memento vivere

This past weekend I finally saw what all the fuss has been about: I watched Christopher Nolan’s cinematic rendition of the Odyssey. It’s been a number of years since I last read Homer, and I am no classicist, so I’m ill-qualified to comment on the success (or failure) of Nolan’s interpretation. However, I can at least say that his portrayal of the events on Circe’s island provides some rich fodder for further reflection. In Homer’s account, when the goddess Circe turns a numb

In the Gospel of Matthew, just before Jesus miraculously feeds the crowd of 15,000-plus people (we’re told it was 5,000 men “besides women and children,” of whom there were likely at least 10,000), he spends all day healing those in the crowd who were sick. This story reveals two things about God’s will for the world—first, that God wishes to heal the world of its infirmities, and second, that God’s desire is for the world to find lasting satisfaction in Christ, the living Wo

Periodically I use different forms of the Eucharistic Prayer for All Saints’ principal Sunday service. (Currently, we are using the “Star Trek” prayer [Prayer C], so named because of the words: “the vast expanse of interstellar space . . . and this fragile earth, our island home.”) Hearing old, familiar ideas and themes spoken in different words can be a useful shock to the system, as it is a potential antidote to the natural tendency of frequently repeated ritual to become s