When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? Back in January, I …
Continue reading ‘WIJFR: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’ »
This past weekend was Memorial Day which means the unofficial start of summer! Like most people, we spent it travelling, visiting with family, and being outside enjoying the summer weather.
On the far-future Earth-like planet, Arbre, scientists, philosophers and mathematicians—a religious order unto themselves—have been cloistered behind concent (convent) walls. Their role is to nurture all knowledge while safeguarding it from the vagaries of the irrational saecular outside world. Among the monastic scholars is 19-year-old Raz, collected into the concent at age eight and now …
Whew, what a couple of days! It’s late Saturday evening and my little brother is now a married man. Congratulations, kids! 🙂 Friday morning started with a family breakfast, just the siblings and our parents … something we haven’t done for a very long time (years). The restaurant we had breakfast at was the location …
Continue reading ‘Preparations, rehearsal, the ceremony, and the party!’ »
In the midst of a series of unexplained plagues and famines, two teenage girls are heavily pregnant, despite being virgins. According to the sacred prophecies of Fatima, one will bear the child of Christ and the other, the spawn of Satan. Both Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private detective, and the Vatican’s Father Rosetti …
In the year 3016, the Second Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to the faster-than-light Alderson Drive. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Mote, an isolated star in a thick …
This morning we packed up the car and then checked out of our hotel to start our last day in Ohio. Then it was over to St. Victor’s in Richfield for my niece’s baptism. Immediately after mass, we bid friends and family farewell and hit the long road home. About 90 minutes down I-71, we …
We spent today mostly around International Drive near the Orange County Convention Center. After breakfast at the hotel and a little time spent over at Downtown Disney, we headed over to the Peabody Hotel to watch the famous Peabody Ducks parade out of the elevator, down the red carpet into the fountain in the center …
What would you do if, through an unexpected twist of fate and time, you came face to face with Jesus of Nazareth? In the flesh. A living, breathing, three-dimensional figure with a disconcertingly casual manner. When you had pinched yourself to make sure that you weren’t dreaming and found that he was still there, would …
So occasionally at my church, instead of the priest giving a homily, the local librarian has all the kids come down to the front and he tells a story based on the day’s gospel reading … a homily for kids. He also asks the kids questions and lets them answer into the microphone for the …
Continue reading ‘Kids say the darndest things … in church’ »