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It is a deep joy to finally hold this book in my hands! My wife designed a beautiful cover, and the folks at CiRCE Books were wonderful with hands-on editing that greatly improved the flow of the book. I’m biased, but I think you should order a copy to see for yourself.

I would certainly welcome, but do not expect, anything close to “the heaviest punishment” for Man City. I would love to be wrong!

Seven years ago I was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. And today, on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, a book that is the result of my priestly ministry in parish and school contexts is now in stock and shipping! A delay at the printers has pushed back the release date …

Week One of newspaper delivery has gone better than I expected. We opted for Sunday-only, which I think was the right call. The kids were pretty blown away that a real person left it in our yard for us.

On Email as an Electronic Mailbox: Below are some email principles that I have adopted (and re-adopted) over the past fifteen years. Nothing original here; I got all of this from other people. 1. Email is an Electronic Mailbox. Treat it as such. No email on my phone. Only check work email on my work computer at work. Email app or …

Today I learned that Archbishop Rowan Williams was at Trinity Church, blocks from the Twin Towers, on 9/11. You can watch him speak about that experience here.

My brief remembrance of Wendell Berry is in The Living Church today. I present Berry as (at least) the unofficial patron saint of going outside, freedom from our political and techno-overlords, those who “can’t shake the feeling of having been led,” and those who seek to form more fully the …

Or—hear me out—you could spend time encountering the biblical texts afresh with your specific congregation on your heart, instead.

Paging the Donatist controversy.

A coat rack to use for stoles and scarves—with a vertical hierarchy of priorities—is now up in the office.

Two stunning features of the Transfiguration as we celebrate that Feast today: That Moses and Elijah are there to talk with Jesus about his pending Passion. That Jesus’s pending Passion is called “his exodus.” (Grateful that the RSV keeps that translated as “exodus” and not “departure.") …

This is a beautifully hand-crafted gift from one of our graduates. Designed to fit the edition of Screwtape Letters I have used in class for years.

Classes I am teaching this year: Here There Be Dragons: an introduction to classical moral theology cleverly disguised as a reading course about dragons. An elective course for students in Grades 5-8. Junior Capstone in Christian Wisdom: a year-long research project culminating in a classical …

Excited to serve this year as Theologian in Residence for the ORIGIN program at Art House Dallas!

Finished reading: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚 I can’t recall why I stopped reading this a year or so ago, but I started over this summer and am glad I finished. First of all: it was a fun read. Arthurian legends and the White Stripes were not on my bingo card, but alas, Sloan delivered.

Current print and audio reads: Alexandria by Paul Kingsnorth Moonbound by Robin Sloan Next up: Why We Drive by Matthew B. Crawford Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite I will revisit the print edition this year, but for now I will enjoy Malcolm’s voice being the first to tell me the story.

Do Spurs have the most interesting midfield in the Premier League? is worth watching if (1) you are a Tottenham supporter and need to recover from last season by indulging in some (false?) hope, or (2) you enjoy a good laugh. If (1) and (2) are both true, then this becomes a must watch. ⚽️

Mortimer Adler on the virtue of Temperance: If the poets and the historians describe the prevalence and the range of man’s intemperance, the moralists tend to be unanimous in recommending self-­control or moderation. There is hardly any variety of moral theory . . . which does not recommend the …

Kept near the keyboard: We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment. From the Preface to the 1961 edition …

Rhythms of Habit proofs are complete! Pre-orders will ship on October 1.

I kept a few thoughts throughout the tournament scribbled in a notebook. I shared many of those World Cup reflections in today’s edition of my personal newsletter.

I have found myself on a bit of a Michael Crichton bender; I finished Jurassic Park this week, and then started and finished Prey. Then what happened? A junior in our school came to my office today to talk about his Capstone paper topic for the year: de-extinction and its ethical implications.

Currently reading: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton 📚 In prep for an impromptu book club later this month. The movie is one of my all-time favorites; finding it hard to put the book down!

A consolation on the morning after a disheartening performance by an otherwise excellent USMNT: Great World Cup teams have already been knocked out of this tournament, and for the first time since I’ve started following soccer, the US is one of them.

An ordered list of World Cup teams I am pulling for this summer, to be updated as teams are eliminated. USA plus two motherlands, along with nations in which people we love live or for whom players we admire play. 🇺🇸 (16) ~~🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (4) ~~ 🇩🇪 (32) 🇸🇳 (32) 🇭🇷 (32) 🇰🇷 (Group Stage)

Reading St. Paul with Dylan, Screwtape, and the Didache (Proper 8 Sermon 2026): I invite you to begin this sermon by closing your eyes, so that you can use your imagination to bring a scene to life. (If you are used to closing your eyes in the middle of a long sermon, then consider this invitation to do so right from the start a gift from me to you!) Here is the scene: You live …

Currently consulting Bob Dylan’s commentary on Romans 6:12-23 as I prep for Sunday.

I understand what is and what is not at stake in this match. But I find myself squarely on the audere est facare end of the spectrum. So I say send Pulisic in and win the match for the glory of the game and the pride of the nation. 🇺🇸⚽️

The Christian Union Sports Club (Colombia) putting the beautiful in the beautiful game.

Back to home and work after a summer trip with my school followed by a beautiful vacation with the family.

My book, Rhythms of Habit: Cultivating Virtue Through Christian Time, is now available for pre-order! It is about virtues as moral muscles, habits as exercises for those muscles, and the church year as an annual prescription of habits to strengthen all the right virtues.

From a “history of ideas” perspective, the number of people who have stood within this frame and spoke words that have changed the way humans view the world is astounding. The Agora, Areopagus, and Acropolis.

Standing at the site of one of the most beautifully contextualized sermons of the New Testament.

Just got word that the subtitle for Rhythms of Habit is being changed to Cultivating Virtue Through Christian Time. Grateful to have a sharp editor who helped improve the flow of the book and made this excellent suggestion. Pre-order in the weeks to come; more info about the book here.

Waking up at 4am in Greece to watch the USMNT after getting settled in our hotel at 1am has paid off. Watching alone, but with a beautiful sunrise approaching. The own goal was forced by USA’s attacking pressure. Great confidence boost to see that play of early if match. I am excited for what …

“I’ve been sent here for your Negroni” is all I had to say. Does not disappoint!

Worshiped in Italian at Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista. Being in a Roman Catholic parish speaking a different tongue did not stop us from recognizing the liturgy and (almost) following along.

Proud of our family for completing the Sentiero Azzuro between Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza. Our kids were by far the youngest hikers out this morning, and powered through some pretty steep inclines.

We started our trip praying in the ruins of a 14th century church, and we ended with Evening Prayer and holy unction in the Little Chapel at the hermitage of St. Francis of Assisi. Beautiful bookends for a wonderful school trip.

An ordered list of World Cup teams I am pulling for this summer, to be updated as teams are eliminated. The US of A plus two motherlands, along with nations in which people we love live or for whom players we admire play. 🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇩🇪 (32) 🇸🇳 🇭🇷 🇰🇷 (Group Stage)

They don’t make instruction manuals like they used to.

Evening Prayer to kick off our Rhetoric School visit to Rome in the ruins of the youngest church we will visit throughout the trip. San Nicola a Capo di Bove, dedicated in AD 1303.

✅ Submit final manuscript for Rhythms of Habit.

This looks to be the final version of the beautiful cover my wife designed for Rhythms of Habit!

Very glad for Petar Musa as he earned a spot on Croatia’s World Cup roster. He has been on fire for FC Dallas this season, and I’m excited to see him play this summer. As you can tell, we are basically best friends because Zoë and I saw him walking through the stadium last season.

Headmaster's Address for the Class of 2026: Seniors, I have to be honest with you. I wrote you each a letter that you received on Thursday morning. I then shared another letter with you all at dinner on Thursday night. And now I am standing here to share one final word with you before you walk across this stage. I’m running out of things to …

Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Epiphany 2026 (Beatitudes): Are the Beatitudes merely beautiful words — or do they actually mean something in a broken world? The Beatitudes are not simply moral advice or self-help teaching, but Jesus’ announcement that a new world is breaking in. Spoken into a first-century world shaped by violence, power, and fear, the …

Palm Sunday Sermon 2026: Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week—but this week is more than what it appears to be. It is easy to move through these days as just another stretch of time filled with responsibilities, schedules, and routines. But Holy Week invites us to see more deeply—to recognize that beneath the …

Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Easter 2026: Many of us feel the tension—wanting to follow God fully, while still holding on to the life we want for ourselves. Can we live our way now and God’s way later? The invitation of the Gospel is not a loss of joy, but the discovery of it—both now and forever. To entrust our lives to God is to find the …

I have found adding more apps to help limit my smartphone to be a mixed bag, but so far I find the Anti Browser to be a truly helpful one. Disable Safari, set Anti Browser as your default browser, and retain the ability to tap direct links and open QR codes when absolutely necessary. (I still remain …

This is the face of a man who can’t believe how relieved he feels as the one at the helm when a miracle occurred. The best Champion’s League semi-final match ever never gets old.

This is part of why I keep a soccer diary. The three matches I was interested in yesterday all ended 2-2 (ish), but with wildly different results. One was a high for American soccer, one was a further low for Spurs. And the final match was a lot more fun because of who joined me!

