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 the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
G.K. Chesterton
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!
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 we took during one of our 5am visits to a nearly empty Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the latest addition to our prayer desk. Also featured: an icon my wife brought home from the Camino, and small rubber Jesus courtesy of 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.
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 more polished attempt: Opening Premise Humans are better off when they spend more time talking with family, friends, and neighbors than they do listening to strangers.
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?
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 may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.
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.