Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 42

Fasting Fridays 1

I am stealing these ideas from Deacon Nick Senger and will put them in this space piecemeal each Friday during Lent with my own comments in boldface. I will try to do some of this stuff, but there’s no way one person can do it all.  If something grabs you, give it a whirl. Give […]

Weaponizing Piety

There’s an old gag among Catholics about the ‘Judas Shuffle’. Judas, it is frequently noted, was the first Catholic to leave Mass early. It’s a funny gag and it has a real point: Mass is not supposed to be approached with a Minimum Daily Adult Requirement mentality where we slip in late, get the sacramental […]

Prayer Wednesday 1

A Prayer from Soon to be St. John Henry Newman: God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. […]

Some Hope and Healing from the Spirit

A walk a day keeps the diabetes at bay, so I spend an hour or two ambling the neighborhood most days. It just generally feels good and it’s been helping me drop pounds slowly too (down to about 263-265, which makes me happy). Most of the time, when I walk, I make that my prayer […]

Almsgiving Monday 1

I decided to try something a bit different this Lent.  The classic Lenten practices are almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.  Jesus talks about them in the section of the Sermon on the Mount dealing with works of piety (Matthew 6:1-18). He is, of course, not inventing these practices (they were already ancient in Judaism when Jesus […]

Something cool for a Saturday

Thoughts on My Brutal Friday Penance

My wife and I were amused to discover that, according to The Rules, we have now achieved sufficient geezerhood to be exempt from the Church’s fast and abstinence discipline during Lent. We shall, of course, fast and abstain all the same. This means, in the American Church of the early 21st Century the following But […]

Living Lent When You Stink at It

I’m pretty lousy at doing Lent.  So I’m a natural for yakking about it since (just between you and me) you’re pretty lousy at it too, no?  Seriously, who says, “I am the greatest penitent of all time!” We all do a lousy job at Lent, by and large, because Lent is about repentance and […]

Ash Wednesday

This strange time of life hidden in brown death. The earth still crusted with ice. Birds still seek their meager seeds and fight this Goliath of cold as big as the world. Out they peek from under wing as the rising sun makes the sky pearl and winter’s unblinking stare loses its nerve. Crocuses are […]

The End of Ordinary Time

…till Pentecost is past. I like the concept of ‘Ordinary Time’. The Tradition is fond of ordinary things. God chose ordinary things to be the matter of his sacraments. Water, bread, wine, oil. Dime a dozen stuff. And he chose ordinary people to be his apostles. Indeed, he himself entered into ordinary life as a […]