satire
Workplace satire, comedy, and all things satirical in the Journal corporate culture digital space.
Why Do Catholics Make the Sign of the Cross?
If you have ever attended a Catholic Mass, you have probably noticed something that happens almost immediately after the congregation gathers: Catholics raise their right hand, touch their forehead, move down to their chest, and then touch their left and right shoulders while saying, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
By Overdrive Records9 days ago in Journal
Why Catholics Genuflect Before Entering the Pew
When you walk into a Catholic church, you first touch the holy water and make the Sign of the Cross. Then, before you slide into the pew, you pause and genuflect. Most of the time that means bending the right knee until it touches the floor while facing the tabernacle, then rising and sitting or kneeling. If the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar for Adoration, you genuflect on both knees. You do the same thing again when Mass ends and you leave the pew. It is a small, almost automatic movement for many Catholics, yet it carries a clear and deliberate meaning.
By Overdrive Records10 days ago in Journal
Confession Is Not a Performance
Confession is not a performance. It is not a speech you rehearse so the priest will be impressed. It is not a therapy session with a stole. It is the sacrament in which a baptized person names their sins out loud to a priest and receives absolution. The Church has kept this practice because it does what private regret cannot do. It restores the soul. That is why ordinary Catholics still get in the line, even when the line is short and the hour is inconvenient.
By Overdrive Records29 days ago in Journal
The Mass Is Not a Meeting
The Mass is not a meeting. It is not a weekly gathering where Catholics share thoughts and then go home. It is not a lecture with better music. The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ made present. The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of the Lord. That is why ordinary Catholics, including those who grew up with cassette decks and parish basements, still come back for it. They are not there for the bulletin. They are there because something happens that does not happen anywhere else.
By Overdrive Records29 days ago in Journal
The Saints Are Not Museum Pieces
The saints are not museum pieces. They are not statues you walk past on the way to a better exhibit. They are not names on a calendar that exist to fill empty dates. They are men and women who lived, died, and now stand before God. The Church keeps their memory because their lives still argue with the way we live. Most of the time the argument is simple. They did the ordinary things we avoid. They did them long enough to become holy. That is why ordinary Catholics still learn their names and still ask them to pray.
By Overdrive Records29 days ago in Journal
The Rosary Is Not a Background Prayer
The Rosary is not a background prayer. It is not a string of beads you keep in a drawer for emergencies. It is not a Catholic version of a short verse you can scroll past and still claim you prayed. The Rosary is a full way of walking through the life of Jesus with Mary. Each decade asks you to stay with one scene long enough for the story to do its work. That is why it still teaches the Gospel better than a line on a screen.
By Overdrive Records29 days ago in Journal
Unpacking More Than Boxes
The blank page has been staring back at me for days , heavy with everything I haven't known how to say. Every time I sit down in front of a fresh document or open a notebook, the cursor just blinks—a steady, rhythmic pulse that feels less like an invitation and more like an accusation. The words are there, somewhere beneath the surface, but they feel jammed behind a fortress of moving boxes, logistical chaos, and the lingering residue of a life transition that took far more out of me than I ever anticipated. It is a frustrating, heavy kind of silence. It’s the kind of silence where your mind is screaming with a thousand different thoughts, memories, and unspoken grievances, yet your hands freeze the moment your fingers hover over the keys.
By Brooke Kallamabout a month ago in Journal
Creed and Nickelback Paid the Bills. That Is Part of the Story
The polite history of late 90s and early 2000s rock has a punch line ready before the needle drops. Creed. Nickelback. The format villains. The bands you are supposed to apologize for knowing. That punch line is easy and incomplete. Active rock after Seattle still needed songs that could live on a shop radio, a night shift, and a daytime hour. These two paid those bills. The sneer never killed the catalog because the catalog was never asking the sneer for permission.
By Overdrive Records2 months ago in Journal
The Cassette Was the Real Record Label
The official history of heavy music likes labels, catalog numbers, and the day the CD showed up looking like the future. Fine. That history skips the actual distribution system a lot of us used. A TDK. A Memorex. A handwritten spine. A second-generation copy that already hissed. The cassette was the real record label. It got Slayer across a county line before the shop had the jewel case. It got Metallica out of a bedroom and into a dash. It turned thrash into a chain letter with better riffs.
By Overdrive Records2 months ago in Journal