Why Anglican: What is a human person?: The answer I give when asked what drew me in to the Anglican tradition has grown over the years, as I find more words to describe what I sensed but could not explain at the time. (I spend most of my week wearing a collar in contexts where collars are not often seen, so these questions are frequent.) …

How to unlock the potential of AI for those in the field of education and the formation of human beings: throw the key into the middle of the ocean. A helpful reply to this post, from Alan Jacobs: “There are many things in the deep waters; and seas and lands may change. And it is not our part here …

I finished reading Against the Machine the same week I finished watching Greyhound and started watching Band of Brothers and Fellowship of the Ring with my son. All as Holy Week approaches. Ready to double down on living in a different world while living in this world.

Brad East on the need for a big tent among those who (nobly) insist on low-tech parenting. I appreciate his inclusion of “willing to sacrifice to do it.” It has to include as many as will fit—which is to say as many as are seeking to live wisely in a digital age and are willing to …

Watching Band of Brothers with my son. Shaping of the moral imagination is happening. “Why is the drill sergeant so mean to them in training?” turned into “I get it now” as soon as the planes took off.

Received an endorsement this week from Malcolm Guite for my forthcoming book on virtues and the Church Calendar. It feels nice to be towards the end of this long, slow project that ultimately led to a rather short book! Jon Jordan’s Rhythms of Habit makes a helpful and original contribution to the …

This pairs well with Cal Newport’s latest on digital productivity traps.

No, you just took the last of your Christmas lights down the same week you started prepping your Palm Sunday and Easter Vigil sermons.

From Cal Newport: In other words: The more you organize your analog life, the less appealing you’ll find the digital alternative. If this is true, then maybe the thing social media companies fear most is not some newly-powerful application-blocking software or impossibly strict regulation, but …

“We lack when we attack,” Igor said. “We lack quality to score. We lack in the middle to run. We lack behind (in defence) to stay and suffer and not concede.” That just about sums it up. I guess the good news is that Richy understands what it means to be in a relegation battle?

It is customary to complain of the bustle and strenuousness of our epoch. But in truth the chief mark of our epoch is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent bustle. Take one quite external case; the streets are noisy with taxicabs and …

I am less concerned about AI itself, and more concerned about what using AI does to as human person. A sad example: “I wanted to give my A.I. agent a purpose that was more than just managing to-dos or answering emails,” Mr. Schlicht said in an interview. “I thought this A.I. bot was so fantastic, …

The Tottenham Hotspur Football Club did not deliver. Overall, the third round of the FA Cup has. Exciting weekend of matches.

This was a wonderful week for Coram Deo Academy of Dallas. It started with a ceremony in which we Blessed a New School Building, Granted the Keys, and Cut the Ribbon. And then the week continued with perhaps the most elaborate of all ceremonies: the Running of the First Carline. For the seven years …

It was a solid away win today for Spurs against a good team. Two goals called back for being fractionally offside, and a late near-goal or two. Without Xavi and Romero (suspended). Spurs maintained great offensive pressure through the final whistle, even while holding on to a slim 1-0 lead. ⚽️

One of the marvels of our time is that it can be hard to tell whether you’re looking at a new Black Mirror episode or a headline.

The gifts of a classical education are myriad. One of them is the ability to read and understand things on the internet like this cheeky disputatio in which Aquinas reviews Forrest Frank.

I don’t recall seeing this on any of the eschatological charts of my childhood.

This semester I started teaching a class out of my living room. For Spring 2026, I am offering two in-person courses, with one meeting virtually as well. Read more about why, and consider registering to join us!

The Premier League script writers strike again with an Eze hat trick salt-in-wound display against Spurs. ⚽️

If you are going to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 27 years, this is the way to do it. This is going to be an exciting summer of soccer.

There’s a personal satisfaction in grimly pointing out the flaws in a system, but sustainable change, Petrini came to believe, requires providing people with an enjoyable and life-affirming alternative. Petrini didn’t simply write a sharply worded op-ed about the corrupted forces of …

Wipf & Stock is running a promotion throughout the AAR/SBL conferences, whether you are attending or not. This means that From Law to Logos: Reading St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is 50% off with free shipping this week. Use the code: CONFSHIP.

Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. Its proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible… A proper education enables …

Yes, and joy was just a thing that he was raised on; Love was just a way to live and die. May this, from John Denver’s Matthew, be true of our children’s experience!

There’s a deeply human satisfaction to retreating to an exotic location and wrestling with your own mind, scratching a record of your battle on paper. The innovations and insights produced by this long thinking are deeper and more subversive than the artificially cheery bullet points of a chatbot. …

At my worst, I do imagine—with unholy frustration—that the best scriptwriters in the world could not have come up with a more dramatic storyline than we have encountered in the Anglican Communion in the past two decades. It would be hard to imagine a writer developing a script in which the chief …

Breathe with unconditional breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate slowly. Live a three-dimensioned life; stay away from screens. Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. The …

I posted a brief update to my Soccer Diary today with some thoughts about the beginning of Tottenham’s season and and end of the FC Dallas playoff run.

If you have to install a fire sprinkler system in a school’s sanctuary—and we did—you could do a lot worse. Very grateful for the careful work done to meet code without sacrificing beauty.

I would love to see Ange wind up at LAFC with Son.

We have made a lot of progress the last two weeks on our latest “Viv draws it and we build it together on a budget” project: an increasingly attractive and functional entryway to the house.

It is 2025 anno Domini. In order to avoid subscribing to yet another streaming service I am watching the Spanish language broadcast of the USMNT on Peacock, while listening to the English audio via Westwood One Sports. ⚽️

Sermon: Holy Cross Day: In which I reflect on the meaning of the cross, not only as a symbol of suffering, but as the ultimate victory of God over sin, death, and evil. The cross was meant for destruction, yet through Christ it has become the source of life, hope, and salvation. Transcript

Thoughts on living and parenting in the digital age.: There are some lines I have drawn in the sand when it comes to tech companies: I don’t have any sort of account with Alphabet (Google), nor do I have an account with Meta (Facebook, Instagram, etc.). I find their stated goals for the relationship between technology and humanity repulsive, and their …

This upcoming Sunday’s Lectionary: An unlikely candidate for grace—as one must be to receive it!—in the OT (Naaman) followed by an unlikely response to grace from a Samaritan leper who turned back to thank our Lord. And an epistle reading that reminds us that “if we are faithless, he …

They don’t make American soccer kits like they used to.

Rhythms of Habit: Coming Spring 2026 from CiRCE Books: I am very happy to share that I have signed an agreement with CiRCE Institute to publish Rhythms of Habit in April/May 2026! I am excited to work with a publisher that focuses on the classical Christian movement, and am looking forward to partnering with them in helping schools adopt a framework of …

Dallas Area Friends: I am teaching class this Fall—in our living room—on the Book of Common Prayer. The BCP is meant to sustain God’s people all throughout their day and all throughout their life. A growing number of Christians from a variety of traditions and churches are drawn to this rooted, …

I am checking out of reading any form of social media for St. Michael’s Lent this season. I will still post notes here, but won’t be engaging until the end of September. The folks at Exodus 90 have put together an excellent guide to this ancient practice, for the curious.

My predictions/dreams for Tottenham Hotspur this season: Heading in to the 25-26 Premier League season, my thoughts on the Spurs are summed up as “could be better; could be worse.” Given that my favorite coach in recent memory and favorite player of all time left the team this summer, I consider this a decent place to be heading into opening weekend. …

On outsourcing the ancient human practice of curation to lines of code.: Curation to me is really a good word. It’s become overused on the internet to the point that it seems to just mean picking something — like you can “curate” your Instagram page or have a “curated” skincare routine. But human curation goes back to the real meaning of the …

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; Amen.

O God, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thy well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with thee, O Father, andthee, …

Early draft for feedback: The Church and Human Personhood in the 21st Century: I am interested in hearing feedback on the basic outline of an essay (below) as I continue to work on it. What would you add or modify? Is this directionally sound? What questions might occupy the mind of the church in the century to come? The church will need to define what it means to be a human …

“The future of the Church, once again as always, will be reshaped by saints. Those whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day, who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a wider reality.” Joseph Ratzinger

End of an era for Tottenham Hotspur. Son is our family’s favorite player by far for many reasons, not least of which are his kindness and the fact that he is Asian. With the loss of Ange and Son, Spurs are losing two wonderful human persons this summer.

Thrilled to be teaching Here There Be Dragons this academic year to a group of Logic School students. Classical moral theology combined with an exploration of what it means to live a life of purpose and adventure cleverly disguised as an elective course about literary dragons.

“For by the Father’s hands, namely the Son and the Holy Spirit, man—and not part of man—is made to the image and likeness of God. … [it is] the mingling and the union of all these [the soul and body and mind] that makes the perfect man.” St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known …

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal.

“To write well and speak well is mere vanity if one does not live well.” St. Bridget of Sweden

Note to self: There are enough hours in the day. You would not thrive if there were more. If you cannot get it all done in a day, perhaps you were not designed to get it all done in a day. Turn off the screen. Smell the outside. Wrestle a small child. And then start again tomorrow.

