UPDATED: National Day of Prayer ... in which some offer thanks for not having to pray

Today is the National Day of Prayer in the United States--or, as President Obama put it in his either-ironic-or-clueless-depending-on-how-much-slack-you-give-him presidential proclamation, our National Day of Giving Thanks for the Freedom of Religion that Allows Us to Abstain from Praying. There used to be an interfaith prayer breakfast hosted by the White House on this day, but the President has chosen to exercise his right to abstain from eating food that might have gotten blessing all over it, and canceled that.

Just going on the record here to say how much Joanne McPortland can crack me up.

I loved this paragraph so much I read it three times.

And then shared it with you, of course.

What makes it great is that Joanne is not necessarily in support of a National Day of Prayer. And I myself am fairly indifferent to it.

Not that Joanne isn't in support of prayer (as, you all hopefully know, I am also). She talks about the prayer that the nation's people do and it is well worth reading. It's a good read so go thou and do so!

UPDATE
I'm so silly. I thought that people would click through to look around Joanne's blog and see what she's like. I did not account for our national tendency to rush to comment (and I've been guilty of that myself, many a time, so I should know better).

I also thought I gave little hints that Joanne and I are usually in a state of interesting tension with one another. She really does not hold many of the same ideas that I do about the best way to solve national problems. (We haven't spoken directly about this but it's just "the vibe of the thing." Joanne, you may correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

No matter. I love the heck outta her. Which means she is a rare, honest, and winsome person because these days opposition in thinking equals strident expression. On either side. She don't do that thing.

So, believe me when I say that the funniest thing to me about her introductory paragraph is that she is the "cut him slack" person she mentions. I myself can imagine President Obama's wry look at reading this from the proclamation that I am sure some administrative writer put before him:

On this National Day of Prayer, we give thanks for our democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.

(bolding is mine, of course)

But it's the "correct" thing to do, right?

So there they went.

I was given many an opportunity to chuckle over the opportunities that George Bush (pick one) gave people to laugh. And I appreciate it when anyone can see things clearly enough to do so over President Obama, even if they may support him in many ways.

Before we comment in anger, can we all take a deep breath and just lighten up a bit?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Why Life and Love Matter

A simply beautiful piece from The Anchoress about the real value of life, linking to other good things to read. As always, however, The Anchoress pulls it all together thoughtfully and makes us think too.

UPDATED: Dickens, Melville, Paradise Lost and ... Ricardo Montalban's chest!

"From Hell's heart I stab at thee..."

Yes, we watched The Wrath of Khan (Star Trek II).

All so glorious that we just keep talking and talking at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. With guest Heather Hutchinson Ordover from Craft/Lit and Just the Books podcasts.

UPDATE
I am glad to see that we are influential enough to inspire others in our choice of a film.

Joseph at Zombie Parent's Guide reflects on The Wrath of Khan which he watched in preparation of our newest episode.

I wonder if people somewhere are scratching their heads over a sudden spike of rentals or downloads? (Yes, a gal can dream...)

Literary Paint Chips: Gallery 1

From the Paris Review Daily - Paint Samples, suitable for the home, sourced from colors in literature.

For example if you want to see that gray green greasy color of the river Limpopo, this is where you're gonna go.

“Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great gray-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’ ” “The Elephant’s Child,” Rudyard Kipling.

I noticed that one of the people credited is Ben Schott who wrote a couple of my favorite trivia books. And I see he also has done some almanacs.

Thanks to Scott for this link.

Americans and Obedience: Oil and Water

The Anchoress has also been thinking about obedience and has a really good piece on it.

The fact that she mentions my piece on obedience and links multiple times ... that has nothing to do with my liking for her piece. (ahem)

Actually, I know that she was already thinking about the subject. Anyone paying attention to the LCWR kerfluffle can hardly avoid it. But our pieces do dovetail nicely because when you're Catholic ... well, you're pointed to one example for obedience. It's no surprise that we would think along similar lines.

PepsiCo Stops Using Aborted Fetal Cell Lines to Test Flavor Enhancers

Thank you Pepsi!

I'm writing them a letter of appreciation ... and am going to begin buying some of my favorite brands again!

Obedience: The Dirtiest Word in America

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:1-11

Let's stop for a second and consider the passage above.

Why did God highly exalt Christ Jesus? Why did God bestow on him the name above every name, that at that name every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth? Why shall every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father?

Obedience.

He took the form of a servant, did not count equality with God something to be grasped (even though he could have), and became obedient unto death.

Paul exhorts us to have "this mind" ourselves. In other words, to be like Christ. To love others so much that we are obedient unto death. (As Christ does us and also loves and trusts the Father.)

Christ undid the sin brought about by Adam's and Eve's disobedience and lack of trust in God with his own complete obedience and trust. Even unto death.

Let's all stop. Really stop. And read it again. Slowly, aloud, thinking about it.

=====================

So. If we are to follow in Christ's footsteps, our love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit we should show each other. Our self-giving as a servant should be a complete pouring out of ourselves, an emptying, in complete obedience.

This is what the great saints have done.

Even the ones who were in disagreement with the Church teachings at the time still were obedient. To be less than that, while working for change, is to not trust God or the Holy Spirit. It is to make yourself too important. If Christ's bride is the Church, then shouldn't we also give the Church that respect?

That is why those saints are our models in tempestuous times. They help us walk as Christ did, with obedience.

=====================

Contemplating this over the last year has helped me care immensely when I am disobedient. And I am disobedient, I am sorry to admit. Much more often than I care to say.

Aren't we all?

Beginning with Adam and Eve, disobedience is the original human sin. It is the one that makes us ignore our inner voice of "what is right" and do what we want anyway.

Obedience.

It sounds fine until it interferes with what we'd really like.

Then, in fine American independence we spit the word "obedient" as if it is a curse and defiantly stamp to emphasize our right to do what we like. If we have to stamp on the person next to us who doesn't agree, well then, so be it. That's what they deserve for trying to restrict my right to do whatever I like. I'd better tell everyone while I'm doing it so they may applaud my independence.

That is all very American.

But is it Catholic?

Is it Christ-like?

=====================

This comes to mind with great force as I've been thinking about being Catholic and being American lately. In the last couple of days I've encountered a surprising number of Catholics rejecting pastoral direction* and recommendations. With great vigor and varying levels of rhetoric and skill, they have proudly (and loudly) pointed out their defiance. Some of this has been online and one, to my startlement, was to my face at a most unexpected time.

Interestingly, it has all been a rejection of advice on how to weigh issues' importance when voting.

In every case, people were offended by the manner, rhetoric, or tone with which they were advised. No one, however, stopped long enough to scrape aside the "tone" and look at the actual issues being propounded. "How dare they tell me how to vote!" is reason that needs no response. In America anyway.

I have come across this before and still find it perplexing.

Lest you think I am picking on one "side" or the other, rest assured I am not. I have had the same frigid silence come up when discussing voting for immigration and the death penalty as I have when discussing voting for an end to abortion or contraception.

But I just don't understand the triumphant tone and proud face that I am shown every time this sort of thing comes up. Despite what either "side" thinks, the attitude is identical on the surface.

We count on our pastors to advise us on practically everything in our lives. They are our shepherds. When we are running full tilt for a cliff, we need them to put out their shepherd's staff and turn us from the path of destruction.

Granted, some do a better job than others and we are out of practice after many years of some bishops and priests who have done a lackluster job of counseling.

Do we have to do what they say? No. We, in turn, have our own obligation to use the minds that God gave us and consider the facts and issues carefully.

Facts and issues.

Not tone. Not the "outrage" of being advised of what issues matter more than others.

I began wondering about my concept of priest as shepherd. And I found this wonderful statement from a recent shepherd.

One could say that by his own example Jesus himself, the good shepherd who "calls his own sheep by name" (cf. Jn 10:3-4), has set the standard of individual pastoral care: knowledge and a relationship of friendship with individual persons. The presbyter's task is to help each one to utilize well his own gift, and rightly to exercise the freedom that comes from Christ's salvation, as St. Paul urges (cf. Gal 4:3; 5:1, 13; Jn 8:36).

