As one of my last trips before hitting the don't-travel-while-pregnant cutoff, I went to Washington D.C. As part of the Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Thought and Social Life, I was part of a panel with Ross Douthat, Matthew Sitman, and Austen Ivereigh. We were asked to tackle "Nationalism, Post-liberalism, and Pope Francis." It got a… Read More
Category: Blog
Reaching Out to Atheists with Bishop Barron
I joined Bishop Robert Barron in Santa Barbara to talk about strategies for having productive disagreements about hard topics. (My part of the video below starts at 15:30). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIY4AP3PbX4 After my talk, I joined Bishop Barron for a discussion that was taped for Word on Fire Institute members. Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2019
Last year was not a very good year for my "Books to Read in 2018" list, with five of my fifteen books unread. On the other hand, I got to read Middlemarch (for the first time) and Kristin Lavransdatter (second time) with online book groups. And those big, shared books made it hard to find the right… Read More
Living as Foreigners in the Kingdom of Truth
I've been reading* Henri Nouwen's The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom, one to two meditations a day. Today's meditation, on death to self, struck me with a doubled meaning—one relevant to the apocalypse-as-unveiling that the Church is going through at present. You have an idea of what the new country looks… Read More
Of Sin and Superhero RPGs
In the beginning of the God and Comics podcast where Alexi and I were discussing Avengers: Infinity War, Alexi got to make the recommendation for the listeners and shared the superhero RPG we've been enjoying: Masks. The game is tremendous fun—it's easy to pick up the mechanics, and everything in it is designed to serve storytelling.… Read More
Thanos loses to “Riotous Fecundity”
My husband and I joined the clergymen of God and Comics to discuss the latest MCU movie: Avengers: Infinity War. The full episode is available to stream on the God and Comics site, but I thought I'd type up this teaser for you. Alexi: So if Killmonger is the shadow self of Black Panther, who… Read More
Interviewed on Illiberalism
All discussions of the dangers of too much emphasis on autonomy and self-sufficiency should take place with a backdrop of shrieking children scooting by on trikes, eating ice cream, and jumping off the platform they've built with the outdoor stacking blocks that the Bruderhof make in their community factory. I had the pleasure of being… Read More
Talking BenOp in Pittsburgh
I'm headed to Pittsburgh this weekend to give two talks. On Friday, April 27th, I'll be a guest at SENT, a young adult gathering with live music, free food and drinks. I'll be speaking about my upcoming book, Building the Benedict Option: A Guide to Gathering Two or Three Together in His Name and leading a… Read More
A mix of poetry and prurience in Priestdaddy
I can't figure out whether I want to recommend Patricia Lockwood's Priestdaddy. Lockwood's memoir reminds me of David Sedaris: she tells stories about her surreal family with writing that's so good (she's a poet) but sometimes so bodily specific that you can't decide whether to read it aloud or not. Lockwood's father is a Catholic priest… Read More
Victoria Sweet on Servant Leadership
I've loved both of Victoria Sweet's books so much, that I ordered a copy to keep while the library book was still in my house. (I had to transfer all my dog-ears). I read God's Hotel first, and I've just finished Slow Medicine. One of her stories about being a temporary doctor (filling a gap in a relatively… Read More