The Answer is: I’ve Been Digesting the Finale of “The Americans”

The question is: Why hasn’t thetimman posted in the last two weeks?

But, to give a quick roundup of doings, I’ll say that the Mass is the best way to start the day, and that Mary has it all under control.

Back again soon. Thanks for your patience.

Done

Give me the grace, Good Lord to set the world at naught. To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men’s mouths.

To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.

Not to long to hear of earthly things, but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me. Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help. To lean into the comfort of God. Busily to labor to love Him.

To know my own vileness and wretchedness. To humble myself under the mighty hand of God. To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity. Gladly to bear my purgatory here. To be joyful in tribulations. To walk the narrow way that leads to life.

To have the last thing in remembrance. To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand. To make death no stranger to me. To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell. To pray for pardon before the judge comes. To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me.

For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.

To buy the time again that I have lost. To abstain from vain conversations. To shun foolish mirth and gladness. To cut off unnecessary recreations. Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at naught, for the winning of Christ.

To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred. These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap. Amen

—St. Thomas More

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Why should getting home be easy on such a journey?

Thanks to the French transportation strike, our flight from Firenze tomorrow was cancelled, and we were bumped from our flight out of Paris. Rather than waiting until Saturday, we are on a train to Milan, where—Amazing Race-like— we hope to avoid Phil-imination.

No worries, though. The Camino provides. But prayers are appreciated!😀

 

UPDATE: And— thanks to God, we are back home in the land of Wal-Mart and Chick-fil-A again.

Funny

I have for years claimed to have 7 readers of my blog—it is one of my go-to tropes. But today, I received the above confirmation that in the migration process to the wordpress site, I now (as my daughter would say) LEGIT have 7 readers!

 

Welcome to the Magnificent Seven!

Beginnings: Lent and Journeys

Welcome to Lent. I wanted to write today to let the three remaining readers know what has been happening, blog-wise, and to give you a heads-up about plans for the immediate future. It is no shocking announcement that posts have been light and sporadic. The reason is also not shocking. News is almost uniformly bad, tends to depress, and is widely known already by those who care. And though such news needs to be chronicled and digested, there are those who have been doing it well, with greater reach: among others, I note Steve Skojec, Hilary White, Frank Walker, and New Catholic. Also, my work and home duties are many and immediate. And, frankly, my mind doesn’t work as well as it used to.

However that may be, I intend to slog blog on, and even to write regularly. The focus will be more personal than merely chronicling events, but as in the past everything is still fair game.

Let me begin by noting some upcoming changes during Lent. In the early part of March, I will be at last walking the Camino de Santiago, walking the English route from Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela and the tomb of St. James the Greater. After much thought, I decided to blog about the journey as I go. It wasn’t an easy call, and maybe I’ll regret not “going dark” during the pilgrimage and trying to write about it later. However, I thought that some of you may want to “follow” events as they happen (more or less) and that it would be a better way to chronicle what I go through than trying to carve out time and memory later. We shall see.

Which brings me to the practical consequence of this decision. The blogging platform I use for this site, Blogger, is– shall I say this delicately– not cool. It is hard to use, particularly on a mobile device. It is not intuitive, particularly on a mobile device. Uploading photos is mercurial to impossible, particularly on a mobile device. Do you sense a theme? Lots of bloggers have their own website, and those who don’t favor WordPress. As do I.

I have a WordPress site, and I have thought of migrating to it for years. However, I figured that layout was not the reason people read this blog, and didn’t want to shed readers by moving and worrying about my archives, etc. Fortunately, over time I have shed plenty of readers due to the poor quality of my writing, and my sporadic posting. What may have been a reasonably popular blog at one point is now, let’s face it, fairly lame. I can’t see how I could have fewer readers than I do now and still have readers, and I think if you are still sticking with me you will be able to follow a hypertext link and bookmark it for later.

So, in the near future, and at least for the period of March 9-24, I will be posting at stlouiscatholic.wordpress.com . I am able to write and post photos (which is important to me on the Camino, anyway) from my mobile devices, so I can approximate on the go posting from Spain. I probably will end up permanently moving to WordPress afterward, but maybe I won’t. I will leave this site active for a long time in any event, with a link so you can find me if you want to. Also, until I leave, I will be posting at both the Blogger and WordPress sites simultaneously, so pick your poison.

So, thanks for reading still, particularly if you have stuck it out for all eleven years. I hope to make this page readable again. If not, I’ll find enough Bob Dylan lyrics and bullfighting accidents to see me through. Buen Camino.

Yet Another Test Post

How does this appear on the site?

Test Post

Testing WordPress mobile. Don’t be alarmed.

Schizophrenic Posting

As the March 1 Google privacy deadline approaches, I remain unsure whether to transfer the site to wordpress or not.  If you see that this site is not being updated regularly, go to the wordpress site, linked here.  The full web address is https://stlouiscatholic.wordpress.com.

Meatless Friday Friday: Mexican Food Edition

Well and truly off topic and hopelessly local, but I couldn’t help but note the passing of the last remnants of the former local-legend Mexican restaurant line Casa Gallardo.  Ol’ Ramon Gallardo cashed in the franchise long ago, but several restaurants continued to operate the brand. 

Until now.

As a yoot on the mean streets of Jefferson County (yes, it explains a lot), heading north into the oh-so-high-class South St. Louis County for a meal at Casa Gallardo was like hitting Tony’s.  

I once broke up with a girl who ordered a hamburger instead of Tex-Mex.  True story. 

¡Adios, Casa Gallardo!