Mansfield Fox

Law student. Yankees fan. Massive fraggle. Just living the American dream.

Friday, November 05, 2004

"We're Not Here to Start No Trouble..."

"...we're just here to do the Blogroll shuffle."

Some housekeeping work among the links. The Electoral College projection websites have been taken down, for reasons that I think are obvious.

I've also added some new stuff:

Times Against Humanity, another much-bigger-deal-than-I blog who I'm grateful has seen fit to link to me, and so to whom, as is my custom, I shall link in return.

The Pope Blog, a nice collection of quotes from and news about His Holiness John Paul II.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a groovy religious community based out of New York City. Founded in the 1980s through the joint effort of John Cardinal O'Connor and Fr. Benedict Groeschel, the order is just blowing up as it moves toward canonical status sometime in the next decade. I stopped in for a visit at the priory in Harlem when I was back in New York last week; they offered me lunch and I was amazed to discover that the order had about a dozen postulants preparing to enter the religious life. I don't know about you, but the idea of a small religious community adding ten or twelve new members a year in this day and age seems almost ludicrous. But there it is. As I said, a groovy community. They're very "in the world but not of it": imbued with a simple Franciscan piety and a deep orthodoxy, but hip to the media and technological developments of the age. Case in point: you can watch a Quicktime video of the most recent set of brothers taking their perpetual profession of vows here. And they have a monastic garage band. And Fr. Benedict has a TV show.