Charles, OFM Cap.

Yes, going there was one of the great good fortunes of my life.

I can't help reading the sad news about La Trappe through the lens of the hour stolen from my last annual retreat by a certain Trappist who talked my ear off about the closing of his original monastery in Germany and the faults of various abbots.

He was on the faculty at Weston Jesuit when I was there. Also a very nice and unassuming person, very approachable for students.

I took his Trent and V2 course and that was his consistent argument; that the message and contribution of V2 was a style. It was interesting to observe him confidently arguing this with students who couldn't see how "style" could be so much of substance.

I don't have a tattoo.

Friars mocking me with this classic. When I was summoned to Rome I had to ask for a leave of absence from the academic program I was in.

Me: How do I apply for a leave of absence?

Prof: "You have to talk to N."

Me: "Who's she?"

Prof: "She's the dean of the school at which you are a student."

Then all the trees said to the bramble, `Come you, and be our influencer.' And the bramble said to the trees, `If in good faith you are anointing me influencer over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'

But if you will you can be healed. Hand yourself over to the doctor, and he will open the eyes of your mind and heart. Who is to be the doctor? It is God, who heals and gives life through his Word and wisdom. ~ St. Theophilus of Antioch (Office of Readings)

Because the blind cannot see it, it does not follow that the sun does not shine. ~ St. Theophilus of Antioch (Office of Readings)

Mass is celebrated there once a year, on All Souls' Day, of course.

We're proud of our contribution to coffee culture.

@bostonmigration.bsky.social. Yes. I imagine you understand that one.

Friar worn down by having accompanied various visa/immigration process disasters due to slightly or even markedly different names on different official documents, when meeting a friar from India for the first time now says, "I'm So-and-so. What is the name on your passport?"

The Father Guardian was trying to explain how my corporate credit card came to be credited with four thousand and some dollars, but I couldn't follow the story. I was like well bro better fix it before I go spend it on a life of dissipation.

Ain't no party like a friar party because a friar party ends promptly and reliably and they leave and go home.

New Capuchin metropolitan this morning.

At supper a friar was remembering Midwest Express and how they gave you warm chocolate chip cookies on flights. He never took them because he doesn't understand "the concept" of warm cookies.

Me: "Warm cookies are good."

Friar: "You're probably one of those kids that ate the cookie dough log."

Reading the latest health update on the friars, and thinking that "Brother Fred's Comorbidities" could be a good band name.

Reading about this new Supreme Leader of Iran. This whole thing is the most barbaric, idiotic, dangerous thing in quite a while and I am saddened and afraid, but nevertheless it's always nice to see a fellow Gen Xer have a moment.

Wars not make one great

Friar: "H Mart? What's that?"

Me: "It's an Asian supermarket."

Friar: "I don't believe you. You're making this up."

"A friar who can laugh at himself is already halfway to wisdom." ~ Microsoft Copilot

group photo of about twenty-five friars of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap.) and one friar of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (OFM Conv.) in a grassy place with trees in the background

Whenever I get to preach on the woman at the well, I have to give credit to Fr. Jude Winkler, OFM Conv., and the retreat talk on the passage he gave us back in 2015. Whatever I got, it's from that.

This Ukrainian hot mustard I got at the Polish store is a disappointment. It's nothing compared to the stuff they make at the Ukrainian store here in the neighborhood. One time a particularly pungent batch of that made me feel light-headed and uneasy.

International Women's Day is among the things I miss from living in Italy. A day I could give women flowers (those yellow ones) without it being weird (my doctors, the pharmacists down the block, our Polish housekeepers, and so on).

7th husband's the charm! (hint: it's Jesus.) #HomilyBleat #Lent #Sabbath

"But the one who was asking for a drink of water was thirsting for her faith." ~ St. Augustine (Office of Readings) #Lent

(Ille autem qui bibere quaerebat fidem ipsius mulieris sitiebat)

Daylight Saving Time is just one more hopeless artifice of humanity in its resistance to acknowledging the darkness within. Don't give in. Let us face the ugliness in our own hearts, embrace it, and find healing. One has only to watch the news to see what happens when people don't have such courage.

Pope Boniface VIII founds the University of Rome ("La Sapienza") with the papal bull In Supremae praeminentia Dignitatis, as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies under his control, making it the first pontifical university. #InTheYearOfMyNumberOfFollowers via @wikipedia.org

At Mass I was saying how in order to appreciate Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well one has to keep in mind the biblical trope of meeting one's wife at a well.

Lady after Mass: "I got my husband at a bar. Same idea, right?"