Spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday with a local Greek Orthodox priest who is also a patristics scholar (wrote his dissertation on St John Chrysostom). The path to unity begins with friendship. #ecumenism

Stuart's account (which is a great follow, btw) often shows just how simultaneously complicated and beautiful life on a farm can be

For all who have just been diagnosed with a life changing illness, for cancer patients and all the sick, in prayer to Christ we raise you.

If you want to know why pitcher arms are breaking down, perhaps this picture of *just a few of the scouts* at my son’s varsity high school game last night might explain it. We’re training kids, whose bodies are still developing, to throw bullets to go to college. Ben Lindbergh

Feast day of St Bernadette. My reflections in Give Us This Day

I am overjoyed to be a recipient of a Teacher-Scholar grant from Calvin Institute of Christian Worship! It will support the writing of my second book, 'An Intimate Notion of Things: Material Transformations in U.S. Catholicism since Vatican II' during my sabbatical. Thank you, Calvin!

worship.calvin.edu/resources/reso…

Today, the Orthodox Church celebrates St John Climacus of Sinai, author of the Ladder of Divine Ascent. An ascetic book traditionally read in the refectory in monasteries during Lent.

On a recent flight, the guy beside me downed 3 beers and then soon tapped me on the shoulder because he had to pee, but I was already asleep and, annoyed at being awakened, I pretended I was still asleep. So if you’re wondering if cancer has made me a saint yet, the answer is no.

Yep.

h/t The Cancer Patient

The older nurse from the Caribbean who took my blood in Boston said the name “Gregory” so beautifully that I would gladly get a needle stuck in my arm every day for the privilege of hearing it.

As most patristics scholars in North America know, the biggest meeting of early Christian academics just happens to coincide with the International Mr. Leather competition in Chicago each year.

'This song slaps,' he said to his teenage son, thinking this wouldn't make him look super old and lame.

'It's the Direction that Matters: How Sr. Wendy Beckett Changed her Mind about Merton.'

I’m rereading Brian Doyle these days. What a gift he was.