Everything must be directed toward practicing "a sincere and practical charity." This means that "Christians should be taught that they live not only for themselves, but according to the demands of the new law of charity; as every man has received grace, he must administer the same to others. In this way, all will discharge in a Christian manner their duties in the community of men" (PO 6). Therefore, the priest's mission includes calling to mind the obligations of charity, showing the applications of charity in social life, fostering an atmosphere of unity with respect for differences, encouraging programs and works of charity, by which great opportunities become available to the faithful, especially through the new emphasis on volunteer work, consciously provided as a good use of free time, and in many cases, as a choice of life.

Pope John Paul II, The Priest Is a Shepherd to the Community

General Audience, May 19, 1993

Our bishops and priests have the duty to show us the applications of charity in social life. To me, that includes advice on how to weigh issues when we vote.

They aren't going to follow us into the booth and pull the lever. Just like they don't come into our bedrooms and make sure we are living our marriage well. But it is their duty to advise, even if we don't like it.

Our duty, and we do have one here, is to carefully consider that advice.

Not to give a knee-jerk reaction of the usual sort because that advice may not fit what we want. Or the tone may not be right. We can be angry. We may even say something we regret. But we have to think further, go farther, and carefully consider issues, facts, and the Church's teachings.

If we don’t agree with Church teachings or pastoral advice, treat that disagreement as the important thing it is. Go to source materials, study the Catechism, read the Church Fathers, look at the 2000 years’ worth of discussion on the subject. Dig into it and don’t let go until you understand the logic that led the Church to that teaching.

So, yes, use your brain.

But also keep in mind that simply not “liking” something is not reason to disobey.

In that we also must keep in mind Paul’s counsel from the beginning of that passage. Are we showing the fruit of love, affection, sympathy? Are we humble, counting others better than ourselves, looking to the interests of others?

Can they tell we are Christians by our love?

I know. I have trouble with it too.

In today's Mass readings there was a line that I just can't shake. It echoes round and round in my head. I've learned to pay attention when that happens.

Jesus, speaking of being our good shepherd says:

"I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

But to do that, we have to be the kinds of people our fellow Americans (and many fellow Catholics) may not understand. We have to follow our good shepherd.

We have to stop treating "obedience" like a dirty word.

* And I'm not talking about the sort of thing that led to the sexual abuse scandal. That's not the sort of thing the Church has ever taught was right and that no one in their right mind would expect to find justified anywhere.

Help a family adopt this precious little girl and enter a giveaway for a chance to win one of 34 great prizes

... including a Happy Catholic book signed by me as well as books by Amy Welborn, Mark Shea,  and Brandon Vogt (among others). Other giveaways include chocolates, jewelry, frames prints, rosaries, and more.

Susan Windley-Daoust (Ironic Catholic) has done a fantastic job of recruiting wonderful prizes. And the money all goes to a very worthy cause ... helping unite a little girl and the parents wanting to adopt her and give her the home she's been longing for.

Check out Ironic Catholic's Great Big Giveaway for New Life for details.

Weekend Joke

A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet and says, "My dog's cross-eyed. Is there anything you can do for him?"

"Well," says the vet, "let's have a look at him" So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth.

Finally, he says "I'm going to have to put him down."

"What?" asked the man, startled. "Because he's cross-eyed?"

"No, because he's really heavy"

The New Mother

Jesse from the SFFaudio podcast and I will be discussing The New Mother. We'll be joined by Heather Ordover from CraftLit, who read the story aloud for us. Jesse posted the audio of the story early for anyone interested.

Cooking the Books: Green Beans with Ginger

My new favorite cookbook? It isn't really new. And it has a simply amazing green beans recipe. All is revealed at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Resource: Catechism Class is Like Spark Notes for Catholic Books

Y'all know that I'm all about book reviews. But there is another way to evaluate a great many Catholic books.

