Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, Gentle Reader! A summary of the great Irish saint’s life and work: St. Patrick (387-493) was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland, to Roman-British parents. He was kidnapped by Irish raiders at the age of sixteen and sold as a slave to a Druid high priest. He worked as a shepherd …
Category: Christianity
Mar 15 2024
The Easiest Sin
Happy Ides of March, Gentle Reader! If you enjoyed your Pi Day – we did – then perhaps you’ll also enjoy this commemoration of the day, in 44 B.C., when a group of civic-minded patricians decided to take an aspiring dictator “off the ballot” in a rather final and unappealable way. It’s a recipe …
Mar 07 2024
Inconceivable Yet Real
Writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror – the three main speculative genres – face challenges that don’t trouble mainstream fictioneers. We’re supposed to strive to be original, constantly looking for a new conception, a new scientific or technological development, a new evocation of wonder or terror. The flattest and least refutable of all …
Feb 24 2024
Scare Talk Often Means Only That The Talker Is Scared
Good morning, Gentle Reader. The “Future Columns” folder is bulging, as usual, but of all the subjects addressed therein, only one piques my interest today: From the White House to think tanks, and even mainstream media outlets like CNN, White Christian nationalists have been vilified, being labeled as the greatest threat to national …
Feb 17 2024
Trends In Bigotry
It’s distressing to feel that I must write about such things, but why else would I blog? There are plenty of softer types to handle the easier stuff. Throughout America, there’s a near-overpowering awareness that things are going to Hell. Indeed, the bottom of the national handbasket has started to smolder. The sense …
Feb 04 2024
A Unique Variety Of Solitude
It’s not that long ago that I wrote: “The worst” is the noise. The perpetual din. The endless screaming, wailing, moaning, hectoring, begging, and cursing. The ceaseless demands from politicians. The carping from the unsatisfied. The orations of the world-savers. The unending gimme gimme gimme of those who want something they can’t get …
Jan 21 2024
Poverty In Spirit
[This piece first appeared at Liberty’s Torch V1.0 on November 1, 2015 — FWP] Perhaps the most famous of all Jesus’s words: And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, …
Jan 20 2024
Matter And Spirit
The following passage from C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity has me thinking about things most theologians don’t – or perhaps won’t – address: There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread …
Dec 25 2023
December 25, 2023
Ponder this: When God came to Earth, there was no room in the inn, but there was room in the stable. What lesson is hidden behind the inn and the stable? What is an inn, but the gathering-place of public opinion, the focal point of the world’s moods, the residence of the …
Nov 24 2023
Thanksgiving Afterthoughts
It’s right there in the name of the holiday: Thanksgiving Day is a day for giving thanks. But to give implies that there’s someone to receive. To whom shall our thanks be offered? Would anyone like a hint? Our supposedly Catholic president appears to need one: Since the first Thanksgiving on Plymouth …
Oct 31 2023
Allhallowtide
If you’re a Gentle Reader who comes for the political tirades but leaves when I start to rant “Catholic stuff,” here’s your heads-up: It’s time to go, hero. Fran’s boiler is lit once again. Not many other commentators are likely to mention this. Hallowe’en, which has become one of the most “celebrated” days …
Oct 23 2023
Clerical Missteps
The news in religion today focuses on the “Synod on Synodality” currently being held in the Vatican. Many Catholics are seriously concerned about what’s being discussed by the assembled clergy. Longstanding teachings of the Church appear threatened. Of course we won’t know what will come of it all until it’s over and its deliberations …
Sep 24 2023
Were You Called? How Did You Answer?
The Parable of the Vineyard can be interpreted in several ways: Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. …
Sep 04 2023
Worthy As Few Are Worthy
Does anyone here remember the old “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s” rye bread commercials? They had a good point. Similarly, you don’t have to be Catholic to love Anthony Esolen. Dr. Esolen’s most recent column is a clarion call. While he reminds us to “expect no help” in our …
Sep 03 2023
Self-Denial And All That
Today’s Gospel reading includes one of the most disturbing, even ominous, of all Jesus’s statements: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” This passage resonates with particular power in the aftermath of viewing Nefarious. For in that remarkable movie, the demon made its …
Aug 13 2023
Schisms
I was minded to take the day off, but I started thinking about St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: Brothers and sisters: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my …
Jul 07 2023
People Of Hope
I recall recommending The Hope Line as a worthy charity earlier this year. Unlike most other charities, it doesn’t offer material or financial help to those who come to it. Rather, it offers a sympathetic ear and voice. Its workers will talk to you about anything, but an emphasis on…drum roll, please…hope. Within that …
Jun 04 2023
Love And Suffering
With today, Trinity Sunday, the liturgical year continues into “ordinary time.” That’s a misleading title for this period. It’s intended to mean that we’re beyond the special season of Easter and have not yet entered the special season of Advent. Yet any part of the year in which believers practice the Christian faith is …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
