Five Quick Takes

Last updated on: October 15, 2019 at 10:13 pm by Gabriel Blanchard

Five Quick Takes 2019-10-15T22:13:35-04:00 Gabriel Blanchard

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I am writing my very first post from a new laptop! Thanks in part to my lovely Patreon sponsors, I’ve been able to save up enough over the last few months to replace my last one, which was from 2012, if that’s even a real year. This one is much faster, not filthy yet, and has all the keyboard buttons still attached. I could get used to this.

Happy (very tail end of) the memorial of St Teresa of Jesus, one of the three dozen or so Doctors of the Church! I have been very fond of her for some years; I discovered her through her collaborator St John of the Cross, whose poetry was a major influence on my spiritual life even before I became a Catholic. My favorite story about her is the one in which she was riding in a cart, and it was upset, throwing the nun into the dirt. A divine voice said within her, Do not be indignant, my daughter, for this is how I treat all my friends. The saint replied, “And that is why You have so few.”

Don’t mess with nuns, guys. They will sass God if they think it’s called for.

Speaking of things St Teresa does, she has been an important guide and helper for me in prayer. I do everything wrong with my Carmelites somehow, like always starting with the book you’re supposed to slowly build up to through their other works, but I guess they don’t mind because I’ve learned a lot from them. I often find it easier to pray when I ask them for help; and, partly out of personal affection and partly because my parish has been graced with a relic of his in our altar, I pray to St John of the Cross every day.

I am extremely not watching the Democratic presidential debates. Having drifted out of anarchism and into democratic socialism, I will be voting this time around, but I already know I’m voting blue unless they somehow manage to nominate somebody even worse than Trump (which, no). So I feel no great need to watch Beto O’Rourke and Tim Ryan and Cory Booker each trying to embarass themselves harder than the other two (when we all know O’Rourke will win), while everybody else is trying to remember which one’s Amy Klobuchar and which one’s Tulsi Gabbard. Nothing against the Democratic presidential field, you understand, I just don’t understand why they feel the need to parade their lifestyle like this.

The reason I settled on a quick takes post for tonight is because the beginning of this week was surprisingly rough. I had an awkward misunderstand-fight-something with one good friend, and another appears to be facing a third miscarriage. Please pray for my people.

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