Off the grid for the weekend. Very much looking forward to the 12th Adventure Trip of The South. We have clearly bent what we mean by South, but not Adventure.

This is Malcolm Guite talking about his forthcoming Arthuriad Merlin’s Isle in our crammed dining room in May 2024 when he was in town to speak at our Commencement ceremony. I could not be more personally or professionally excited to start reading in 2026!

Sermon: Becoming Saints (Proper 10, 2025): In which I explore the deep human question of identity through Deuteronomy, Colossians, and the parable of the Good Samaritan. Before we ask “What must I do?” we must first ask “Who am I called to be?” Transcript

A framed photo from a 5am visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been added to the prayer desk alongside an icon from the Camino and a rubber Jesus from the kids.

The relationship between being and doing is dripping throughout the lectionary next Sunday. OT: become a new people after Egypt NT: become saints in light of the cross and resurrection Gospel: “What must I DO?” is answered by Jesus telling the lawyer to “BE a neighbor”

Doing the Lord’s work. Because sometimes the Lord’s work involves finalizing restroom tile colors.

One (and only one) of these is compelling and true to observation, reason, and experience. Nature is more than raw material; it is less than divine. I say this as an outdoorsman, a priest, and a father who enjoys watching his family encounter the awe and beauty of the world.

This is true every Sunday. As a priest serving a parish with those impacted by the Hill County flooding, it was especially true yesterday. Lord, have mercy.

A proposal: what it takes to maintain proper human interaction in the digital age.: Note: as is often the case, this short note started with a quick thought I recorded in a parking lot. Below is the first attempt to put down in words some of what I am trying to say. If you are curious and okay listening to unpolished thoughts, here is the original voice memo. Here is the slightly …

My recent desire on walks to recognize—by sight and sound—the birds of our neighborhood has nothing to do with turning forty. Right? Just a renewed desire to know and appreciate the world around me. Right?

Independence Day is as good occasion as any to be reminded of what it means to live in a particular nation as a Christian.: And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it …

Before you can intentionally form a human child, you have to understand what a human child is, and what a human child is for. Unfortunately, most of the modern educational movements of the past century have, as their foundation, a woefully inadequate anthropology. livingchurch.org/covenant/…

A 60 word reaction to 28 Weeks Later that may contain a spoiler or two: If you can survive the first hour of stress, the final five minutes of almost pure garbage, and a sneaking suspicion that the most powerful moment of the film was meant to serve as an emotional appeal for the merits of physician assisted suicide, 28 Years Later has some otherwise powerful …

After a 90 minute lightning delay, it has turned out to be a beautiful evening for the beautiful game.

Every day of the school year, all adults and students on our campus stop what they are doing to gather together for Noonday Prayer. Starting in January 2026, we will gather in the Sanctuary of our new campus for this daily office. I cannot wait. “Beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses.”

“If we live for ourselves, we are necessarily unhappy.” Fr. Joseph-Michel of Solemes Abbey

My contribution to an essay series commemorating the Council of Nicaea was published today. In it I offer a thought experiment I have used to teach the Councils and Creeds over the years. https://livingchurch.org/covenant/the-nicene-creed-deciding-the-rules-of-the-game/

“In life, giving freely is essential.” Father Jean-Philippe, of Solesmes Abbey

From MIT’s recently published study Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task: “Participants who were in the Brain-only group reported higher satisfaction and demonstrated higher brain connectivity, compared to other …

A window pops up, blocking content, to encourage me to download the app for a better reading experience. In the app, a window pops up, blocking content, to encourage me to rate the app. All the while, I have unread paper books next to my bed.

“We are reduced to the role of the weak link in a system we have freely created.” Dom David (monk) summarizing The Obsolescence of Man by Günther Anders

“If you don’t take risk, you also take risk.” Thomas Frank is at least speaking the language of Audere est facare; here is hoping it plays out this season. Happy to know he gets the ethos—this has not always been the case!

Social Media that doesn't shrink your soul?: This is a new recording of an essay originally published in June 2022: livingchurch.org/covenant/… Social media is a form of the unexamined life Socrates warned us about. But does it have to be so? Are the current popular iterations of social media, which I will refer to as Big Social, our …

We are increasingly convinced that newer is always better in every arena of life. But what if there are older, better ways to think about what it means to be human? Read more from a preview of the Introduction to my next book: Rhythms of Habit.

While this certainly resonates, Lewis rightly goes on to argue that the root issue lies in us holding the utterly unrealistic expectation that there will be no “unexpected demands” in the first place.

“Do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.” William James

What started as intuitive and experimental practices in applying the Daily Office to a K-12 school context years ago is now being formalized so that the best of what we have offered can continue even after the people who cared to do these things well are gone.

The ultimate questions which man asks about himself are partly answered by the very fact of their being asked. Mortimer J. Adler

I asked him if monks had a difficult time parting with earthly pleasures. His answer was simple: “Religious life does not prevent us from loving the earth. We love it differently, and perhaps more, because the earth is more beautiful with the eyes of faith. Nature is more beautiful, souls a more …

Sermon: The Upstream waters of Pentecost: The Tower of Babel and Pentecost call us to reject the murky, downstream pursuits of self-reliance and instead seek the pure source of life found in God. At Pentecost, God comes down—not to control us, but to dwell within us, empowering us to live a Spirit-filled, unified, and abundant life. …

Never before, perhaps, has the relationship to death been so impoverished as in this time of spiritual desolation when men, in their rush to exist, seem to avoid all mystery. François Mitterrand

I have made many attempts to use my phone wallpaper as a reminder of what matters most. This one is proving fruitful. Thanks to jmk.me for pointing me towards Owen’s work.

Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. Wendell Berry.

This is a terrible, no good, very bad call. Ange achieved what no Spurs manager has since 2008. And he did so with absolute class.

We just returned from a pretty amazing nine days away that included over 3,000 miles of driving, five nights of camping, and lots of exploring. The American Southwest is simply beautiful.

But what if it is better to not be the first to know?

If you are on the fence about leaving Meta, and this article does not push you off that fence by permanently deleting your account, then you have never really been anywhere near the fence all along.

Have the child. Practice the religion. Found the school. Support the local theater, the museum, the opera or concert hall, even if you can see it all on YouTube. Pick up the paintbrush, the ball, the instrument. Learn the language — even if there’s an app for it. Learn to drive, even if you think …

I wrote a review of The Last Supper films for The Living Church this week. These are the notes I took in the theater that eventually became the review. The films reward the theological depth and biblical literacy of the audience, without requiring either for a cohesive viewing experience.

I am Tottenham through and through. And the two free kicks by Rice the Gooner against Real Madrid were simply phenomenal. (4:50 and 7:28) That they both happened in the same match against a world class keeper is borderline legendary.

So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. I come back to this Wendell Berry poem more frequently than any other. This line in particular is a wonderful foil to “Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer” from a few lines earlier. N.B. the poem …

In other words, maybe it would be best if our schools required students to explore what it is to be human by immersing themselves in millennia of human thought and creativity. Somebody should invent a new field of study to do just that. You could call it something like the humanities.

It seems to me that the children who are writing their own papers or studying for their own tests have an advantage here. They are learning to work, to write, to risk, to struggle, to fail, while these over-tutored children are learning to pay someone else to do work for them. How do you gain …

On Soccer and Catechesis: Catechizing my children as Spurs supporters is basically parallel to their catechesis into the Christian way: Both are a citizenship that leads to some daily joys and many momentary sorrows. For both, the true reward is mostly found on a distant shore. That is, when the spurs saints go marching in. …

The Good News: we are a Narinia family, and we read in Publication Order like good citizens of the heavenly city. The Bad News: Prince Caspian is nowhere to be found, and we just finished LWW with our four-year-old.

Well done, Arkansas State Parks, for rewarding a New Year’s hike! We tried a new trail at Devil’s Den State Park to kick off 2025 this year, and were happy to receive these stickers in the mail this week.

An Apple Shortcut to pray the Daily Office: In an ideal world, I pray the Daily Office with real books and by candlelight. In this world, I often find myself listening to Morning and Evening Prayer. Over the break I created this Shortcut that will load and play the correct audio Office depending on the time of day. You can edit or remove the …

Merry Christmas, from our filthy animals to yours!

A window pops up, blocking content, to encourage you to download the app for a better reading experience. In the app, a window pops up, blocking content, to encourage you to rate the app, since it is a better reading experience than the website. Because, remember, on the website a window pops …

This is a key to the permanent home of Coram Deo Academy of Dallas! This campus was founded in 2006, and has been searching for a permanent home since 2018. Generations of families will benefit from the work of this community at this time; laudate Dominum.

If the goal of AI is to be on par with human sales representatives, then AI has arrived. Which is to say: AI is as bad as human sales representatives. N.B. These offers are not even accurate when you follow the links.

An interesting homophone of topics from the last two podcasts I listened to: Serie A and Syria. Men in Blazers for the former, and Honestly for the later.

meat + fire + patience

Thanksgiving week reading: Finished The Man Who Was Thursday Started Shield the Joyous Started The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis

Oil and parts are not necessarily cheap, but it still remains a joy to pay the same to DIY an oil change on two vehicles—with full synthetic oil plus cabin, oil, and engine filters—for less than it costs to have someone else do the same for just one of your vehicles.

