Like medieval monks who preserved civilization after the fall of Rome, traditionalists can live active lives and work to keep the flame of Western culture alive. To do so, we must build loving families, construct independent schools, and erect parallel institutions to challenge those that have betrayed their purpose. Some time ago, while living in [...]
The real problem with most materialists is not that they deny the existence of the invisible realm, but they are cowardly and lazy. They have not had the guts or gumption to follow their disbelief to the end point. Puddleglum is a Marshwiggle. Those who have read The Silver Chair will remember C.S. Lewis’ description [...]
The revelation at the end of the great detective story, G.K. Chesterton held, is parallel to divine revelation: It sheds a bright light on the entire story. Its end is mysticism. John Peterson John Peterson of Barrington, Illinois died on May 20, 2026, at the age of 92. A one-time teacher who made [...]
American culture has an opportunity now for renewal through its people of faith. We are being called to care for one another with love. We are being called to live out our virtue in service. The American soul has withered, and awaits an infusion of the lifeblood of love. Whether or not we respond may [...]
It requires no great zeal in us, no great charity, to come to you at no risk, and entreat you to turn from the path of death, and be saved. It requires nothing great, nothing heroic, nothing saint-like; it does but require conviction, and that we have, that the Catholic Religion is given from God [...]
In a world of spoiled children, indigent adults, victim complainers, and entitled brats of all ages, the one who accepts responsibility for himself will have the tools for high self-esteem, achievement, and success in every area of life. I was five years old when I “got saved”. We had been to the Sunday evening service [...]
The essence of the attitude of the believer lies in the obduracy with which he approaches the real, and in the firmness of his determination to keep up the struggle. If faith is still developing, there comes a time when the believer considers his faith as the most securely anchored reality of all, sure to [...]
While Benedict XVI may not himself have made great contributions to the natural sciences, he made what is much more important: a contribution to understanding a world in which the truth is one, is God’s, and, from atoms to archangels, is capable of being seen as connected. A great deal has been written about the [...]
One comes away from both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" and Evelyn Waugh’s "Brideshead Revisited" with an acute sense of the emptiness of the jazz age and the despair at the heart of all our delusions and decadence. One also can’t help but compare the lives of the authors themselves. On re-reading The Great Gatsby (thanks [...]
What exactly is culture but an embodied religion, a faith that is given flesh and blood and bone in a visible and public way? Might it be possible, therefore, to build a culture where it is easier for men to be virtuous? I am looking at a couple of random lines lifted from a bleak little [...]
For nearly three hundred years, "The Shepherd of Hermas" gave instruction to the members and catechumens of the early Church. It taught them the Christian virtues and called for repentance. After being left out of the cannon of the New Testament, however, "Hermas" faded in popularity and use. So when “the Lord of the flocks [...]
For centuries, Benedictines have safeguarded the soul of civilization. Now, the monks of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey are stewarding this ancient and vital tradition for our age—right here in America. We must hold each other in prayer. This is the work of the universal Church. Even as Benedictines lift up the world in [...]
The way of humility leads, via the rolling road of wonder, to the heaven-haven of the reward. The way of pride leads, via the thorny path of prejudice, to a hell of one’s own devising. “For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!” In Tolkien’s magnum opus, The Lord of the [...]
Jesus did not preach an escape from earth to an immaterial Heaven. Rather, he preached the coming of God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven,” a redemption of God’s good creation. We hope in the completion of God’s grand rescue project, which is taking shape as we speak and which will reach fulfillment [...]