Just another writer
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Benedict
Today is the feast of St Benedict, the founder of the monastic order which bears his name. The archdiocese has two St Benedict churches, but one has a name at least partially subsumed by the new parish name (they have multiple worship sites, so it’s still St Benedict Church but it’s St Mary Magdalene Parish).…
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Today’s Saint Picture: Seven Holy Brothers
I ended up choosing today’s saint, I went with the Seven Holy Brothers, the children of Saint Felicitas, not because of anything about the brothers themselves, of which little is known and much that is said is likely to be false, but because the picture that I worked from today, taken from an illustration in…
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Today’s saint picture: Saint Mary Zhu Wu
Today’s saint is Saint Mary Zhu Wu, a Chinese lay Christian who was martyred during the Boxer rebellion in China. I continue my experiments with Procreate, although I had a bit of a mishap today. I had created my preliminary sketch in blue but I forgot to start a new layer when I did the…
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Today’s saint picture: Blessed Ulma family
Married saints are unfortunately rare in the Catholic church and married saints who actually had sex, let alone children, are even rarer, but the Ulma family form one of the rare correctives to this. Józef and his wife Wiktoria and their family hid Jews from the Holocaust in their home until they were all summarily…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Holy Virgin Martyrs (St Maria Goretti)
Today, being the feast of Saint Maria Goretti, I trekked to the parish of Holy Virgin Martyrs formed by the merger of the legacy parishes of Saint Maria Goretti and Saint Beatrice. The parish uses the former Saint Beatrice church for worship under the combined patronage of both saints. The Mass was generally fine, with…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Edna
Since today was the feast day of St Edna, I trekked up to Arlington Heights for a vigil Mass at St Edna parish. The Mass was reasonably well attended for a vigil Mass and had music provided by a cantor, pianist and bass guitarist. A covered drum kit behind them gave evidence that this is…
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A visit with my younger self: 14 August 1988
My summer is coming to a close with thie entry in my journal: Fragment: Girl riding (driving?) car looks into the car next to her—there a young boy gives her some sort of lusty look. She turns away embarrassed. Idea for story: the lies people tell about themselves and what they reveal about their personalities,…
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Today’s Saint Picture: Blessed Catherine Jarrige
Among today’s saints are two venerable Dominican tertiaries, and I decided to go with Catherine Jarrige because she showed a bit of a sense of humor and mischeif in her life. In the years after the French revolution, she worked to protect clergy who were unwilling to swear an oath of allegiance to the new…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Thomas the Apostle
Today is the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, so I headed down to Hyde Park. Unfortunately, traffic was such that I ended up arriving fifteen minutes late which had me arrive in the middle of the consecration. Hyde Park is a notably integrated and liberal neighborhood in Chicago, anchored by the University of Chicago.…