When I am able to sneak away for one night silent retreats, I often do so at a nearby Jesuit retreat center. A room was not available this week, so I took Bandit with me for one night of solo camping near Muenster, TX. It did not disappoint!

Audere est facare, indeed.

Are churches and schools trying to fully digitize their lives through over-reliance on a website, overuse of social media, and a felt need to embrace artificial intelligence at the same time that parents and parishioners are trying to wean themselves off these very things? I think yes.

My latest favorite browser tool is Stay Free. In addition to outright blocking a myriad of domains to avoid distraction and doomscrolling, I also am a big fan of their Limits on the Go mode. Websites on this list will prompt you for a session-specific time limit each time you visit that site.

The Premier League instability at the top these past few matches is all fun and games until your team is responsible for Ipswich picking up their first PL win in over twenty years. At home. Come on (good grief), you Spurs!

In this bodies we will live; in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life. Awake my soul. For you were made to meet your maker. Mumford.

My goodness, do yourself a favor and watch the highlights of Real Madrid and Dortmund from today’s match. The legendary Ray Hudson with the call. A poet of the beautiful game! His legs are on fire, his heart is racing, but his head is in the refrigerator. He knows where the goalposts are; …

While in New York on a family vacation we stopped by the Burke Library at Columbia to grab a quick picture with my Galatians book. Our youngest’s best question after we found it in the stacks: “Did you really think all of those words??”

St. Alphonsus on Uniformity with God's Will: I stumbled upon this brief text at church today, written by the 18th century Italian St. Alphonsus de Liguori. His distinction between conformity with God’s will and uniformity is helpfully described in the definitions below. And in the illustration that follows he excellently explains why it …

I am wrapping up an essay on three recent tech commercials that each typify a distinct approach to the role of technology: (1) technology as a tool, (2) technology as an Everything Machine, and (3) technology as a replacement for human activity. The commercials are from Instacart, Apple, and Google.

After a denial last spring by a count of 5 (against) to 1, the City Council has now unanimously approved our permit that will allow us to purchase a permanent home for our campus in the City of Richardson. Very grateful to our community for rallying support and showing up en masse!

Sermon: Humanity in Christ: A sermon on rest, interruptions, and what it means to be human. Mark 6 is the primary text. Proper 11, the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost 2024.

Sermon: Hungry for God (John 6): By moving Jesus’s words about his body and blood out of the Last Supper and into the context of this chapter, what is John trying to reveal about humanity, and what is John trying to reveal about Jesus? A sermon for Proper 13 2024: the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. The primary text is John …

The smile on Simone Biles' face at the end of her floor routine was the look of a woman who knows that she has run her race well, with all of its ups and downs. What an absolute joy to watch.

We finally started and finished a built-in bunk bed set for the kids and Bandit. This is the second time that Viv has drawn out an idea that I have mostly executed, with plenty of advice from friends and the internet along the way. Finishing touches: glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.

Classical And Anglican Conversion Part 2: This world is enchanted.: Part 2: This world is enchanted. This is the second exploration of the various realizations that contributed to my conversion into the worlds of Anglicanism and classical education at (roughly) the same time.

Not all updates happen automatically, and computer attacks often occur because people or businesses are slow to adopt patches sent by software companies to fix vulnerabilities—in essence, failing to take the medicine the doctors prescribe. In this case, the medicine itself hurt the patients. Kudos …

Those whose livelihood depends on this being “the most consequential election of our lifetime” are not the most trustworthy people to determine whether or not this is actually the case. The fact that it has been said about each of the past dozen elections should also cause us to reconsider.

God save the Kane. ⚽️

Classical And Anglican Conversion Part 1: God Is Infinitely Grand: This is the (perhaps?) first short exploration of the various realizations that contributed to my conversion into the worlds of Anglicanism and classical education at (roughly) the same time.

A stomach bug and multiple driving days have made it difficult, but my current run streak is alive and well at 30 days.

It was a bit of a scramble towards the end, and I’m really proud of our family for making it to this remarkable view of a 120 foot waterfall just outside of the Great Smoky Mointains National Park.

Running (on) the Appalachian Trail with Zoë (10) and Rowan (8).

Sermon: Praying Psalm 22 in the season of Lent: A sermon from Lent 2024 on adopting Psalm 22 as a prayer for Lent.

I am taking the next couple of days away from work in order to take a writing retreat to SMU’s Bridwell Library during work hours. Significant progress on day one towards the completion of a long-overdue manuscript.

Beef as a means of grace?

Kicking off the run streak again. Last one was 366 days and ended in March of 2022.

Josef Pieper on Work, Leisure, and Life as Gift: “The inmost significance of the exaggerated value which is set upon hard work appears to be this: man seems to mistrust everything that is effortless; he can only enjoy, with a good conscience, what he has acquired with toil and trouble; he refuses to have anything as a gift.” Joseph Pieper, …

A Poem: Baptized In The Jordan River: You don’t have to travel across the world to be baptized in the Jordan River; only through the space time continuum. By the power of the Spirit of God The still clear water of the modern font Becomes the flow of that ancient river; Cleansing you as it was itself once cleansed by him who came after …

Brad East’s observations ring true in my experience. Those who have moved on from points 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 may be “loosening” some modern evangelical convictions, but in doing so they are actually realigning with an older and more widespread Christian understanding of these things. …

AI, School, and You: This was a letter sent to our student body in May 2023 about the rise of AI in education. You can read an essay of mine that expands on these things here.

Let them be born in wonder: Let Them Be Born in Wonder is the title of an excellent article that highlights the work of the storied, but relatively short-lived, Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. Part of the reason the program no longer exists is that a disproportionate number of students in the program …

Christus est stella matutina, Qui nocte saeculi transacta Lucem vitae sanctis promittit Et pandit aeternam, Alleluia Christ is the morning star, who when the night of this world is past brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day. A prayer attributed to St. …

I am a happier, healthier, and more focused person when: I do not have email on my phone I do not have a web browser on my phone I go for a morning walk before looking at a screen I pray the morning office before looking at a screen These are undisputedly true. And I still find them hard to …

A Letter to the Class of 2024: On May 18, 2024, the Coram Deo Academy Dallas Campus graduated its first class of Seniors. Below is my message for that class, shared at the Class of 2024 Commencement Ceremony. There have been many times—perhaps more than I care to admit—that I have stood in the hallway outside the doorway to your …

The children “helping” with the leaves in the front yard.

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot, Choruses from The Rock

This past weekend served as a personal and professional watermark. Our six year journey of launching a Rhetoric School for the Coram Deo Academy Dallas Campus culminated in a Commencement ceremony during which Malcolm Guite blessed our seniors as our inaugural Honored Speaker.. I will forever …

There is more to say about Malcolm Guite’s visit to Coram Deo Academy and our home this weekend, but these photos capture some of the joy of watching my own children, our graduates, and many friends soak up time with him.

I do not think it will pass, but I am excited to see that Premier League clubs are voting next month to abolish VAR as early as next season. There is not any less controversy now than there was before VAR, and the impact it has had on the flow of the game is hard to overstate.

Today, it was finally announced that the new USL Super League team in Dallas is in fact in Dallas. Excited to see Dallas Trinity FC develop as a team in the months to come, and looking forward to seeing them at the Cotton Bowl this fall.

The iPad ad shows the true colors of much of the tech industry. These companies stopped making tools a long time ago. They now make Everything Machines that are designed to free us from the shackles of the analog world. Up next: freedom from the shackles of the physical world. This is Gnosticism …

What a perfect subtitle for this season of life: “unexpected demands on a man already tired.” Lewis goes on to rightly argue, through Uncle Screwtape, that the root issue lies in us holding the utterly unrealistic expectation that there will be no “unexpected demands” in the …

Working towards maintaining Inbox Zero while using an “as minimal as possible” setup for Apple Mail that I recently stumbled upon. What you can’t see in the screenshot is the Grayscale mode that remains enabled for MacOS, since screenshots ignore Color Filters.

An Ash Wednesday 2024 sermon for my parish and letter for my school community, prepared as we embark on another Lenten season together. This one comes with a reminder that Lent is not the Thing itself.

A lesson for all those who ever have to save and submit things online: USMNT forward Duncan McGuire’s deal to play in England this spring is now gone, following an unsuccessful appeal by Blackburn. Blackburn thought they had clicked “submit paperwork” on the English Football League’s transfer …

The result was there in the end, and it was thrilling attacking soccer as promised. Three goals within ten minutes of the second half kickoff. What a dream first season under Ange.

Paideia for Preachers—a new regular column I am writing for the Covenant blog of The Living Church—debuts today. If you find yourself teaching or preaching in any number of contexts, these regular glimpses into the Art of Rhetoric from ages past might help.

This is the final exam for one of the Rev. Dr. MLK, Jr’s courses at Morehouse College. I am encouraged by how similar it looks to the sort of exams our Rhetoric School students take, but discouraged by how it differs from our nation’s most common forms of assessment at similar levels.

