Who would Jesus pepper spray?

"Roma Daravi, Vice President of Public Relations at the Trump Kennedy Center, said, “We have no place for politics in the arts..."" DO YOU KNOW WHAT ART IS???

My own training/tradition is that stoles are removed for the foot-washing, but to see the Bishop of Rome in a deacon's stole says some very good things.

Fourteen hardy souls made it to Mass this morning for the Conversion of St Paul, including a 90+ something guy and a blind woman. I love my parish! Stay safe out there.

I lived and worked in Salem, OR during the pandemic a mile or so from the capitol and I remember the Proud Boys rallying with sidearms and AR-15s slung over their shoulders -- because of the "tyranny" of masks and social distancing. Assholes.

Kind of like how the mainline Protestant denominations and the Democrats both appropriate each other when it's useful for the optics but refuse to engage the deeper implications.

So, here's a person -- on the ground, with their arms constrained behind them, with at least two people holding them down -- and a third person is pepper-spraying them in the face from a couple inches away? This is not law enforcement or immigration control, this is sadism.

Chidi voice: China is literally the #1 producer of wind energy in the world. www.reuters.com/world/china/...

I mean, Jesus would NEVER stage a protest in a place of worship. (Guercino, "Expulsión de los mercaderes del Templo," public domain.)

Had a little snow overnight

So, sad news: the sweet stray I was fostering died today. The shelter I hoped would place him for adoption took him for neutering and shots but an x-ray showed advanced cancer so they put him down, and then called to say he was gone. I am gutted. Rest in peace, Sunshine.

He didn’t come up with this on his own. Someone filled his head and heart with this ugliness. I can’t even fathom what some people hear from the pulpit. Kyrie eleison.

Adding North Carolina and Maryland to the visit column this year.

Have mercy, O Lord. Deliver us from hatred and violence. This is not the way.

so between "if you work for the feds on immigration, seek counsel for the sake of your immortal soul" from the bishop of dallas and now "clergy, update your wills then hit the streets" from the bishop of new hampshire, I feel that a shift has begun in 2026 in the rhetoric from episcopal leadership

Mmmppffhh. English Patient 🤮 and…don’t hate me, but the new “Superman.” I mean he’s cute, but that was a terrible movie.

Update on the stray I’ve been fostering: the local shelter was able to take him today and after a little more medical care he’ll be ready for adoption! I already miss him terribly. In heaven you should be able to have unlimited cats.

Snarkier take: this could have been an email.

Trade Ohio for Greenland! I could live in Denmark without moving.

Final (for now) verdict on Stranger Things: I was less pissed off than I was with BSG? 💁‍♂️ I have some positive things to say, but remain unconvinced this is where they intended to go from episode 1. I will watch again, but will probably stop before the extended epilogue. Vecna dead = good.

🧵 I'm sad that HULU has stopped offering M*A*S*H. The alcohol culture and prevalance of sexual harassment notwithstanding -- as I do not believe the series intended to celebrate or glorify these problems, but only to include them as symptomatic of 1950s American culture -- it's a good show.

🤔 I'm old enough to remember a few hours ago when this was supposedly about drugs.

"Reasonable People" will point to Maduro's criminality and retreat to saying this is an extreme but arguably plausible exercise of Article II...as if, what? This is as bad as it will get? You don't want to see what he will do next. Every time they are not stopped, they take it as a green light.

I’m fostering a stray in the spare room, while the resident felines peer skeptically under the door.

1.5 weeks ago I brought in a stray who’s been hanging around for over a year, but suddenly presented looking mighty poorly. Got him to the vet, got some meds, and he’s looking so much better, but the resident felines have called a family meeting.

In which I belatedly discover that "Stranger Things" was a deeply Christian story.

I was 15. It was a very confusing video, in the very best way. Also, there's a cat.

That's some "margin of error."

Personally and professionally, 2025 was a darn good year. But my God, I weep for our country, and pray for sanity, integrity, honesty, and kindness to prevail.

When your cats stage an intervention

I was cast in the original production of Philip Glass/Mary Zimmerman’s opera “Galileo Galilei.” I played a priest. 💁‍♂️ I sang the role 66 times in Chicago, New York, and London.

The headline versus the actual news.

Harder for me to do with opera, but here are three about which I love EVERYTHING.

This is lovely.

When you assumed the stray you’ve been fostering is a little dim but then he wants to debate Aquinas with you. 💁‍♂️

Christmas: an opera in four acts

Mine was “Koyaanisqatsi.” 💁‍♂️

“Wraiths! Wraiths with fucking wings!”

It’s hard living in such a judgmental environment.

God bless us, everyone.

If the Founders had intended for this to be a Christian nation, you would all be legally required to be Episcopalian! But given English history, they knew all too well the folly of having Church and Government be one and the same. For MAGA, you'd even have to be the *right kind* of Christian.

I'm not really a "winter solstice" celebrant other than I am a huge fan of sunlight and am so glad that henceforth we start getting longer days again.

Amazing what happens in your prayer life when you reach the limits of your own abilities

cf Marino Faliero

Okay, well, we have smoke, too -- but ours is real. #anglo-catholic #episcopal #incense

Noticing for the first time that this is kind of a deliciously ironic line, "**For we hear that...**" Paul is like, "I'm looking at you, busybodies."

If the U.S. attacks Venezuela, it will be no different than Russia's invasion of Ukraine: an illegal, imperialistic offensive launched under false pretenses that is primarily about strategy and natural resources. Trump will do it because he can, and because he bets no one can stop him.

I have, and it’s Garamond? It’s called a “style guide”? But I don’t require it for emails. If you prefer sans serif, YA BASIC

A very Adventy night