Everyone has an explanation for the turn of events in November. It’s the economy, the culture, a failure to connect with working-class Americans. All these are valid reasons. However, I have my own explanation that sheds some light on what has gone wrong in America. It explains something of the craziness of our times. I [...]
There is really no “unknown” Mozart these days. For the 225th anniversary of his death in 2016, the Universal record company released the newest of several (!) complete editions of every note Mozart wrote. So, everything we have written by the “miracle which God let be born in Salzburg” is readily available to twenty-first century [...]
Contemplation is the prayer in which our love is directed toward God in Christ, where it is purified and refined until it sufficiently resembles His love for the union for which we yearn to take place. Without the infused virtues and the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that were given in contemplation, [...]
Human beings have an emotional and psychological need to convert history into a science, for we have longed to have life and the world make sense. Yet, there are no general laws of history that can give precise measurement to human thought or action. There is for historians only the intelligible disorder of life, the [...]
A lighthearted romp at first blush, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” yet tells the story of how the example of simple goodness can be transformational. The category of “Thanksgiving movies” is a select one indeed, but it is not meant as faint praise to crown John Hughes’ 1987 film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the greatest Thanksgiving [...]
St. Cecilia Mass is the common name of a solemn mass in G major by Charles Gounod, composed in 1855 and scored for three soloists, mixed choir, orchestra and organ. The official name is Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile, in homage of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. The work was assigned CG 56 in the [...]
Take a good look at the icon below. What do you see? Icons can be strange to our modern tastes. They are beautiful yet arrestingly otherworldly, with disorienting proportions and perspectives. Icons do not conform themselves to our own standards of judgment. To enter into the divine mysteries, we must relinquish our claim to be [...]
Like it or not, Grace exists despite Oren Cass’s inability to sense it. Now is the time to appeal to God to send His Grace to this age of little faith. Such a move is the only one that makes sense in the face of the postmodern decadence that now prevails. A disturbing new trend [...]
Reading "The Screwtape Letters" can be a creepy and unsettling experience because C.S. Lewis does not merely take us into the head of the human who is experiencing temptation, but into the malevolent mind of the devil himself. This same psycho-dramatic technique is employed by the directors of the recently released horror film, "Nefarious," in [...]
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 [...]
We don’t believe in a God who can only show his power by fiddling with a material world as if it weren’t already his own. No, our God made the world, and at every moment upholds it all in existence, down to every last atom. God doesn’t need a miracle to manifest his power, everything [...]
This past September, scholars at the Leipzig municipal library announced that they had discovered a previously unknown string trio (for two violins and cello) by the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The unearthed manuscript was not in the composer's hand but was deemed to be a copy made a decade or so after it was penned. [...]
As Election Day approaches, many have raised serious moral questions regarding how to vote. Sadly, in our great nation, we confront a situation in which both major political parties espouse certain agenda which are flagrantly contrary to the most fundamental tenets of the moral law, agenda against the inviolable dignity of innocent and defenseless human [...]
It’s October, and the urge for theatrical, spooky music always arises for me right about this time. Cue a visit to the essay I wrote years back, “Ten Spooky Classical Faves for Halloween.” Each year, it seems, I have a different relationship with the music and its composers. This year, I’m taking a particular interest [...]