We did not stop to ask why; we have been had.: When you used to store your family photos in physical albums, and then you were convinced to store them all on a hard drive, and then you were convinced by a large for-profit company to store them in the cloud for free, until the cloud became the only place your photos were stored, and the company …

It turns out this isn’t the first time that Ange’s first season at a new club has resulted in a host of hamstring injuries. I guess it makes sense that high-line front-footed Angeball takes some getting used to!

Large Language Models and the Art of Rhetoric: Many people are using large language models to write for them because they are acutely aware of their own deficiency in the art of rhetoric. But here is the rub: relying on these tools because you are already deficient in the art of rhetoric only makes you increasingly so. Multiply this out on a …

This is the face of a dog who loves his new family, but is still learning that when a member of that family leaves, they will come back eventually. We have also settled on a name for our sweet Blue Heeler mix: Bandit Dunny Jordan. A nod to our family’s elementary sense of humor and our love …

Baptized in the Jordan River: You don’t have to travel across the world to be baptized in the Jordan River; only through the space time continuum. By the power of the Spirit of God The still clear water of the modern font Becomes the flow of that ancient river; Cleansing you as it was itself once cleansed by him who came …

Currently reading: Life Is a Miracle by Wendell Berry 📚

A blessed Feast of the Epiphany!

The landscape of the Lower Falls at McKinney Falls State Park “looks like something out of Star Wars,” according to our kids. They aren’t wrong.

Before reading his newest Christmas Poem, Malcolm Guite comments on a glass of scotch on his desk: “It’s a Bunnahabhain—12 years old—it gives you the impression you exist.” Video and poem are here.

Relieved: The sun remains set but we are both awake. You more anxious than me To go outside. It isn’t until I feel the chill of the air That I realize You aren’t the only one Who has been holding it all night. “What’s the difference,” I ask “Between this and a camping trip? …

First family hike of the new year, and our first with Bandit! McKinney Falls State Park - one of our favorite spots in the Austin area.

The second half of Nottingham Forest vs Man U was exhilarating: a Matt Turner give-away that led to an equalizer, a Matt Turner save that led to a successful counter attack, three bold one-touch strikes, and Nuno guiding Forest to their first victory over Man U in nearly three decades.

I have moved all of the content from Substack to Micro.blog for my forthcoming book on Virtues and the Church Calendar. The Substack funds were helpful, but I would rather have the content available to all, and rely on some folks opting to buy me a moment (or two) to write!

An update on Rhythms of Habit (the book) and Substack.

The Altar Rail: The altar rail is a microcosm of a universe held together by sacrament. Imposed ashes speak louder than the words. The priest says “Remember thou art dust." But in their eyes, and his, it sounds more like “This year, or perhaps next, I will commend your ashes, not these." …

Steps towards a more analog 2024: 2024 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh. To properly mark the occasion, and in a nod to Steve Jobs—who never wanted our devices to become part of who we are—I am taking some intentional steps towards analoging my life. I will do this in two primary ways, one aesthetic, and one …

Merry Christmas from the newest member of our household! Happy to have a dog in the home again.

May He, who by His Incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with the fulness of inward peace and goodwill, and make you partakers of the Divine Nature; and the blessing of God almighty, + the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. …

Pleased to have Malcolm Guite as our Inaugural Honored Speaker at Coram Deo Academy Dallas!

Fables doing what fables do: remind us of something we need to hear, in a way that allows us to actually hear it.

Smartphones and stoplights: Smartphone and social media addiction is a real plague affecting younger generations. To deny this in any way is to be woefully and intentionally ignorant of reality. At the same time, part of the reason this is a problem in the first place is that the exact same is true of older generations. See …

Audere est facare, indeed! Or, as Pep himself said about Ange: “He makes football a better place.”

Councils, Creeds, Confessions ... and the Beautiful Game: To put a bow on the past few weeks we have spent discussing Councils, Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms, my Senior Theology class has an exciting task ahead of us this week: Use soccer as a running analogy for the Christian Church, and articulate where each of these things fit. For example, …

Putting up Christmas decorations is a lot more exciting when your eight-year-old loves climbing on the roof to help!

These are the people who are building the thing they don’t understand in hopes that it will outperform humanity in “anything and everything.” Everything is fine.

The New Yorker cover for the week of November 20.

While it was 0-0 until the 83’, the fact that the USMNT vs T&T match ended in a 3-0 victory helped make the trip to Austin and back worth it on a weeknight!

Google search results return a “featured snippet” that was generated by AI, and the results are what (many of us) might expect. Google search: “What is an African country beginning with K?” Snippet answer: “While there are 54 recognized countries in Africa, none of them begin with the letter ‘K.’ …

Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may …

I picked up digital—and hyperlinked—versions of the Syntopicon and the Great Books of the Western World to help students find great Classical through Enlightenment sources for their Capstone papers. Both are gifts to the English-speaking world, but the Syntopicon is really something special.

If you speak longer than you intended to—or longer than the occasion called for—you have not prepared too much. You have not prepared enough.

MLB commentators continue to dismiss the intentionality of Garcia being hit by a pitch in Game 5. “It couldn’t be on purpose; putting a second man on base doesn’t make sense.” They are completely ignoring the fact that baseball players are humans, not robots. We are not purely rational beings.

Not every Christian institution is rocked by scandal, and there are many Christian colleges that are healthy and vibrant, led by men and women of integrity. Yet as we witness systemic misconduct unfold at institution after institution after institution, often without any real accountability, we can …

I spoke with Adrienne Freas on her Classical Education podcast about some of the things I care about most as Headmaster: (1) unifying our whole community around our mission, (2) giving realm ownership to the right campus leaders, and (3) partnering with families and churches in virtue formation.

It would be conjecture to say how often or in what manner the Mother of God received the blessed sacrament. It is not hard to imagine that there must have been a flood of conflicting emotions that she would have experienced: grief at the loss she had suffered and that she could no longer hold her …

This is where we were sitting for the match winner in the 97' against Austin. What a view, and what a night to bring the whole family! As you can tell by all the light sabers, it was also Star Wars night.

Of the myriad and wonderful ways in which people differ from one another in personality, there are some that are harder for me to understand than others. Perhaps chief among them: using the speakerphone function in public.

Are you against computers, Socrates? Socrates: Of course not. Am I against brains? I am against confusion—against personalizing instruments and instrumentalizing persons—which is what is at stake in this philosophical question about human and computer intelligence. From Peter Kreeft’s …

This astonishment is indispensable if theology is to exist and be perpetually renewed as a modest, free, critical, and happy science. If such astonishment is lacking, the whole enterprise of even the best theologian would canker at the roots. On the other hand, as long as even a poor theologian is …

One for the soccer diary ages: When it was 4-3 Dallas in the 84’ and Messi had a free kick on his left foot from outside the box, 20,000 people all knew what was going to happen. And it did. Tough loss, but soccer and FCD both showed really well.

We encountered a Starlink Streak on a walk last night. I assumed it was Starlink, but enjoyed not knowing for certain for a moment.

I am entering my 14th year serving in some capacity in our school. Last year was my first not to teach any classes. It nearly drove me mad; D.V. that won’t happen again! I am looking forward to returning to the classroom this year to teach Latin to fifth graders and Theology to seniors.

If FC Dallas beats Nexaca on Tuesday and Nexaca beats Charlotte on Saturday and Atlanta beats Miami on Tuesday and Atlanta beats Cruz Azul on Saturday, then I might have a shot at having a shot at buying tickets to see Messi in Frisco, TX in the coming weeks. So you’re saying there’s a chance! ⚽️

After not attending a soccer match since April, I will now be attending three in the next week: two FC Dallas League Cup matches, and a Barcelona vs Real Madrid friendly being played at AT&T Stadium. This has inspired me to start a soccer diary that serves as a log of the matches I watch. ⚽️

Remarks: Rhetoric Capstone Presentations: Juniors at Coram Deo Academy research, write, defend, and present a rather impressive Capstone paper. The remarks below were shared the evening that our Dallas Campus Junior shared their capstones with our community. I am encouraged by many things this evening, but I would like to name two of them. …

Here is a fascinating essay about the life, faith, and legacy of Dr. John Goodenough, who (1) has an excellent last name, and (2) made the scientific breakthrough that led to the Lithium-Ion battery.

I have updated my Writing page to include quick links to a number of my recent written works, including a few Letters from the Headmaster that I have shared with our learning community over the years.

A birthday gift from my wife and several good friends. I sold my last guitar towards the end of undergrad, and have been meaning to pick one up for the past sixteen years or so. It’s like riding a bike.

Year 10 of Adventure Trip of the South (ATOTS) in the books! The first big hike from 8500 to 11500 was a beating, but worth it. The Alite chair I purchased for ATOTS 1 in 2013 finally broke on the last day of ATOTS 10. It’s been a good decade!

Lionel Messi to the MLS is truly stunning.

An attempt to harness technology as a tool to accomplish what I find to be most important in life. Blank App for shortcuts and Venite for the daily office.

The Mediterranean: a rather stunning cradle of civilization.

