July 16th is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel where the faithful have their Brown Scapulars blessed, and they are enrolled into the Order of Mount Carmel. The feast originated when Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock on July 16, 1251 and said, “Receive my beloved son, the scapular of thy Order…. [Read More]
Five Minute Guided Meditation with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
Join me and my daughter, Roise, in this five minute, guided prayer break with the newly canonized St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, feast day November 8. (see below) “May nothing distract me from You, neither noise nor diversions. O my Master, I would so love to live with You in silence. But what… [Read More]
Keep Worship Weird
You might say that the speed at which “Keep Austin Weird” took off says something about how innate this motto is to the nature of our city. It captures in a just few words one essential part of that “something else” about the this town that keeps native here and draws new neighbors in droves…. [Read More]
What’s Your Myers-Briggs Thanksgiving Style?
Oh, Thanksgiving, you marvelous holiday full of gratitude and food and love, you’ve come a long way from your origins in 1621. You used to be based on the idea of celebrating a bountiful harvest with a feast among friends and neighbors. In Christian tradition, this included praising God for His countless blessings and goodness, as well… [Read More]
Encouraging Latin in the Mass
Latin is no longer a well-known language, even in the Church, few people know it. It’s not quite dead, but it’s far from common. After Vatican II, even many of the priest never went through any formation in Latin. In the US, it has become more important to learn other heavily used languages like Spanish… [Read More]
The Perfect Christmas Gift
This Christmas give your child “the perfect Christmas gift”: Your Blessing! According the Church’s official book on blessings Jesus loved blessing children for when God took on our human flesh he, “Gave us a new gift in every blessing.” (Book of Blessings # 2,3) Even when Jesus was most exhausted and the apostles wanted him… [Read More]
Gratefuls and Wishes: a Thanksgiving Tradition
Our family has, in spite of our quaintness, some of the same traditions at Thanksgiving as everyone else. We generally have eaten the usual things everyone does (except for myself and my daughters – vegetarian, no turkey for us.) My mom always spent days preparing the meal- stuffing and green bean casserole from scratch, “smashed”… [Read More]
The Audacity of Pope Francis
On Good Friday morning last week, I received this text message from a friend, “Your new Pope is all kinds of awesome.” You can probably derive from the message that my friend is not Catholic. He read in the news about Pope Francis’s Holy Thursday visit to wash the feet of prison inmates and, like… [Read More]
What’s with all the Rituals and Repetitive Prayers?
As a Catholic, you may have heard this before: why does Catholic worship involve so many repetitive rituals? It’s weird that you all say the same thing at the same time! It alienates others who don’t know the words and it looks funny. Or you may have thought this to yourself instead: Why do we say the same thing over and… [Read More]
Beauty of Truth Podcast Episode 2 – What’s up with the Bible?
Ep 2 What’s Up With the Bible? Questions How can a book written by men be considered a Holy Book? Why is the Quran or any other text not considered inspired? Why do Catholics believe stuff not in the bible? Catechetical Moment CCC #101 Living the Truth If the Bible is… [Read More]
Las Posadas and the Devil at the Nativity
I was born and raised here in Texas, but spent almost every Christmas of my childhood with my family in Mexico. Growing up in a very Catholic family, it was almost like a yearly pilgrimage we took to return to family and celebrate the birth of our Savior. We just celebrated Rorate Sunday (4th Sunday… [Read More]
