For Jane Austen’s heroines, marriage is the end towards which their virtuous lives are directed. Above all other blessings Oh! God, for ourselves, and our fellow-creatures, we implore Thee to quicken our sense of thy Mercy in the redemption of the World, of the Value of that Holy Religion in which we have been brought [...]
In "Pagan America," John Daniel Davidson argues that the minute the Christian order falls in America, the most barbarous acts and persecutions will occur. Then the Benedict Option will not be enough, as pagan America will never let Christians live in peace. Real Christians will have to do much more. Pagan America: The Decline of [...]
Fr. Joseph Fessio I have always had a soft spot for the Society of Jesus, even though my heart has been hardened by those modernized and modernist Jesuits who have abandoned the Holy Spirit for the spirit of the age. These Jesuits à la mode are wolves in shepherd’s clothing who betray the [...]
Let the Church do for Literature in one way what she does for Science in another; each has its imperfection, and she has her remedy for each. She fears no knowledge, but she purifies all; she represses no element of our nature, but cultivates the whole. The Idea of a University, by John Henry Newman [...]
Augustine’s “Confessions” is first and foremost a prayer to God. Indeed, unless we read it as a prayer, we will not understand it; we will only study it. I Burned for Your Peace: Augustine’s Confessions Unpacked, by Peter Kreeft (240 pages, Ignatius Press, 2016) Back in 1990, I had the rare privilege of teaching in [...]
The symbol of Christianity is the Cross, and the Cross lies over the world and marks human history. The rejection by man of God makes a cleavage between the natural and the supernatural, the secular state and the Church. Communism and Christianity, by Martin Cyril D’Arcy (Cluny Media, 216 pages) The felt and reasoned distinction [...]
It is not common that a person would recommend a philosopher to help you stay sane, but with the writings of Josef Pieper, if you have ever read even one of his books, you are likely to agree with me. Also, the range of his wisdom is most impressive. Some of the titles I have [...]
Pope Gregory XVI believed that, even if it were true that immediate spiritual advantages might be gained by revolt, or by the introduction of liberal measures, the shock to the monarchical system involved by such changes would be disastrous to the Church and Society. Revolution and Papacy: 1769–1846, by E. E. Y. Hales (Cluny Media, [...]
For any academic—family man and consecrated religious alike—solitude must be actively sought. And only then, when quiet of soul is found, can one throw all the powers of his mind and heart into his work. In the glories of spring, stepping away from the books more than usual to smell the flowers and soak in the sun [...]
Reading presents thoughts as gifts, and the best books, by preventing us from passively succumbing to other people’s pictures and their self-serving agendas, cooperate in saving our souls. You’ve all probably heard the expression “preaching to the choir,” which means trying to persuade the faithful of what they already believe. The opposite of preaching to [...]
Fear and fun mingle in a dark embrace in these days of late October and early November. All these magical feelings are at the historical heart of Halloween, and Ray Bradbury has the children in "The Halloween Tree" unravel this mystic chain that unites us with our ancestors of long ago. Among Ray Bradbury’s many [...]
Russell Kirk’s horror stories are fundamentally conservative, insinuating a chain of being that connects the living and the dead, reminding us of our duty and obligations to the past. They challenge us by piercing our day-to-day sense of the temporal with bright flashes of eternal order. And they lay upon us the heavy but joyous [...]
It is not surprising that in the political field, the traditional form of Christianity has not accepted the logical conclusions of that democracy which asserts that man can do what he likes, since there is no power greater than man. In that sense, Catholicism has never been democratic in spirit. The Persistence of Order, Volume [...]
The novel "Salem’s Lot" proves that Stephen King is both a first-rate storyteller and a top-notch writer, who is especially good when describing the imagination of a child and the child’s ability to see things the adult no longer can. But is it a great work of horror? On November 17, 1979, two months after [...]