Author: Deacon Nick

Jesus Washing Disciples Feet

Deacons and Diaconate / Spirituality

To Proclaim the Faith in Word and Action – A New Deacon is Ordained Today

I’ve been teaching in Catholic schools for almost seventeen years, and today was a first for me: one of my former students was ordained to the diaconate. I’ve had former students become teachers, writers, politicians and nurses, but Matt’s the first one to be ordained. I teared up more than once as I sat in the church watching him respond to the bishop’s questions: Bishop: In the presence of God and the Church, are you resolved, as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ, to remain celibate...

Book Review / Books and Reading

Made to Stick Will Stick with You

I began Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood a few weeks ago, but I got sidetracked by a few nonfiction titles that grabbed my interest. That happens to me every so often. I’ll make up my mind to start a book, and then another one will grab me by the shirt and say, “NO! Pick ME!” That’s what happened with the Heath brothers’ Made to Stick, a fantastic exploration of what makes ideas memorable. I started reading it in the bookstore and couldn’t put it down. As I mentioned in...

Don Quixote Tone Poem CD

Books and Reading / Music

Music to Listen to While You Read Part II – Don Quixote

Yesterday I wrote about the music I like to listen to while reading Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series. I know that the reading group Tilting at Windmills is about to begin Don Quixote, so today I want to share the kind of music that helps set the atmosphere when I read this most excellent novel. (Sidenote: If you’ve never read Don Quixote you should join Tilting at Windmills and read it–it’s my favorite book, hands down, and in my opinion the greatest novel ever written.) To achieve...

Musical Evenings with the Captain

Books and Reading / Music

Music to Listen to While You Read Part I

Picture yourself curled up on the couch with a good book and your favorite drink. No interruptions. What music is playing in the background? Some people like to read in silence, but I’m not one of them. The right music helps me become more involved in my book by creating a kind of environmental blanket that envelops me and keeps the world out. I thought I’d share some of my favorite music to read by with you in the hopes that you might share yours with me. If...

Road in the Mist

Prayer / Spirituality

A Prayer by Thomas Merton

One of my favorite spiritual writers is Thomas Merton, and one of my favorite prayers comes from his book Thoughts in Solitude: My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in...

Don Quixote

Books and Reading / Humor

Another Outbreak of Manchegan Madness?

About a month ago I wrote about Manchegan Madness, and it now appears that certain members of the blogging community may be experiencing early symptoms. Sylvia at Classical Bookworm reports that she has joined Tilting at Windmills, a group of readers who will be spending May and June reading about the exploits of the famed Don Quixote of La Mancha. I’ve seen this before. It starts as a reading group but ends as a support group. Pretty soon they’ll be naming their pets Rocinante or Sancho Panza. Be careful! Manchegan Madness takes...

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Books and Reading / Poetry

In Honor of Lord Byron

On this day in 1824 George Gordon, Lord Byron, passed away. Byron is one of my favorite poets and in his honor I offer you this breathtaking poem of his: So, We’ll Go No More a Roving So, we’ll go no more a roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright. For the sword outwears the sheath, And the soul outwears the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And Love itself have rest. Though...

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Humor / Writing

Fiction So Bad It’s Good

I just came across the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, and if you want a good laugh you should really check it out. The goal of the contest: write a single sentence of awful prose. Here’s last year’s winner, by Jim Guigli of Carmichael, CA: Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you’ve had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did...

Master and Commander book covers

Art / Books and Reading

Geoff Hunt, Master Painter and O’Brian Cover Artist

This week’s cover artist is Geoff Hunt, the master painter behind Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin nautical series. Take a look at the following two covers for a good example of how much impact a cover can make. The image on the left is from the first edition of Master and Commander, and the second image is Geoff Hunt’s painting for the same book: To me there is no comparison. I’m no art critic, but I know what I like. And I love Geoff Hunt’s covers. Hunt painted the covers...

Book Review / Books and Reading / Teaching

The Intellectual Devotional

I never buy new hardcovers because they’re too expensive, but I made an exception yesterday and bought two: The Intellectual Devotional and Made to Stick. At first I was a bit worried when I saw the title for The Intellectual Devotional, thinking it was going to be a kind of anti-prayer book for atheists, pitting faith against reason or science against religion. As I thumbed through the pages, though, it doesn’t appear to be any such thing. Like a devotional, it consists of daily readings, but rather than...

The Samurai

Book Review / Books and Reading / Spirituality

Book Review: The Samurai by Shusaku Endo

I just finished reading Shusaku Endo’s The Samurai, and it was eye-opening in so many ways. It is the story of two men: Father Velasco, the flawed but well-meaning missionary to Japan, and Hasekura Rokuemon, the quiet Samurai who only wants to do his duty. Both men have a mission, both of them are forced to compromise their integrity for the sake of that mission, and neither of them get what they want. In the end, however, The Samurai is a gentle reminder that God “writes straight with...