The Narthex
November Light
On Daylight Savings Time, cemetery lights, and a Vatican 'mascot'
By John M. Grondelski | November 1st 2024 11:15 AMAs November begins, light or its lack becomes something of a focus. The American poet William Cullen Bryant described the end of October, leading into November, as when “suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief.” In England, bonfires traditionally illumined the hills on these days as the harvest…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDo We Like Light?
Modernity's claim of 'privacy' serves the same cloaking function as antiquity's 'darkness'
By John M. Grondelski | March 12th 2024 11:57 AMIt is serendipitous coincidence that the Gospel of Our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus, “the man who came to Jesus at night” (John 3:2), occurred this year on the same Sunday that Daylight Savings Time began -- and within ten days of the beginning of spring. (Spring this year begins the…
READ FULL BLOG POSTHunter's Moon
The second full moon of autumn is a testament to God’s Providence
By John M. Grondelski | October 27th 2023 1:45 PMSaturday, October 28 is the second full moon of autumn which, by tradition, has in the United States been called “Hunter’s Moon.” (The first full moon is called “Harvest Moon”). The name comes from the fact that, in earlier times when food was found in field and forest, hunters would…
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