A personal note, or taking it down a notch

I don't write too many personal update posts these days, unlike in the old days here on Καθολικός διάκονος. Facebook provides a better venue for those kinds of things. It's hard to believe that this July will mark my seventh year as a (semi-)serious blogger and the re-naming of this blog as the very non-marketable Καθολικός διάκονος. I actually started my blog in August 2005 and posted 6 times before going on a hiatus, starting to blog in earnest almost a year later. This is my 2473rd post, a number that includes those 6 early posts. My genre very much remains un-creative Catholic non-fiction.

It was last Lent that I felt the need to break my compulsion to post something everyday. This resulted in "only" 280 posts for 2012. This healthier and far less time-consuming (healthier precisely because it is less time-consuming) manner of blogging spilled over into this year. Well, it spilled over until I awoke on the morning of 11 February, my lovely wife's birthday, and the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, to the shocking news that Benedict XVI was renouncing the papacy at the end of the month. Since then, especially in March, which saw the Conclave, the election of Pope Francis, the early days of the papacy of this pope about whom not many of us knew much about, not to mention Lent, Holy Week, the just-concluded Paschal Triduum, I have been typing up a storm.

It's April now, which is a lovely month, usually one of stark contrasts when it comes to weather, at least here along the Wasatch Front. During the 30 days of April, it is not unusual for us to experience rain, snow, and temperatures that reach sometimes into the 80s. Barring any unforeseen events, I plan to once again scale back. For example, after this post, I plan to put up a Friday traditio this week, something on Divine Mercy probably on Saturday, and a short reflection on one of the Sunday readings.

Since I am re-reading Von Balthasar's Glory of the Lord for my own Year of Faith endeavor, look for a lot from him, or reflections that start there. I am also reading Canon Law again, preparing for my Spring Semester class in the subject from the Pontifical Josphinum. Given how intricate Canon Law is, which intricacy arises from it being the oldest continually functioning legal code in the world, I am always a little hesitant to wax too canonical. Canon Law is one of those things that the more I know about it, which still doesn't amount to much, the more reticent I become when writing or speaking about it.

In any case a happy and joyous Pascha to one and all. A holy Lent to my all my Orthodox friends. I am praying the Divine Mercy novena in the days leading up to Divine Mercy Sunday, which is this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter.

Jesus, I trust in You.