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David A. Sylvester

Seeking the Invisible Reality within the Visible

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This Week's Feature

Sunday Catholic Mass Readings

 

5th Sun., Lent/ Passion Sunday, Readings

March 22, 2026

Fifth Sunday of Advent (Novus Ordo)
...I will open your graves ...and bring you back to the land of Israel. 

Passion Sunday (Tridentine Latin Mass)
Do me justice, O God, and fight my fight against a faithless people...

Faith LIfe Roman Catholic Mass Spirituality

First Sunday of Advent, Readings

November 30, 2025

First Sunday of Advent (Novus Ordo, Year A) ...before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage...

I Sunday of Advent (Tridentine Latin Mass) To You I lift up my soul: in You, O my God, I trust; let me not be put to shame;

Christian Teachings Reviving Faith Roman Catholic Mass

Ash Wednesday, Readings

February 18, 2026

Ash Wednesday (Novus Ordo, Year A) ... Rend  your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God...

Ash Wednesday (Tridentine Latin Mass) ... thou hast mercy upon all... and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance.

Catholic Mass Catholic Spiritual LIfe Reviving Faith

Solemnity, Annunciation of Lord, Readings

February 25, 2026

Solemnity,Annunciation of the Lord, Wed., 3/25/26 (N.O.) ... the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child...

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Wed., 3/25/26 (TLM) Feria IV, Passion Week. Commentary on propers.

Light in Dark Times Reviving Faith Roman Catholic Mass

Sunday Mass Reflections

 

St. Ligouri on 5th Sunday of Lent

March 16, 2026

Sermon XIX. On the Danger to which tepidity exposes the soul. "But Jesus hid himself." John, 8:59.  ... What then are we to understand by a tepid soul? A tepid soul is one that frequently falls into fully deliberate venial sins such as deliberate lies, deliberate acts of impatience, deliberate imprecations, and the like.

Catholic Spirituality Reviving Faith Roman Catholic Mass

St. Ligouri on 1st Sunday of Advent

November 29, 2025

Sermon for First Sunday of Advent, St. Alphonsus Liqouri At present God is not known, and, therefore, he is as much despised by sinners, as if he could not avenge, whenever he pleases, the injuries offered to him.

Catholic Spiritual LIfe Reviving Faith Spirituality

Dom Guéranger on Ash Wednesday

By Dom Gueranger
COMMENTARY: Ash Wednesday | February 18, 2026

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the spiritual combat of Lent. Dom Prosper Guéranger notes we face two enemies, internal passions and external devils, both from our pride and refusal to obey God. God forgave him his sin, but He punished him.

Reviving Faith Roman Catholic Mass Spiritual Reflections

Devout Reflections Section Title Test

 

Faith & Spirituality

 

Our Choice: Fight Evil? Or Strengthen Good?

By Doris Lessing
ESSAY EXCERPT | January 26, 2026

Doris Lessing writes in 1957 during the Cold War: "What is the choice before us? It is not merely a question of preventing an evil, but of strengthening a vision of a good which may defeat evil."

Global Crisis Prophetic Voices Social Conscience
U.S. foreign aid programs are the largest source of international assistance, now ended by Trump.

Have We No Fear For Our Souls?

By David A. Sylvester
MASS: 26th Sunday, Ord. Time | September 27, 2025

In today's reading, the uncaring rich man was cast into hell, the impoverished Lazarus was "carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham." Which of one these are we, the U.S. Catholics at Mass?

Mammonism Social Conscience Spirituality

We All, At Times, Suffer From Illusions…

REFLECTION: By anonymous Carthusian monk
Excerpts from "They Speak by Silences" | January 1, 1948

We confuse not having peace with not being aware of the peace we possess. When... storm-tossed, we only perceive the storm... we have not lost our peace of soul, but only our awareness of it...

Prophetic Voices Reviving Faith Spirituality

Stories & Poems

 

Moments of Meaning

December 31, 2025

What is meaning but a droplet

of the ordinary in which

we glimpse something

true and beautiful, slight but real?

Art & Culture Invisible Realities

Along the Road

By David A. Sylvester
Moment of Meaning | December 30, 2025

He was a very old man ... in his late 70s... absorbed in one of the simplest tasks on earth ... his movement had a dignity that I do not remember seeing in the city with its more important tasks.

