The Labor of Bees

Speaking of bees buzzing busily and their wonderful wax… Your unworthy servant will minister as subdeacon at solemn ceremonies for Candlemas. The procession and traditional Mass will held at St. Bernadette parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome. Bring your Tridentine Missal so you can follow the beautiful prayers [...]

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Provocation to Humility

Jesus said, “I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the [...]

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Interesting Weekend

Ralph McInerny was a bright light. He patiently shone the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas into the darkness of post-Vatican-II American Catholic life. I had the privilege of taking Dr. McInerny to dinner when he visited Catholic University at my invitation in 2001. His death is a great loss.  May he rest in peace. …Federer [...]

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Not Much in Common

I do not think that “iPad” is a very good name for a computer. …As you may recall, I really got a lot out of the George Clooney movie about frequent-flier miles. The movie hit me between the eyes. Then I read a review that made me wonder: Was I imagining things? Or does Commonweal [...]

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Old Men

Hopefully everyone remembers from last year: Today is St. Paul’s feast day. In one of his letters, St. Paul refers to himself as an “old man.” This consoles me as I careen through my fortieth year, an old man with rickety knees and a memory like a sieve. Sometimes I listen to this sweet song, [...]

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Acceptable 2010 starts with St. Luke

The Hoyas tore up the hapless Rutgers Scarlet Knights this afternoon. The most interesting part of the game was a Subway radio commercial. The delirious announcer promises a hot pastrami sandwich, “We will follow you blindly, like nearsighted bison on a flavor stampede.” Here is a homily for tomorrow’s Holy Mass: Since many have undertaken [...]

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March-for-Life-Day Sonnets

William Shakespeare’s sonnets are excellent company on March-for-Life day. The first seventeen of them urge the poet’s young friend to get married and have many babies. Sonnet #1, for example: From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty’s rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might [...]

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Lamb Whiter Than Snow

Just a little reminder that tomorrow is St. Agnes Day. On January 21, at the Basilica of St. Agnes in Rome, two lambs are presented at the sanctuary rail as the choir sings “on her right hand a lamb whiter than snow” (stans a dextris ejus agnus nive candidior). When your name sounds like one [...]

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Guilty of Neglect + Natural?

I just took a nice long look at my autographed Matt Bradley jersey. It reads, “To Father White, Thanks for Rocking the Red!” To my horror, I realized: My pathetic blog has ignored the Capitals in a shameful manner. At this moment: 1. The Caps are leading their division. 2. The Caps are tied with [...]

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The Kind Beginning of the Culture of Life

The Lord Jesus worked His first miracle in Cana, a small town in Galilee, near Nazareth. Two months ago, I was in the town of Cana. All the couples in our pilgrim group renewed their wedding vows in the church built on the spot where the Lord turned water into wine. Then we went on [...]

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