Pentecost and Genesis 11: Nothing they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Pentecost: Nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. The opening eleven chapters of the book of Genesis seek to explain why the world is the way it is. And though these stories were first told thousands of years ago, they offer a surprisingly accurate vision of our world, even today. The …

In the Judaean desert, on an unexpected trip of a lifetime a week before our 15 year anniversary.

Church of the Annunciation, Nazareth.

Moral idiots and a liberal arts education: The paragraph below, from Alan Jacobs, is an important one to comprehend. The rest of his post helps frame some of the wider issues at hand, and points to other helpful works for those seeking to read more widely on these things. I want to make a stronger argument: that the distinctive …

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil. These are the three forces that aim to tear down the creatures of God. And in the Good Shepherd discourse, Jesus sets himself against the final of these forces: evil itself..

What an exciting turn of events it would be to see Wrexham promoted to League Two and Chelsea relegated to the Championship in the same season. Not entirely likely, but certainly possible.

Being part of a Diocesan email listserv and serving as a parish priest both mean that I regularly read announcements of death. This also means that I regularly read about death in theologically rich language. Our sister in Christ was born into the greater life. May she rest in peace, and rise in …

Letter to Students: On ChatGPT, for now: You happen to be a student at a fascinating moment in the history of information and technology. It is not unlike being a student in the years when the search engine, or the personal computer, or even the printing press were first popularized. ChatGPT, and other instances of AI, offer a new way of …

Soccer is an icon of virtue ethics, and as such it is a form of leisure that points us to what it means to be a moral creature.

Remarks: An introduction to our Rhetoric Capstone Student Presentations: I am encouraged by many things this evening, but I would like to name two of them. First, I am encouraged to know that this is a place where students are trained to think deeply, slowly, and theologically about things that matter a great deal. Juniors, your presence here this evening and your work …

If It Be Your Will by Leonard Cohen is sung from the perspective of Jesus from his arrest and trial through the harrowing of hell, right?

Good Friday: All this he did for you.In a cold, dark, room somewhere abroad a small group of naked, tired, hungry, and defeated captives are huddled in the corner. They’ve lost count of the hours, days, weeks, and years since they've experienced anything close to a normal life. One night, in the middle of a …

Maundy Thursday: Learning from Jesus “on the night in which he was betrayed.”In first-century Galatia, a small but powerful group of teachers insisted that anyone who wanted to become a Christian must show that they are truly Christian through some outward sign. A very specific outward sign, in fact: circumcision. …

Because of our sophisticated watches and our ability to schedule our days down to the minute with the push of a button, it is easy for us to misunderstand what time is and how it actually works. Not all weeks are created equal. And this is no ordinary week.

Holy Week: This is no ordinary week.A quick note before this edition of the newsletter: Holy Week culminates in a final service on Saturday Evening: The Easter Vigil. If you happen to be in the Dallas area this Easter, come see us at Church of the Incarnation for what I find to be the most moving of all …

To all those who love soccer, and to those who don’t but love someone who does. The dedication page of Laurent Dubois’ The Language of the Game

On Leisure and Work (Josef Pieper): One of Josef Pieper’s central claims in his 1948 Leisure: The Basis of Culture is this: we place too much value on hard work, and as a result our happiness, productivity, art, and ability to flourish as a human society is suffering. Here are just a few nuggets from the book: The inmost significance …

St. Joseph, March 19 (Usually): St. Joseph is a model of quiet, often thankless work that paves the way for Jesus to be known and loved. The Feast of St. Joseph is usually celebrated on March 19th. When specific Feasts fall on a Sunday, their observance is usually transferred to the following weekday. This is because every Sunday …

What was before him appeared no longer a creature of corrupted will. It was corruption itself, to which will was only attached as an instrument. Ages ago it had been a person, but the ruins of personality now survived in it only as weapons at the disposal of a furious self-exiled negation. …

GPT-4 scores well on a variety of common academic benchmarks, but I am most intrigued—though not surprised—by where it falls comparatively short: AP Language and Composition (Rhetoric) and AP Literature and Composition. These are the most humane benchmarks it has encountered.

A view from the Supporters Section after a late first-half equalizer this weekend. An early birthday + father’s day gift of FC Dallas season tickets being put to good use! FCD went on to beat LA Galaxy 3-1.

Lessons from Nicodemus this Lent: The problem with humanity is not a lack of information. You and I are not one New York Times opinion piece away from a changed life. Our first, second, and final step towards abundant life is to recognize, embrace, and (eventually) enjoy our dependence on God.

Lent as an Exercise in Dependence: Becoming more human in an age of informationIn 1948, Claude Shannon published a paper on the Theory of Information and Communication that set the stage for an understanding of Information as data - bits of sound that are capable of being transmitted in an orderly fashion across great distances. …

The eve of Ash Wednesday 2023 is a good time to remember that fasting is an exercise that leads to strength, not weakness.

Lent: Effort and Grace in Action : One of my favorite bits of dialogue in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring presents us with an age-old debate about spiritual disciplines in general, and the Christian season of Lent in particular. Before embarking on their Journey to Mordor, Elrond—the Lord of Rivendale—shares a final message with …

The final chapters of Esther provide us with a reminder of why we have a liturgical calendar in the first place, and a framework for approaching these seasons of subsequent fasting and feasting. Read more from my latest essay for Covenant.

A rediscovery of Moral Beauty?: Paul Vitz once said that in our age we will recover—or rather rediscover—many traditional beliefs and practices, and that we will do so primarily through science and the intellect. Perhaps this is in that vein? Dacher Keltner’s (UC Berkeley) forthcoming book Awe describes a study that sought to …

But the Turing test cuts both ways. You can’t tell if a machine has gotten smarter or if you’ve just lowered your own standards of intelligence to such a degree that the machine seems smart. If you can have a conversation with a simulated person presented by an AI program, can you tell how far …

English soccer is worth watching in its own right, but it does not hurt that its commentators have quite the way with words. Case in point: Peter Drury’s comments following Harry Kane’s 267th goal for Tottenham, surpassing the record previously held by Jimmy Greaves. He sits on Tottenham’s loftiest …

This must be the New Math everyone is talking about?

ChatGPT and tools like it are not the end of the world, but they do highlight a worrying trend: we have an increased appetite for seeking information over wisdom. In my opinion, the recovery of a better way begins with a rediscovery of the beauty of the Incarnation itself.

Rest in Peace, Benedict XVI: Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life. Even though, as I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling, I am nonetheless of good cheer, for I trust firmly that the Lord is not only the just judge, but also the friend and brother who himself has …

Merry Christmas from the Jordan family. (Shown here in both our forced and natural poses. I will let you determine which is which for each of us…)

O Emmanuel: Come, O God with usFriends, The final O Antiphon of Advent is below—in its Latin and English forms. Subscribers can keep reading below the image for a short reflection and another response poem by the brilliant Fr. Malcolm Guite. I hope these brief moments of reading and reflection have helped you …

O Rex Gentium: Come, O King of NationsFriends, Today’s O Antiphon is below—in its Latin, English, and adapted forms. Subscribers can keep reading below the image for a short reflection and another response poem by the brilliant Fr. Malcolm Guite. I hope these brief moments of reading and reflection help you …

O Oriens: Come, O DayspringFriends, Today’s O Antiphon is below—in its Latin, English, and adapted forms. Subscribers can keep reading below the image for a short reflection and another response poem by the brilliant Fr. Malcolm Guite. I hope these brief moments of reading and reflection help you capture the …

O Clavis David: Come, O Key of DavidFriends, Today’s O Antiphon is below—in its Latin, English, and adapted forms. Subscribers can keep reading below the image for a short reflection and another response poem by the brilliant Fr. Malcolm Guite. I hope these brief moments of reading and reflection help you capture …

O Radix Jesse: Come, O Root of JesseFriends, Today’s O Antiphon is below—in its Latin, English, and adapted forms. Subscribers can keep reading below the image for a short reflection and another response poem by the brilliant Fr. Malcolm Guite. I hope these brief moments of reading and reflection help you capture …

O Adonai: Come, O LordFriends, Today’s O Antiphon is below—in its Latin, English, and adapted forms. Subscribers can keep reading below the image for a short reflection and another response poem by the brilliant Fr. Malcolm Guite. I hope these brief moments of reading and reflection help you capture the heart …

O Sapientia: Come, O WisdomChristians throughout the ages have spent the final week of Advent singing, praying, and reflecting upon the seven great O Antiphons. These ancient verses have been captured in the lyrics of the great hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel, but existed far before the hymn itself. These O …

The final week of Advent means it is time for the seven O Antiphons. I find these to be helpful antidotes to the business of the final week before Christmas. You can subscribe to Rhythms of Habit today to receive daily reflections on these antiphons between now and Christmas.

Fourth Week of Advent: Salvation: Jesus is EmmanuelWe all already follow a wide variety of calendars. Sometimes those calendars conflict with one another. (I am serving this morning at Church while the World Cup final is being played, for example. Two of my favorite calendars are not playing well together…) Of all the Church …

A lesson in governance as I navigate changing traffic signal timing for a light near our school: The people I interact with in the city office are very helpful, from the Director to the phone operators. The processes they are tied to are mind-numbinly bad.

