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Wisdom and Folly

Wisdom and Folly

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Should I keep blogging?

December 14, 2018

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Please comment, if inclined. I'm at an incredibly low spot of disillusionment right now. Thank you, friends.

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Night At The Mausoleum

About a month ago a friend and reader of this blog alerted me to a Satanic "Black Mass" taking place in Philly in mid-October. Now, I don't know the ins and outs of the occult and Satanic rituals, but I know they are not good! I used to live in Philly, and knew the area where it was taking place. I am young enough where I can still get into shows without looking like an old guy. I live about half an hour from the venue. I've been known to do a few, how shall we say, unorthodox things . So, I was kind of used to God saying (not audibly), "I need you to do something for Me." And I know enough to know that when God calls you to something, you do it. You can always say no thanks to free-will. But regret is a real possibility, as well as missed graces that come from obedience. So, I said Lord I will go. The blasphemy against Our Lord was scheduled to take place 8pm Friday, 12 October at the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art at 12th and Spring Gard

The Day That Cost Me My Friend

This is a painful post for me to write. It was painful when it happened on June 26th of this year, and it's painful now. It was a day that cost me one of my best friends. Do you ever experience a cross and you just weep and thank God for it while at the same time struggling under its crushing weight? Like the experience of redeeming suffering and joy that is simultaneously co-mingling, like blood and water, with the pain of loss? I imagine this is what we feel when someone close to us dies while we hope for their eternal reward--the intense and hole-like feeling of grief existing in tandem with the joy of anticipation for their happy death. But my friend didn't die...I just lost him forever. Let me rewind a bit. In June the Holy Spirit came to collect on a prayer of abandonment I had made in the car--somewhere between Route 322 and Baltimore Pike on the way to work one day last year--when I had earnestly prayed, "Lord, I know the harvest is great but the laborers a

Let's Talk About Sex, Shall We?

When I was in college, a 19 year old with raging hormones struggling to keep a lid on my sexuality, I complained to our campus priest how hard it was to be chaste, how my sexuality felt like a curse. "Rob," he said, "thank God for the gift of your sexuality. Never curse it, because it truly is a gift." I have for the most part learned about sex through trial, error, and here say. It wasn't until I became Catholic that I learned there is an order and purpose to sex--a theology if you will; that it truly is a gift from God Himself; and that its expression within marriage is one of the most powerful and creative experiences of how God intimately communicates His love for us in covenant. How to live out your sexuality as a man in the nuts and bolts of everyday married life, however, is as earthy as it is lofty. I've never heard any homilies or sermons about it; it rarely comes up in conversation. So I decided to write about it, from my experience as

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We were at dinner a few months ago with some friends. My son's godmother introduced me to one of the guests at the table who attend the Traditional Latin Mass. "This is Rob," she said good naturedly, "he used to be a lefty-Catholic!" I couldn't argue. But when I joined the Catholic Worker after graduating college (and three years after joining the Church), I wouldn't have known what you meant if you called me a "leftist Catholic." Sure, I read books by John Dear and the Berrigan brothers, and like any good twenty-something was attracted to the revolutionary spirit of those working for justice on behalf of the poor. My friends would protest at the School of the Americas in Georgia, we had a community garden, we hung bedsheets from the windows in a spirit of solidarity and liberation. When I moved to Philly, I went to St. Vincent de Paul in Germantown where we joined hands around the altar when the priest would break leavened honey-wheat brea

"I'm Living the Cliche"--Extramarital Affairs and the Illusion of Happiness

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A Letter From A Reader, On Contraception

A reader writes: "I just saw you on The Journey Home . It was good stuff and I am sorry for the losses you and your wife had along the way. My wife and I are converts. Since you write about chastity I figured you might be interested in this dilemma and if you avoid using my name you can use it for your blog. As Catholic converts my wife and I opened our hearts to have two more children together. Our very first pregnancy after marriage was a loss but together we had four healthy children. But after our 4th child with my wife being close to 40 we decided to use NFP to not get pregnant. We went to NFP professionals when we got pregnant anyway and they said “Holy Spirit baby”. Our hearts were open for this surprise. But we miscarried at 5 weeks. We were heartbroken and we used NFP again to avoid pregnancy with charts being reviewed again by NaPro trained medical professionals. We still got pregnant and lost another one at 10 weeks. My wife nearly passed out when the l

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