His feast day was yesterday, but today is the day that he was born and died. He is perhaps the least known of the thirty-three doctors of the Church. That should not be so. There is a stunning painting of … Continue reading
Category: Articles
‘The Greatest That Ever Lived’ (On the Apotheosis of Michael Jackson)
Think of a civilization as a fruit. The interior of the fruit — its meat — consists of the ideas, principles and beliefs professed by the members of a society, and thence of the civilization of which that society is … Continue reading
The Passion of Saint Joseph
It has always been believed that Saint Joseph died some time before Our Lord’s Passion. The Virgin-Father of Our Lord breathed forth his last surrounded by Jesus and Mary, and thus became the patron of a holy death. Whereas the … Continue reading
Evelyn Waugh’s Edmund Campion
(28 January 2006, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Peter Nolasco) Forming a Catholic Resistance and Deeper Culture of the Faith in Times of Permeating Disorder: Evelyn Waugh’s Edmund Campion (1935) and Some Combatant Lessons from the Sixteenth Century The scope and … Continue reading
A Tribute to Brother Hugh MacIsaac (+July 11, 1979)
(Note: This was written on the occasion of the death of Brother Hugh, M.I.C.M., one of the founding members of our Order, who went to his reward on July 11, 1979. The piece introduced From the Housetops No. 18, which … Continue reading
Servant of God Father Emil Kapaun, Soldier, POW, Priest
In keeping with our CAT theme of honoring great Catholic Americans, the fourth of July brought to my mind the Servant of God, Father Emil Kapaun, whom I had first read about on The American Catholic website. The most highly … Continue reading
The Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
If there is one common theme in today’s Mass it is confidence: confidence in God, in the promise of the Holy Ghost which we received at Pentecost, confidence in the Church, and confidence that present difficulties can and will come … Continue reading
A Conversation with the President
(Note: When Mr. Potter sent me this piece for consideration, he said, “I can think of several reasons why you might decide not to post the piece I am attaching for your consideration. If you so decide, there’ll be no … Continue reading
U.S. Bishops Correct ‘Ambiguities’ Concerning the Church’s Mission and the Jewish People
In what Catholic World News termed “an unusual clarifying statement,” two organs of the the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops jointly released a note highlighting and correcting the doctrinal ambiguities in a 2002 document on the Church’s mission and … Continue reading
A Word To Parents
How few parents realize the immense power they possess for moulding the character and shaping the future career of their children. The tiny babe just born to them comes from God’s hand with vast possibilities for good and evil; like … Continue reading
Blessed Solanus Casey, O.F.M., Cap.
On November 18, 2017, in Detroit, Michigan, Cardinal Angelo Amato beatified Solanus Casey, so this article has been renamed “Blessed Solanus Casey, O.F.M., Cap.” from “Venerable Solanus Casey, O.F.M., Cap.” IMAGINE, even if your name is “Barney” you can become … Continue reading
Delivering What We Have Received
We are still in what used to be the Octave of Corpus Christi. Even though this octave was done away with in the 1962 rubrics, its ghost still lurks about the liturgy. We will, this Friday, have the feast of … Continue reading
A Vocation
The Religious State can be the portion only of an elite: that is to say, of chosen souls. A special vocation is required of those who aspire to walk this narrow and uphill path.
The Hound of Hell
Pray for the fragile daughter, And the frail, infant son, Whom, at the font, the baptismal water I pour upon.
The Better Part: The Religious or Priestly Vocation
(This was written in preparation for a series of conferences on vocations and states in life that I gave at Saint Benedict Center in the Spring of 2005. Please see the end of this piece for a small table of … Continue reading
