Thankfulness to God who offers friendship is the sine qua non of eucharistic living. Thankfulness for and attention to our old friends make us open to new friends whom God will place in our lives. In that way, our friendships here prepare us for heaven. Victor Lee Austin, Friendship: The Heart of Being Human (173 [...]
If empirical science itself does not lead to atheism, the approach to science that has been taken surely has. For modernity to give way to something better, we need to trust our reason in an expansive sense as a gift of God to know our own hearts and minds—and to know the whole of his [...]
In the long battle for the human soul, there are finally only two alternatives laid out long ago by God: life or death. What we need, theologian Philip Rolnick says, is “the gospel that has never ceased offering its life-giving alternative.” The Long Battle for the Human Soul, by Philip A. Rolnick (171 pages, Baylor, [...]
The hardest part of Lent is the consistency. It takes what the Desert Fathers, those famous old monks of the Egyptian desert starting around the third century, liked to call “discernment” or “discretion.” In a modern Catholic context, “discernment” often means determining whether God wants you to be a priest, a deacon, or a religious. [...]
It might be odd to say, but one prominent virtue of two new anthologies of Christian poetry is their prose. The Saint Mary’s Book of Christian Verse Chosen and introduced by Edward Short; foreword by Dana Gioia 412 pages, Gracewing, 2022 Christian Poetry in America Since 1940: An Anthology Edited by Micah Mattix and Sally [...]
Much of what Jesus had to say on debts, taxes, death, and charity, as well as other aspects of money, economic life, and discipleship, was expressed in his parables. Thus, this might be a very good time to pick up Fr. Robert Sirico’s new book, "The Economics of the Parables." The Economics of the Parables [...]
My Grandma knew that it was only Jesus who could change the world. Our job was, as the song had it, to “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way/to be happy in Jesus/but to trust and obey.” It has been 125 years since she was born and nearly 30 years since she died, and [...]
Stanford University IT department’s “Elimination of Harmful Words Initiative” document was released recently, with its list of harmful words, suggested alternatives, and explanations for why the forbidden words are so bad. But what is truly harmful is giving fools and knaves the power to tell us how to talk when there is no real moral [...]
Ronald Knox is a spiritual master whose value is not found in a “verbal fireworks show that will wow you” but preaching “utterly useful to one attempting to live Christian life.” For that reason, it is a delight to see that Cluny Media has republished two of his classics. Taken together they provide a kind [...]
Robert Hugh Benson's "The Lord of the World" is a cracking tale of science fiction and alternate history, but the lessons it teaches have to do with spiritual facts fitting for your Advent preparations. It will also help you get ready for the end of the world. Did you know that “Dies Irae,” the hymn [...]
Readable, with scholarly backing, well-organized, and relatively short, Brant Pitre's "The Case for Jesus" is a handbook for Christians faced with the academic-journalistic war on Jesus’ lordship at Christmas. It cannot give faith of itself, but it does what the best works of apologetics do: It clears away intellectual objections and provides a balanced and reasonable [...]
Like St. John Henry Newman, of whom he was the greatest living scholar, Fr. Ian Ker possessed a wicked wit, which he was certainly not afraid to deploy in public or private. He could also be fierce in defending the honor of Newman and Christ’s Church against unfair or dishonest critics. Though the pictures accompanying [...]
Fr. Marvin O’Connell was that rare historian who understood both the present and what the future demands. Calling for “a return to the Catholic ghetto,” he hoped his coreligionists would discover what living out the Catholic faith meant in a secularizing America. Telling Stories That Matter: Memoirs & Essays by Marvin R. O’Connell. edited by [...]
If you’re looking for something for yourself or to give your nineteen-year-old to read, Siobhan Nash-Marshall's "George" is for you. Yes, this St. George does indeed face a dragon—rather, the Dragon—but only after undergoing a discovery of faith that is simultaneously a discovery of the philosophical lies and half-truths that have wreathed the world in [...]