Leah Libresco's Blog, page 40

“It is Not Good for Man to be Alone” – a review of Gay and Catholic

A few weeks ago, our Dominican-run Adult Sunday School tackled the topic of “Deadly Sins and Lively Virtues” and the brother teaching walked us through St. Thomas Aquinas’s classification of sins and their progeny (i.e. clamor (speaking so intemperately so as to lose the ability to say actual words) is one of the offspring of [Read More...]

Pope Francis’s Judith Leaves Me A Little Lost

In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus.  Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. This week’s chapter is only three and a half pages long, and I feel like it sorely needed [Read More...]

Torn Between Two Saint Catherines

My friend Catherine Addington (who followed me as an editorial assistant at AmCon and wrote this nice piece on using Native American authors in English class there) has committed to blogging every day in November, and this essay on her difficult relationship with her name-saint is particularly excellent.  I’m excerpting a piece of it here, to [Read More...]

When Should “Effective Altruism Day” Occur?

Ozy recently asked a fun question — how can people interested in effective altruism bring up the topic in a natural and inviting way.  Other ethical choices (like vegetarianism) call attention to themselves in the course of an ordinary day, but deliberations over donations happen privately and calling attention to them publicly is usually regarded [Read More...]

7QT: Artful Illusion and Clever Construction

— 1 — I totally understand if you read the first take here and then don’t get around to reading takes 2-7 for an hour, or even until tomorrow, because I’ve got good news: Monument Valley has released new levels!  In case you’re not familiar with the game, its tagline is “An illusory adventure of [Read More...]

Give Us Bread, Roses, and Benedict Options

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry has posted a question on his blog for people who like “the Benedict Option” and I’d like to take a crack at answering it.  PEG asks: You have two extremes on the spectrum. On the one side, you have what you might call (humorously! don’t freak out!) the “David Koresh Option”: complete sectarian [Read More...]

Interviewing Eve Tushnet on Vocations of Love

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing a Q&A with Eve Tushnet, author of Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith as part of her ongoing Patheos book club.   I’ll be writing my own review of the book soon, but, in the meantime, enjoy the video above, place an order [Read More...]

Falling in Love with the World through the Eyes of the Beloved

There’s an interesting piece of research going around on what makes relationships grow and deepen (versus fracture and wound).  John Gottman and Robert Levenson (the “Love Lab” researchers) were looking for the smallest kind of observational data that let them (fairly) reliably distinguish good relationships from bad.  Here’s what they found had the most power [Read More...]

Standing Naked Before God [Pope Francis Bookclub]

In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus.  Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. When I read this week’s chapter of Pope Francis’s book, I was quickly drawn down a wikipedia rabbithole [Read More...]

7QT: Tallying Rats, Robbing Houses, and Judging Barbers

— 1 — I know we’re all done with Halloween, but I wanted to share these delightful, historical costumes with you all.  I love the “Radio Queen” one (which reminds me of the set direction in Rocky Horror), but my favorite has to be this plane. You could plan to do a less naked one next [Read More...]