Last year was not a very good year for my "Books to Read in 2018" list, with five of my fifteen books unread. On the other hand, I got to read Middlemarch (for the first time) and Kristin Lavransdatter (second time) with online book groups. And those big, shared books made it hard to find the right… Read More
Author: Leah Libresco
Kristin Lavransdatter, Motorcycles, and Docility to Reality
I've been reading Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter in concert with a group of folks who have all committed to "Kristin by Christmas!" One passage I particularly loved comes when Kristin goes to stay and be schooled at a convent. Abbess Groa welcomes Kristin with these words: I have heard good things of you, and you… Read More
The Cruel Warning Signs of Abuse
I've written an essay for the Catholic News Agency, on abuse inside and outside the Catholic Church. McCarrick, Han, and Ronnell all carried out parts of their abuse in the open. Their campaigns of control and cruelty may not have always created the trail of evidence needed to convict them of a crime, but there… Read More
Pope Gregory the Great, on the temptations of administrators
The Office of Readings offered a homily by St. Gregory the Great for his feast day on September 3rd. I was grateful to read it, especially because it was a good prompting to pray for priests and bishops who find themselves torn between their worldly, administrative duties and the radical promise they have made to… Read More
Living as Foreigners in the Kingdom of Truth
I've been reading* Henri Nouwen's The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom, one to two meditations a day. Today's meditation, on death to self, struck me with a doubled meaning—one relevant to the apocalypse-as-unveiling that the Church is going through at present. You have an idea of what the new country looks… Read More
The Dominican Nun who Shaped the Sound of Music
I greatly enjoyed reading Todd S. Purdum's Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution. I bought a copy for my mom for her birthday, I read (and sung) chunks of it to my husband, and I was particularly charmed by the story of the real nun who consulted on The Sound of Music. Sister Gregory was… Read More
Care for the Dying is the Last Hospitality
In Sarah Ruhl’s For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, death is an idea we have to sneak up on. The play imagines that five children are gathering to help their father die well and to navigate the aftermath. [...] As their father moans and moves, but does not speak, the siblings disagree, with patience and… Read More
Of Sin and Superhero RPGs
In the beginning of the God and Comics podcast where Alexi and I were discussing Avengers: Infinity War, Alexi got to make the recommendation for the listeners and shared the superhero RPG we've been enjoying: Masks. The game is tremendous fun—it's easy to pick up the mechanics, and everything in it is designed to serve storytelling.… Read More
Thanos loses to “Riotous Fecundity”
My husband and I joined the clergymen of God and Comics to discuss the latest MCU movie: Avengers: Infinity War. The full episode is available to stream on the God and Comics site, but I thought I'd type up this teaser for you. Alexi: So if Killmonger is the shadow self of Black Panther, who… Read More
Interviewed on Illiberalism
All discussions of the dangers of too much emphasis on autonomy and self-sufficiency should take place with a backdrop of shrieking children scooting by on trikes, eating ice cream, and jumping off the platform they've built with the outdoor stacking blocks that the Bruderhof make in their community factory. I had the pleasure of being… Read More