Just another writer

  • Today’s Saint Picture—Saint Olivia

    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

    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

    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

    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…

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  • A visit with my younger self: 1 July 1988

    A visit with my younger self: 1 July 1988

    Another entry which is nothing more than a story idea: Another story idea—A professional young woman (say about 30) meets a young college student (about 20). Becomes “involved.” Explore problems of such a relationship. Perhaps we will give the woman a roommate as a foil. This seems barely baked as ideas go. I never did…

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  • Catholic nerd pilgrimage: St Norbert

    Catholic nerd pilgrimage: St Norbert

    Today being the feast of Saint Norbert, I headed up to Northbrook for their 8.15 Mass. It was moderately attended, sans music and there seemed to be no mention of the fact that it was the parish’s patron’s feast. I suspect, given the fact that the parish’s full name is Saint Norbert–Our Lady of the…

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  • Today’s crumy saint picture: Saint Boniface

    Today’s crumy saint picture: Saint Boniface

    Yesterday, I accidentally did a saint for June 5th instead of June 4th (thanks, Wikipedia for updating on GMT instead of local time). I suppose I should do a June 4th saint today, but I decided to just google Saint of the Day which turned up Saint Boniface, a Benedictine monk who was martyred trying…

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  • Today’s crummy saint picture, Saint Luke Loan Ba Vu

    Today’s crummy saint picture, Saint Luke Loan Ba Vu

    I wasn’t able to find any real information about this Vietnamese martyr online, beyond the link to a general wikipedia article about Vietnamese martyrs which only said that he was a Vietnamese priest. My old parish in California had a sizable Vietnamese community which seemed almost like a separate church within the parish. Unlike the…

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  • Writerly resolutions: May Status (a little late)

    Writerly resolutions: May Status (a little late)

    I got a bunch more work done on the novel this month, getting two new chapters completed and most of a third chapter written this month. On the short story front, I finished a draft of a new story which got workshopped just before month’s end, did revisions on three short shorts and put them…

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