Salvation to all that will is nigh; That All, which always is all everywhere, Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear, Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die, Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie In prison, … Continue reading
Category: Great Writers
G.K. Chesterton on Ecumenism and Dying of Broadmindedness
A friend of mine named Jim is currently reading G.K. Chesterton’s provocative book, The Everlasting Man. He sent me an email a couple of days ago with a wonderful paragraph excerpted from that work, stating that he was amazed at … Continue reading
Truth, Faith, and Charity with Dom Prosper Guéranger
Last Sunday was the feast of Christ the King, so the Mass for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost was not celebrated on that day. However, as Monday was an open liturgical day, our parish priest celebrated the propers … 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
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
Triumph and the Quandary of American Conservatism
In the past few weeks, some very kind individual put all ten years’ worth of Triumph magazine online. For many reasons, this is an incredible breakthrough. In the decade of its existence (1966-1976), Triumph put out excellent work from some … Continue reading
Why Study Dante? The Case for Teaching ‘The Divine Comedy’ to Our Youth
It is becoming increasingly common — to my great dismay — to find one of two scenarios in both Catholic and Public schools in the United States when it comes to its exploration of great literature. The first is that … Continue reading
Joe Sobran, Apologist
Joseph Sobran (1946-2010) was an American public intellectual and conservative thinker who spent more than twenty years of his life on the staff of National Review before being unceremoniously dumped from that esteemed publication. It seems he wandered too far … Continue reading
Tolkien and Reality
It shall come as a surprise to no one that I am a great fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. Having discovered The Lord of the Rings in Junior High (thanks in no small part to having been introduced to C.S. … Continue reading
A Miscalculated Demolition: Evelyn Waugh’s 1942 Wartime Letter to His Wife
Some Modern Catholic (or Neo-Modernist) Churchmen have advocated –at least since Pope Pius XII’s 1950 Encyclical, Humani Generis, or soon thereafter — “the demolition of the bastions,” seeming to refer to a timely removing of the barriers between the Catholic … Continue reading
Hilaire Belloc’s Memorable 1911 Depiction of a Sussex Squire: Fuller of Brightling
One year after Hilaire Belloc’s four-year term in the British House of Commons (1906-1910), he published The Four Men: A Farrago (1911), wherein he memorably depicts the robust and eccentric and magnanimously generous Squire Fuller of Brightling, an honored native … Continue reading
Maurice Baring’s 1927 Novel on Russia and Wartime Manchuria: Tinker’s Leave
Ten years after the sacred events at Fatima, Portugal, as well as a full decade after the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary takeover in Russia, Maurice Baring — who knew the Russian language very well — wrote another book on Russia (and … Continue reading
Saint John Eudes and the Middle Age Controversy Over the Immaculate Conception
I am reading Part One (of three parts) of The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God by Saint John Eudes. It is a masterpiece of filial devotion to the Mother of God, reflecting on her holy childhood, … Continue reading
Evelyn Waugh’s Comic Muse in Scoop
Two years before he was to die in early April of 1966 on Easter Sunday after Mass, Evelyn Waugh wrote a new Preface to his pre-War 1938 novel, Scoop.1 In that brief 1964 Preface and retrospect, he recalls the atmosphere … Continue reading
The Sage of Milford: Remembering Andrew Rothovius
Autumn is, for me anyway, an acutely nostalgic time. I think of the New England and New York of my childhood, of cool crisp weather and falling coloured leaves — and these memories are all the more vibrant when faced … Continue reading