We realize that the vast majority of Catholics want to read classic and contemporary Catholic books but due to time constraints, they are able to actually only read a small number of them. We have responded to this need by summarizing (not reviewing so that customers get the author's views and not our opinions) many great Catholic books.

Catechism Class has a really extensive list of books that they've done thorough reviews for. And when I say thorough, I ain't just a whistlin' Dixie.

I was stunned at how thorough the samples were. Not only an overall summary, but also a summary for every chapter. This is truly the way to quickly get the sense of a book that you need to evaluate before purchasing or cover for some reason but don't have time to read.

Cathechism Class describes their summaries here and has a list of books covered here. As a bonus, I asked them to provide a sample pdf of a representative book so that you could see for yourselves how thorough these are. They generously came forth with Scott Hahn's Hail Holy Queen.

Give it a try and check out their site.

Americans are Alright

Getting ready to visit home (America) after a living in Asia for a long time and seeing American businessmen at their worst, the EatingAsia folks asked themselves, "Ugh, Americans. Are we really that obnoxious?

What they found on their whirlwind trip to the U.S. was that we're alright.

I know, I know -- there's the vitriolic backdrop, especially now that we're heavy into a presidential election cycle. It's everywhere, and hard to ignore. But day to day we Americans are generally pretty nice folks. We smile, we say "hi", we hold doors open for each other and yes, we queue ("line up" in Americanese). We are welcoming. We help strangers. We offer sympathy and aid to people in trouble even if we don't know them. We're curious about others and we chit-chat, exchange pleasantries and make small talk with just about anyone.

And that's not all. Yes, we've got our problems as any people do, but it's nice to read something so positive for a change.

Go read the whole thing at EatingAsia and soak up the gorgeous photos.

Joan of Arc Series on History According to Bob Podcast

The Joan of Arc series has just begun but Bob doesn't keep his episodes up for more than a few weeks.  Although in looking through the archive I see he has a few months worth of episodes. He sells CDs of his series later so he takes episodes down fairly soon.

If you think you might be interested, grab these now. In the past, I have found Bob to be very fair and even-handed, giving careful consideration to all points of view and usually choosing the most reasonable.

Pick up episode at the History According to Bob archives or via iTunes. The first episode is an overview, posted on April 11 and there has been one other episode since then.

If you look through the existing archive, Bob also has part of a series about the crusades and the Teutonic Knights and such matters so you may want to try those also.

Word of the Week:

Ever since I read about the Dictionary of American Regional English, I've been itching to get my hands on a volume. There are six volumes, with the last finally being published after decades of work being done. Loving words the way we do around here it is hard to imagine a more wonderful book for browsing than one featuring all sorts of obscure regionalisms.

Here's the DARE website where you can find out more and from which I'll be pulling a word now and then for our edification and entertainment.

Let's begin with DARE's word of the month:

Rusticator

A vacationer, esp a summer boarder.

Where does it come from? How do you use it? What examples from the past can you see? DARE has it all for you. Go and enjoy!

UPDATE
Tim Canny mentions something that I meant to tell you. You can follow them on Twitter (twitter via @darewords) and get words much more frequently. Thanks Tim!

Web could vanish for hordes of people in July, FBI warns

If your computer is infected with the DNSChanger virus, your summertime Internet activities will be seriously curtailed -- as in buh-bye. But a special Web site can help you fix the problem.

This looks like one of those spam scares that I often debunk using Snopes.com.

However, Tom was telling me all about it yesterday morning. This is a real thing.

Here's an article he recommends.

Weekend Joke: So a guy goes to a psychiatrist ...

Via Data's Jokes.

A guy goes to a psychiatrist. "Doc, I keep having these alternating recurring dreams. First I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam; then I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam. It's driving me crazy. What's wrong with me?"

The doctor replies: "It's very simple. You're two tents."

1st Corinthians and the LCWR: Mourning and a Wake Up Call to Repentance

A few thoughts, not necessarily strung together in the best way, but I wanted to get these out there for consideration before my day got away from me.

