#Catholic writer

[chicoinematt7]

How The Jesus Prayer Impacted My Life

By: Jackie Kierulf Years ago, a friend invited me to a seminar on the Jesus prayer. As a cradle Catholic, I no longer felt that attending mass on Sunday was enough. Over time, I joined a choir, attended several weekend retreats for young adults and made friends who were more active in parish life than I was, all intended to bring me closer to God. When I was asked to join one of those friends…

[winepresswrath]

one thing I like about tazmuir as an author is that at any given time she will be like "here is a character," and I will think "that's nice, but I don't care. please return me to my beautiful Gideon" and then she'll be like "no. look at this other character under a microscope. they are so fucked up and full of love in such specific ways. probably they are bad at sex also." and I make a shocked face and welcome them into the pantheon in my heart, still waiting to hear from my beautiful gideon, at which point tazmuir will show me another character. and then.

[bowofbalance]

I absolutely believe that Foreman is gay. I have two reasons for that. First and most obvious, absolutely no one who is attracted to women at all would let themselves fumble Thirteen that hard. There is absolutely no way. Second, he grew up evangelical. That's actually canon (for once in my life). And he's not married, he doesn't have kids, none of that. Even though he's a doctor and objectively would be able to take care of a family.

Since he's gay, he has to deal with the absolute worst case of internalized homophobia you can possibly imagine. He definitely grew up hearing that gay people are all going to hell and that they deserve it and everything else like that. So young Foreman never even let himself see that he was gay because that was just too dangerous for him. Which means that adult Foreman is completely ignorant of who he is, except on the rare occasions when he loses control (have you seen how he looks at Chase if he's been drinking?). Those episodes do put him in a spiral of self hate though, so he keeps clinging to control more and more over the course of the show.

And at least Chase knows that, and he tries to tell Foreman that he's gay exactly the same way House would: by calling him repressed and hooking him up to a monitor that he rigged. We never see Foreman get over the repression/internalized homophobia even after he got everything he wanted, which is incredibly sad. But Chase still keeps trying to drag him out of his shell and I think it's because he sees what's really going on with Foreman (Catholic guilt sees evangelical shame, I need to write more about that).

Foreman is kind of like his own tragedy and we never get to see enough of him As Himself instead of him As House 2.0.

[daughterofcainandchaos]

as someone with layers of religious trauma, i find easter so strange. strange, heavy, uneasy. for many people, it's a fun holiday full of searching for eggs & celebrating new life. while for us with our past tied to christianity (catholicism in my case), it might be filled with residues of intense guilt tripping and a drastic imagery of torture and death often presented in such a young age. please, go easy on yourself. yes, it was harsh. no, it's not our fault that book character had to die. it's not our fault & it never was

[i-want-to-be-a-poet]

Mock exams are finally over and I can keep running my secret tumblr blog !!!

[gothamite-rambler]

Spoiler took a punch to the face, sniffled wiping her nose to compose herself, and stood her ground. Her father blinked in surprise, unsure why the daughter he had abandoned wasn't falling or crying.

Clue Master: Um, no, you're supposed to start sobbing.

Spoiler (confidently): Oh, sperm donor, I stopped being afraid of you a long time ago.

Clue Master retaliated by hitting her again, but this time she only giggled, undeterred.

Spoiler: I'm sorry, B, you want to step in? He’s holding back and these toddler punches are insulting me.

Clue Master (shouting): Why won’t you take this seriously?!

Spoiler: Because that’s exactly what you want, and I’m not giving it to you! Or ma's number.

Clue Master: I—

Spoiler: She wanted to know if you’re still a Protestant bastard?

Clue Master: Yes! I mean I'm still protestant! You're the bastard! This is what I get for marrying a fucking foreigner!

Spoiler straightened, taken aback at first, but then calmly cracked her knuckles and removed her face mask.

Spoiler: I want you to see my face when I win this fight.

With a fierce determination, Spoiler charged at her father, and the brawl began. Batman and Orphan watched closely. Batman, ever the stoic, attempted to intervene, but Orphan pulled him back and shook her head.

Batman: Fine. She can have this one.

[austin-friars]

Martyrdom

[pinkwarden]

[tothecrucifieddeer]

Written 07/31/24 [POEM FOUR]

Sometimes in my dreams you pick my wings off slow and meticulous--like you are wiping dust from my moth back one particle at a time.

