I present to you an annual tradition that is happening later and later: the best/favorite posts from the prior year, as picked by you (my readers) and me. YOUR favorites are simply the posts that got the most clicks, no matter when I originally posted them; MY favorites are chosen from what I actually wrote in 2022 (which frankly was not much).
First, YOUR favorites.
Liturgical Music II: The 70s has made appearances on this list before. It was part of a whole series I did some years ago, and I think it get hits from nostalgic middle-aged folks who are searching for the songs of their youth (I should know, because I do this too.)
Mary My Mother: Quotations and Images has also appeared on this list. I used to love to pair my own images with appropriate quotations. Besides these, I have ones for fall and spring and advent, just to name a few.
Things I Never Thought I’d Cry About: Losing a Dentist is something I feel like I wrote a lifetime ago. If I were going to cry about a dentist now, it might be over the bill! In any case, I think people are led to this post (it is popular every year!) by the picture of the old-timey dentist chair below, which looks exactly like the one my childhood dentist used except for the color.
To a Fat Lady Seen from a Train is one of my posts about poems. I actually have quite a few. I guess people come to this one while doing searches about the poem, which is a perfect example or a triolet and is also a poem that elicits strong feelings from readers, apparently.
Pro-Life Profile: Herb Geraghty was the inaugural post of a series inspired by my attendance last summer at the Vita Institute (about which more below). I was very excited about this series but sadly many of the people I wanted to profile were less excited and never followed up on my offers to participate, and what with my lack of time for writing this year, the series petered out–although I would like to resurrect it.
And now my MY favorites!
A Short Manifesto on the Sanctity of Human Life was repurposed from my application to attend the Vita Institute. Here’s a sampling: My convictions often place me in uncomfortable situations and leave me without a political home. My critics struggle to fit me into our society’s convenient and restrictive liberal/conservative paradigm. But my convictions come straight from the teachings of the Church and that gives me strength to continue to proclaim them even when it is hard. And I believe the Church’s consistent ethic of life gives us a strong foundation from which to argue for all lives, whether they are the innocent unborn, the condemned murderer, the frozen embryo, or the terminally ill.
Three Things I Learned at the Vita Institute was my first of what I had planned to be many articles about the conference, which was an amazing opportunity for me: I had quite an adventure last week. Four flights. An unprecedented heat wave. Almost 133,000 steps. Close to 20 lectures by experts in their fields. About 50 new friends. And last but not least, a Covid infection!
Pro-Life Profile: Gwendolyn Loop was the second in the series, and featured my “Consistent Life Bestie” who is now a law student at Notre Dame: I want pro-choicers to know— you and I have a lot of common ground! I want to work with you to make real solutions like affordable healthcare and childcare, fair wages and flexible workplaces, housing and transportation. It’s absolutely shameful that in one of the richest countries on earth, a woman’s financial situation would be so precarious that she would give up her child to secure her own future. I dream of a society where we all care for each other at all stages, in every circumstance.
Let’s Talk about Thanksgiving was uncomfortable to write but I am proud of it: Obviously, the narrative of settlers and natives dining peacefully together, enjoying the fruits of their mutual labors, is a more attractive story than the real one–that settlers stole land from the people who were already here, infected them with diseases–sometimes on purpose–and systematically attempted to exterminate them and obliterate their cultures. That is what happened and it does not translate nicely into kindergarten plays and turkey platters.
Heaven’s Gain Ministries: Support and Comfort for Families in Mourning is actually a pointed post for an article I wrote for Celebrate Life Magazine. Here’s a quote from the linked article: “How can we expect the world to believe that babies are precious if we do not treat miscarried and stillborn babies’ bodies with respect and allow their parents to properly grieve?”
I’ve been compiling these annual lists almost ten years, and clicking through is a great way to see my blogging highlights!
