https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fqzWs6KPoE St. Patrick's Breastplate, arr. Ron Lewis, Church of the Apostles, Columbia, SC, 2022 It's not all about St. Paddy's Day parades, no matter how much fun it is to march behind your local candidate for city, county or state office. Nor is it always and only about pub-crawling and dyeing the Chicago River green. … Continue reading It’s not all about green beer: How an Anglican hymn attibuted to St. Patrick got me through a midlife career change and a 12-step recovery program
Remembering an unlikely spiritual mentor (and storyteller) who made Alaska Native, Russian Orthodox and my lukewarm mainline Protestant traditions come alive
Fr. Michael Oleksa (Orthodox Christianity [from YouTube], Nov. 29, 2023). While I was researching another post to Ordinary Time (link HERE), I learned a spiritual mentor and role model whom I never met in person died late last year. He was, to give him his full title, the Very Rev. Archpriest Michael Oleksa, sometimes also … Continue reading Remembering an unlikely spiritual mentor (and storyteller) who made Alaska Native, Russian Orthodox and my lukewarm mainline Protestant traditions come alive
‘Nones and nuns’: Walking (the talk) with the Dominican sisters on racism and social justice (discernment journal 4 of 4)
Dominican associates, Sacred Heart Convent, Springfield, May 1, 2022. Background mosaic shows Sts. Dominic Guzman, Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas and other Dominicans. Lasr of four journals based on my answers raised by "discernment questions" sent to Dominican Associates in advance of an Aug. 24 retreat at the motherhouse in Springfield, Today's concern Associate Life, … Continue reading ‘Nones and nuns’: Walking (the talk) with the Dominican sisters on racism and social justice (discernment journal 4 of 4)
How a Jesuit spiritual exercise and a dream are helping me struggle with an apocalyptic election year
Domenichino, St. Ignatius' vision at La Storta, 1622 (Wikimedia Commons). I'm not going to call what happened last night anything other than what it was: A dream. No heavenly light on the road to Damascus (not even New Berlin or Jacksonville). No visions of God the Father and God the Son bearing the Cross by … Continue reading How a Jesuit spiritual exercise and a dream are helping me struggle with an apocalyptic election year
‘How Firm a Foundation’: Reading the lectio divina with a shape-note folk hymn when a hard rain’s about to fall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQDqufENb0 Sacred Harp singers, Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church, Old Chicora, Fla., 2018. According to longstanding custom in the shape-note singing community, the annual Illinois Sacred Harp Convention is held the Saturday before the third Sunday of September. In 2001 that came out to Sept. 15 -- the Saturday after the World Trade Center was destroyed … Continue reading ‘How Firm a Foundation’: Reading the lectio divina with a shape-note folk hymn when a hard rain’s about to fall
How Beyoncé’s crossover country and a Black harmonica player of the 1930s got me back to making music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7xxnaWxmPo DeFord Bailey at Grand Ole Opry reunion (Living the Blues). My taste in music is nothing if not eclectic. It runs toward Anglo-Celtic fiddle tunes, southern Appalachian ballads, trad Irish, Swedish and Norwegian gammaldans, English folk melodies, roots reggae, blues, African American spirituals, Southern gospel and early American shape-note hymns -- practically anything, in … Continue reading How Beyoncé’s crossover country and a Black harmonica player of the 1930s got me back to making music
‘A Mild Touch of the Cancer’: In which I learn to use the ‘C-word’ from an ‘ex-comedian’ and blogger in New Zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Wv_wwFH1I David Downs, TEDxAuckland, Auckland, New Zealand, April 11, 2019 Like so many people of my generation, I didn't even want to hear about cancer. Too upsetting. If I saw the word in a headline, I'd scroll down to the next story in the directory. But after I got my diagnosis, I went online to … Continue reading ‘A Mild Touch of the Cancer’: In which I learn to use the ‘C-word’ from an ‘ex-comedian’ and blogger in New Zealand
Ringing in the new (church) year on St. Andrew’s Day with the daily prayer and meditation on an Irish Jesuit website
Pietro da Cortona, 'Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew,' ca. 1626-30 (Wikimedia Commons) One of the few things I remember clearly from my confirmation classes 50-plus years ago in an Episcopal church is the date of St. Andrew's Day. Somehow it lodged in my preadolescent brain, when I wasn't wisecracking about the wives of … Continue reading Ringing in the new (church) year on St. Andrew’s Day with the daily prayer and meditation on an Irish Jesuit website
New header picture — labyrinth in the rolling prairie at Jubilee Farm
A new background picture for Ordinary Times' header shows the center of a labyrinth at Jubilee Farm, the Dominican Sisters' center for ecology and spirituality. Jubilee Farm, on 147 acres of rolling prairie west of Springfield, bills itself as a "a home to farm animals and wildlife, an educational resource, a demonstration of living in an … Continue reading New header picture — labyrinth in the rolling prairie at Jubilee Farm
Early spring visit to Jubilee Farm and friendly rescue cat reawaken thoughts of stewardship and new beginnings
Grass beginning to green up at Jubilee Farm, Old Jacksonville Road. Genesis 2:8-9, 15 (NRSV) And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the … Continue reading Early spring visit to Jubilee Farm and friendly rescue cat reawaken thoughts of stewardship and new beginnings
Notes on a scientific study on spirituality — how doing good does you good; also Jewish-Christian relations, book of Hebrews
When I taught mass comms at Benedictine, I used to tell the kids sometimes you can do pretty darn well for yourself by doing good. I thought it fit our mission as a faith-based college, and, besides, I believed it. Now comes Lisa Miller, a psychologist at Columbia Teachers College, with a study offering scientific … Continue reading Notes on a scientific study on spirituality — how doing good does you good; also Jewish-Christian relations, book of Hebrews
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