With stealth and no small amount of cowardice, the Greeks creep out of their strange gift, a large wooden horse, under the cover of night and safely within the locked city walls. Rather than face Aeneas and the Trojans as men in battle, the Greeks unlock the gates, letting their murderous comrades in, and proceed [...]
Yet trees are not ‘trees’, until so named and seen– and never were so named, till those had seen who speech’s involuted breath unfurled, faint echo and dim picture of the world, but neither record nor a photograph, being divination, judgement, and a laugh, response of those who felt astir within by deep monition [...]
On the Feast of St Dominic, a beautiful, unique, and never to be seen again Rose faded from this earth. St. Dominic, pray for our Rose. But, I. . . . I am blessed. I beheld her twilight radiance for a bit. I cradle her gently for a bit. Even with all the voices of [...]
Julie Baldwin Joshua also said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will perform wonders among you.” (Joshua 3:5) “People in my grade look so much more mature than me,” said my 15 going on 16 year old sister. We peered into the computer screen, and looked at a girl we’ve [...]
The handsome youth climbed unsteadily onto a nearby picnic table and began to sing, waving his arms in abandon as the afternoon sun reflected off of the fine silver embroidery on his elven cloak. “Four and twenty virgins came down from Inverness,” he roared tunelessly, “and when the ball was over there were four and [...]
For classical educators, developing the human person is the primary goal, and the cultural treasures of the past are the principal means to that goal. Making the thoughts, words, stories, and beauty of Christian civilization a living part of students gives them standards and ideals that direct their maturation into adults who help shape their [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien Myth connects us to those of the past and to those of the future. Through myth, we grasp the continuity of all of God’s Creations, of all of the soldiers in the Army of Christ: those who came before Him to prepare the way, those who fought beside Him during his [...]
Bradley J. Birzer The incarnate angel of Tolkien’s mythology, Gandalf the Grey, said it well in a conversation with Frodo. “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” laments the young Hobbit. “So do I,” Gandalf replies, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien In 1958, at a Dutch bash held in his honor, Tolkien told his audience: “I look East, West, North, South, and I do not see Sauron. But I see that Saruman has many descendants. We Hobbits have against them no magic weapons. Yet, my gentle hobbits, I give you this toast: [...]
Though I’ve never had the good fortune to meet Richard Purtill, I assume he must be a deeply fascinating man. In the 1950s, he traveled to England and met Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward, perhaps two of the most important figures in the twentieth-century Roman Catholic intellectual renaissance. These two did much to promote the [...]