It’s Valentines day. Contrary to a day typically associated with love, friendship, and good feelings, I woke up feeling grumpy, stuffed up, and way too sparky for my own good. It seemed a day destined to be one of those rare “Don’t Mess With the Nun” days. I got to school and received my first…

I have been caught thinking about two different contrasts lately. No surprise to those who know me, I place a high value on my facility with language. I love combing my trove of vocabulary to find the word(s) that most accurately surround(s) the feeling or idea I wish to express. Words enflesh, they fill out,…

I enjoy watching things get ready at Mass. In fact, I am usually there a good hour ahead of time so that I can sit in big quiet, pray, and be in the space as it breathes between liturgies. I have a regular spot I prefer in one of the apses that affords a view…

Penn station at 5:20 AM is an interesting experience. I was one of a minority to be there using it as a starting point. For the vast majority of the others there at that time, it was less a point of origin than a point of passing through on a transient journey from locations unknown…

Rather than ride down to church this morning on the train, I opted for the 5th avenue bus. When I have the time, this is an observational treat. Another change in routine was that I was listening to music while riding. My view had a soundtrack. How interesting to see what songs come up while…

The Feast of Epiphany is tomorrow…it is one of my favorites in the Church year. It is for me one of the most easily imagined stories… I can imagine the travellers, the camels (“galled and sore-footed” according to Eliot), the curiousity that must have been present among them, the doubts and certainties, the question of…

Lately my reading tastes have expanded a bit. I have been reading more and more about food. Not necessarily cookbooks, but “food writing” as the section is labeled in the bookstores. I forget what the initial draw was to bring me to these shelves in the first place, but I have been the veritable kid…

I struggled with what to call this entry. I went back and forth between the one I chose and “Notions,” “Flips,” and several others. This one won out because, bottom line, that is what I am writing about and there is no need to be fancy or flourished about it. I had called a dear…

I just returned home from Lessons and Carols at my parish. The idea that I am supposed to now go to sleep is lost on my psyche that is still back in the pew amongst good, decent people who raised the roof with readings and singing. I tell you it felt as though the child…

As I write this morning, I am aware that according to the Christian liturgical cycle, today is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. Gaudete…Rejoice. The juxtaposition of knowing this and reading the New York Times front section over coffee and cereal is cause for serious thinking. So many dead here, a terrorist bombing there,…