One Catholic Life Blog

Tommy Emmanuel T-Shirt

Music

“Is this heaven?” “No, it’s a Tommy Emmanuel concert.”

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of seeing Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel in concert at the Bing Crosby Theater here in Spokane, and it was a true “Life-Is-Beautiful” moment. Not only was I jaw-dropped by his finger-contorting playing, but I was happy to see a similar reaction on the face of my teenage son. Though Joseph and I don’t share the exact same tastes in music, we both admire talented guitar work, and it doesn’t get much better than Tommy Emmanuel. According to his web site, Emmanuel has been...

Washing Feet

Deacons and Diaconate

Countdown to Deacon Ordination

Tonight Brenda and I join seventeen other couples in a retreat for deacon candidates and wives. We’ll spend the weekend together as the culmination of four years of formation before ordination on August 10. Our retreat master will again be the witty and intelligent Deacon Owen Cummings, author of Deacons and the Church. I’m really looking forward to hearing him again, and to getting to spend one last weekend with the other candidates and their wives. It has been a privilege, a joy, and a great blessing to...

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Books and Reading

Remembering Ray Bradbury

It’s almost midnight and I should be in bed, but I have to write something about the loss of Ray Bradbury. I’m too tired to adequately explain how much I admire his work. Let me just say that if I could choose any author’s style to emulate, it would be Ray Bradbury’s. I love his simple prose and vivid images. He was a true storyteller who rose above genre and left behind a legacy of powerful literature. I began to really appreciate Bradbury’s work when I taught Fahrenheit...

Gregorian Chant Notation

Music / Spirituality

A Playlist of Achingly Beautiful Music

Since I recently finished John O’Donohue’s book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, I’ve been trying to actively bring more beauty into my life, and to recognize the beauty that already surrounds me. The first place I went to was my digital music collection, where I tried to put together a playlist of beautiful music. As I scanned through my collection looking for songs and pieces of music to include in the list, I was struck by how many of them dealt with sadness or longing. Songs like: “Everybody Hurts”...

Beauty by John O'Donohue

Spirituality

Beauty and Liturgy

When was the last time you went to Mass in order to experience beauty? In his book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, John O’Donohue explains the connection between beauty and liturgy: …whenever we awaken beauty, we are helping to make God present in the world. Consequently the rituals and liturgy of religion can be occasions where beauty truly comes alive….Thomas Aquinas and and the medieval thinkers wisely recognized that beauty was at the heart of reality; it was where truth, unity, goodness and presence came together. Without beauty they...

Darth Vader in Recording Studio

Humor

It’s Star Wars Day

Today is Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), so here are Darth Vader and Yoda recording their voices to be used with Tom Tom GPS devices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ljFfL-mL70   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdcJVuylmsM

Painting the Bedroom

Family

How Parents Pray

“Being a loving parent is work that guarantees the transformation of the ego for in the work of rearing children the limits of your selfishness, need and smallness are continually challenged. Somehow you find within your heart a love that is willing to stretch further and further. In this sense, the work of parenting is profoundly blessed work. Some people pray in words; in the work of raising children, parents pray every day with every fibre of their being.” John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, page 164

St. Joseph

Family / Spirituality

St. Joseph: The Saint of Little Things

St. Joseph reminds us that it’s the little things that matter — doing an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wages; reading to children at bedtime; preparing dinner for the family. The quiet, hidden life of St. Joseph stands in contrast to our culture’s obsession with celebrity. Fr. Jim Martin comments on the life of this humble model of faith from his DVD Who Cares about the Saints?:

Bishop Cupich receives a gift from Pope Benedict

Catholic Education / Teaching

Learning about Church from Bishop Cupich on Facebook

Our bishop, Bishop Blase Cupich, is visiting Rome this week for an ad limina visit. In a first for the Diocese of Spokane, he’s using Facebook to share his journey with the rest of us. It’s been a great learning experience for me and for my students. Each morning I wake up and check Facebook to see what I can share with the 8th graders  during Religion class. After morning prayer and attendance, I bring up the diocesan Facebook page on the screen and we see what’s new...

Beauty by John O'Donohue

Art / Books and Reading / Spirituality / Technology

Emptiness that Haunts the Heart: A Caution for the Digital Age

Is the digital age making it more difficult for us to recognize, appreciate and encounter beauty? Traditionally, journey was a rhythm of three forces: time, self and space. Now the digital virus has truncated time and space. Marooned on each instant, we have forfeited the practice of patience, the attention to emergence and delight in the Eros of discovery. The self has become anxious for what the next instant might bring. This greed for destination obliterates the journey. The digital desire for the single instant schools the mind...

Friends

Jill’s Place

Every neighborhood has one: the Kool-Aid house. The one place where all the kids hang out, play, and laugh. Schools have them too, Kool-Aid classrooms, where kids congregate before or after school to chat with the teacher; the place to which graduates return. Jill’s classroom was the Kool-Aid house of our school. Day after day, students stopped in to chat, surrounding her desk as she sat in her motorized scooter. Whenever I saw an All Saints graduate return for a visit, I knew exactly where they were heading:...