Sally Thomas

Well, that was June. This is July.Read-aloud for the 5- and 6-year-olds: Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, in a volume with all the stories.The 11-year-old: Is currently rereading, for the zillionth time, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, in a cheesy-looking (photos from the films on the . . . . Continue Reading »

From the Church Music Association of America: Gregorian Chant at the National Shrine, Washington, DC, September 25-26, 2009.Chant is good. I imagine this pilgrimage will be all right, too, though it’s hard to consider it perfect when it hasn’t even happened yet.[Rating: 97 out of . . . . Continue Reading »

Bad Church Art at The CrescatYeesh. And I’m not one to point fingers, either, because my own parish church, though I love it dearly, looks like a prefab office plaza dropped from a helicopter into the middle of a pasture. The Angel of the Perpendicular Style passed it right on over, and then . . . . Continue Reading »

. . . did not go to the beach. Instead, I googled the phrase religious beach, and here are some of the things the search turned up: Dollar-Stretching Luau Deals like this inflatable beach ball. They didn’t have a picture of the un-inflatable kind. Information regarding religious beaches in Tel . . . . Continue Reading »

Let’s see, let’s see . . . Nothing says Lift Tie the Cross quite like this, which actually lifts it twice, just to be sure. In these troubled economic times, more and more institutions of higher learning are forced to cut costs any way they can: salary reductions, heavier teaching loads, . . . . Continue Reading »

Which, I don’t mind sharing, is a constant theme in my confessions. I hope it’s a sign of progress that I actually bother to go to Confession . . . But I digress. Check this totally out. Here I am congratulating myself for getting up out of the chair and going bodily to Confession, when . . . . Continue Reading »

What time is it?But don’t take my word for it. Listen to what the vendor has to say: GREAT CLOCK TO HAVE AROUND THE HOUSERELIGIOUS ITEMS ARE GREATEVERYONE WILL LOVE THIS CLOCKSMAKES A GREAT GIFT FOR ANYONEWhich, I suppose, can be said of the Crucifixion itself, though I’m not sure . . . . Continue Reading »

The Anchoress has posted this beautiful video of the Nashville Dominicans, whose postulant classes, like those of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, have been overflowing in recent years. Meanwhile, we — our parish, that is — were visited recently by . . . . Continue Reading »

Out by the highway this week a big sign has appeared, advertising our town’s Fourth of July celebration. Of course, by the time I’m close enough to read anything smaller than “HISTORIC DOWNTOWN FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION,” I’ve already passed it, so I can’t say . . . . Continue Reading »

My friend Anthony, his finger ever on the pulse of . . . something . . . sent me this item from The Daily Mail: Is the Shroud of Turin really a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci? I don’t know, but maybe the answer to that question is also the answer to this one. I hadn’t considered . . . . Continue Reading »