Cardinal Seán's Blog

I've just added Cardinal Seán O'Malley's blog to my bloglist. As Archbishop of Boston, he's my bishop, and I just learned that he was the first Cardinal to have a blog. Much of what he writes is a journal of his daily activities, which are quite different from most of ours. As you can see, bishops have to attend a lot of events, and don't get to spend a lot of time behind their desks.

What makes this especially timely is that the latest post contains a reference to his statement on the issue of a parochial school which refused enrollment to the child of a lesbian couple.

The latest post also has a reference to the pirate queen, Grace O'Malley, and to a cursillo for men in one of the Massachusetts prisons.

Also, if you're reading this, Lunario, you may be interested to see the reference to the book in Portuguese.

So I hope you'll give this a glance when new posts arrive. At least sometimes there should be something of particular interest, and it gives some insight into the work and thinking of a Catholic cardinal archbishop.

I know I'm way behind on acknowledging new followers. I'll get to it eventually. But even without mentioning you by name, I'm grateful for your interest.

Ascension Thursday

Today, May 13, is forty days after Easter and ten Days before Pentecost. It's the day when the Church has traditionally celebrated the Ascension of the Lord. For Catholics, it is a holy day of obligation (obligation to attend Mass, the same as Sunday), but in much of the United States —and perhaps elsewhere — the celebration (with the obligation) has been transferred to the following Sunday. Here in the Boston archdiocese, we still keep the Thursday celebration. And I note from Lunario's blog that at least for civic purposes, it's still Thursday in Germany.

Anyway, among other things the feast tells us that our bodies are destined to be in God's presence in eternity. If Jesus could go bodily to heaven after his Resurrection, so can we after ours. It also tells us that meanwhile as the Church and as believers, we have the Holy Spirit — promised by Jesus, given on Pentecost — to guide us.