Brevia Theologica - Why I like Pope St. Gregory the Great

10. Like me, his family was from Sicily.
9. He founded seven monasteries on his various estates.
8. He was friends with St. Leander of Seville, on whose feast day is my birthday.
7. He was quick with a pun. ("Angles? Don't you mean angels?")
6. He insisted that priests and bishops act like real priests and bishops.
5. The Moralia in Iob.
4. He converted the Lombards from Arianism (not to be outdone by St. Leander, who did the same for the Visigoths).
3. The Gregorian Sacramentary.
2. He had unparalleled taste in liturgical music.
1. The Cura Pastoralis.

Parenting Epiphany

Today, while reading Smiter Jr and Smitrilla a bedtime story -- an edifying one, about the uses of Gaulish beer in provincial Roman orgies of the early Imperial period* -- I had a brilliant revelation. Smiter Jr likes to go to bed early on school nights, and he falls asleep quite easily. Smitrilla, however, likes to stay up as late as she can get away with. So, I shall decree that Smitrilla's bedtime is now 4 pm, and insist definitively that she be in bed no later than 4 hours past her bedtime!!!



* "Asterix the Gaul in Switzerland"