living as an embodied spirit in a concupiscible world

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Catechesis and the Water Cycle

Me: Your teacher sent a video about the water cycle.
Sleeping Dragon: What's the water cycle?
Me: Water goes from water to ---
Sleeping Dragon: Wine?
Me: No.  Water goes from water to ---
Sleeping Dragon: Blood?

Well, we have succeeded in catechesis.  

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Rochester and Bertha Mason

The overwhelming opinion of my undergrads is that the marriage between Rochester and Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre is invalid.  Are they right? Debate over dinner tonight.

Monday, April 20, 2020

FTW

Today, I made a child do chores because she was complaining of boredom.  Friends, I have arrived.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Dilemmas

Preschooler: I have to blow my nose, but then I will have to wash my hands! I don't know what to do.

She is learning something from the times.  But also, why is washing hands so terrible?  #PandemicProblems #5yearolddilemmas

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Next Year in Jerusalem

I hope you are having a blessed Triduum, my 3.14 readers.  It's hard to be exiled from your liturgy at such a liturgical time and I miss the celebrations terribly, despite the difficulties last year in bringing two young children to long church services. I find myself longing for something tangible in the era of virtual everything. 

The Dominican friars gave a great guide to the Triduum at home, but it was a little too... "advanced" for my domestic church.  You can see it here.  I want more suggestions like this from our parish and bishop.  How can we transform our homes into churches when we cannot gather for Mass?

The Captain suggested that we do a "seder" on Thursday night, and it was a beautiful experience of how to have a ritual, embodied prayer in the midst of our exile from our normal ritual, embodied prayer.  Especially moving was the last line: "Next year in Jerusalem!"  In my exile from the Eucharist, that is my prayer.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

It's Been a Bit

It's been a while, folks.  Chances are that I have lost most of my 3.14 readers; I'm probably down to 0.14 by now.  However, my family is currently isolated due to Virginia's "stay at home" order, and I have decided that now is the time to re-emerge on the internet.  Just for the time of crisis, when events like finding a mostly-full container of Clorox wipes hidden in the basement cause excess amounts of joy.  When my greatest triumph is successfully getting a twelve-pack of toilet paper shipped to my house.