Not that the count was a drone. At last reports, he had been involved in some highly esoteric tampering with the Haertel equations—that description of the space-time continuum which, by swallowing up the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction exactly as Einstein had swallowed Newton (that is, alive), had made interstellar flight possible. Ruiz-Sanchez did not understand a …
Category: Christianity
Jan 08 2023
An Epiphany Story
I’m fairly sure all my Gentle Readers know the story of the Magi and their gifts to the Christ Child. Today – the first Sunday after New Year’s Day – is the day when Catholics celebrate the Epiphany, which includes that momentous visit to the Holy Family from three of the most learned men …
Dec 22 2022
Fanfares
There’s an old gag about the importance of avoiding anachronisms in fiction: The error of anachronism was once enshrined by an amateur playwright. He had a French obstetrician leave home in the early hours of numbingly cold dawn to attend a delivery. When he returned home exhausted, his sympathetic wife gave him hot …
Dec 16 2022
Things You Can Rely On Part 2
Just as “environmentalists” (who should really be called “anti-humanists”) are reliable in their opposition to anything that supports and enriches human life, vocal “diversity” activists are absolutely reliable about certain things. Most prominent among those things is their hatred for any manifestation of Christianity or practices associated with it: This happened in Dedham, …
Dec 11 2022
TITS Up!
Here we are: Gaudete Sunday, when Advent transforms from a season of spiritual preparation to an anticipation of joy. We’ve been here before, we Christians. We know the Savior is coming. We know that He will be born of a virgin in a rude stable, placed in repose in a manger surrounded by animals; …
Dec 04 2022
A Light In The Darkness
Quoth Neil Oliver: I love Christmas … always have and always will. In every conceivable way, Christmas is light in a time of darkness and for many of us, that light has never been more welcome and so can’t come soon enough. Especially since the festival is once again under attack by …
Nov 27 2022
The Adventure Of Love
A number of my fiction readers have commented that the romances I write are “different.” Well, I should hope so. Why write what everyone else is writing? Why not follow a unique path that persons bored with “the same old thing” can use for their refreshment? All the same, it raises the question of …
Nov 20 2022
Temptations And Kings
The liturgical year concludes today, with the Feast of Christ the King. This is one of my favorite liturgical commemorations. Its spirit deeply infused the five Realm of Essences novels and continues to provide inspiration and ideas to everything I write. Kings aren’t born in rude stables far from home; their entry to …
Oct 29 2022
Rising Stars
It’s occurred to me recently that political ascension has come to require physical attractiveness, just as has pop stardom. We have a number of examples before us: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Kari Lake, Herschel Walker, and Ron DeSantis come to mind at once. But while comeliness seems to have become necessary, it is …
Oct 29 2022
Early Morning Thought
Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough; And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. All things …
Oct 23 2022
Looking Forward
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. – 2 Timothy 4:6-7 “You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. …
Oct 10 2022
Mysteries, Not Complexities
Just yesterday, I encountered this touching essay at The Catholic Thing. It starts with the mention of a recent wedding. However, its true import is expressed in this segment: I’d converted to Catholicism from atheism in my mid-20s (I’m 39 now). This wasn’t news to anyone, but few expected the faith to take …
Sep 25 2022
A Stunningly Gorgeous Yet Ultimately Sad Essay
Anthony Esolen brings it. The gut punch: America, said G. K. Chesterton, who came to visit here shortly before his death, was a nation with the soul of a church. But in some sense, I think all nations must be so if they are to remain nations and not mere political agglomerates. If …
Sep 18 2022
Services
I’ve been back from Sunday Mass for about an hour. Since then I’ve been reflecting on an aspect of Christian practice that has occasionally intrigued me. It stems from a brief conversation I had with my pastor, the esteemed Monsignor Christopher Heller, just after Mass. It occurred to me, seemingly by chance, that …
Aug 30 2022
An Institution, Its Functions, And Its Organization
I have said at other times that a church is necessarily a conservative institution. Its first duty is to conserve its theological core, for from that, all its other doctrines and pronouncements must flow. A church that discards or casually alters its core, or permits it to be altered or ignored by those who …
Jul 24 2022
The Ever-Trendy Faith
Gerard van der Leun has a typically excellent essay up today. It’s so good that I almost feel as if I’m committing an offense against the proprieties by pull-quoting it, but…well…maybe the authorities will look the other way: Back in 2006 National Geographic and other media echo chambers thought enough of this “discovery” …
Jun 28 2022
Evidence, Inference, and Faith
What statement is aimed at you more often than any other? For me, it’s “You must be crazy.” or some variation thereof. And more often than not, the stimulus is my religious beliefs. The person casting the aspersions on my sanity deems them “irrational,” the great majority of those who hold them as …
Jun 27 2022
Christian Love: A Primer
Every now and then I get a burr under my saddle, and I have to vent. (“No, really?”) (Shut up, you.) Today is such a day. I hope you’ll indulge me, as the subject matter is critical to the future of Mankind. Yes, the subject is the one in the title of this piece …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