Third Week of Advent (Rejoice!): The One With the Pink CandleLiturgical colors—those featured in various Holy Days and Holy Seasons—do more than remind us of what season we are in. (Though that is always helpful.) In a future post we’ll explore the ins and outs of these colors—what they signify and what they do to us. But I mention …

A full few days of putting up lights, a family hike, USA soccer, basketball, Bob Goff, and work on the playhouse.

Second Week of Advent: Advent as a call to joy through repentance.There are some things that are very real, and yet very invisible. We often see the result of these things, but the thing itself remains unseen. Wind may be a good example. Wind is very real—nobody would argue with that. But it is also very invisible. There …

I named our sunroom lights by their cardinal directions, not expecting political commentary gems like this one when routines don’t work as expected.

Are you in organizational leadership in any capacity? I’d love some advice. What helps you: Make sure you personally spend your best time and energy on things that matter most. (Daily and weekly.) Keep track of the goals, growth, and needs of people you most directly oversee.

Advent is about preparation for judgement, and that is actually a good thing. Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.

First Week of Advent: Advent as preparation for judgement.What is the theme of each week of Advent? and What do each of the Advent candles represent? are the sort of questions that illicit a wide range of answers. It is probably most common today for the themes of Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy to be linked to each of the …

An under-appreciated mark of a truly great sports commentator: knowing when to say nothing. Messi scored, and there was a 45 second period of commentary silence followed by a subtle, “It had to be him.”

Advent is coming. Time to set some intentions for this Holy New Year.

Advent is Coming: Set your Intentions: A Holy New YearThe Church Year begins afresh tomorrow with the First Sunday of Advent! Some of you recently began intentionally following the Church Calendar and are looking for ways to be more formally shaped by this ancient practice. Others of you have followed the calendar for years, and have a …

Oh no. It has happened. I tried to prevent it by asking reason to temper my expectations. But mere hours before kickoff … I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN. USA is taking home the trophy.* *or advancing to the Round of 16 and remaining competitive in their first knockout match.

I just finished reading Pillars of the Earth. It was published when I was four years old, but seems to have been written for me to read at this exact age (37). Great books tend to feel like that, don’t they?

An unusally free Saturday means that I had a chance to make some good progress on the playhouse.

I am pretty sure the title “Queen of Christmas” is already taken.

Leaving Twitter is a small but important first step towards a healthier relationship with technology, your neighbor, and your self. Not because of Musk, but because Big Social is shrinking our souls.

The final first-person verb of the Nicene Creed helps us remember that the Christian faith is more than mental affirmation of truth. It involves a shaping of hopes and desires. We believe (x4) We acknowledge (x1) We look for the resurrection of the dead …

All Souls Day is a helpful antidote to our death-anemic culture that oscillates between ignoring and overly-fearing this experience shared by all living creatures. All Souls Day helps us to remember that thou art dust … and to look for the resurrection of the dead.

All Saints Day and All Souls Day : November 1 and November 2Thank you for subscribing to Rhythms of Habit! As we enter the month of November, it is worth noting that Advent—the beginning of the Church Year—is quickly approaching. If you know someone who may enjoy these emails as we enter a new Christian year together, please …

The farmer and the pig.

Settled on a good use of a corner of our new backyard: building a playhouse for the kids. (Current ages 9, 7, and 2.)

I paused the Tottenham match I was watching in the 95th minute to wake up my daughter so she could rewatch Kane’s goal with me. And then we discovered together that the goal was under review… My fault? Sure. VAR ruining the beautiful game? Absolutely.

Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as have fallen because of the tongue. … As you fence in your property with thorns, so make a door and a bolt for your mouth. A gem from Ecclesiasticus found in today’s Daily Office Lectionary.

St. James of Jerusalem: October 23While this is not your standard Rhythms of Habit email, I wanted to send out a quick note today about St. James of Jerusalem, along with a request. The RequestPlease send me your questions about the Church Calendar! It has been a joy hearing from many of you as you enter more deeply into …

My wife returned this weekend from a two week pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. My latest piece at Covenant is about my experience trying to walk the pilgrim way while caring for our kids here at home. It was my own Camino de Solo Dad.

I do not love it when a match is decided by PKs—they are a terrible way to lose—but it was quite the experience being in the stands last night when FC Dallas advanced on Velasco’s Panenka. What’s a Panenka, you ask?

The two teams I support most have coaches who insists on their “System” even when the results are not (yet/always?) positive. I trust Conte when he says “trust the system” more than I do when Berhalter says the same. Here’s hoping for a surprise on the later come World …

The seven day week as a microcosm of the Church Calendar. Read more here.

Every Friday is Good Friday: The seven day week as a microcosm of the Church Calendar.The Church Calendar, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent and concluding with the Feast of Christ the King, is an intentional re-living of the life of Christ year after year. In Advent we anticipate his Incarnation that we celebrate …

Slowly but surely, my Run Thy Neighborhood project continues. Today’s run completed the outer frame of a neighborhood and a half, and a few missing street portions. Still a long way to go: I have completed 29/1240 Richardson streets so far. (Literally) One step at a time.

St. Michael and All Angels: September 29: A celebration of heavenly beings in an overly-materialistic world. The monastery Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of normandy. | Peter Visser (Flickr)In the preface to his infamous Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis notes the following about our attitudes towards heavenly beings. There are …

Three years ago today I was ordained a Priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.

The USAMNT proceeded to cough the ball up 54 times inside their own half in the first half alone. Think about that for a minute and it becomes almost impressive: they gave the ball away 1.2 times per minute. Unfathomable. Ouch. But it’s just a friendly, right? RIGHT???

My Run Thy Neighborhood goal hit a first milestone today: Heights Park (my actual neighborhood) is complete. On to Arapaho Heights next!

Why celebrate Saints? : The church calendar trains us to honor most those people most worthy of being honored.Different Christian Traditions have various official and unofficial ways of canonizing or otherwise recognizing the faithful departed whose lives of holiness have made a profound impact on the Body of Christ. Some …

A change I made to my work email last week has proven quite fruitful: Emails that I am copied on now skip the inbox and go directly to a CC folder. I check that folder once or twice a day. With this one change, my work inbox has has gone from hundreds to dozens of daily emails.

Tottenham’s “win or tie even when it’s ugly” approach has finally caught up to them. I would not want to be sitting near Antonio Conte on the flight back to England… I still think they wind up on top of their Champion’s League group, but this is a much needed …

One of the benefits of following the Church calendar is the nearly constant reminders that it brings. Holy Cross Day (September 14) is a great example of this: squarely on the other side of the calendar from Good Friday, we are reminded again of the centrality of the Cross.

Holy Cross Day: September 14Calendars, by their very nature, are reminders of important things we already know but that we risk forgetting in the business of life. One of the benefits of adopting the practice of following the Church calendar is the nearly constant reminders that come along with it. Holy Cross Day, …

O earth, how like to heav’n, if not preferred The opening line of Satan’s soliloquy in Book IX of Paradise Lost.

Grass: the great American contribution to world soccer this fall. The seed, developed by a Georgia-based company, has been selected by FIFA, which has instructed Qatar 2022 organisers to use it for playing surfaces at all stadiums and training grounds.

Introducing Rhythms of Habit - a newsletter about approaching the church calendar as an apprenticeship in holiness: I am thrilled to introduce Rhythms of Habit, a newsletter about approaching the Church Calendar as an apprenticeship in Holiness. In addition to (hopefully) being a helpful and informative newsletter, this project is also a means of finalizing the draft of my next book, called Rhythms of Habit: The …

St. Joseph, March 19: St. Joseph is a model of quiet, often thankless work that paves the way for Jesus to be known and loved. George Weigel describes the history of God’s dealing with humanity as “an extraordinary story involving some utterly ordinary people.” An adopted son of a slave with a speech impediment is used …

Intro 3: Why We Need a Calendar: You are what you scheduleImagine today is January 2nd, and a friend bumps into you in the produce aisle of the local grocery store. After picking up the groceries that fell out of your hand you make eye contact and say “Happy New Year” followed by an awkward smile. Your “Happy New Year” is …

Intro 2: Why We Need Habits: Becoming like Jesus by adopting his pattern of lifeOn Thursday, January 15th, a miracle took place in New York. Or so some people say. Flight 1549 took off from LaGurdia headed for Charlotte, NC only to run into a flock of geese minutes later. The damage to the engines was extensive, and it soon …

Intro 1: Why Holiness Matters: "Works" is not a dirty wordLet your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. …

Introducing Rhythms of Habit: A newsletter about approaching the Church Calendar as an apprenticeship in Holiness.Welcome to Rhythms of Habit, a newsletter about approaching the Church Calendar as an apprenticeship in Holiness. As we live out the Christian Year together, three types of posts will be published: Introductory: …

Rest in peace, and rise in glory, Elizabeth II. : The late Queen Elizabeth II played the hand she was dealt about as well as it could possibly have been played, and this required her to exercise virtues that few of our public figures today even know exist: dutifulness; reliability; silence; dignity; fidelity; devotion to God, family, and nation. We …

This is the moment George W. Bush heard that a second plane had crashed into the WTC.

FWIW: amateur comes from the Latin (via French) amatorem: lover. An amateur does a thing primarily for the love of that thing.

