As we continue the Easter celebrations, it’s time for a quick look back at the last two weeks of TJP, covering everything from science and technology (parasites, evolution, and internet attacks) to nostalgia (baseball, The Velveteen Rabbit, and 50 years of Doctor Who) to significant spiritual themes (good spiritual writing and yes, The Velveteen Rabbit again).
Weeks in Review thought we might take a different tack this time, and let the pieces speak for themselves, with a brief quote from each to invite you to click on them. We promise they’re all worth it — we wouldn’t have posted them otherwise.
Two to read right now:
- It’s in those moments of attentiveness that we, sometimes, enter into a darkness that is not our own. And it’s by walking into this darkness that we see more clearly than before. — Quang Tran, in “On Suicide.” Something has got to change.
- Unflinching honesty in the face of death and awe in the face of love. These are marks of true religion … — Tim O’Brien, in “The Abyss Called ‘God’“
TJP Holy Week & Easter Edition:
- Holy Thursday: Sure, the Church is a bit thread-bare at the moment. Its gilding has worn away, it’s dirty, it’s germy. There’s no doubt: the Church is very much real if, by real, we mean something that is not yet perfect. — Ryan Duns, in “Loving the Broken, or How the Church Becomes Real“
- Good Friday: It’s when I’m asked to draw close to something I can’t repair — to the suffering of the victims of abuse, to the shame of the Church, to the confusion of the faithful — when I’m called to bear a sense of complicity; that’s when I’m tempted to withdraw. — Jason Welle, in “Complicity and the Cross“
- Easter Sunday: I hated it then, but I love it now. And with the gift that keeps on giving (read: YouTube), I still watch it every year. — Paddy Gilger, in “Worth Watching: Easter Parade“
- And if you follow TJP on social media — and if not, you can fix that now — you caught a couple of links to last year’s Easter pieces, on the ‘L’ Stations of the Cross and what Easter looks like
Worth Thinking About:
- What I often forget is that King was assassinated while preparing for a march in support of striking sanitation workers. — Mario Powell, in “Dr. King’s Unfinished Struggle“
- Science “versus” religion? … For us Catholics, it’s kind of like arguing about chocolate “versus” peanut butter. Silly, right? — Quang Tran, in defense of peanut butter cups, and with an interview with biologist Kenneth Miller, in “Evolution vs. Genesis and Other Fossils“
- But, despite the sound and fury, the next phase of this debate won’t be resolved by choosing one moral paradigm over another. — Nate Romano, offering an overview of the legal documents behind the Supreme Court’s recent set of same-sex marriage cases, in “Worth Reading: First Comes Court, Then Comes Marriage?“
- Ultimately Osteen will rot your teeth and Schopenhauer will make you cry. Through the gloom, Schopenhauer finds something important, something I see as hopeful even if he doesn’t. — Matthew Dunch, in “The Delicate Balance“
- Opening our minds and hearts to God’s smallest, most despised creatures can lead us to greater love for one another. Their stories help us to see them as they truly are – as God sees them. — John Shea, in “Parasites: The Good and the Beautiful, Part II“
- And in learning from us, they demonstrate their own humanity and convince us that being human isn’t so bad after all. — Peter Folan, in “What Coaches Teach Us“
On a Lighter Note
- And who better to ask about St. Francis than a Franciscan? — Sam Sawyer, interviewing Fr. Dan Horan, OFM, on Pope Francis’s choice of name
- The fast is over. New life begins again. Rejoice in the Regeneration. — John Shea, celebrating not Easter but the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who
- When our average load time increases 25-30% practically overnight, I tape up my glasses, don my pocket protector, and go hunting for a reason why. — Brian Konzman, on the attacks behind the recent internet slowdowns, in “Spamhaus Arrest“
- And in our more regular features:
- Throwback Thursday: On Opening Day, hope springs eternal. — Vinny Marchionni, welcoming back baseball
- You Can’t Take It With You: He leaves behind that Paul Giamatti flick ‘Sideways’ … — Perry Petrich, bidding goodbye, among others, to Napa winemaker Jim Barrett
Till two weeks from now, when we’ll be back again, we promise that TJP will be worth reading without waiting for the next Weeks in Review.
