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Lesser Known Religious Orders: Glenmary Home Missioners

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Continuing my series on lesser known religious orders in the Catholic Church, I thought I would do one closer to my heart: the Glenmary Home Missioners . If you have never lived in either the American South or in rural areas in the US in general, you have probably never heard of this group. To be honest, I had never heard of them until they started a mission in the county seat of my home county in rural East Tennessee many years ago.  By the time the Glenmarians, as they are called, started a little Catholic mission near my home town, I had already moved away from home. In fact, I may have been out in Nebraska and in the Episcopal church by the time this particular mission started. But, after becoming Catholic, when I would go down to visit my parents in Tennessee, I would need somewhere to go to church on Sunday. Turns out the nearest one to my parents' home was in Maynardville, Tennessee. Maynardville was on the other side of the mountain from the home I grew up in. Imagine my su...
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Thoughts on Yoga

I have been asked over the years what I thought about the practice of yoga. While I do not believe I have ever attempted yoga in any meaningful sense because I am about as physically flexible as a rock (and largely always have been, even as a youngster), I only know of yoga by what I have seen other people engaging in such practices. Usually that is what I see on TV because that's often either a trope on many TV sitcoms of some (usually female) character(s) going to yoga class, or the occasional trope of a man (usually a single and/or middle aged Dad) attempting a yoga class to some hilarious effect. On rare occasion, I also happen to occasionally walk by some yoga class in progress at the local YMCA.  That is about the only experience I have with yoga personally. From those seemingly innocuous interactions of my personal experience, I, for many years, simply told people that I thought yoga was just some harmless form of exercise like Jazzercise or what have you. I never put a whol...
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Ash Wednesday is 3 weeks away...

 And I just don't know what to do with that. I still have my Christmas LPs sitting out on my record player. :) 
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Back to you...

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Old Chestnut Review: Dune Imperium Uprising

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The game I am going to review today is not necessarily a lost classic. It's a relatively recent manufactured boardgame. The original incarnation came out in 2020, entitled Dune: Imperium. It was riding the wave of the coming two-part big screen depiction of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction masterpiece novel, Dune. I suppose for full disclosure, I do have a minor theme bias on this game. I do love the original Dune novels. I discovered them in college. The first four are phenomenal. Frank Herbert for the last two, unfortunately, began cranking them out for the money. The last two are mediocre, and not nearly the philosophical masterpieces that the first four are. God Emperor of Dune is truly one of the great politically mind bending science fiction masterpieces of all time. Frank Herbert died before finishing the 7th novel, which was supposed to end the series.   As a side note, his son, along with Kevin J. Anderson, took up the Dune mantle, and wrote several prequel ...
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Lesser Known Religious Orders: Alton Sisters

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As I previously wrote, I thought I would do a series on Lesser Known Religious Orders. There are some really interesting ones out there that most Catholics have never heard of that are doing really amazing work. I thought I would start with one closer to home, as they are sisters that serve in my daughter's Catholic school. They are the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George , also known as the Alton Sisters, as the mother house is in Alton, Illinois, which is not too far from the city of St. Louis, MO. In fact, as of this writing, one of the sisters in the wallpaper of their webpage's main page is the campus minister at my daughter's school currently.  They are, of course, a variety of Franciscans. Franciscans, of course, follow in the teachings and charism of St. Francis of Assisi. The charism of the Franciscans is a spiritual gift that emphasizes the virtues and vows of charity, humility, and a deep love for all creation. This is inspired by the teachings and l...
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New Series: Lesser Known Religious Orders

Most people, if they know anything about Catholicism, can generally identify, or at least have heard of, the major religious orders like Franciscans or Benedictines. They are probably familiar with Dominicans and possibly the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Being a convert to Catholicism and a devotee of history, I have always found the concept of independent religious orders outside the normal framework of Dioceses and diocesan parishes to be interesting.  In Anglicanism from whence I came, there are a few religious orders, but they are largely a novelty. One of the insidious ways Henry VIII consolidated power from the Catholic Church during the English Reformation was the dissolution of the monasteries. IN fact, if you want a top notch history on that sad escapade, I recommend reading Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars : Traditional Religion in England . If there is one singular book I ever read that put me on the path to Rome from Anglicanism, it was that book. Ironically, it...
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Catholics and the Political Spectrum

I ran across this little editorial on social media. The title of the article is "Catholics should identify neither as liberal nor conservative." I saw the article posted on a fairly conservative Catholic social media news group. That particular group, which I will not name here, has a fair share of self proclaimed liberal folks who chime in on the comments as well as the target conservative crowd who lean toward the "rad trad." I don't particularly care for the Facebook group in question, but it does have its utility. While I am something of a horse of a different color when it comes to American politics, I like to keep tabs on what various Catholic groups are talking and/or griping about.  While the article is not especially well written (it is a short editorial after all), I tend to agree with the sentiment of the title at least. The author kind of rambles a bit about Charlie Kirk and then the hysteria over the Pope's new appointment as the new Archbisho...
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