Frankly, the Vatican's document and reprimand to the LCWR was not really on my radar. Like many Catholics I vaguely knew there were some orders of religious who liked to style themselves "progressive" and skirt Vatican teachings when it didn't suit their ideas of service. In this, I am thinking more of a particular priest I know from another city. He'll never know how much he shocked me (as a fairly new Catholic) when he confided, with a twinkle in his eye about breaking some rules which he didn't think were all that important because he was the best judge of such things. That moment and his attitude always came to mind when I'd hear reports of orders flouting Church teachings. So I may, perhaps, have gotten it wrong a few times when thinking that such flouting was deliberate rather than sheer ignorance. Honestly, I'm not sure which is worse when considering a whole order's behavior. But that is a matter for further pondering, especially with concern to my own life. Where do I leave myself (or those around me) ignorant and where do I ignore what I should obey?

Reading 1st Corinthians this morning was especially enlightening as Paul is dealing with a scandalous situation being tolerated in the church. Chapter 5: 1-5 from the NAB:

It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans—a man living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst. I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,b in the name of [our] Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Careful reading and the accompanying commentary makes two things very clear. First, the community is so "puffed up" (literal translation of "inflated") that they not only tolerate the immoral situation but either consider themselves spiritually advanced or they think it doesn't affect them as a community. The community should have been sorrowful or, as other translations say, have been "in mourning."

This says something to me about those orders, true, but it says more to me about those who are triumphant about the reprimand. People have been angry about such laxity but have we been mournful for these, our sisters, who have gone astray? Have we felt sorrowful for the probable outcome to them? Whether as a reprimand or for the ill being done in their lax attitudes, should we not have cared as much as we would for a dear friend or family member? Have we prayed or offered up fasting or some similar sacrifice to God on their behalf, as I myself have done for a beloved atheist family member?

Where is our sense of unity? Where is our response to the great commandment of love that Christ gave us?

You notice I include myself. I can say these things because I am guilty. Paul is talking directly to me on this.

Second, the immoral man is excommunicated from the community by Paul. Note that this is not intended to be permanent but it is "a therapy of privation that hopefully will wake the man up and lead him to repentance and readmission to the community" (from the commentary).

Sometimes we need a spiritual awakening administered through severe action because it is only then that we pay attention. We've all experienced this from time to time. It is when we ignore the increasingly strong reprimands that it becomes necessary to take drastic measures to get our attention. I'm thinking here of the prodigal son.

In 1st Corinthians it is both to save the man and safeguard the community from the bad example that the action is taken.

It seems shocking from the outside but in the end could save them all.

From personal experience, I'd say that a good many problems of the sort we see in the Corinthian community and in this situation come from insularity. We don't go outside our comfortable bubbles enough to get another perspective.

In this case, I would like to offer the LCWR a modern example of someone they could emulate. Not a long-ago saint or far away person from the "other side" but someone who feels their pain and yet will take the hard steps to offer that pain to God and ask for enlightenment and growth.

Joanne McPortland blogs with her whole heart at egregious twaddle. I like her even though she often is approaching Catholic things from the opposite viewpoint than I am. I like her because she is honest, because she is trying, because she is sticking with her recent return to the Catholic church and struggling with the things that don't seem to make sense. But offering herself to God so that she may understand.

As a former agnostic, child of atheists, even more a child of our modern society, I too have had similar struggles that hurt me to the very bone.

Her response the the Vatican reprimand of the LCWR was angry. An honest anger that stormed questions at God on behalf of people she loved. Go read An Uppity Woman Prays for Answers. I believe that God doesn't mind those angry shouts because, like Job's, they are honest and heart-felt. Though they may be filled with pain, they are turning to Him. It is a trust that there is an answer. It is a personal response in a personal relationship with Him.

Joanne helped me see the other side and reminded me of a place I love that can sometimes be outside my own comfort bubble, which is my Catholic women's book club. I absolutely love every woman who comes to it.

