Just another writer
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Today’s Saint Picture: Elisha
Today’s saint picture is of the prophet Elisha. While the old-style designation would be to call him “Saint Elisha,” the title “Saint” for Old Testament figures always feels kind of off to me, but looking at the commemorations for the day, I couldn’t pass up on Elisha since one of his trademark stories was having…
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A visit with my younger self: 3 July 1988
My next journal entry showed some ambitious plans: Outline for “Lilith” (epic poem in blank verse) Book I—Lilith’s arrival at the Red Sea. She meets the demons (souls without bodies). She acquaints them with her history and becomes mistress to them all. Book II—Adam’s realization that Lilith shall not return voluntarily. He tells his story…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint-Antoine de Padoue
Another Parisian parish for my project, it is, of course, on the opposite side of Paris from my hotel, but a relatively quick trip by Metro (my hot tip for travelers—don’t bother with surface transport in Paris. Metro is always faster, often by disconcerting amounts). In the morning, they had a lauds service before the…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Sanctuaire de Notre Dame de Fatima—Marie Médiatrice
I stumbled on the fact that Le Sanctuarie de Notre Dame de Fatima—Marie Médiatrice was having a procession to commemorate the second apparition of Mary at Fatima (which was actually on June 13th, but oh well), and figured it would make for a good pilgrimage for the day (although I skipped the procession for the…
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Today’s Saint Picture—Saint Barnabas
One of the fun things about the older saints is that no one has any idea what they actually looked like, Our common image of Jesus with his northern European features is almost certainly far from reality, and the other Biblical figures are likewise likely to be incorrectly imagined. Nevertheless, the icon that I worked…
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Today’s Saint Picture—Saint Olivia
My Penguin Dictionary of the Saints lists nobody for June 10th, nor does the General Roman Calendar as described on Wikipedia, but among the saints listed under this date on Wikipedia there was Saint Olivia and I used an icon of her as the basis of today’s picture. Most of the details on her life…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Our Lady Mother of the Church
Chicago has two parishes named after Our Lady Mother of the Church, but only one had Mass today, so I headed to Willow Springs in the morning for Mass in Polish. I don’t know Polish although I can pick out a few words that are cognate with Czech (which I also don’t know). It’s a…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Mary, Seat of Wisdom
Today I had a choice of two churches to visit, I could have gone to the Church of the Holy Spirit (today being Pentecost) or Mary, Seat of Wisdom. Since the latter was closer and had an evening Mass (I had planned on showing up for music ministry this morning, but instead gave in to…
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Today’s saint picture: Blessed Franz Jäggerstätter
Okay, when I was looking for a saint for today, I almost passed on Blessed Franz here. The photograph that was used for him showed him in a German military uniform and—well, you can imagine how poorly that reflected on Franz. But it turns out that there’s a reason he is often shown wearing the…