How can the use of reason lead to so much wrong-headedness? The answer is that wrong-headedness is always connected to wrong-heartedness. It is pride, the absence of love, which poisons the intellectual faculties, thereby preventing reason from serving its purpose of pursuing objective truth. There is a world of difference between wisdom and cleverness. In [...]
In “The Awakening of Miss Prim,” the title character’s awakening and education in the most natural ways of friendship illuminate for her the great wisdom and tradition of marriage, which modern education and ideology in their blatant ignorance have relegated to the past as a useless, unnecessary institution. In Natalie Fenollera Sanmartin’s bestseller The Awakening of [...]
The planting of trees in the orchard—the passing down of tradition, of the moral wisdom of the past, of the torch of life, and of the beauty of life’s simplest but richest and pleasures—produces the great harvest of joy that culminates in the final chapters of the "Odyssey." Editor’s Note: This is the final essay [...]
During his final illness, Blaise Pascal often refused the care of his physician, saying: “Sickness is the natural state of Christians.” He believed that human beings had been created to suffer. Misery was the condition of life in this world. My uncle made book for a living. That is, he took money from those who [...]
Yesterday, At the home, Not her home, I found her sleeping Lying soft upon the mattress Curled up fetally on her left side, As almost always for 40 years past. I had forgotten, utterly the soft heaving of her breast, I had forgotten, totally that stone-calm face hiding a hundred hurts and a thousand worries. [...]
Beauty is not found in power, military glory, or victory. As great as these things are, love is a surer guide. Considering this point, we would also do well to contemplate what causes us to love most, love best? When we do, isn’t it the love that someone has for us? 1. Aesthetics Leads Aesthetics [...]
Here is a sonnet I composed in honour of the original St. Valentine. I notice some Facebook posts implying that as an early Christian martyr he has nothing to do with Romantic Love and should be dissociated from it. I believe that on the contrary there is every reason why he should be the patron [...]
Laughter is indeed divine, but it is also a great mystery which continues to elude the grasp of the philosopher and the mystic. “There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,” wrote Hilaire Belloc, “but laughter and the love of friends.” These words are personal favourites and have prompted much contemplation, as an earlier essay of [...]
Ambassador Young Ambassador Johnny Young. Johnny. Just plain, old Johnny, as Johnny once referred to himself. And that description may be the most remarkable thing about Johnny. He was just plain, old Johnny even when he was a four-time ambassador. His Christian humility seemed to gain luster with each promotion and award. I cannot [...]
The last few days before my grandmother's death, she was mostly unconscious, but we would go over and sit with her and read or pray. Once when I was sitting with her, she suddenly sat up in bed and pointed her extremely long and thin index finger in the air. “My name is in the [...]
Paying attention to the guidance of the heart is no guarantee of prudent action, as Mark Antony and Cleopatra demonstrate with grand style, but there is something nobler in giving the heart its whole due than in bypassing its counsel and resorting to mere calculation. According to the 17th century mathematician and Catholic apologist Blaise [...]
The letters of the alphabet, strung together in cogent meaning, might be best thought of, not as means to an end, but as an end in and of themselves—a living, incarnated creativity that encourages relationship. And I like to consider speech, in all its forms, as love letters. My youngest child, just nearing his seventh [...]
The original “Star Wars” trilogy explored the crises of identity, love, and redemption in the midst of a technologically tyrannical world. The prequel trilogy, by contrast, is primarily concerned with themes of decadence, corporate domination, political corruption, and the insidious influence that these forces have on love. Star Wars is one of most successful film [...]
These blooms flush like your lover, With countenance and heart Aflame with burning crimson. A hundred petals furl, Wound tight, a mystic swirl, Enticing as they part. […]