El Filósofo

Notes from a Zenned-Out Catholic

Blog

  • A Good Enough Venture Into What it Means to be Good

    I am not a good person. Or at least, I’m not always sure that I am: what is a good person, after all? In a sense, this question demands that I consider some of the qualities that I feel may be lacking in myself, and it has no easy answer. How can I make any… Keep reading

  • I Wonder (It’s Frightening)

    One of my favourite bands, if not my favourite, will forever be Abba. Sue me. I sometimes refer to it as my guilty pleasure, but in all honesty I don’t feel any guilt about it. The themes they explore in some of their songs, although they sound so pleasant to the ear, often touch on… Keep reading

  • A Catholic and a Muslim Walk into a Bar

    I’ve never been to a Mosque before. Today was the first time. I didn’t quite know what to expect: Christians and Muslims, after all, have historically not gotten along, and even today, with the religion-fueled violence that regrettably pervades much of the Middle East, one could say there is some tension in the air between… Keep reading

  • Christ the Eternal Tao

    When I picked this book up, I was expecting a comparative study of Taoism and Christianity. I expected long (but interesting) chapters that fleshed out whatever similarities and differences exist between the two. Instead, what I found was poetry, wisdom, and the beautiful marriage of two traditions, each of which interpret and express the other.… Keep reading

  • Living in La La Land

    I cried at the end of La La Land. Sue me. How could you not in that final scene? But for those of you who haven’t seen it, allow me to explain. La La Land is, of course, a love story. An aspiring actress and a struggling jazz pianist meet by fate, so it seems,… Keep reading

  • “Take Heart”

    Earlier this year, I wrote a post entitled “God … calls people to die” about a conversation I had with an old friend, but in the aftermath of my choice, I realised too late that I’d oversimplified the matter. The straightforward interpretation—that God calls us to die, to let go of the things we don’t… Keep reading

  • A Time When There Was No History

    In the age when life on earth was full, no one paid any special attention to worthy men, nor did they single out the man of ability. Rulers were simply the highest branches on the tree, and the people were like deer in the woods. They were honest and righteous without realizing that they were… Keep reading

  • Italics

    I used to hate my philosophy degree. Especially after I graduated, struggling to find work, I loathed the fact that I studied philosophy, and why? Because in all honesty, when you’re that kind of person, your life is, as my mum says, “written in italics“. Life is never easy, but studying the humanities will simply… Keep reading

  • Leaving the Confessional

    Recently I wrote about what was perhaps the most powerful confession I’ve made in my life so far, but the story doesn’t end there. As I said then, it’s not like the Priest waved a magic wand and fixed everything. I also said that it freed me to live with myself, but that it didn’t… Keep reading

  • Catholics Love Suffering

    Today, I thought I’d speak about something pleasant for a change: suffering. (Do you see what I did there?) I’m told that, as Catholics, we love suffering. This is certainly true, at least on the surface. We have a kind of morbid fascination with it, and the idea of redemptive suffering has deep roots in… Keep reading