Each of us belongs to two States—a terrestrial State whose end is the common temporal good, and the universal State of the Church whose end is eternal life. The Primacy of the Spiritual, by Jacques Maritain (Cluny Media, 254 pages) 1. Nothing is more important for the freedom of souls and the good of mankind [...]
If spiritual poverty is not to sink on the one hand into resentment or nihilism, on the other into a greedy enjoyment—and in either event into despair—two enormous and closely connected truths must dominate it: first, that God transcends the world, and second, that happiness is not to be found on earth. Poverty, by Pie-Raymond [...]
The reinforcement of the moral precepts of the Law made Jesus many friends, especially among the simple, God-fearing people. But it also made Him many and perhaps more enemies amongst those who, like the Pharisee of the parable, thought themselves God-fearing people. The Book of the Saviour, Volume Two: The Proclamation of the Kingdom, assembled [...]
The doctrine of the Precious Blood means this, for Catholic and for Protestant alike—it means that you and I had something done for us which we could never have done for ourselves. Deny that doctrine, obscure that doctrine, and you have fatally altered the whole content of the Christian message. He has proved his love [...]
God inspires, authorizes, demands our love; love of what sort? The Layman and His Conscience, by Ronald Knox (Cluny Media, 206 pages) Shall we venture to make a meditation on the love of God? Such a vital subject, for where should we be, if God didn’t love us? And what use are we, if we [...]
We cannot run away from human life because we are human, and yet, precisely in attempting to run away from human life we cease to be human, we become cowards. The martyrs were much more careful of the supreme act of fortitude. They were the supremely brave men of our race; they continue to be [...]
Friedrich Nietzsche's is a Messianic view, but devoid of God, regarding Superman both as saviour and saved. His concept led to the justification of violence, cruelty, the worst inequality of human conditions, and even slavery. There has been in our age no more complete embodiment of the satanic rebellion. The Church of the Revolutionary Age: [...]
Liberty is not the right to do whatever I please, nor is liberty the necessity of doing whatever the dictator dictates; rather liberty is the right to do what I ought. Furthermore, “ought” is intrinsically related to purpose. The best way of finding out why a thing was made is to go to its maker. [...]
The final word on the legacy of John Fisher and Thomas More, and the final judgment (under God) on why we should see them as heroes, is given by G. K. Chesterton, a man who proves in his very self that the killing of More and Fisher did not kill learning, laughter or holiness: "There [...]
The Roman Empire was unique because it espoused the principle of moderation in politics. This is what permitted the unique dynamism of a uniquely changing but uniquely enduring political form: from city, to empire, to nation. And that dynamism may still propel us today as a principle of rebirth, if only we recapture its essence. [...]
The Catholic Church canonized Saints Thomas More and John Fisher in 1935, only two years after the appearance of "The English Way," a work edited by one of the most important Christian humanists and publishers of the twentieth century, Maisie Ward, and which looks at the lives, ideas, and deaths of the great Roman Catholic [...]
G.K. Chesterton was one of the very greatest men of his time. He will almost certainly be remembered as a great and solitary figure in literature, an artist in words and ideas with an astonishing fecundity of imaginative vision. He will almost certainly be remembered as a prophet in an age of false prophets. Occasional [...]
We must open our heart to the mystery of love which comes from God, which is given by Him in whom this love is a “theological virtue." It is this mystery in which grace allows us to share. It is by this mystery that faith lives. We must cling to this mystery if we wish [...]
Tell me, when you’ve “had words” with somebody, isn’t there usually a chance, before the next time you go to confession, of saying some kind word, doing some trifling service, which will obliterate the memory of your quarrel without the need of referring to it? That is what Jesus Christ wants you to do. Pastoral [...]