The Dysfunction Chronicles

First there was Angela's Ashes.  Then The Glass Castle, and Hillbilly Elegy.  Now on the best seller list is Educated by Tara Westover, which I just finished reading.  What is there about these narratives of messed up families that draw us in? Are they just train wrecks that we can't look away from? Or are there things to be learned from them, to stretch one's consciousness out of the familiar comfort zone? I'm going to go with that thought.

Commonweal Conversations report

Commonweal Conversations panel for the Chicago 5/29/18 event: from left to right: Meaghan Ritchey, Commonweal's Community and Events Manager, who organized the event and introduced the panel; Dominic Preziosi, Commonweal's Executive Editor, who interviewed Cardinal Cupich; and Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago.

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I had registered for a Commonweal Conversations event: Commonweal Executive Editor Dominic Preziosi interviewing Cardinal Blase Cupich.  The event took place this evening at Loyola University's Water Tower campus in Chicago.  Here are some brief notes about the event:

The moral implications of hearing loss in the drive-thru window

Last week, The Boy casually mentioned he'd been in the ER a few days earlier with a ruptured eardrum. I frightened him with scenarios of septicemia until he finally called his primary for a referral to an ear specialist.

"Yeah," he said laconically, "Dr. Sherman said it might heal on its own, but probably I'll need a surgical repair. He had diagrams and everything."

Like me, The Boy has a high threshold to pain and discomforts, which explains why he ignored ear aches for the past year. Turns out that exposure to the noise in the coffee shop plus wearing a headset for the drive thru turned up to "max" had busted a a drum already stressed from 12 years of marching band and jazz combos. A tendency to wax build-up created a perfect storm for poor Mr. Eardrum.

Moral dilemma for today

This occurred on Memorial Day, but it has nothing to do with Memorial Day, except insofar as it was triggered by a cookout.

We've got ha'Pence

  Vice President Mike Pence popped in on a gathering of a ministerial group called Watchmen on the Wall at the Hyatt (not Trump) in Washington and uttered these astonishing words:

"I truly do believe that other than the service of those who wear the uniform of the United States, especially our cherished fallen, the ministries that you lead, the prayers that you pray, are the greatest consequence in the life of a nation."

 The  Veep proudly displays a Bronze Star medal in his Washington office. It's his father's, from the Korean War. The draft having been conveniently abolished, young Mike never had to serve. But there is nothing like the patriotism of a chicken hawk when it comes to....

 ... Well, what did Mike mean by those odd words to the preachers?

Perpetual Adoration

Our parish started their program of perpetual adoration in 1999.  Originally I hadn't planned to take part, but kind of guilted myself into it.  The pastor was really pushing it hard, and I knew we had to have a critical mass of parishioners sign up to make it fly.  And we were a smaller parish than some; about 700 households at that time. So I did commit to a weekly hour, telling myself that I could give it up if it didn't work out.  I still have the same hour I took then, 3:00 on a Thursday afternoon.

Walk with me

This is my homily for today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle B.  The readings for the day are here.  Assigning the deacons to preach on Trinity Sunday is an old pastor's trick :-).