Today, is Ash Wednesday, the dies cinerum, which marks the beginning of Lent in the Catholic Church. Lent is the forty day period preceeding Easter, the Quadragesima, which is calculated to extend from Easter Sunday back for forty days, not including Sundays. Sundays are not included because they commemorate Christ’s resurrection.  Why forty days? The [...]

It’s February 14th again.  Men are making dinner reservations, buying flowers and chocolate.  Women are getting dressed up, applying make up, and putting up their hair.  Some old rituals have even been blended with new ones: you can now do Valentine’s Day sudoku puzzles!  It’s an annual ritual.  But where did this ritual come from?  [...]

I spent my Tuesday afternoon driving my college roommate, who became a nun with the Little Sisters of the Poor, to her family’s home in Stockton for her annual family visit. This is the one day out of the year where I get a good hour or two to have my own visit and I [...]