Faith must have its physical and visual expression. The return of the altar rail is a refreshing and sublime response to a distorted vision of the Church. It reintroduces the traditional teachings of the Church with awe and wonder, delighting the worshiper and resurrecting fervor for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. In churches across [...]
Pope St. John Paul II and Russell Kirk defended freedom within the limits of truth and its authentic or right use. They knew it was crucial to distinguish license and liberty. But they have different approaches to truth. As we discussed the work of Russell Kirk, written in 1954, revised in 1962 and 1988, I [...]
E.E. Cummings’ attitude to dogma and formal religion may have remained skeptical, but true to his Unitarian roots, he retained respect for spirituality and a simple reverence towards the Almighty. Echoing the transcendentalism of Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau, Cummings bursts forth with simple, lyrical praise for God and nature. What shall we make of Edward [...]
The Cross is fearful to the natural eye and distasteful to the natural heart, but you have a new light and a new heart. We hold on to Jesus by God’s strength, not our own. This is not a time to be timid—Christian hope has the daring of a lover, a face “set like flint.” [...]
Believing is something radical, that is to say, different at its roots from “forming an opinion,” or “forming a conviction,” if you like. To make a judgment based on particular knowledge and inferences is a very important and, in innumerable areas, indispensable intellectual activity: but “believing” is a different process. In its content and unfolding, [...]
By his own testimony, Christ came that we might live fully (John 10:10). Anything less seems a waste. And I want to live. I want to really live. I don’t want to live for things that, ultimately, don’t fulfill. I want to live for those things that never fade (1 Cor 9:24-26). Living isn’t ultimately about accomplishments, experiences, [...]
T.S. Eliot’s “Ash-Wednesday” helps us to consider our earthly transience, just as Ash Wednesday reminds us of this same fact that our time on earth is passing. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita . . . There is something telling about man’s tendency to view his life as a journey, for journeys convey the [...]
The truth of Pope Innocent III’s world is naturally dependent on a move out of nature and into faith. The political was a fundamental aspect of the pastoral. The movement of ascent to God passed always through the carnal, through the law, and on to liberty through grace. We are trapped within the historical, but [...]
Any attempt to interpret history as a whole, if it is not to succumb to gnostic myth, must posit some subject which works in and reveals itself in the whole of history and which is at the same time [the belief in] a being capable of providing general norms. —Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, A [...]
Ernest Hemingway's spiritual sensibilities were the foundation of everything he wrote. Indeed, despite his own weaknesses and flaws, his Catholic spirituality infused his writing. Robert Lazu Kmita: Dear Ms. Mary Claire Kendall, thank you for agreeing to engage in this dialogue. For our readers, I specify that it relates to your recently launched volume, shortly [...]
Confronted with choices between evil and good, man frequently chooses evil with its accompanying anguish. Would not wisdom and prudence dictate that man ought to be modest, restrained, and humble—in a word, pious? Born in Weaverville, North Carolina in 1910, Richard Malcolm Weaver was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Weaver graduated [...]
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 [...]
One longstanding Church practice oriented to the worship of God has been the chanting of psalms and hymns. From the earliest times, monks engaged in liturgical chanting that complemented their often grueling lives. These monks managed to accommodate hours spent in choir while providing for their material needs. In his French-language book, Pourquoi Mozart, author [...]
“Your faith has saved you.” Jesus repeatedly shares these comforting words throughout the Gospels. Among many examples, Jesus says this to the sinful woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:50), to the hemorrhaging woman who touched the fringe of his garment (Matt 9:22), and to a blind beggar near Jericho (Luke 18:42). [...]