At the Easter Vigil, with the faithful gathered together in a dark church around the newly lit and christened Paschal Candle, a deacon will chant the Exsultet. This ancient hymn of unrestrained joy contains one seemingly out-of-place, despondent couplet: Our birth would have been no gain, had we not been redeemed. Chilling, sobering words for [...]
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 [...]
“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). [...]
On the Sunday of the Feast of Our Lord’s Baptism, the Dominican House of Studies baptized... a bell. Following the ancient tradition of dedication, we’ve prepared to incorporate the half-ton of bronze into our rhythm of daily life. In the age of watches and atomic clocks, blessing a bell is rather quaint. Delightfully antiquated as the [...]
The currently pervading approach to American history presents America in the worst possible light, distorting the full truth of our past and damaging our political health. Our K-12 schools need a restoration of temporal continuity, the key to revitalizing history and civics education that forms young people who both appreciate the gifts of the past [...]
Donald Trump has a second chance, with a much better understanding of how things work in Washington and whom to trust there, to have a transformative presidency. The absurdity is finally over. Almost. The insanity of the national Democrats we have seen over the last four years, particularly since Donald Trump’s November defeat of Kamala [...]
To anyone who feels beaten down by the bleakness of the world around us, my advice is this: seek to rise above the soundbites and thought-clichés of journalism, politics, and academia. Instead, inquire about the truth from the great tradition. Keep the sabbath, cultivate the soul and the mind, study nature. Maintain that flame of [...]
In our journey of liberal learning, we will, both students and teachers, find ourselves in the presence of the goodness of truth and the beauty of being. We will linger there in that presence, contemplating, knowing that this goodness of truth and this beauty of being is a reflection of the One who is Being [...]
Paul T. Mascia's novella, "Nazar’s Journey," is full of hope, and yet it is set in the midst of one of the grimmest and deadliest episodes in recent history, in which it would have been very easy for people to lose all hope. Nazar's Journey, by Paul T. Mascia (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2024, 141 pages) [...]
After fourteen years of faithful effort, I pray that The Imaginative Conservative continues to offer a conservatism of thought and imagination in the hope of preserving the best of the Western tradition and restoring the virtue of our Republic. […]
Patience encourages us to accept humbly that we will not be as good as soon as we want to, due to being part of the fallen world. This understanding need not lead to despair, but rather to hope, for if we keep patiently at it, eventually we will look back on the struggle as well [...]
My heart breaks for Tolkien's Denethor, whose life ended unnecessarily, as bitterness, anger, and hopelessness in the face of evil consumed him. Let our prayer be that, even as we observe the darkness at the doorstep of Western Civilization, we imaginative conservatives stand at our posts and look to the Heavenly Father as our protector. [...]
In our own age, threatened by plague, economic uncertainty, barbarism, religious wars and corruption, the quiet optimism and faith of Julian of Norwich are a sweet tonic which brings re-assurance, hope, and a quiet confidence. In the English city of Norwich there are two Gothic cathedrals: one medieval and Anglican, the other neo-Gothic and Catholic. [...]
Even in this darkness, there is hope. Because liberalism is a Christian heresy, it has held and still does hold the breach between the peace and the coming darkness, when anti-Christian technocratic power will be all in all. And in this time that liberalism has bought us, we can act, pray, and by the power [...]