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 …
Category: Christianity
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 …
Jun 19 2022
For Corpus Christi 2022
The Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, is a supremely important one throughout Latin America, and in parts of Europe and Africa as well. I wrote an essay about its significance some years ago. The feast strikes me as particularly significant today, owing to the steadily tightening food shortages here: …
May 29 2022
Virtue And Its Nature
The contemporary aversion to philosophy – and to most philosophers, come to think of it – has the same emotional foundation as the contemporary aversion to poetry. Sarah Hoyt once wrote that the decline of civilization begins with open-mic poetry nights. She had an excellent point. It would apply with equal force to open-mic …
May 29 2022
Prepping
Just now…for some time, really…a number of my colleagues in this madness we call blogging have focused a great part of their efforts on preparing for the collapse of American society. They’ve been gathering the supplies and weapons they believe will be needed for the day when what remains of civil order disappears and …
May 08 2022
For Mothers’ Day 2022
A Happy Mothers’ Day to all my Gentle Readers, all mothers, and anyone who had a mother! Mothers, as most of us are aware, are vital to the continuing of the species…and you’ve just got to love our species. Especially the members who wear “pronoun pins” and insist that men can give birth. But …
Apr 10 2022
The Message
These days, virtually no one in the public eye speaks plainly and clearly. How long has it been since you last heard a politician answer a direct question with a direct answer – especially an answer of “yes” or “no?” Come to think of it, how long has it been since the last time …
Mar 19 2022
The Neglected Patriarch
Today is the feast day of a remarkable saint, the stepfather and protector of the most important Child ever to be born: Joseph of Nazareth. Yet few give him much thought, as virtually nothing about his life is included in the New Testament. For a modest taste, one must turn to a “non-canonical” document: …
Mar 06 2022
Faith, Hope, And Confidence
As has been happening more and more frequently of late, I’ve got a large number of entries in my “Future Columns” folder, and absolutely no interest in writing about any of them. That the topics themselves might not go unnoticed or undiscussed, here are the links: Can a state law override your freedom of …
Mar 02 2022
There Are Days
Indeed, there are whole years. And 2021 was one such. This year isn’t shaping up to be better. But this is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the special liturgical season of Lent. It moves around from year to year, as it depends on the date of Easter. For those with an interest, …
Jan 16 2022
Do You Pray?
Not a lot of people pray these days. To my sorrow, that includes many self-nominated Christians of every denomination, including mine. I understand some of the reasons. Our lives have never before been as cluttered as they are today. The world around us presents us with a multitude of distractions, some seemingly so imperative …
Jan 15 2022
Even The Greatest Men Are Sometimes Wrong
Men are fallible. We make mistakes. Some of us are wrong more often than right. And yes, “men” includes women, so no smirking, ladies. Especially since the majority of you react worse to being criticized than to being publicly groped. The history of Christianity knows few mortal figures to compare with Saul of …
Jan 03 2022
Threatening Or Heartening?
I’m in the habit of sending out “Happy New Year” notes to my friends, cordial acquaintances, and other regular correspondents. Those who reply usually just echo the wish, perhaps with a few words of personal news attached. However, this year one friend, whom I’ll call Smith, included in his response that he’d decided to …
Dec 26 2021
Saint Stephen
Today, December 26, is the feast day of Saint Stephen, one of the first (some accounts make him the very first) martyrs to the Christian faith. Here’s what this morning’s missive from the Catholic Company has to say about him: St. Stephen (1st. c.) was one of the Church’s first deacons in Jerusalem …
Dec 25 2021
The Big Whys
Why do you do what you do? Apart from the autonomic stuff such as breathing, and the instinctive stuff such as chasing cute girls, that is. As far as I can tell, there are only three categorical reasons for any consciously chosen action: Desires; Fears; Beliefs. Virtually everyone understands the first two …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