I am an angel and you make me naked one feather at a time.

Do you remember how I used to fly? Do you?

Naked before God, but in a different way, naked as a sign of trust, of love--

But you have made my body bare and bruised, crumpled up and sick, my hands don't know me now--

nails as my halo--blood as my song--you have made me this, you have, you have--

Worst of all you might be a new Messiah, angels sing your name--there is so much I love about you and I hate that--

Look at the gore you wrought! My bones turned to iron and hid by depression fat--I should burn you down. I love you--isn't it disgusting?

My hands, look at my hands! They're shaking, aching, desperate, needy--I knew you. Open wound of a man--soft, gentle, until no one was around;

burn me if you must, crush me into dust--angry like electrolemon lightning strikes. Do you hate me? I couldn't bear that--melt me back into glass globs--turn me to pure sand again.

Could you ever want me back? I'd let you rip me up all over again--

You know, it's all rigor mortise on the memory--raise the dead sweet boy,

I know you can. In the end, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

[whereserpentswalk]

There is a cave that contains a dragon. He is an old dragon, twice as ancient and twice as powerful as most dragons you'll ever meet, his fire hot enough to melt a faerie's exoskeleton, and his mouth large enough to swallow a kraken whole. But he is a restful dragon, he spends most of his time in his cave, sleeping, or reading, or looking after his eggs. But it is said in an ancient contact with humankind that whenever the land needs him most (it is unclear what counts as the land), he will finally exit his cave and lend his power to humanity.

There was a time when a great general came to the dragon and said, "great dragon! We are at war and we are losing, our country has many brave men and the best of guns and tanks and planes, but the enemy outnumbers us. We have set up conscription, so if you are truly as loyal to your country as you are said to be you shall join us, and set our enemies ablaze." Yet the dragon slept so soundly the general thought him nothing more then stone, and the general left, thinking himself a fool.

Some time later the country's bishop came to the dragon and told him, "great dragon, Saint of the cave, you have been a Saint in this country since conversion, now may you awaken by the power of God for the sake of this land. The younger generations of this nation have turned from the church, and have become atheists and idol worshippers. Awaken and turn them to the light." But the dragon slept so soundly that the bishop thought him a creature of stone, and cursed him as a false idol as he left. The dragon was decanonized after that.

A few months after that, the ceo of a major corporation came to the dragons cave and told him, "my dear freind the dragon! You defend our nation right? Well, our industry is going downhill, the companies overseas are manufacturing faster then we ever could. Pretty soon our mining companies, our car companies, even our banks will be making less then those across the ocean. Come out and do something and you'll show yourself to really be loyal." But the dragon slept, and the ceo thought him to be nothing but stone, and the ceo spat on him, not caring for ancient artifacts.

The one day a young woman came to the dragon, with no where else to go, and whispered to him, "Please, I'm sorry if this is strange, but I wish someone could help. My mother plans to kick me out of my only home. She caught me sleeping with a woman, and said I have two weeks to leave. I have nowhere to, and fear soon I'll be on the streets. She won't even talk to me now. I know I am an adult, and it is her right, but I don't want to be cold this winter." And though it seemed to be no more than a statue, the young woman swore she could hear the words "it will be done" echo from the cave, and a yellow eye open for just a momment.

The next night the young woman's mother died, they say while she was out driving alone a fireball shot out from the sky at her, burning her alive. Nobody knows where the fire came from. But the young woman inherited the house, and the land was well protected.

[chicoinematt7]

The Simple Catholic: A Journey of Faith, Humor, and Neurodiversity

Life’s journey often resembles a winding pilgrimage, with steep climbs of joy and deep valleys of sorrow. My path as The Simple Catholic began in 2015, emerging from a crucible of intense suffering and anchored by an unwavering faith. Today, I invite you to join me in revisiting this pilgrimage, understanding the mission that drives The Simple Catholic, and exploring how faith, humor, and…

[mostlyvoid-partiallyflowers]

The most recent episode of Interview with a Vampire let's us see Lestat's side of the story and see how it compares to Louis' accounting of their relationship. As a result, it reaffirms just how unreliable of a narrator Louis is, but it also further illuminates elements of his character that the director and writers have been playing with since the beginning of the show.

