We ought to aim at the toughest penances, I believe. But we ought to remember two things. God has put the best ones right in front of our noses—if only we’ll accept the grace to see them and thank God in the midst of them. What ought I to do for extra penance in Lent? [...]
When I think of Lent, I think of suffering—particularly my own suffering. Lent brings up the juvenile dread I felt as a child when I knew that candy and TV were on the chopping block. Even throughout high school and college, I always associated Lent with a melancholic focus on penance. Listening to the Church’s [...]
Someone I know recently told me about a novel she’d been reading. The plot has an archaeologist searching for the bones of Christ. The novel details the discovery of an ancient skeleton near Jerusalem with marks consistent with death by crucifixion. My friend explained the significance of this hypothetical scenario: if Christ did not rise [...]
Day in and day out, Mario sat begging for alms. Whether in the heat of a Roman summer or during the humid wintry days, he would sit patiently outside the seminary gate atop the Janiculum Hill. Every morning as I left for class, the routine was the same: “Buongiorno, Mario. Tutto bene?” With a kind [...]
In the mystery of his Incarnation, the Son took flesh in the womb of a Virgin and thus united our human nature to his divine nature. By his saving actions, the God-man Jesus Christ leavens our humanity with the divine ingredient of hope that it might be raised up to the place prepared for it [...]
I’ll continue to honor Lent in my heart all the year. The reason is neither “Catholic guilt” nor “Jansenism.” It is that Jesus rose from the dead so that we might imitate him, take up our own crosses, and experience truly what it means to be an Easter people, freed to love and serve God [...]
Just as Easter joy must animate the rigors of Lent, so too must the spirit of the desert and the Cross ground my celebration of Easter. To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour [...]
Blinding light surrounds me. My eyes, grown old from endlessly straining in vain for light, begin to adjust. As they open, I see a man bearing a staff. “AWAKE O SLEEPER! ARISE FROM THE DEAD!” Editor’s Note: The following is based on a precious text of the Triduum, read as the second reading in the [...]
Most Catholics seem to intuitively grasp that adoration of the cross is not idolatry. But that didn’t stop a smart-aleck high school senior like myself from pressing the point. “We do what!?” I thought. “Isn’t this idolatry!” But there it was “All, after genuflecting to the Cross, depart in silence.” It was the morning of [...]
"Golgotha" is one of those works, and Frank Martin is one of those composers, about whom you want to broadcast to the world their greatness, beauty, and importance. Writers of a conservative inclination are prone to issue blanket condemnations of the fine art produced in the 20th century. But this is a gross oversimplification. Much [...]
"On the most solemn days, the most ancient and sober rituals tend to be preserved" (Baumstark's first rule for the organic development of liturgy). This rule finds a vivid exemplar in the solemn intercessions on Good Friday, which preserve the ancient Roman tradition of the petition. The purpose of this essay is to provide a [...]
Though Handel's "Messiah" rightly reigns supreme as the king of music for Easter, there are many other seasonal masterpieces that deserve to be heard more often. Here are ten lesser-known classical works that brilliantly depict the dramatic events of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. 1. "Resurrexit" from the Messe Solennelle, by Hector Berlioz (1824) The [...]
C.S. Lewis' obscure essay, ‘A Note on Jane Austen,’ shows that it is Austen’s humor and humility that captures Lewis’ fancy and that directs us to a Lenten lesson. In his rule Saint Benedict advises that each monk should have a holy book to read during Lent. When searching for a holy book, we are [...]
As fallen human beings, we live with the threat of sin and temptation, and we can easily choose to follow these rather than Christ. Sins become the “pharaohs” in our lives—those thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions that are foreign to a life in Christ. Like the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph, these sins know not [...]