Author Archives: Pat

Announcing a new direction

Faithful readers of this site know that I haven’t written much in the last couple of years. There’s a lot of reasons for that, and I’m pretty sure I’ve even written about it before. Intense grad school work, job shifts, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Love your enemies. For the love of God, PLEASE.

The “Christian” rhetoric around politics has been shameful on BOTH sides of the national debate for a long while.   I have no idea if the above image, posted to the Palin PAC website, had any influence on the gunman … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A New Year’s Blessing

This is a traditional New Year’s Day blessing in the Scottish isles and highlands. It comes from Alexander Carmichael’s excellent collection of traditional sayings and prayers which he collected and published in the Carmina Gadelica. GOD, bless to me the … Continue reading

Posted in Celtic, Faith | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

(British Isles) Monastic Research Bulletin

I ran across a fantastic resource today: The Monastic Research Bulletin, published by the University of York (original flavor, not New) which does this: The Monastic Research Bulletin is a newsletter which aims to provide a point of contact between … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Goal of Monastic Life

A quote: The great aim of monastic life for Benedict was as simple as it was demanding: the aim was to pray constantly, in the general sense of keeping the memory of God alive in your heart at every moment … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Blogroll/Links List Update

After nuking and re-importing the content for this blog last summer to recover from a nasty hacker attack, I never quite got around to rebuilding my links list. Today I did, but I’m warning you: It’s just a full import … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

And So It Begins (dissertation kickoff)

Today is the first day I have fully devoted to writing my doctoral dissertation. A couple of weeks ago I finished the paper for my last class in my doctorate and submitted it to some friends and to my course … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Advent of Advent

This weekend is the beginning of Advent. Advent is the season in the Christian calendar in which we are invited to prepare ourselves for the Christmas story. Advent is about patient, joyful expectation of the arrival of Christ in our … Continue reading

Posted in Faith | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Celtic Thanksgiving

To all my US American friends and family, I wish you Happy Thanksgiving today! In recent months, I have been eager to learn from the wisdom of Christians who lived their lives before us, and to see if their traditions … Continue reading

Posted in Celtic | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Chasing Francis

Is there a way to digest the pre-packaged, one-size-fits-all easy answers Churchianity that happens in so much of our culture? Is there a way past the Sunday show that allows us to wrestle with the deep complexities of Christian faith … Continue reading

Posted in Celtic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment