“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” —Hebrews 13:2 I am probably more likely to entertain strangers when on the road than I am at work or at home. While traveling on a plane, a train, or a bus, one of my favorite positions is the seat [...]
We can thank God for Joe “X.J.” Kennedy and his love of the sound of words and the delight of putting them together. And you and I can keep giving his collections to young children in whom we hope to instill that same delight. For years, our go-to gift for new babies and young children [...]
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 [...]
For all those out there wondering, including my first-grade art teacher who never learned how to pronounce it, my surname is actually pronounced with a long rather than short “e.” It’s “DEE-vuhl” and not “Devil.” But the moniker of a demon has been applied to me so often that I have decided to make demon-ade. [...]
Great men shouldn’t have sons. This moral axiom is dubious, at best. It’s understandable why some say it. It’s even more understandable why sons of great men occasionally say it. Great men too often make terrible fathers. Even if apples don’t fall far from trees, they are too often bruised by the branches. Auberon Waugh, [...]
Van Dyke’s religion and politics are really to be found in entertainment. He thinks he never really gave up on his teen desire to be a minister, “—only the medium and the message has changed. I have still endeavored to touch people’s souls, to raise their spirits and put smiles on their faces.” That he’s [...]
Tarzan might not be “real” in a historical sense, but he is an immortal character whose story makes the reader think, wonder, and take delight. That’s reason enough to celebrate his creator in his sesquicentennial year. 2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great modern mythmaker Edgar Rice Burroughs—creator of Tarzan, Mars [...]
To the ordinary human eye, St. Charbel is simply an oddity, one who embraced a life already slightly weird (monasticism) and took it to the next level (hermit). But it’s such radical Christians who transcend their age because they listen always to the Voice telling them of the essence of the moral law within. This [...]
The classic comic novel, "The Diary of a Nobody," spawned a great many television series in Britain that looked satirically but lovingly at middle-class strivers like its protagonist, Mr. Pooter: hardworking underdogs trying to keep up with the bills, navigate complicated social codes in a time of cultural change, and deal with their young adults. [...]
True saints never put their faith in the surety of other saints in an ultimate sense. They put it in the Lord Jesus himself. And that is an infallible truth that is truly ecumenical. One of the big worries of liberal and progressive Catholic theologians during the thirty-five years of the terms of office of [...]
Christian higher education is in just as much of a crisis as the rest of the field. The smaller Christian schools are going to have to figure out what differentiates them from the rest of the competition. In most cases, their survival will require a return to the sources of the faith in which the [...]
In a very short novel, Allen Mendenhall manages to combine a great deal of philosophical and quasi-theological reflection, Twain-like adolescent comedy, and Faulkner-like familial dysfunction, adding to the Southern literary tradition’s collection of tales filled with absurdity, hilarity, shattering revelation, and haunting desire, all mixed to disturb and delight. A Glooming Peace This Morning by [...]
Prudence takes into account a deeper wisdom about the human condition than can be gleaned from a simple cost-benefit analysis. It understands that human communities are not merely about justice and the Gross Domestic Product, but about love. And sacrificial love doesn’t hesitate to rush in even against the worst odds. Recently I sat at [...]
Today, on her feast day, it is good to remember that true Christian faith is not merely literary and not always beautiful. Its protagonists might possess, as Malcolm Muggeridge said of Mother Teresa, “homely features.” They may not be clever or gifted. But, if they are willing to do as God wants, they too can [...]