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
Category: Articles
The Most Pure Heart of Saint Joseph
A chaste heart recognizes a chaste heart. An unclean heart finds itself drawn to those who are unclean. Persons of either category take comfort in keeping like company. Because St. Joseph’s purity of body, mind, heart, and soul was surpassed … 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
The Quest for ‘Interior Freedom’: A Book Review
One thing each of us desires in his innermost being is freedom. Oftentimes, we strive to attain it in ways that are counteractive to the real freedom we desire. We often look for freedom in “all the wrong places,” such … 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
A Culture of Contempt
Pro-Life Heroes — The valiant, pro-life heroes of Operation Rescue, who keep a lonely vigil in front of the killing centers, where children are slaughtered on an industrial scale, practice a kind of Benedictine spirituality, where some pray and some labor. Although … 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
An Act of State Terrorism, Part II
The subject of this historical article is always timely inasmuch as it touches upon moral matters that are germane to the just use of force in combat — that part of the Just War Doctrine known as “ius in bello.” Inasmuch … Continue reading
The Nakba and the Christians of Palestine: Important Background to Current Events
The two video documentaries below serve as an important background to the current tragic events in the Holy Land. The first is on the history of the Nakba (the “catastrophe,” i.e., the 1948 displacement of Palestinians); the second is on … 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
Vanity, Suffering, and Love
I am not a big fan of philosophy — or at least I was not — but recently I had the privilege to participate in multiple classes with Fr. Dominic Bouck that helped me to find more joy in the … 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
Two Gentlemen from Sussex
On the face of it, there could no more different people in terms of politics and religion than Hilaire Belloc and Rudyard Kipling. Belloc, as one half of the notorious “Chesterbelloc” was one of the most powerful apologists for Catholicism … Continue reading
Bishop Strickland’s August 22 Pastoral Letter, a Gift to the Church in Advance of the Synod on Synodality
Two days ago, the website of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, posted a pastoral letter from the pen of the Most Reverend Joseph E. Strickland, the Ordinary of that Diocese. Written on the heels of a recent apostolic visitation whose … Continue reading
