One Catholic Life Blog

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:...

Nebula

Theology

Quote of the Day: The Storm Center of the Universe

“For when we talk about confirmation our conversation is really about baptism; when we are dealing with baptism we are discoursing about Christian initiation; when we are into initiation we are face to face with conversion in Jesus Christ dead and rising; and when we are into conversion in Jesus Christ dead and rising we are at the storm center of the universe.” – Aidan Kavanagh, OSB

Charles Dickens

Books and Reading

Time to Go to That There Burying-Ground: Dickens’ 200th Birthday

Ralph Fiennes reads a moving excerpt from Bleak House as Prince Charles lays a wreath of flowers on Dickens’ grave. Today the world remembers Charles Dickens, born on this day two hundred years ago. I have a great fondness for Dickens’s works, especially David Copperfield and Hard Times. One of Dickens’ particular qualities was the ability to make one laugh and shudder at the same time. As Chesterton says, “These two primary dispositions of Dickens, to make the flesh creep and to make the sides ache, were a...

Ben-Hur

Movies

SQPN Movie Panel Launches

The good folks at SQPN, always looking for new ways to network, have launched an initiative they call the SQPN Movie Panel. Here’s how it works: Each week, SQPN will suggest a movie to watch, based on a theme for the month. The first theme is “Oscar Month,” and the movies are Titanic, Ben-Hur, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and West Side Story. Watch the movie and join in on the conversation, either on Twitter @moviepanel or on the SQPN Facebook page. Find out more...

Cardinal-elect Dolan and President Obama

Politics

The US Bishops Respond to the White House’s Attempt to Clarify HHS “Confusion”

On February 1, 2012, Cecilia Muñoz wrote a White House blog post intended to “make sure you have the facts,” about the ill-considered HHS ruling regarding religious institutions and health care plans. Yesterday the USCCB responded to that post with its own statement, which follows here in full: The Obama administration, to justify its widely criticized mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage in private health plans, has posted a set of false and misleading claims on the White House blog (“Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions,” February...

A Day Made of Glass 2

Technology

A Day Made of Glass 2: Is This the Future?

Today Corning released a sequel to last year’s viral video A Day Made of Glass. This year they’re focusing more on the benefits to society, rather than on how glass might be used to improve the workplace and home environment. You’ll see classrooms, hospitals, and state parks of the future–or at least how Corning hopes the future will look. It’s a beautiful video, though it makes me wonder if everyone will get to enjoy a future like this, or just those above a particular income level. Here’s the...

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Ludolf Backhuysen

Spirituality

The Faith that Banishes All Fear

In today’s gospel, the disciples wake Jesus up out of fear that they will perish at sea in their little boat. After calming the wind and water, Jesus asks them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” It has been said that the most common phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” In today’s meditation from Give Us This Day, Charles de Foucauld reminds us why: Complete freedom from fear is one of those things we owe wholly to Our Lord. To be afraid...

Fr. RIck Nagel

Deacons and Diaconate / Spirituality

Open the Door and Let the Spirit Get to Work

Deacon Greg Kandra has a seemingly endless supply of inspiring, funny, and/or deeply spiritual videos to post on his blog The Deacon’s Bench. Here’s one he posted yesterday about a parish that’s using its prime location to great effect in evangelizing: Sometimes it’s that simple. God doesn’t need much from us–just a little–and once we’ve opened the door, the Spirit gets to work. Read the rest of the story at The Deacon’s Bench to find out what St. John’s is doing over Superbowl weekend.

St. Teresa of Avila

Prayer / Spirituality

St. Teresa of Avila’s Prayer for Peace of Soul

This resonated with me today: O Jesus! Who knows how much in Holy Scripture refers to peace of soul? Since, O my God, you have seen how important this peace is to us, incite Christians to strive to gain it. In your mercy do not deprive those on whom you have bestowed it, for until you have given them true peace and brought them to where it is unending, they must ever live in fear. As quoted in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in...