The Narthex
A Good Film about Sin
It shows sin has its consequences and demands some measure of atonement
By John M. Grondelski | March 7th 2025 11:29 AMAs we settle into Lent, let me recommend a good film about sin worth watching: Sven Nykvist’s 1991 film The Ox. The film is set in 1867 Sweden. Mid-19th century Sweden was not like wealthy, 21st-century Sweden. There is a reason Minnesota and North Dakota have as many Swedes and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTTears over Our Sins & Death
Crying after death, and the balm given us by our love, the Holy Spirit -- Part 3
By James Thunder | March 6th 2025 12:33 PMWe continue our query of what happens in purgatory and what causes anguish for those in purgatory. Tears Over Our Sins While in purgatory, what will we remember exactly? Will we be given the ability to remember everything, both good and bad?[1] St. Augustine thought so. We may…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGet Your Ashes within a Liturgy
Forgiveness of sins is not just 'between me and God'; it involves the Church and Confession
By John M. Grondelski | March 5th 2025 12:32 PMFive years having passed since the COVID lockdowns, I do hope that some of the worst practices that emerged in conjunction with the flight from human contact might be finally put to rest. Seeing, however, how bad ideas tend to acquire a life of their own, I offer a few…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPurgatory: Memory & Tears
Crying after death, and the balm given us by our love, the Holy Spirit -- Part 2
By James Thunder | February 28th 2025 1:02 PMI suggest we know something of purgatory because we experience purgatory beginning in this life. Father Paul O’Callaghan, a theology professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, has said that “the purifying process, which will take place in a definitive way after death, is already taking…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPurgatory: Purification by Fire?
Crying after death, and the balm given us by our love, the Holy Spirit -- Part 1
By James Thunder | February 25th 2025 12:40 PMSome of what I write in this series is the hardest I have ever written. It evokes deep emotion in me and I assume it will in you. But that will come later. I begin with this: What happens in purgatory? How does God help people change in purgatory? As…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRandom Ruminations #20
Dressing to the Zeroes... Stealing from the Dead... Polish-American Contributions... more
By John M. Grondelski | February 21st 2025 3:20 PMDressing to the Zeroes Once upon a time, being “dressed to the nines” meant being dressed to perfection, with distinction. It was expected in public, including many places today’s Americans would no longer expect. When I went to college in the late 1970s, my primary way home was by airplane:…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGod's Dwelling Place among Men
God seeks to dwell in the temple that is the human person
By John M. Grondelski | February 18th 2025 1:35 PMThe Opening Prayer (Collect) for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) implores, “O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.” Let us examine…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGod Talk
In this life we see by faith, a faith that is duly chastened
By James Hanink | February 10th 2025 3:46 PMWittgenstein, in his early Tractatus, concludes his remarks with the proposition "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Many took him to mean that we can only speak of that for which there is empirical evidence or that which is simply tautological. If that were so, could we…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRandom Ruminations #18
Romanian Rain on Francis’s Common Easter Parade... Is the Vatican Tone-Deaf?... and more
By John M. Grondelski | February 6th 2025 1:11 PMRomanian Rain on Francis’s Common Easter Parade Pope Francis’s idea of launching a “common Easter” hit a road block when the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania voiced objections. His primary objection was exactly the condition Vatican II set 61 years ago in the long-dormant appendix to Sacronsanctum Concilium that Francis wants…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMore Holy Day Havoc
Canonical alchemists can turn every Mass-attendance 'burden' into a dispensation
By John M. Grondelski | January 31st 2025 1:20 PMWelcome to today’s episode of “As the Holydays Turn.” When last we tuned in, the Catholic bishops of the United States were in a quandary. In 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 fell on a Sunday. According to the norms of the liturgical calendar, when a…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPrivileged Lectors
Contra their self-satisfied delusions, leftist religious activists don't 'speak truth to power'
By John M. Grondelski | January 22nd 2025 1:45 PMYesterday Washington Episcopal “Bishop” Mariann Edgar Budde’s "lectored" a captive Donald Trump and J.D. Vance during her National Cathedral sermon ("lectored" is my neologism: "lecture" plus "hector"). Budde pressed the President and Vice President to show “mercy” to “LGBT” children and immigrants who “pick our crops and clean our buildings.”…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Winter Light' and Heat in Sweden
Film, Faith, and Morals Series -- No. 1
By John M. Grondelski | January 20th 2025 12:18 PMHere I begin experimenting with something new. I have long thought that film -- especially classic films -- often raises important religious and/or moral questions that deserve comment. I also think, given the bilge produced by the current “entertainment industry” (particularly in the U.S.), that many people are unfamiliar with…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Term of Endearment for the Holy Spirit
Toward a more intimate relationship with the Third Person of the Trinity
By James Thunder | January 17th 2025 1:03 PMWhen my youngest child, Frances Clare, was in a primary grade, she was doing homework in a religion workbook. Her big sister, Kateri Grace, was helping her. Frances was having trouble with this fill-in-the-blank sentence: “God is the Supreme _____.” Kateri responded with her suggested answer. Frances became upset and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWater & Fire in His Hand
Baptism is a turning from sin; Confirmation is a fuller turning toward God
By John M. Grondelski | January 16th 2025 1:14 PMIn a recent Gospel, John the Baptist tells the crowds in the Judean desert: “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16-17). Water and fire have been prominent in the past week and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTBehavior at Funerals
At Jimmy Carter's state funeral, much attention was focused on the living presidents
By John M. Grondelski | January 15th 2025 12:00 PMWatching the Carter state funeral at National Cathedral, I couldn’t help but notice how much attention was focused on the five Presidents. One of the few times Americans see all their living former, current, and -- at Carter’s funeral -- future presidents in one place is when one of them…
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