on the same topic reach the same conclusion. Probably a sign that my endless reading of his writings is starting to take effect in the way I think. From Asia News Italy:
 
An [...]

Obama and I Agree

There should be a college football playoff, involving the top 8 teams.  From USA Today:

With President-elect Barack Obama supporting a playoff system to decide college football’s national champion, the future TV home of the Bowl Championship Series could become a political football.
BCS commissioners could make the call Monday on whether to move TV rights for [...]

“Stay Sober and Alert”

To all those Italian drivers, the Pope says “drive safe”, from the Vatican:
I extend warm greetings to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Angelus. May your time in Rome be filled with divine blessings of joy and peace. On this third Sunday of November, we remember in a special way all those [...]

Is the End Near?

I turn 50 today, so this is the kind of stuff that I relate to now.
Is it a hoax or real? Muslim prophecy of the end of the world seems to elude to recent presidential election, from Daniel Pipes:
Ali ibn Abi-Talib, the seventh-century figure central to Shiite Islam, is said to have predicted when the [...]

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Gators live up to hype, beat South Carolina senseless! Meyer’s expresses excitement that Jimmy Buffet is in the  locker room…Mike Bianchi reflects on the end of the Spurrier era in the Orlando Sentinel:
From now on, we must all cease and desist making a big deal about Spurrier coaching against his former team. These days, it’s [...]

Bishop’s Statement for President-Elect

STATEMENT of the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” (Psalm 127, vs. 1)
The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome [...]

Even So, Lord Jesus, Come!

Pope Benedict’s Catechesis on Saint Paul continues:

In his First Letter to the Thessalonians, said the Holy Father, “St. Paul speaks of the return of Jesus, an event known as the ‘parusia’ or advent”. The saint describes this vividly “using symbolic images that nonetheless transmit a simple and profound message: ‘In the end we will [...]

“Catholic Teaching in Political Life”

Rocco reports a new document is in the works, from Whispers:
As of the evening rounds, the house buzz spread that the relevant committees were hashing out a proposed statement for the body of bishops on “Catholic Teaching in Political Life.” If that proves to the case, its “hard-edit” would presumably come in the morning’s executive [...]

Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop

From the Office of Readings:
Martin knew long in advance the time of his death and he told his brethren that it was near. Meanwhile, he found himself obliged to make a visitation of the parish of Candes. The clergy of that church were quarrelling, and he wished to reconcile them. Although he knew that his [...]

What Gator Fans Fear

Not to mention the looming Florida State game as well.
The normally right on Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel and native rural Floridian totally misses the point of this week’s game involving former head coach Steve Spurrier. No Gator fan wants the ole ball coach to win this game, but all secretly fear that he [...]