Art & Culture Invisible Realities Spiritual Reflections

In the Mirror

By David A. Sylvester
Moment of Meaning | December 28, 2025

“Am one hundred now?”… 100?... Her mind was full of fog... in the bathroom, with her glasses still on... her eyes cleared, this face flashed in the mirror, this shriveled head of some strange old lady...

Art & Culture Invisible Realities Light in Dark Times

The Price of Labor, Smooth Wet Sand, Two Huge Eyes

By David A. Sylvester
Moment of Meaning | December 24, 2025

I was standing on the white deck around the blue pool, shielding my eyes from the sun... Her face was too close, staring at me through her black sunglasses, my bare feet burning on the cement deck. Behind me, a very distracting set of two parallel walls circled around us and the pool area like a corral...

Art & Culture Invisible Realities Light in Dark Times

Essays & Journalism

 
Turkish novelist Ahmet Altan

A Turkish Novelist Found Hope – in Prison

Ahmet Altan, Turkish novelist
Washington Post | May 24, 2020

Turkish novelist Ahmet Altan was imprisoned on false charges in Turkey.  in prison, he wrote "I'm watching the Coronavirus virus unfold from a Turkish prison. This is why I'm hopeful." - From the Washington Post, May 24,2020.

Prophetic Voices Reviving Faith Writing & Writers

A Star Comes to Town

By David A. Sylvester
Profile: Hartford Times, Hartford, CT | December 29, 2025

The TV series had made her a household name... but now, she was appearing at the dinner theater... remembering her co-stars, famous or slight... saying things like: “Oh yes, very memorable! Terrific fun! The times we had!”

Invisible Realities Modern Emptiness Pop Culture

On Teaching

“I Don’t Know How to Write!”

By Chalida "Pinky" Rikakorn
March 9, 2026

Chalida, a student from Thailand dressed in pink everything, insisted: “I CAN’T WRITE!” I asked: “Why do you like pink? Tell your friend in Thai, then translate it into English.” The result: three beautiful paragraphs!

Archives Education Teaching Writing Writing & Writers

The joy of freewriting, purely from the inner self

By David A. Sylvester
FREEWRITING | February 15, 2020

When I hear about freewriting, it feels like … freedom…! Like a bird in the sky, a leaf in the wind, la ripple on the lake at dawn, the first sign of life, the first heartbeat of a baby in a mother’s womb …

Art & Culture Education Invisible Realities Writing & Writers

Teaching

“I Don’t Know How to Write!”

By Chalida "Pinky" Rikakorn
March 9, 2026

Chalida, a student from Thailand dressed in pink everything, insisted: “I CAN’T WRITE!” I asked: “Why do you like pink? Tell your friend in Thai, then translate it into English.” The result: three beautiful paragraphs!

Archives Education Teaching Writing Writing & Writers

Everyday, I’m in the presence of the skunk’s scent

By David A. Sylvester
REFLECTION | May 23, 2023

Near my apartment in downtown Oakland, here’s what I have seen: At 4 o’clock in the morning, I go out for an early coffee at all-night convenience store a block away. No one is around. There is a great stillness,  the peace between the night and the first grey light of dawn.  And yet, there’s the skunk, a thick slightly sickening burning smell coming from the empty parking lot across the street. A security guard is doing his rounds and trailing behind him are these ghost-like clouds illuminated by the security lights.

12 Step Recovery Modern Emptiness Normalizing Pathology

Holy Trinity: an American tragedy in 40 years

PHOTOGRAPHY | June 20, 2020

Holy Trinity Church was a landmark in the tree-lined, thriving center of Duquesne, PA, outside Pittsburgh, where my cousins grew up in the 1960s. Then the town’s steel mill closed.

Art & Culture Deeper than Left or Right Roman Catholics Spiritual Crisis

Steve F. and the wisdom of the streets

By David A. Sylvester
AN ENCOUNTER | February 20, 2020

It's early morning in the heart of Oakland's Skid Row, and Steve F. is coming toward us, me and Artie G., from across the street, bouncing from leg to leg, waving at us with one hand and balancing a styrofoam plate with a few pancakes in the other hand, grinning his maniac drug grin.

