Carl E. Olson

My first icon is still in progress (and has been on hold for far too long), but I tend to think it's a bit better than anything you'll see from Rupnik...

Only Ivereigh and his ilk could view a man who supports abortion on demand, gay marriage, the full trans agenda, and who now says he supports assisted suicide, as “deeply shaped by the Church’s social teaching”. Good grief.

@fatherstephen14 @FrSteveGrunow Plains, Montana.

@carleolson @FrSteveGrunow Awesome! Where is that?

@FrSteveGrunow Come visit my Dad’s shop!

@NickSenz Chuck is too busy commentating to watch the actual games.

@NeighborRosicky My father‘s gun shop. He built it in 1974 when I was five years old. He’s still going strong at 83.

@carleolson The dock shot is great, but my favorite is the window shot at the gunsmith’s shop (family relation, I’m assuming). I like shots like this because they have a story to tell.

A few random pictures from western Montana.

@kalezelden He appears to have lasted about as long as a buzz from Bud Lite.

Don’t hear much about that Dylan Mulvany guy lately.

What is the Kingdom of God? How does it come about? And how will it grow? These are some of the questions addressed in the parables of Jesus, including the seven parables found in Matthew 13. As we saw last week, these parables are not simply stories with a moral, nor are they theological tracts or even pithy catechetical lessons. Parables are not, writes Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis in Fire of Mercy, Heart of the World (Ignatius Press, 2003), “a test of human intelligence that functions like riddles.” “Rather, he explains, “they are verbal strategies of grace that test the willingness of the human heart to surrender to, and be enfolded by, the always surprising generosity of Wisdom.” Leiva-Merikakis describes a parable, strikingly, as “a coded letter left by a Lover.” He points out that the original Greek renditions of the parables are imbued with a beautiful musicality, adding even more meaning to Jesus’ exhortation: “He who has ears, let him hear” (Mt 13:9). God’s love for mankind is such that the eternal Word uses words of beauty to redeem our souls and transform our hearts. This Sunday’s Gospel reading contains three of the seven parables: the parables of the weeds among the wheat, the mustard seed, and the yeast (or leaven). Like the parable of the sower and seeds heard last week, all three express something about the growth of the Kingdom and how God’s word brings about that mysterious—and often unseen—growth. Like the parable of the sower and the seeds, the parable of the weeds among the wheat has an agricultural setting. However, the parable is unique to Matthew’s Gospel and does not appear in the other Gospels. The focus is less on the response of the soil to the sower’s seeds and more on the mystery of evil and how it grows alongside what the Son of Man has planted in the field of the world. In his explanation of the parable to the disciples, Jesus draws a stark contrast between the children of the kingdom and the children of the evil one. Those who hear the word of God and reject it are the children of Satan. Having been offered light, they choose darkness (cf. Jn 1:9-11; 3:19-20). But, as Saint Augustine noted, what is now wheat can become a weed, and what is a weed can still become wheat “and no one knows what they will be tomorrow.” It is right to lament the sins committed by sons and daughters of the Church. But we shouldn’t be blind to our own weaknesses, nor to the ravenous appetite of the devil, who “is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Mindful of our failings, as the Apostle Paul exhorts the Romans in today’s epistle, we must trust in the Holy Spirit, who “comes to the aid of our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought.” The parable of the mustard seed, although short, is memorable in its imagery, especially in the comparison between the largeness of the bush (growing to ten feet in height) and the smallness of the seed. Its central meaning is that the works of God often begin in small ways and are usually ignored or missed by the world. The temptation for the children of the Kingdom is to become impatient, forgetting that this tree has now been growing for thousands of years, and will continue to grow until the end of time. Even shorter is the parable of the yeast, or leaven. From what seems of little consequence comes a superabundance, a theme echoing the reality of the Incarnation and the stunning truth of the empty tomb. It is Christ, the lover of mankind, who is the leaven. And it is through his death and Resurrection and by his Body and Blood that we are leavened; we are transformed and transferred into the always growing kingdom of the Son (Col 1:13).

@BHarkins96928 I grew up in Plains, and spent a fair amount of time in the Kalispell/Whitefish area in my teens. But don't get up to Whitefish much anymore; usually spend some time in Kalispell.

@carleolson Beautiful country. Hope you check out Whitefish.

Flathead Lake. Montana.

@ArcEng9154644 I don’t know. I gave up fishing when I was 16 years old. 😎

@carleolson How's the fishing?

@bmet7 Certainly describes big chunks of Montana and Texas.

@carleolson While you are correct about size, I think his point is his entire drive is through “the middle of nowhere.” Basically a 7-hour drive through Iowa with nothing to see, and when you reach the other side, there’s still nothing to see. As I recall, MT is actually quite beautiful

I grew up in Montana. It's 250 miles deep and 640 miles wide. By the time I was a teenager, I'd been on 8, 9, 10 hour drives that never left the state. And while MT is the fourth largest state, AL, TX, and CA are notably bigger.

This is one of my favorite vocal jazz albums and favorite album covers. Recorded in December 1954 and released the next year on the EmArcy label, Merrill's debut, at age 25, is subtle, sophisticated, and often stunning. She is accompanied by the great Clifford Brown on trumpet, who was killed at age 26 in a tragic car accident in 1956. Her voice is both rooted and mysterious, and she never overhangs; she simply inhabits the songs with a haunting quiddity. 10/10.

@lynne_catmom You win!! Dang. That's crazy.

@carleolson I’ve driven 18 hours in TX and still in TX.

Show me in the Bible where the Bible says that only doctrine found explicitly in the Bible is true. That said: 2 Maccabees 12:38-46. And now you can explain why your Bible doesn't have 2 Maccabees in it, even while you follow the Catholic Church when it comes to the New Testament canon.

@carleolson Ok, simply show me an example in the Bible of praying to the dead.

Fundamentalists: "Mary is dead! She's in the grave [or Sheol]! She cannot hear you! You Catholics are such idolatrous fools!" Also Fundamentalists: "My Uncle Bob [or Aunt Susie] died last week. Praise God, he was a born-again believer, and he is now in heaven, rejoicing in the presence of his Savior, Jesus!!" Sigh. I left Fundamentalism and eventually became Catholic, at age 28, for many reasons. One of those was the often bizarre and certainly unbiblical disdain shown for Mary. Of course, we insisted that disdain was aimed at the false Mary of Catholicism, but the Mary of Fundamentalism is routinely ignored, disparaged, and even despised. Thirty years later, I see that same incoherent nastiness in many Fundamentalist posts here on X. It's sad and revolting on many counts, not least because such folks go on and on about how much they love Jesus. But if you love Jesus, you must know that speaking ill of his mother is reprehensible.

@carleolson I don’t need to. You made my point for me.

@maryfiorito A beloved aunt once told me: "Mary was just a biological vessel for Jesus." I asked her what she'd think if her husband said to her, "You're just a biological vessel for my children." No response.

@carleolson It’s astonishing to me that many of our Protestant friends reduce Mary to Jesus’ “gestational carrier” or “surrogate.” She was His mother in every sense of the word. She gave him half of His genetic makeup!

@IFB1611KJV I became Catholic because of 25 years of reading, studying, and memorizing Scripture. So...try again.

@carleolson Your last sentence sums up my entire point: Catholics obviously do not follow the Bible.

@EricRSammons And if St. John Chrysostom were transported to 2026... 😇🧐

If St. Thomas Aquinas were to transport to 2026 and was asked which Mass was most like the one he attended in the 13th century, everyone knows which one he’d choose.