Book review: “Divine Conception: The Art of the Annunciation” by Sarah Drummond
It’s the awkward ones that touch me most — the images of an agitated Mary responding to the arrival of the angel Gabriel with the message that, if she consents, [...]
Essay: Being present…when apart
In Chicago, all public Catholic Masses have been cancelled for duration of the coronavirus emergency. So, starting this past Saturday and Sunday, for the first time ever, all of the [...]
Book review: “Feet of Clay” by Terry Pratchett
Eight of Terry Pratchett’s 41 Discworld novels center on the City Watch of Anhk-Morpork. The first was Guards! Guards! (1989), followed by Men at Arms (1993) and, then, by Feet [...]
Book review: “Men at Arms” by Terry Pratchett
Among Terry Pratchett’s 41 Discworld novels, Men at Arms, published in 1993, is one of the best. That’s saying a lot. Pratchett’s books are always great fun, filled with wit, [...]
Book review: “Chicago Catolico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican” by Deborah E. Kanter
Friends called Johnny Hernandez “Slugger,” he was such a good baseball player. In the fall of 1946, the thirteen-year-old, a recent graduate of St. Francis of Assisi elementary school on [...]
Book review: “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern” by Stephen Greenblatt
To be precise, it was the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries that was the major “swerve” of European history — away from the church-dominated, faith-dominated, feudal Middle Ages [...]
Poem: Communion of saints
Communion of saints By Patrick T. Reardon Under the red Christmas tree, she arranges a communion of saints. In the DMV line, a communion of [...]
Book review: “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean
Maybe I should have a disclaimer at the start of this review. I’m afraid this may be unfair to Geraldine McCaughrean and her re-telling of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. [...]
Poem: “I was born in the desert”
I was born in the desert By Patrick T. Reardon (1) In the desert, I was thrice tempted. I was offered two stones to eat and five [...]
Book review: “Cities and Civilizations” by Christopher Hibbert
Christopher Hibbert writes in a note at the start of his 1986 book Cities and Civilizations that, in contrast to more scholarly and comprehensive works, he aims simply “to give [...]