April 23 is the feast of St. George the Martyr. As Dom Gueranger puts it in his usual stirring style: “Clad in his bright coat of mail, mounted on his war steed, and spearing the dragon with his lance, George, … Continue reading
Author Archives: Charles A. Coulombe
Two Battles in April
Come listen to another song, Should make your heart beat high, Bring crimson to your forehead, And the lustre to your eye;— It is a song of olden time, Of days long since gone by, And of a Baron stout … Continue reading
Spring Meditations
One of the things moving from Los Angeles to Austria has taught me is the preciousness of Spring. That may sound a bit odd, but the truth is that in Southern California the lack of a snowy winter and the … Continue reading
A Celtic Survival Guide
March is a very Celtic month. St. David, patron of the Welsh opens the month on the first. Four days later comes St. Piran, Cornwall’s patron. On the 17th — as all the world knows — is St. Patrick, on … Continue reading
Thoughts on Washington’s Birthday
Well, Washington’s birthday has come to us again. Despite being called “Presidents’ Day” in recent years and celebrated on the nearest Monday, February 22 is the day that the first president of the United States was born — and, not … Continue reading
Thoughts on Lincoln’s Birthday
Well, Lincoln’s birthday has come around again. In recent years it has been to a great extent effaced, being amalgamated with Washington’s as Presidents’ Day. But in my youth it was very much a grand occasion. This had been the … Continue reading
Dealing with Betrayal
Honesty is such a lonely word Everyone is so untrue Honesty is hardly ever heard And mostly what I need from you —Billy Joel IF there is a single word that sums up the world in which we live, it … Continue reading
Surviving the Wasteland
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago. —Christina Rossetti The above words and Gustav Holst’s … Continue reading
The Death of the Old Year
Full knee-deep lies the winter snow, And the winter winds are wearily sighing: Toll ye the church bell sad and slow, And tread softly and speak low, For the old year lies a-dying. Old year you must not die; You … Continue reading
The Politics of Christmas
Once again, December is upon us, and so once again, the Christmas Wars. Once upon a time, in Fr. Feeney’s day, these were described by him thusly: “I do not know what Christmas in the United States is going to … Continue reading
Month of the Holy Souls
Although in the buildup to Halloween one may get tired of hearing from various sources that “the veil between the worlds is very thin this time of year,” in a certain sense it definitely feels that way in the Autumn. … Continue reading
From Colonial to Woke
A recent trip to New England, for the SBC Conference, no less, reminded me once more of the strange and mixed origins and influence of the Yankee States over the entire country. On the one hand, I once more revelled … Continue reading
Did the Machine Stop?
They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords, Lords without anger or honour, who dare not carry their swords. They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes; They look at our labour and laughter … Continue reading
The Third Civil War
“Well, then, here we sit, an old, grey, withered, sour-visaged, threadbare sort of gentleman, erect enough, here in our solitude, but marked out by a depressed and distrustful mien abroad, as one conscious of a stigma upon his forehead, though … Continue reading
The Jacobites Return
It is 3,016 miles — literally as the crow flies — from the battlefield of Culloden where the Jacobite cause went down to defeat in 1746, to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Strange to say, the open field … Continue reading