“Use it or lose it”. It isn’t only the prospect of caducity that brings this adage to mind. I think of it when I reflect on my teenage grandchildren’s vanishing skill at cursive writing. Though taught it in early grades, they have no occasion to…
Author: Dana Robinson
The Franciscan Monastery in Washington
Readers who desire to visit the Holy Land but are unable to will appreciate learning about the Franciscan Monastery of The Holy Land in America located in Washington, D.C. (myfranciscan.org). Its mission statement appears below. Those interested in knowing more about the history and culture…
Praxy without Doxy
Let’s keep it just between you and I. If you winced at this opening line more than likely you’re in that certain age bracket that was taught grammar in school. No doubt you learned how to diagram a sentence and were drilled in the roles…
Bliss is Ignorance
As the adage has it, ignorance is bliss. This may be so when related to the innocence of young children who, still unexposed to evil, are content in their trustful openness to the world and its wonders. For the rest of us, though, ignorance is…
Ritual Risk
It’s still there. The Charcoal Pit on the Concord Pike has been a constant. As teenagers we made a ritual of going there after Saturday night movies for hamburgers (pre-MacDonalds) and milkshakes. I recall once we gathered there on a Friday after seeing some film.…
Malteser International
Readers have asked what they might do to help the victims of the terrible flooding that has devastated Pakistan these past several weeks. Those interested might look into Malteser International, the emergency relief arm of the Order of Malta (www.Malteser-International.org) . Malteser International is conducting…
Athens, Jerusalem, Ouagadougou
God is not directed by history. He is its author and guide. But for the active role of Providence in our lives history would neither exist nor perdure. We today accept with beguiled resignation the label of ‘postmodern’. With an arrogance rivalling that of…
Project Hope
As mentioned above reverence engenders in those who are graced with it a deep awareness of and respect for the God-given dignity they encounter in others. Readers who are not already familiar with it might be interested in learning about Project Hope Alliance in Orange…
Beguiling Ambiguity
This phrase was recently part of a liturgical prayer in which grace is requested to foster in us a deepening awareness of the sacred. By themselves, however, the two words standing alone offer a beguiling ambiguity – one having to do with the grammatical anomaly…
Virtue: Its own reward?
It is understandable how the adage ‘virtue is its own reward’ has fallen into desuetude. (Indeed, the word seems to have been supplanted by its ubiquitous but impoverished substitute: ‘value’). For the most part the expression would be irrelevant in today’s zeitgeist where the only…