There have been several notable deaths over the past few days – film director Anthony Minghella, actor Paul Scofield, Focolare founder Chiara Lubich  – (here is the Pope’s message read at her funeral – and here is an account of Cardinal Bertone’s homily at her funeral). Today, it was reported that novelist Jon Hassler died…

Update:  Here is the English text of the Via Crucis.   As you know, one of the traditional Roman Holy Week observances is the Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum. Every year, the Station meditations are authored by a different writer – in 2005, famously, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote the meditations. This year’s Stations have…

This week, prayers seem especially fitting for…  ….those suffering around the world. Suffering under political repression, in war zones, in situations of seemingly untenable, insoluble conflict. Suffering from hunger, abandonment, illness, grief, loneliness and doubt. (In terms of illness, in particular…for Michael’s father, Albert, for Don Lindsay, for a friend’s sister’s baby, for another friend…

Don’t take my blog silence as an indication of a really deep Holy Week spiritual statement.  Life simply goes on here, and it’s very busy this week, since we’ve decided to take the bull by the horns – this particular bull being some nagging house issues that need to be taken care of, and now…

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