There's this part in the episode where Lestat turns to Louis and apologizes and it's framed with Lestat turned to Louis on one side and Claudia on his other side. They're the angel and devil on Louis' shoulders, but who is the angel and who is the devil? And as my friend said, Armand and Daniel are placed into that same dynamic with Louis later on. We are being asked to decide who to trust, who's telling the truth, who's the good guy, but the fact of unreliability robs us of that decision.

This whole story is about Louis, he's the protagonist, though not the narrator, and he is constantly being pulled in two directions, no matter when or where he is in his story. He's a mind split in two, divided by nature and circumstance. He's vampire and human, owner and owned, father and child, angel and devil. He's both telling the story and being told the story. His history is a story he tells himself, and as we've seen, sometimes that story is not whole.

Louis is the angel who saved Claudia from the fire but he's also the devil who sentenced her to an life of endless torment, the adult trapped in the body of a child. He's the angel who rescued Lestat from his grief and also the devil who abandoned him, who couldn't love him, could only kill and leave him.

He's pulled in two directions, internally and externally at all times and so it's no wonder that he feels the need to confess, first to the priest, then Daniel, and then Daniel again.

He's desperate to be heard, a Black man with power in Jim Crow America who's controlled by his position as someone with a seat at the table but one who will never be considered equal. He doesn't belong to the Black community or the white community, he can't. He acts as a go-between, a bridge, one who is pushed and pulled until he can't take it anymore. He's a fledgling child to an undead father, he's a young queer man discovering his sexual identity with an infinitely experienced partner. He's confessing because he wants to be absolved, that human part of him that was raised Catholic, that child who believed, he wants to be saved. He wants to be seen.

Louis wants to attain a forever life that is morally pure, but he can't. He's been soiled by sin, by "the devil," as he calls Lestat, and he can never be clean again. Deep down, I think he knows this, but he can't stop trying to repent. He tries to self-flagellate by staying with Lestat and then tries to repent by killing him, but can't actually follow through. He follows Claudia to Europe to try and assuage his guilt. He sets himself on fire, attempts to burn himself at the stake, to purify his body, rid himself of the dark gift.

Louis is a man endlessly trying to account for the pain he has caused and he ultimately fails, over and over again, because he can't get rid of what he is. A monster. He's an endlessly hungry monster. He's hungry for love, for respect, for power, for forgiveness, for death. He's a hole that can never be filled. He can never truly acquire any of those things because he will always be punishing himself for wanting and needing them in the first place. He will never truly believe he deserves them and as a result, can't accept them if they are ever offered. He can never be absolved for he has damned himself by accepting the dark gift and thus has tainted himself past the point of saving.

[rentedvsl]

for a young little girl with a loving father, that father is her first love. she wants to dress up for him. she wants him to twirl her around and tell her she's beautiful. she longs to be told that she's lovely, her innocent eyes sparkle when he looks at her. it's nothing but complete purity, complete safety. and the father wants nothing more than to protect that little girl. he sees her innocence, her worth, her beauty and preciousness. and he wants to keep keep that safe more than anything in the world. and with God? its the same. but to a magnitude you can't imagine. God's hate for sin comes from the destruction that it causes. God doesn't punish us for our sin. our sin does the punishing all on its own, because of the trail of destruction it leaves in its wake. that's why he hates it so much. he hates it because it hurts you. he hates it because it separates you from him.

that's a love so deep and wide that I can't even wrap my brain around it 

[daughterofcainandchaos]

i refuse to bow down to your god. the almighty being that watches us all suffer. if 'he' had a face i'd spit in it. if 'he' had eyes i'd stick a fork in one of them. if 'he' had a soul i'd be sure it's damned

[i-want-to-be-a-poet]

[silver-tangent]

While I acknowledge it has some poorly aged flaws in its writing, one thing I have to praise the show Bones for is handling the romance between its two lead characters without constantly trapping them in “will-they-won’t-they?” Limbo.

They have a kid.

They fall in love.

They get married with like 4 whole seasons left to go.

And they’re never broken up just to rehash them getting together a million times. They have ups and downs like a real couple but they’re loyal and stay together, and display amazing chemistry.

Waaaaay too many writers think only the pursuit and the pining are interesting, and that the fulfillment of that pursuit should only happen at the finale, because “oh, well once a couple gets their happily ever after theres no more drama or tension. It’s boring and uninteresting.”

And we need more couples like Brennan and Booth being shamelessly in love and anything but boring and uninteresting on screen together.