Smoldering Wick

I'm a fever guy. Ever since I was a kid when I would get sick, I would get sick. No half measures; no ambiguity; no dithering about whether I should take a sick day or not. Like a finely tuned European sports car, my engine accelerates from a cold start at 98.7 to 102.5 without a second thought. High delirious fevers and a few days in bed and normally the problem sorts itself out. All of that to say, when I went to bed on Saturday night last weekend the writing was on the wall. A tickle in my throat and a bit of a cold sweat on the back of my neck. And, Bam! Sunday morning I woke up with a fever of 102. Lots of sick baby/toddler-wearing this week... After a day of watching NCAA March Madness on Sunday (fever still hovering in 101-102 range), come Monday morning I decided to spend my sick days a little bit more profitably. My reading quota (see previous posts) has been coming along pretty well: my reading group finished up Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning , ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've committed to reading a shelf-full of books this year. I chose them from amongst the dozens -- aright, hundreds -- of books that we own that I've never read. I specifically asked myself, 'what are the books that I want to have read?' I guess that's sort of my motto this year: what are the things that I want to have accomplished? I've learned that there are lots of things that I want to do  and there is an altogether different set of things that I want to have done -- not in the passive sense of having them done to me, but in the past tense of having done them. For me, reading has always fallen into this category. I wasn't a reader growing up; and even though I attended an awesome liberal arts college (and got decent enough grades), I really didn't thrive academically because I didn't enjoy the act of sitting down and reading. In fact, it wasn't until graduate school that I felt like I ever totally comm...

Last Wednesday I wore a green bow tie with white polka dots to work. In a moment of objectivity, as I was tying my favorite new tie that morning, I realized that it was perhaps a strange fashion statement for a northwoodsman to make, but we Hurtubises have always done our best to cut a fine figure and one must bear the old ancestral mantle as best one can. My late grandfather Jim, after whom our second son James is proudly named, was always a very snappy dresser -- nothing too fancy, just nicely put together and dapper. As I picked out a shirt and tie that morning I thought of him. When the green bowtie caught my eye I thought of an iconic picture of him as a young man -- maybe at his wedding -- looking like a Golden Age of Hollywood movie star in a white tuxedo jacket with a bowtie. In the end, as I weighed the green and white polka dots against my other bowtie options, it was a theological reason that swayed me. Last week was the first week of 'Ordinary Time', which i...

So, I have two liberal arts degrees. One is in a dead language and the other is in things divine and supernatural. Needless to say, for me the old adage ringeth true: there is no trouble like car trouble. On Saturday we were due to take a 75 minute drive south to visit family for a late Christmas celebration. The night before we were out much later than we've ever been since the advent of James Henry -- 9pm! We had an awesome evening with the Anchored in Christ Catholic young adults group in the Rice Lake area. And as we rolled into the driveway we praised God for the gifts of new friends and a stellar community of wonderful young Catholic disciples. As our tongues confessed that Jesus was Lord -- and a good Lord at that -- my eyes saw the low engine oil light flicker on and my prayer plummeted from praise to petition as my heart fell from grateful to ungrateful at light speed -- "low engine oil light" speed. For those of you that don't know me, one of my many...

A very Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you, my dear reader! Sorry about that five year gap in posts. Like old friends, let's forgot how bad we both were at keeping in touch and pick up where we left off, shall we? Good. I had my monthly appointment with my spiritual director (Fr. SD) today. We talked over the phone instead of in person since a scheduling conflict came up; it was a slightly different dynamic -- it felt easier to hide -- but we still had a typically fruitful conversation. Fr. SD and I have been meeting monthly since October and I can genuinely say that it's been nothing short of life-changing. I've lost something like 35 pounds, my prayer life is more consistent and fruitful than it's been in years, I'm a better dad and husband and I've grown in other areas as well. I can't recommend consistent spiritual direction with a good director highly enough! Thanks again, Fr. SD! We talked about goals for 2018 and categorized them under our...

Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, Nor go the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers. Rather, the law of the LORD is their joy; God's law they study day and night. They are like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; Its leaves never wither; whatever they do prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3) I'm sure you're wondering about the title of this meditation. Well, give me a moment to explain. Rest assured, I'm not advocating a return to the practice of the Law of Moses, sacrifices and ritual ablutions — though that certainly sounds interesting! Rather, I'd like to discuss the importance of the moral life and the appropriate lens for understanding the Church's Moral Teachings in an age of lawlessness and pseudo-freedom. One of the most important insights that my professors imparted to me during my time at the University of Dallas was Dr. Mark Lowery's summary of the secular vision of the moral life as an e...

In our previous meditation we concluded with some thoughts on conversion and freedom. It is to this subject that I would like to turn again here. In discussing conversion I used the image of turning over our souls to Christ. In conversion we seek to do more than simply run up a new flag; we seek to transform our ships into a different sort of thing altogether. Pope Benedict, in his recently released second volume of  Jesus of Nazareth , says that until his Resurrection, Christ's disciples—and indeed his whole Judean audience—were welcome to take or leave his teaching much as we would the teachings of any itinerant philosopher. Without the Resurrection, the Pope writes, “[Jesus] would no longer be a criterion; the only criterion left would be our own judgment in selecting from his heritage what strikes us as helpful. In other words, we would be along. Our own judgment would be the highest instance. Only if Jesus is risen has anything really new occurred that changes the world a...