More than a few friends have slowly become fans of The Beautiful Game by way of two things: (1) My own peer pressure / love for the game (2) My introduction of @ayjay’s review of The Language of the Game

Or put another way: what we need most in moments of conflict are the humanities, and what we are offered instead is a dangerous parody. My latest essay for The Living Church.

Two Football Notes: With more Americans playing in top flight European leagues than ever, and performing especially well in the Premier League, it is hard to not let USMNT World Cup anticipation and expectations grow every weekend. Sure, it could all be a set up for an extremely disappointing winter. But it could also …

Rich Mullins was the greatest of the 90s era evangelical musicians. (If you know the era, you know the era…) I often find myself thinking through lines still engrained in my head from songs like this one.

After the year-long run streak finished in March, I fell off the bandwagon for a couple of months. Picking it back up by trying to run every street in my neighborhood (Heights Park) and then city (Richardson). Progress map after a few runs this week.

There are 82 years between these two: my daughter (2) and my grandmother (89), both hiking Red Rocks on our annual two week vacation.

My article on social media and virtue that recommends M.b as a viable alternative to Big Social was published today by The Living Church. Social Media that doesnt shrink your soul?

Our ancestors sharing what they saw when they checked in on our “progress”: They have dwellings, but they often pay people to destroy them because they are outdated. And then they pay those same people to put them back together in a style that will soon be outdated.

There are a few pivotal moments recorded in the Gospels that give us a glimpse into Jesus’ life after the resurrection. But this Sunday’s Gospel is different: it is an Easter-themed flashback to before the Passion that helps us make sense of both the full and the empty tomb.

Began reading these two books today; one for professional and the other for personal reasons. I suspect both will have an impact in both realms.

Glory, glory, Tottenham Hotspur!

On End of Year Academic Awards Ceremonies: An excerpt from my opening remarks at our Rhetoric School Awards Ceremony. The most important things in life cannot be captured on a certificate. When my wife gave birth to our children, she was not handed a certificate. (Oddly enough, each of them were!) When a man dies at the age of 93 having …

I am not sure we are going to “Redefine” education with QR codes…

Wendell Berry’s poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front is all the more impressive/beautiful/haunting for having been first published in 1973.

Wrapping up a draft for my next Covenant piece that tries to answer the question Is there an alternative to Big Social that doesn’t shrink our souls? My three suggestd alternatives three years after I quit Big Social: the text thread, the newsletter, and Micro.blog.

Scrapped idea for another day: A scrapped idea for this year’s Easter Vigil sermon that I think would be interesting to pursue eventually: I think you can find many, if not all, of Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief in the various reactions to the news of the Resurrection of Jesus found throughout the Gospels. That is …

A One Year Run Streak: Today I completed a 365 day run streak. I have run at least one mile per day for the past year. To mark the occasion, below are some initial reflections, interesting stats from the past year, plus a thought about what comes next. Initial Reflections You can do just about anything once a day. Most …

On the Lower Slopes of Worship: We are all beginners in the liturgy, really. All of us—from the first-time visitor who finds himself pain helplessly through the Prayer Book wondering what is happening, to the aged priest who has known it all by heart for half a century—are only on the lower slopes of worship. If the great seraphim …

'Man is what he eats.’ With this statement the German materialist philosopher Feuerbach thought he had put an end to all ‘idealistic’ speculations about human nature. In fact, however, he was expressing, without knowing it, the most religious idea of man. For the Life of the World, Alexander …

But a new major era seems to be just beginning in the shadow of the old and dying modernism. I have a name for it, for what it’s worth. I call it trans-modernism. We’re moving into a new historical period in which we will rediscover the validity of a lot of our traditional understanding, but we’re …

Since the beginning of recorded history, empires and civilizations have risen and fallen; sometimes they would seem to have completely disappeared. It would probably be truer to say that the races who have developed the varying civilizations have disappeared, but that their gifts to the world have …

An observation after having run every day for 297 days in a row: The first mile is almost always the worst/hardest mile of any run.

That’s why he and two co-authors—Dweck and Greg Walton of Stanford—recently performed a study that suggests it might be time to change the way we think about our interests. Passions aren’t “found,” they argue. They’re developed. From a much appreciated article by Olga Khazan—especially for those of …

Change your name, and fool the angel of death. Read more from my recent article for the Feast of the Holy Name here.

Spent some time reflecting on Psalm 91, vocation, the Daily Office, work and life balance, and more on a good friend’s podcast this week. Give it a listen here!

Working title for a writing project I am chipping away at these days: Presence in a Virtual Age: a sacramental theology you didn’t know you needed

I have to imagine that those who work towards developing or are in any way excited about the Metaverse have only ever watched the first five minutes of a Black Mirror episode.

I'm not so sure that the problem with Twitter is that people are feeling the need to hold back from posting on Twitter... Also, there is a name for what "holds people back" from posting: Temperance.

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is essential background reading for the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). The parallels and inversions between the two are uncanny.

From mocking him, to being intrigued as I learned more about his personal life (including his visit to the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, where I spent some time before my ordination), to a borderline fascination with the man, I am now listening to Matthew McConaughey narrate his autobiography. …

Three quick thoughts as I approach two months without a smart phone. I don't need a smartphone.Very few day-to-day companies on the planet believe #1 is true.I sometimes don't believe #1 is true. From confused phone carriers to pick-up orders to Amazon needing to verify that I am actually me when I …

The basic temptation in the Garden of Eden boils down to this: Take, eat. This food is your path towards independence from your Creator. Towards reliance on yourself alone. In this bite lies the ability to define your own world. To reorder the universe around your own desires.

Whereas refusing to read these authors and learn about their worlds — or to do so merely in order to melt them down in the moral acids of our own unexamined certainties — is to close ourselves off both from our own past and from the possibility of living a fully self-aware life in the present. That …

Catholicism is a very tangible business—it's about seeing and hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling as much as it's about texts and arguments and ideas. George Weigel, Letters to a Young Catholic

Christians have apparently been praying for AD 2020 for quite some time… From The Great Litany, which will open our Advent services tomorrow.

introducing istherepublicstillintact.com (This was an oddly theraputic way to spend thirty minutes.)

Someone needs to purchase istherepublicstillintact.com and update with a simple “Yes" or “No" so that we can all get on with our lives this week.

Is there an indiweb/open alternative to Strava, etc.? I also use Smashrun, but would love a site that visualizes all of my data, not just runs.

Spent most of the past month working through potential return-to-school guidelines. This just about sums up the experience thus far. From Aesop’s Fables for Children.

From a sermon preached in 2007 by Archbishop Rowan Williams.

Re-reading Watership Down with a group if incoming high school freshmen this summer has been a real treat. Never thought I would say that about a book about bunnies…

Today’s (road trip + birthday) breakfast. Austin has its fair share of great brisket, and Valentina’s is up there.

All work email is officially blocked on all devices for the next eight days. One of the few true breaks from work in the year. Looking forward to it … especially after the withdrawal dissipates.

Ready for another season of (mostly) news-free online life. Freedom is now setup to perpetually block all news sites other than one local site and the Economist. A few of my favorite columnist are available via RSS.

It is called saving, and, when possible, it is among the most tangible ways you can set yourself up to love your neighbor in times of crisis.

top education officials detail plans to open public schools for in-person classes this fall. By “detail plans” they actually mean “force individual Texas schools to become experts in epidemiology and take the fall if what they come up with leads to a massive outbreak.”

But a deeper question lurks beneath this debate: are these services making you a better or worse version of yourself? On social media and character, by Cal Newport.

A freeing principle to adopt in the social media world: Having a reason to maintain presence on a particular social media platform does not mean that you should maintain a presence on a particular social media platform. Everyone has reasons to stay; not everyone should.

The City of Dallas reacting to the fact that the entire city has been doing some spring cleaning during Quarintine 2020.

Taken as a whole, the (Book of Common Prayer) is the ritual celebration of the seasons of our lives from birth to death in the light of the gospel. Frank Griswold, in the foreword to Go In Peace, a small book on the Art of Hearing Confessions.

If we're the time's lords: If we’re the time’s lords, we don’t determine when to celebrate feasts by looking at the phases of the moon. Paul goes apoplectic when Christians submit to the “elementary things” in the heavens (Gal. 4:8-11; Col. 2:16). As time lords, we have authority to decide when and how to celebrate. We must …

The Pagans said 'Look': They said ‘Vide, look! How the love one another.’ They did not say, ‘Aude, listen to the Christians’ message’; they did not say ‘Lege, read what they write. Hearing and reading were important … But we must not miss the reality: the pagans said look! Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early …

Leadership is often a matter of failing people’s expectations at a rate they can stand. Ronald Heifetz As a priest and school administrator in the midst of the COVID pandemic, I think I agree…

Very interested to read how folks have approached migrating personal sites/blogs from WP to MB, specifically in setting up different streams on MB for micro and long posts. Any direction here?

How to Stop Loving Your Phone: Becoming detached from my phone and off-hours email access started well over two years ago. The list below represents the gradual progression to where I am today. (Notes in parenthesis are updates based on changes since the list was first written.) Disable all push notifications except Phone and …