Merry Christmas

A merry and blessed Christmas to all who happen to read this blog! May you enjoy the company and warmth of family and friends, secure in the knowledge of the Savior's love!

Musings on the End of the World

Five more shopping days 'til Christmas, but you might as well not bother since the world is ending on Friday. The Mayans, a civilization so privileged in knowledge that they were able to survive and thrive to the present day in peace and harmony and.. oh wait, I must be confusing them with someone else - Elves perhaps? Anyway, as a precaution, I went to confession on Monday and mass today, receiving the spiritual benefit of a plenary indulgence along the way.

More important and present in our mind than a cataclysmic apocalypse should be the possibility of our own departure from this planet. A priest once told my mom that she would die the same time he did - that time would be some point between confessions. As they say, treat your body as if you will live forever, treat your soul as though you'll die tomorrow.

I will admit that a go to confession infrequently, more out of sloth than of any particular contempt for the idea, for I always feel refreshed and rejuvenated after receiving absolution and the assurance of God's pardon from the priest. But, in this Year of Faith, I resolve to go more regularly in order to keep my spiritual house in better order. As the old song goes, "Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me." As recent tragic events make clear, our world is in dire need of peace. The only way that any of us can bring peace to another is if we have peace within ourselves and with God. The grace given by God to the penitent in confession is one component of living a life overflowing with love, joy, and peace, so sorely needed by our world, whether it ends Friday or five million years from now.

Image: Return of the Prodigal Son by Murillo

Cripe

Last night, Ethan and I completed our entry in the 2012 Cripe design competition. The annual 4th-year competition, sponsored by Cripe Architects, of Indianapolis, is typically dovetailed into a larger, national competition. This year, the national framework used was the ACSA's call for proposals for Shutes Folly Island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The national competition was entitled Preservation as Provocation and asked students to consider the historic fabric of Shutes Folly - defined by Castle Pinckney (a decaying ruin of early 19th Century maritime defense strategy) - alongside its natural and geographical uniqueness. Without boring you with details, Ethan and I decided to rehabilitate the fort into an amphitheater space with multiple settings for dramatic settings - taking an old art into an old fort in a new way. Images of the boards are below: