First: Two events you may want to know about: one on women and prayer on October 9. One on physician-assisted suicide on October 24. Both in D.C.
1. Click on here for a brief primer on Ari Fuld, who was murdered this weekend in Israel. And meet him in this video. R.I.P. and God’s help to his family.
2. This weekend saw a number of Masses of reparation for evil in the Church.
Here’s Bridgeport’s. And from Virginia:
After removing his episcopal ring, Bp Knestout removes other symbols of his office as an act of humility during the Mass of Atonement. Bishop then prostrates himself before the cross & altar to signify contrition, reverence, deep anguish for the suffering Christ, grief & sorrow. pic.twitter.com/OKobbhloJU
— Diocese of Richmond (@RichmondDiocese) September 15, 2018
3. Mary Eberstadt: The Elephant in the Sacristy, Revisited
4. On Human Life Review’s website: A Penitent Church Will Vanquish Abortion
5. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput:
Despite all the crises in the Church, despite all the failures and sins of her leaders, despite all our distractions and weaknesses and indifference as a people, God guides the world. He informs and sustains it with his Love. In seeking that love, and finding it, and living it with all our mind and heart – therein lies our joy. Therein lies our hope.
6. Karen Tumulty finds a beautiful letter from Ronald Reagan to his dying father-in-law.
7. In the New York Times: Two-Year-Old Boy With Deadly Cancer Gets an Early Christmas From His Neighbors
8. In the Washington Post: I was a Yankee liberal. It took moving to Arkansas for me to understand my biases.
From the column:
One group of people we didn’t know well, to be honest, was conventional Christians. I saw their narrative as limiting and judgmental. But when I examined my feelings, they made no sense. My Jewish, Muslim and, for that matter, vegan friends could be just as dogmatic. This was a particular bias, the kind I claimed not to have.
9. “A Mom’s Peace” — healing from miscarriage
(Similarly, I hope Carrie Underwood’s honesty about her miscarriages this weekend helps people and maybe brings them to ministries like A Mom’s Peace.)
10. Recruiting foster parents in Ohio.
It has never occurred to me to be ironic in my use of theological language, and what I can say about a reader’s response to faith and doubt on the page is this: I believe readers are tired of ironic renderings of faith and doubt. I think people want to believe the author is sincere.
12. More poetry (Hat tip, B. D. McClay.)
PLUS:
A possible response to the Church scandals.
Remembering Fr. Arne Panula — and the holy priests who tend to not make headlines.
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