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This was an unusually good Sunday morning for me. Our part of Sauk Centre has been getting new paving, sidewalks, and utilities. Or, rather, the old ones are being replaced. The folks doing it have been working in stages, so no one address had their street access cut off for more than a few days to a week or so. Except for Our Lady of the Angels, the parish church for this household. When the street and sidewalk on the church's north side was torn up, we'd been told that the job would be done and we could use the church again by the end of summer. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (We have been sharing facilities with another parish since spring. A job that should have been finished during summer got complicated.)

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"I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better!" (Attr. Beatrice Bakrow Kaufman ; from Leonard Lyons' column, The Washington Post (May 12, 1937) ... via Wikiquote) Whoever said that first, I think the one-liner makes sense. This week I'm talking about a new book, "The Art of Spending Money". Instead of rehashing the usual budget advice, Morgan Housel shows how you can make yourself miserable by thinking about money the wrong ways. That actually makes sense, since knowing what's daft helps you avoid 'what everybody knows' about money and life. Bottom line, I think there's considerable good sense in Mr. Housel's book. But something he said about treating money and religion — gave me an opportunity to look at curiosity from a Catholic viewpoint. Living on the Income Ladder's Less Showy Rungs "...Simple Choices for a Richer Life": Money and Making Sense Happiness is NOT Having Just a Little More Money...

Moses Michelangelo [ Web Gallery of Art ] (First Reading,  Exodus 17:8-13 ) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 18:1-8  (English Standard Version, Anglicised) At that time: Jesus told his disciples a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, “Give me justice against my adversary.” For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not G...

                 Fox and ABC News   I am so happy that the hostages have returned and the bombing in the Gaza Strip has been silenced. It is truly remarkable that this was accomplished. Understandably, their families are ecstatic. I have been among those who expressed cautious hope. I still, to this day, do not feel confident that this is the end of war in the Middle East. My greatest fear is that all of the Palestinians who are returning home will one day find themselves caught in the middle of another conflict. I pray it isn't so. Please let me be wrong. I have a hard time celebrating as a success, a war where thousands upon thousands of innocent men, women and children have died. Starvation is horrendous. Homes have been completely obliterated , reduced to rubble. Those people have absolutely nothing to come back to. I'm sure they are glad to be able to return, but the devastation is unspea...

      Getty Images                               After the actress Diane Keaton died, the radio was playing some excerpts of interviews with her. In one of those interviews she was asked about her unique life. Anyone familiar with her will associate her with her Annie Hall look. She had a recognizable style and flare about her. I tried to find the quote I heard, and found it online (albeit AI generated!).  " When asked about her unconventional life, actress Diane Keaton said that she didn't see her lifestyle as unique, but rather saw that everyone's life has an 'astonishing' story behind it." Indeed, she was right. Each one of us has an "astonishing" story behind our life. To us, it may not seem so astonishing, but the threads that weave together each of our lives create an interesting tapestry unique to us. When I was younger, I frequently visited our local art museum, which...

I'm embarrassed. Three weeks ago I talked about a fire that one of our daughters and son-in-law kept from getting out of hand. What I said then was mostly accurate, but left out the parts that made it a good story. As I said, embarrassed. Particularly since I'd asked our daughter to look it over and correct any mistakes or omissions: which she did. But somehow I didn't notice her contributions. So this week I've pared back what I said — and added what our daughter had to say [with a couple of my notes] about a small fire that stayed small.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Keeping a small fire small depended on being prepared and knowing how to use hoe and hose. Our daughter tells the rest, and the interesting part, of the story.)

Peasant Girls with Brushwood Jean-François Millet [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 17:11-19  (English Standard Version, Anglicised) On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’ When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to ...

    I was watching an interview with the actor Jonathan Roumie on "Faith and Reason" ( * see the direct link below), and he made this comment, talking about young people coming out of school now: "When you're still just figuring out who you are and what God has planned for you and how he wants to use you in the world, knowing that it's okay to have an identity in Christ first and foremost, and not fearing having that identity, is one of the most important things . . ." I loved his phrase "having an identity IN Christ." So many of us identify with our work, position, or social status, and when we lose any of that, we are lost. But having an identity IN Christ is something more valuable, something we cannot lose. Our identity IN Christ supersedes everything on this earth that we may accomplish, or associate with, because our identity IN Christ is not something of our own making, but something God has given us. The interview goes on to tal...

I called what I'm sharing this week a "fable". That's a misnomer. It's a very short story, about twelve hundred words. But since it doesn't have talking animals, I gather it should be called a "parable". 1 I'm calling it a fable anyway. That's because in my dialect of English, a "parable" is what we call the super-short stories Jesus told. The word, again in my dialect, has "Biblical" connotations — and I sincerely don't want to sound like someone trying to be "Biblical".... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A story about a sign that kept villagers from having fun, and a fence that hurt them. Or so they felt.

    So this is kind of funny . . . My husband and I were playing school with our eight-year-old granddaughter. She was the teacher and we were the students. We had to pick new names for ourselves. My husband was Bob and I was Cathy. To my absolute shock, our granddaughter was totally unfamiliar with the name Cathy.  "Doesn't she have any Cathys in her class?" I asked our daughter when she came home. "Hmm," she said, "That's a name I haven't heard in awhile."  Seriously? Where have all the Cathys gone? At one time in my life I knew seven Cathys! I even worked with two, at the same time! How many Cathys do you know today? Do you have a favorite saint named "Cathy"?  (Interesting tidbit, St. Catherine of Siena's parents had 25 children, half of whom died in childhood. She was their 23rd child and had a twin who died in infancy. Catherine became a Third Order Dominican and is one of our great Doctors of the Church.)  Janet ...

Farmer in a Field Vincent van Gogh [ Web Gallery of Art ] ‘Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table”'?  (Luke 17:7; Gospel). Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) Readings   (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 17:5-10  (English Standard Version, Anglicised) At that time: The Apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you. ‘Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and recline at table”? Will he not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve...

WISPIT 2 is a protostar, a very young star that's still growing. At the moment, it's roughly as massive as our Sun, and very roughly a third of the way to Kappa Aquila: a very bright, very hot, star that's about 11,000,000 years old. WISPIT 2 is also noteworthy because scientists got a photo of one of its planets: WISPIT 2B, a whacking great — no, I'll let someone with NASA explain it. 1 ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (WISPIT 2b: a giant young planet at an unexpectedly large distance from its star. Excerpt from a NASA news release, infrared images, and my reaction.)

  The Salt Lake Tribune                             I'd like to share a 5-minute reflection with you by Fr. John Riccardo, which you can read or listen to online at First Things First . (I have included the direct link below as well.) His reflection reminds us that St. Paul asked for prayers  "for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity." Fr. Riccardo goes on to describe the king that Paul is probably referring to (Nero), sharing some history about the circumstances under which Paul was living, a s well as how Peter and Paul likely died. You see, young Nero, as Emperor of Rome at the age of 17, liked to hold gruesome games where Christians were killed.  This is the king that Paul is likely asking people to pray for! It might go against our nature to pray for someone that is bringing chaos, death and destruction to our lives, but pray...