And yet. And yet we are a very diverse group. We do our best to stay from controversial topics and yet we can't sometimes. I sometimes mourn for some of my sisters from that group and I always pray that we may all know truth. And they keep me centered. They help me see the heart of those I don't agree with sometimes. Am I right when I disagree with them? I think so, obviously. However, we keep each other close to the middle of the road marker, where we may reach over and hold hands, understanding each other's hearts. Sometimes, we will even step across and be together on either side. And that's the right way to be, after all. Because that's where the Church is. Not on the fringes, but in the middle. But, again, that concept provides enough pondering for another day, so we will move on.

Joanne does that for me. As did that post.

The next day, Joanne wrote Fleeing Babylon: The Old Order(s) Changeth. She'd had time to think, to pray, to listen for answers, to hear what kind friends were not saying (out of kindness) and to know it for a hint of the truth. She has been able to gain clarity and relinquish her anger. She remains sad but also joyful.

This was heartening and also a wonderful look at the spiritual wrestling we must all do with the messengers of God. Like Jacob, we may be left wounded. It may be a wound that, like his, we carry our whole lives. But it changes us.

I so appreciate Joanne sharing her personal struggle because of her honesty and commitment to truth.

It helps me to remember that unity, helps me begin to truly mourn and pray for these sisters of Christ, and to examine myself for blind spots and pride.

I hope and pray that the sisters of the LCWR may go through the same process as we all limp, joyfully (!), toward God together.

NPR Reporter Understands the Church Better Than the Nun They Are Interviewing

Just heard from Hannah, our roving reporter in the DFW Metroplex, who is making the arborist rounds of the Dallas areas. She listens to NPR a lot while driving and called to tell me that she was livid after listening to a particularly unhelpful interview with Sister Simone Campbell.

The reporter was attempting to get her to talk realistically about the Vatican finding that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had serious doctrinal problems. Here's NPR's blurb and the link if you want to listen (or read) for yourself.

The Vatican has reprimanded the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, saying the group has "serious doctrinal problems." The Vatican assigned an archbishop to reform the conference. The group has taken controversial stances on issues including health care and gender matters. Melissa Block speaks with Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobbying group which works closely with the LCWR.

Unfortunately, Sister Simone unhelpfully kept saying that the report simply meant the women in the Church needed to educate the men in the Church on how things work in the real world. Hearing Hannah tell me all this made me happy that I have a discerning daughter who loves her faith and quite sorry for Sister Simone. She is either being disingenuous or really believes what she is saying. And it is to weep. Obedience and charity are integral to us all as Catholics and especially for a religious sister.

We all find ourselves at odd with the Catholic Church sometime or another, sometimes over very big issues. But we are all called to practice obedience, charity, forgiveness, and following Christ's example while we do so. I pray for Sister Simone and those like her who may be smarting, frustrated, and upset by the report.

Hannah gave full props to the reporter who, she said, kept trying to bring Sister Simone back to the real questions and seemed fairly well educated about the issues.

Hannah also wanted me to let any NPR listeners know that Sister Simone was not someone they wanted to trust for their Catholic opinion making.

Job done!

As is so often the case, I turned to GetReligion for their take on the story and the media coverage which looks as if it were quite good actually. I definitely recommend you go there and read it and the linked stories if you want the full picture. Mollie read the 8-page Vatican document and points out that it praises as well as reprimands.

In fact, on the first page alone is this line, “The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by Religious over the years.”

As I mentioned, she looks at reporting across all media, including bloggers like Whispers in the Loggia (Rocco's always on top of these sorts of stories). I hadn't had a chance to even look at my RSS reader today so was glad Hannah prompted me to look into the story more.

Be sure to read the GetReligion story if you are at all interested in this story.

Flannery O'Connor at A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast

Julie talks Scott's leg off, but since it isn't wooden he gets to keep it? Confused? So are we, but we bravely discuss three of Flannery O'Connor's stories: A Good Man is Hard to Find, The River, and Good Country People.

And find out what happens when we leave the recorder running for another five minutes after signing off.

Come and listen at A Good Story is Hard to Find.