On the Sunday after Easter readers of the Washington Post were shocked and saddened by a story on the paper’s front page. It concerned a family who lived in Middletown in the Maryland countryside about 50 miles outside D.C. The … Continue reading
Category: Literature and Poetry
How Not to Write a Book
“I have a nausea,” said Sancho Panza, “and I believe I must write a book.” “I can think of no nausea so potent as to fit thee to write a book,” said Don Quixote, “and, since thou art my squire, … Continue reading
Common Moth
Born out of dust, of dust’s consistency, You start, from the immensity of night, A wisp of fluttering transparency, Glorious with willingness, this final flight.
Two Poems of Brother Francis
Protesting The Unitarian Dr. Lee Is pleased he does not disagree With God on points, — perhaps two or three.
A Mother and Her Child
(Editor’s Introduction: Not much needs to be said to introduce this piece. We are satisfied merely to say that it was an address Fr. Feeney gave in 1942 on the very popular “Catholic Hour,” Bishop Fulton Sheen’s Sunday night radio … Continue reading
Catherine Tekakwitha
The sweet-briar rose of summer glades We lay upon another shrine ; [1] The lily of the Mohawk woods, O dusky maiden! shall be thine.
The Four and Forty Rivers
The four and forty rivers are rallied at the heights, In the melting of the days, in the dripping of the nights, In the condensation of clouds:
The Poet’s Eye: Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Margaret Clitheroe”
Of all the books I have read on the lives of saints and holy personages, none has ever moved or inspired me as did Dr. Malcolm Brennan’s Martyrs of the English Reformation. Perhaps it was because, beside such luminaries as … Continue reading
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
The groaning of the peddler’s cart Is droning slowly through the mart of Alexandria. The climbing sun blows as he goes Higher still and higher, A wreath of golden burning fire, On that far city of the Orient. The wilting … Continue reading
The World Upside Down
In this our world of great renown, So many things are upside down. Pious divines preach evolution And kings join the revolution.
Who is Next?
It need not be the one, expecting to depart, The one with the ailing lungs or failing heart.
The Little Flower
Knowing that it would burn she courted fire; And who shall wish to chide her heart’s desire?
Hymn of the Angelus by Edgar Allan Poe
At morn, at noon, at twilight dim, Maria, thou hast heard my hymn!
Citizen of the World
No longer of Him be it said “He hath no place to lay His head.”
Saint Boniface and the Missionary Culture of the Faith
Oh you who are anxious to learn what it is to enjoy the Word, prepare not your ear but your soul; for it is grace that teaches it and not language. This secret remains hidden from the wise and the … Continue reading