Archives Light in Dark Times Spiritual Reflections

The joy of freewriting, purely from the inner self

By David A. Sylvester
FREEWRITING | February 15, 2020

When I hear about freewriting, it feels like … freedom…! Like a bird in the sky, a leaf in the wind, la ripple on the lake at dawn, the first sign of life, the first heartbeat of a baby in a mother’s womb …

Art & Culture Education Invisible Realities Writing & Writers

Was I Willing to be a Killer?

By Woo Young Kang
March 9, 2026

On an ordinary sunny winter day, I was a Korean solider stationed near thedemilitarized zone between North and South Korea and received this message…so began the scariest night of my life.

Invisible Realities Learning English Writing & Writers

Quick Takes

– 3 F… in an Age of Hyper-Dependency

By David A. Sylvester
REFLECTION | January 30, 2026

Two weeks below 0 F, wind bites deep into the fingers, bones are like icicles, and nature shows a malevolent face. Machines keep us alive.

Invisible Realities Special Dangers of These Times

IU Football: Joyful Victory, Hidden Nightmare

By David A. Sylvester
COMMENTARY | January 28, 2026

Nothing has been more thrilling than to see IU football win a perfect 16-0 season… until a hit left its star quarterback lying face down on the grass…

Art & Culture Invisible Realities New Perspectives

Movie & Book Reviews

Attack of 50 Min. of Boredom

The Woolner Brothers, 1958 - Watched on TCM, 1:05:32
Directed by Nathan H. (Juran) Hertz, Watch on TCM, Amazon
February 2, 2026
Best part: The title.

On a lark, I watched this movie, “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman”, thinking it might be weird and campy – but it turned out painfully stupid and boring.  You’ll get most of it by fast forwarding to the 58:00 minute mark and catching the “50 Ft. Woman”  in the last five minutes of the film.

The Floating Opera: Loving Life’s Absurdities

By John Barth
NOVEL: 1967 revised edition of 1956 original.
June 21, 2020
Wonderful! Well worth re-reading.

John Barth’s first novel, The Floating Opera may seem like a warm-up to the author’s later “post-modernist meta-fictions,” On re-reading, I see a model of what a novel can be – a new vision of everyday life, imbued with love and delight at all the world’s absurdities and pleasures.

The Morning Show: exploitation of the cubicles

TV series, Apple Studio
Directed by Mimi Leder. Season 1: 10 Episodes, 2019. Watch on Apple TV+.
June 1, 2020
Nuanced and articulate - ultimately conventional.

Well-written, deliberately nuanced perspective on male sexual exploitation of vulnerable women in high-pressure corporations. Identifies with the victims – at last! – but how about the the poor and powerless around the world, victims of American policies left out of  the “news”?

The Mentalist: The charm of nihilism

TV SERIES: CBS
Producer Bruno Heller. 7 Seasons, Amazon Prime Video, 2008-15.
June 1, 2020
Forget the law. Nihilism gets real results.

The amusing detective work of a whimsical but charming nihilist.  Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) works as a “consultant” for the FBI, but is perfectly candid that his real mission is to seek revenge against the serial killer who murdered his family, legal procedures be damned.

Noteworthy Reading on the Web

Actually, U.S. Can Default on its Debt

By Desmond Lachman,
The Hill | March 8, 2023

The national deb of the U.S. soared by 40% during and after the Covid pandemic in 2020, and now  the headlines are full of warnings about the looming debt crisis. Here is an alternative view that argues the U.S. can default on its debt.

Debt Crisis Economy

Anti-Mafia Priest to Killer: “I’ve Been Expecting You.”

By Cindy Wooden
National Catholic Reporter | August 22, 2023

Blessed Pino Puglisi  fought the Mafia by creating community, breaking the social isolation that feeds the mob’s power. He knew his end was near.

Christianity Prophetic Voices Roman Catholics Social Conscience

Noteworthy Archives

‘World’s Happiest Man’ Lives by Three Rules

By David Marchese
The New York Times | August 14, 2023

This Buddhist monk, a best-selling author on happiness, was asked in an interview to describe the way to attain happiness. He said…

Archives Modern Emptiness New Perspectives Spiritual Reflections

Resources

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