Jonathan Ryan's Blog, page 11
February 21, 2021
TKUG–Staycation Edition
My school closed down for “February Vacation” last week. Since nobody else in my family had the time off, and since I do not have enough vacation time left to manage a mandatory 2-week quarantine if I travel, I couldn’t go visit my parents in Florida. That meant I had to keep myself occupied for […]
February 19, 2021
Dark Devotional: You Want It Darker?
“When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. “Nice bit of verbal wriggling there, Lord,” I mutter […]
February 18, 2021
Sick Pilgrims’ Progress: A Lenten Series
“Lent is a journey of return to God…It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends.”—Pope Francis in his Ash Wednesday homily For so many of us, it feels like this whole year […]
February 17, 2021
Yippee, It’s Lent. Again.
“Hey, Mom. Are you excited about Ash Wednesday?” This is my daughter, who gets excited about everything out of the ordinary, from President’s Day to going to the doctor’s office for a shot. It’s pretty ironic that she’s my child, since I love the mundane so much that I used to co-author a blog devoted […]
February 16, 2021
Let the Good Times Roll!
When I was a freshman in parochial high school, the nun I had as a French teacher deadpanned that the French are the worst Catholics in the world. The idea of being on their best behavior for the 40 days of Lent was too much to bear, so they invented Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) […]
February 15, 2021
TKUG: Rolling Up on Lent Edition
Time flies when you are having fun (at home. In a pandemic.). Lent begins this week. So here are a few bits of lighthearted fun that are keeping me going before I solemnly consider my own death for the forty days leading up to Easter: Pitchers and Catchers Report this week! Few things in […]
February 12, 2021
Dark Devotional: A Call to Change
We do one thing or another; we stay the same or we change. Congratulations, if you have changed. Mary Oliver, “To Begin with, the Sweet Grass” Change is an interesting phenomenon in the Christian tradition. On the one hand, the strong Aristotelian and Thomistic underpinnings of Christian theology assert that God […]
February 7, 2021
Things Keeping Us Going for February 8
As a teacher and an total bookworm, going to the public library every week has long been a treasured part of my regular routine. Covid-19 restrictions closed the public libraries in my state for several months, recently reopening with significant restrictions. I miss my time in the stacks as much as I’ve missed anything. While […]
February 6, 2021
Dark Devotional: I Have Questions
The Job story does NOT sit well with me. At all. Why, I wonder, was the Book of Job included in our sacred canon? Is it because misery loves company? Today’s reading from Job likely resonates with you, no matter where in the world you are. A full year into the global pandemic, relief […]
February 3, 2021
Joseph Jacobson (a.k.a. Joseph Helison) Did Not Beget Jesus Josephson
Naming names: St. Joseph did it and so do monks. I am a monk in the Order of St. Benedict. My monastery keeps the tradition of our superior, the abbot (from a Biblical word for a father), bestowing a new name on a man after he enters and makes vows. This name change […]
