Happy birthday to Wendell Berry. Here he is in Thomas Merton’s hermitage in the mid-60s with Merton and Denise Levertov.
Christian F. Casper
@cfcasper.bsky.social
Ann Arbor, Michigan Personal account Dominus illuminatio mea St. Benedict and St. Francis, pray for us
I've just finished entering my fall teaching schedule into my Google calendar. When I was younger I kept my entire calendar in my head and I actually made fewer mistakes — missed fewer appointments — than after I started keeping it in writing.
Jon M. Sweeney@jonmsweeney.bsky.social · yesterdaySocrates valued memory over writing: "Those who rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs do so at the expense of building their own internal resources."
Plough Quarterly@plough.bsky.social · 10h ago“The healing of America must begin with the healing of its church in which we embrace the ‘freedom for’ rather than the ‘freedom from.’ For freedom is a gift like any other, to be surrendered to the will of God or hoarded for our own pleasure and comfort.” @amymantravadi.bsky.social
Some years ago my brother sent us from Rome a postcard of the Salus Populi Romani icon at Saint Mary Major. We have it framed on our piano. The icon was beloved of Pope Francis. He prayed in front of it before and after each journey abroad and he requested to be buried near it.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops@usccbofficial.bsky.social · 11h agoThe dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary, built in Rome on the Esquiline Hill, and which Pope Sixtus III offered to the people of God in memory of the Council of Ephesus, in which the Virgin Mary was hailed as Mother of God.
Aug 5: Feast of Oswald (†642), king of the Northumbrians. Came to power after a childhood spent in exile in Dál Riata. Slew British king Catguollaun in battle at Denisesburn (possibly Rowley Burn, Northumberland). Slain himself by Penda, pagan king of the Mercians. 📸Mike Quinn
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III 🧵
Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social · 17h agoToday's the feast of St Oswald, 7th Century Northumbrian king. Here on the right with St Aidan in glass of 1907 by Caroline Townshend in Newcastle Anglican Cathedral.
Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" — about the aftermath of nuclear war — takes place today: August 4, 2026 The poem of that title by Sarah Teasdale set by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds: youtu.be/vEt76I5Xebc
There Will Come Soft Rains
YouTube video by The Pacific Lutheran Choir Of The West - Topic
youtu.be
Statue of my patron saint, the Venerable Bede, at St. Bede Abbey, Peru, Illinois 🐦⬛
I am, coincidentally, a guest at a Benedictine monastery right now. 🐦⬛ This is a beautiful reflection.
Deacon Mark Paine@deaconmarkpaine.bsky.social · 2d ago
Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time "During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea" Henry Ossawa Tanner, THE DISCIPLES SEE CHRIST WALKING ON THE WATER, Des Moines Art Center emuseum.desmoinesartcenter.org/objects/4202...
I’m settled into the guesthouse for a two-night retreat at St. Bede Abbey, Peru, Illinois 🐦⬛
2 Aug 914: d. St Plegmund, Archbishop of #Canterbury, appointee of Alfred - he established four new #English Sees and was the first Archbishop of #Canterbury to travel to #Rome in nearly a century
St. Cuthbert’s Cave - Reputed to be one of the resting places for the body of St. Cuthbert on its journey from Lindisfarne to Durham during the 11th century. The cave is situated in the Kyloe Hills near Holburn in Northumberland. 📸 My own. #SaxonSunday #Northumberland #Cuthbert
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social · 4d ago'There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes' Glass by Mary Lowndes, 1914 at Ufford, Cambridgeshire, a detail of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, today's Gospel. The church is in the care of @visitchurches.bsky.social. 1/3 #StainedGlassSunday
Today's the feast of St Peter in Chains, depicted by Lorraine Lamond, 2013, as part of a major scheme of glass at St Simon, Partick in Glasgow, which I photographed in 2015. The church and all its glass were destroyed in an arson attack in 2020.
August 1, St. Peter in Chains Luca Giordano, THE LIBERATION OF ST. PETER, Toledo Museum of Art emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/7441...
Saturday of the Seventeenth Week In Ordinary Time 🧵
Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social · 5d ago'Bring me the head of John the Baptist...' The Baptist's head presented to Salome in St-Séverin, Paris, from a large scheme installed to replace medieval glass destroyed during the 1871 Paris Commune, paid for by parishioners whose real faces appear in the glass. A scene from today's Gospel.
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book I, chs. 17–21
North Ages@northages.bsky.social · 6d agoJuly 31: Feast of Germanus of Auxerre (c.378-448), bishop. He crossed the Channel twice to preach effectively against Pelagianism. Also directed British forces in battle when they won the ‘Alleluia victory’ against a combination of Picts and Saxons, apparently without bloodshed.
Footnotes were invented (I understand) by my patron saint, the Venerable Bede
Amigo de Frodo@bpdflores.bsky.social · 5d agoFootnotes need not be merely useful informative and elaborative references, they can also be carefully placed sacramental signs of the deeper places where the noted discussion actually comes from. Or did I only imagine this, possibly after too much coffee?
Happy Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus! May you always find God in all things.
Jan van Balen, SAINT IGNATIUS SURROUNDED BY A GARLAND OF FLOWERS, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp kmska.be/en/masterpie...
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops@usccbofficial.bsky.social · 5d agoSaint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest, pray for us!
.. one day the eyes of his soul were opened and he began to marvel at this distinction, understanding now the experience of the reality, that one kind of thought left him sad, while another, by contrast, made him joyful. Thus arose the first rational reflection he formed regarding divine matters.
On St Ignatius’ conversion and maturation: Memory, graced understanding, rational reflection: a move that happens before we even reflect on the way it happens. The description of the way it happens is essentially Augustinian.
Today's the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and author of the Spiritual Exercises. Glass of the 1880s by Nathaniel Westlake in St Mary's Cathedral, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
