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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 19h

Babies when they wake up to see you asleep and start screaming.

morrowind.txt @morrowind-txt.bsky.social · 22h

Well, it LOOKED like it was dead. How was I supposed to know it was sleeping?

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Reposted by CatholicGeekery

Reuters @reuters.com · 20h

Catholic Church too slow helping abuse victims, Vatican panel says reut.rs/3WH7rPk

Catholic Church too slow helping abuse victims, Vatican panel says

The Vatican's child protection commission criticized senior Catholic leaders in an annual report on Thursday for not moving quickly enough to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy and to implement new safeguarding efforts worldwide.

reut.rs

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Reposted by CatholicGeekery

Ian @tikael.bsky.social · 1d

One of my favorite historical factoids is that some Norse guy carved the equivalent of 'Halfdan was here' into the parapets of the Hagia Sophia. Really gives an idea of just how old that place is.

Runic inscriptions in Hagia Sophia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 2d

I know - I live in a constitutional monarchy! It was a joke, not a criticism.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 2d

Quite funny that a bunch of these places have a monarch.

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Reposted by CatholicGeekery

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 3d

Bronze grotesque
Greek

Since its discovery in 1727, this figure's identity has been debated. Prevailing scholarly opinion calls it a mime, 1st century B.C./A.D. A recent suggestion is that he is a caricature of an Alexandrian pedant, datable to 2nd Cenury BCE.

(Met Museum)

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

Taize chant was popular at my university Catholic Society. I'm pretty convinced that's purely because it was rhythmic, repetitive, and scriptural. And guess what!

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

I think the same would have been said by many about Eucharistic adoration in various parts of the world after Vatican II. We really do have more influence over our own trajectory than we think.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

The way I see it, if I can convince some friends to play a moderately crunchy tabletop rpg for three hours a week, I can probably get at least 5 parishioners to pray for 20 minutes.

CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

I'm in no danger of breaking away from Rome because of it, or any other issue of sacramental practice. I'm well aware the grass is always greener. But it would be nice.

CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

This is, to me, one of the biggest "obviously a good thing which we only don't do because of historical inertia" issues in the Church. Would easily be one of the best things we could take from our Orthodox brethren.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

If the Eucharistic revival of the last few decades has taught us anything it's that organic participation is best when you put a lot of well-organised effort into encouraging it. ;)

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

It sounds like your experience has been different, but my experience of both Dominican and Benedictine communities in England has been very positive in this regard. To say nothing of the still-healthy tradition of Evensong in the Anglican church.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

I think this is why the religious communities which serve parishes often have better luck with it. It is very visibly the *community*'s prayer, not "just Father", and the parish can (if the community is open to it) be folded into that.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

Again, being raised Anglican probably helps here. We never went to evensong, but I knew it *happened* at least. I thought it was unique to the CofE for a few years after becoming Catholic, until I encountered the Dominicans.

CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

I can imagine. But I have led people completely new to the Office before and so long as you don't try teaching them plainchant it tends to go fine.

CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

I mean, the obligation isn't to say the office though...

I like the idea of getting people praying more, but more people not encountering Christ the Eucharist is surely not the answer.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

As Tom says of priests, as a Lay Dominican I am obliged to pray it anyway, so I may as well rope other people into it to.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

Sure, but tbf there is no *need* for a priest to do it - the laity can do it themselves.

Our new priest is still settling in, so I've not been throwing ideas at him just yet, but the possibility of doing a lay-led Vespers is on my to-propose list.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

That's wild. I get doing *some* of the Office enclosed, but for an Order of *Preachers* to cut off the laity from a very easy way of sharing in prayer is bonkers.

Fortunately, literally none of the OPs I've encountered in the UK do this. I owe it to them that I ever encountered the LotH.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

Maybe this is my Anglican background coming through, but I have seen firsthand how easy it is to get laity interested in the Office. It isn't a "lack of interest" problem, it's a lack of encouragement problem.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

...it is sad to see a priest just shrug off the suggestion that the laity might be able to share more deeply in the prayer of the (whole) church. I get that priests are busy - perhaps this will need to be spearheaded by weirdo laity.

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 3d

"They would sooner come to..." seems like a total guess given that, as you say, they don't know what Vespers is. I am, as you kindly say elsewhere here, both a weirdo and someone who discerned out of religious life, but...

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 4d

Another good story hook for #arsmagica. A grog from the local village is being hounded by a demon of discord, causing the villagers to turn against him as a scapegoat. If the covenant intervenes, the frustrated demon starts revealing secrets the characters would rather keep hidden. #ttrpg

Medievalist.net @medievalists.bsky.social · 4d

The Medieval Village and its Evil Spirit www.medievalists.net/2023/10/medi... #Halloween

The Medieval Village and its Evil Spirit - Medievalists.net

Today’s horror movies could make use of this story from the ninth century, of how an evil spirit terrorized a medieval village. It also reports on one of the earliest recorded attempts at an exorcism…

www.medievalists.net

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CatholicGeekery @catholicgeekery.bsky.social · 4d

Clearly he was making his own custom character with Skills & Powers for AD&D 2e, keep up.

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