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My town's Eucharistic Adoration chapel isn't back to normal. But it's getting there.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

  Our four-year-old granddaughter was over awhile back and we were playing on the piano.   I was showing her the different sounds the keys made.   We would go all the way to the right and all the way to the left so she could hear the high-pitched sounds and compare them to the deep bass sounds. Awhile after that, she came over and sat down by herself and started experimenting with the keys.   I tried to teach her how to count the black keys -1,2-1,2,3-1,2-1,2,3 but she was more interested in poking at the white ones. When our kids were little, they used to hear me play the piano a lot.   I enjoy it and I’ve always thought it was good for kids to be exposed to music (I tended to play classical, albeit not that great.)   I also think it is good for us adults as well, to be exposed to the beauty of art. There is a lot of beauty around us in God’s created world, but I also think pictures that make you stop and think and stare in wonderment are good for the soul as well. I am not—

Today's Gospel, Mark 1:12 - 15 , is a sort of segue between our Lord's baptism and recruitment of brothers Simon and Andrew, then James son of Zebedee and John. All four were in the fishing industry, and that's another topic. Mark summarizes Jesus the Nazarene's 40-day fast in 33 words. That's 33 words in my native language, English. In a particular translation of Sacred Scripture. And that, finally, gets me to Matthew 6:9 - 13 , which was the Tuesday Gospel for February 20, 2018. And, more to the point, an example of the Lord's Prayer.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

  A couple of weeks ago there was a family sitting behind us in church.   A couple of parents and a couple of teenage-looking kids.   One of the kids was wearing a mask and the parents were not. My first thought, from my masked-family perspective was that the teenager had more brains than the parents.   My judgy nature led me to assume that the parents were somehow those people who refused to cooperate, who were, for some reason, being defiant. Oh admit it, you’ve done the same thing.   Of course we shouldn’t be judging people, especially in church, but sometimes those thoughts pop into your head uninvited. So anyway, the other day, as my family got out of our car to go into Mass, my husband realized that he had forgotten to bring a mask.   Me, too.   Our son was the only one that remembered his. We scrounged around the car and found a couple of masks, so we were good to go.   As I was trying to put on my disposable mask, the string broke.   There we stood in the parking lot

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Picking up where I left off yesterday, Perseverance is on Mars. The UAE's Hope (Misabar Al Amal) and China's Tianwen-1 had already arrived. Misabar Al Amal is historically important. It's the UAE's first Mars orbiter. But today I'll be talking about Perseverance, JPL, NASA — but mostly how I feel about yesterday's and today's events. Which reminds me. NASA released a couple more images today. They're at the end of this journal entry.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

   The Temptation of Christ Tintoretto [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel  Mark 1:12-15 ( English Standard Version Anglicised: India) The Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness.   And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.   Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,   and saying,  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Léachtaí i nGaeilge Responsorial Psalm  (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA) One of my teachers in the Columban seminary in the 1960s was a saintly priest, Fr Edward McCormack. Father Ted, as we knew him, spent most of his life as a priest teaching Scripture to Columban seminarians in Ireland and the USA. But he taught ou

(Mars 2020 getting ready for launch last year.) I'll be looking at NASA's Mars 2020 Ingenuity helicopter, the spacecraft, and an experimental oxygen generator. With a quick look at news of the mission's landing this afternoon. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today is Ash Wednesday. The COVID-19 pandemic is still in progress, so this one will be a bit different. I'll still get ash on my head. But instead of getting a thumb-drawn cross on my forehead, I'll get a sprinkling on my head. Seems that this offends and affronts some Catholics. Me? I'd prefer getting that cross on my forehead this year. But I'm okay with doing what I can and not fussing — to excess — at what I can't. And letting the Pope and bishops sort out policy during a pandemic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .