One more bit of AI-artwork in honor of St. Meinrad Archabbey. I also thought these turned out beautiful.

AI-generated artwork is occasionally amazing stuff.

How much fun is a mobile in a math classroom? Too much! Too much fun! Beautiful artwork from #AtomicMobiles

Having some fun in the kitchen as I’ve recently taken on main dinner duties. This is harira, a Moroccan beef and chickpea stew. The recipe was in the recent issue of Milk Street.

What a bunch we are! Beautiful Mass and an important step along this path. Can’t do it without the support of our families.

Breaking retreat silence to ask for your prayers - for me and all of the other men here with me likewise preparing for the Rite of Candidacy tomorrow!

It’s been awhile but we’re getting back in the saddle tomorrow!

These pork shoulders about 5 hours in; probably about halfway there.

Enjoying a short summer break in classes before things pick up again in late August. There'll be a retreat that ends with our candidacy Mass, then we're back in the thick of it the weekend after. The shift from aspirant to candidate signals an end to the period of discernment even as we begin more intense study and practicums.

Accordingly, the booklists have landed, and here's what's on tap. First up is Early Church History, which I'll be doing online through most of the Fall:

  • The Confessions, St. Augustine
  • Early Christian Writings
  • The Early Church, Chadwick
  • On The Incarnation, St. Athanasius
  • The Life of Antony and Letter to Marcellinus, St. Athanasius
  • Origen's basic writings

The in-person semester starts with Ministry of Deacon:

  • The Deacon at Mass, Ditewig
  • Theology of the Diaconate, Cummings, et al
  • The Deacon Reader, Keating

Neither of these lists includes the raft of articles and PDFs that have also been posted. For myself, I'm forcing myself into some downtime: catching up on some magazines, occasional video games (these days that means Vampire Survivors and Factorio), and I may even dust off the radio kit. 

Mystagogy has wrapped up, so I'm going to pivot our neophytes into an 8-week bible study, portions of which we used when I was in class a couple of weeks ago. We tried to launch some small groups a few years ago, but Covid put an end to them about 2 weeks in. We've been trying to emphasize intentional discipleship these last few months. My prayer is that this group lectio will help us all to draw closer to Jesus, which is the essential prerequisite for...well, for basically everything else we do.


Class is going well; we're covering a lot of ground but it's a small group (7 folks total), and Fr. Josh is a very engaging teacher. Having picked up a bit of SMA merch, I'll need to swear off any more visits to the bookstore. The to-read pile is fairly well set for the next few months. The gift shop, which is elsewhere (and too far to walk in this heat), is another matter. Will try to roll by there on the way out of town.

St. Meinrad Archabbey Church. Here for the week.

Ahora, una cosa diferente

Quiero escribir un poco en Español. Estoy tratando a mejorar mi vocabulario spiritual y al mismo tiempo usar las letras como 'ñ' en Linux. Hablo Español de niño y estudié en la escuela y la universidad. Si estoy ordenado al diácono, naturalmente quiero hablar, leer, y enseñar en dos lenguas.

Bueno, ya tengo La Biblia de Jerusalén (por consejo de un sacerdote en nuestra parroquia). También me dijo que leyera libros de Raniero Cantalamessa. Ya he comenzado Tu Palabra Me Da Vida . Con mi pobre Diccionario Universidad de Chicago y Google Translate, estoy progresando.  A veces, estoy traduciendo en mi mente, pero otros veces, estoy leyendo como un movimiento de agua.

Un verano en la universidad, yo pasé 3 o 4 meses trabajando en un mercado, empacando comida en pequeñas cajas de plástica - dulces, hierbas secas, etc. Todo los trabajadores (menos yo) eran centroamericanos. Al final de este verano, estaba soñando en Español. Quiero volver a ese nivel otra vez.

Just finished the last class of the year - a two-month session on the Old Testament. The teacher was great and I think a lot of us came away with our heads spinning from all the new material.  I'm heading up to St. Meinrad's in a couple of weeks for a  one-week intensive course called Ministry in a Multicultural Context, taught by Fr. Josh Johnson. Maybe it's just the Baader-Meinhof effect, but all of a sudden I'm seeing him pop up all over my various feeds. His assigned readings are Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell, Mother Teresa's  Secret Fire by Joseph Langford, and some articles about his work down in Baton Rouge. I'm almost done with the Langford book and it's been great.  Sherry Weddell's book is a repeat for me - I read it years ago on the Kindle and really liked it. I bought a hard copy that I could mark up and underline.

It's looking like we'll get July off. There's a retreat scheduled for us in August, and it'll end with a Candidacy Mass, marking the formal change from aspirants to candidates. Classes resume directly afterward: Ministry of Deacon (in person) with Early Church History  (online). The syllabus is showing a lot of New Testament stuff for the upcoming year: the Epistles, Synoptics, and a section on the Johannine literature. We'll be closing out with Ecclesiology and Sacraments.

All the kids are out of school, so things are feeling a little more relaxed around the house. Many of the college kids are doing summer courses, as is my wife, who is working through her own post-graduate work - an M.Ed. She's also returning to the classroom this fall, teaching middle-school math at our parish school, and will probably start preparing for that in a month or so.

I've decided not to stress about the vegetable garden. It's very weedy but the tomatoes are still growing and the garlic's about ready to harvest. Blackberries will be coming in soon and the grapevines are going crazy. Crossing my fingers that we'll see some figs this year.  The long game of fruit trees (and perennials generally) seems to be suiting my temperament and bandwidth lately.

Grilled paella - one of our go-tos when we’re feeding a crowd.