Author: D. A. Hosek
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A visit with my younger self: 12 February 1989
At this point in my life, I was still essentially homeless and hanging out on campus before my return to Chicago, and yet I did have a girlfriend. She had told me that her roommate was crazy, but I didn’t really believe her until I encountered it firsthand: Wilma’s situation with her roommate leaves me…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Holy Angels (Our Lady of Africa)
The parish of Our Lady of Africa was formed from the merger of five parishes on the south side, with worship consolidated to the former Holy Angels church which has been renamed to match the new parish name, but since there was no other possible Mass for today, I went to Bronzeville for the 10.30a…
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Writerly resolutions: September status
It’s been another mediocre month for writing progress. My second full request on We, the Rescued got another form rejection, which tells me that more work on the novel itself is warranted. I’ve gone ahead and printed the current draft so I can re-read and do another editorial round on it to bring it closer…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Jerome
Chicago has two St Jerome churches but only one had Mass in the evening so I went to Rogers Park. I rushed to get there for the 6p start time and arrived a few minutes to what I assumed was the beginning of the Spanish Mass, but noticed that there was no priest in the…
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Catholic nerd pllgrimage: Saint Michael
Since I’ve begun this project, one of the things I’ve noticed is that it’s pretty common in a lot of parishes to recite the Prayer to St Michael after daily Mass concludes (and at one parish, they apparently also do it at Sunday Mass). This is not a prayer I’d encountered before (although apparently I…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Wenceslaus
St Wenceslaus is the good king of the Christmas carol which isn’t exactly about Christmas, but rather the 26th of December, but no mind. As the patron of Bohemia, that was presumably the reason for the name of the parish which I would guess was in what was a neighborhood with a significant Czech population…
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A visit with my younger self: 3 February 1989
A substantial gap in my journaling here. I ended up actually going on a date and entering a dating relationship (ultimately doomed) with a classmate named Wilma who will show up later, I dropped out of school at the end of the semester, persuaded my logic professor to give me a sympathy D but I…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Padre Pio
I first heard of Padre Pio through Graham Greene’s memoir where he talked about being offered the chance to meet the friar but opted not to because he didn’t want his life changed by meeting a saint. Padre Pio Parish was formed through the merger of two northside parishes, St Hilary and Transfiguration of Our…
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Catholic nerd pilgrimage: St Thomas of Villanova
St Thomas of Villanova is one of those saints that people would have to look up to know anything about. To me, the name Villanova will always be connected to the pizzeria of my childhood, owned by the uncle of the kid who lived on the corner, said uncle, I was later to learn, was…