Poetry is the still, small voice of calm in a world gone mad with distraction. It finds us space to breathe. It allows us time to think. It takes us out of time and space into the realm of metaphysics. It takes us from the transient things to the permanent things, from the things of [...]
The gifts that the Wise Men gave to Christ are also gifts that Christ gives to us through the wisdom that the Wise Men bring with them to Bethlehem. All of us should give glory to God in the highest for this epiphanous blessing of faith and reason that he bestows on us. Who were [...]
The joy of Bethlehem points through purgatorial sorrow to the glory of paradise. This is why the Comedy of Christmas brings laughter, even in this vale of tears and its veil of fears. This past semester at Aquinas College in Nashville, I have had the joy of teaching a whole course on the works of [...]
This year, I asked my students to select a favourite piece of Christmas writing, which they would read to the class. I was quite frankly astonished by the quality of the selections, which, taken together, constitute a veritable cornucopia of festive blessings. For the current academic year I am honoured to have been awarded the [...]
Here are the books I consider to be the seven pillars of wisdom on which Western civilization is built. This past week I gave a lecture on “Why Shakespeare Matters” at Colorado Christian University. In the dinner prior to the talk, the president of the university asked me to name what I considered to be [...]
The world of literature is awash with villains and villainy, but the presence of saints and sanctity is more subtle and understated. It is much easier to be a sinner than to become a saint. The former would seem to be the default setting of the human psyche, at least in its fallen broken state. [...]
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides… —Cordelia (King Lear, I.1.282) The quest for the real William Shakespeare is akin to a detective story in which the Shakespearian biographer is cast in the role of a literary sleuth, pursuing his quarry like a latter-day Sherlock Holmes. One of the problems is the presence of red [...]
If the Good, the True and the Beautiful, as a reflection of the Trinity, are the end to which we strive they are also, through their manifestation in love, reason and creativity, the means by which the end is achieved. Love is the path to goodness; reason is the path to truth; and creativity is [...]
Whereas Shakespeare’s virtuously iconic heroines are saints in the making, fighting the good fight for the Church Militant in the hope of heaven, Dante’s holy women have already won the fight and are in the eternal Presence of God in the Church Triumphant. They are not saints in the making but saints who have been [...]
There is a supernatural dimension to the unfolding of events in Middle-earth, in which Tolkien shows the mystical balance that exists between the promptings of grace or of demonic temptation and the response of the will to such promptings and temptations. This mystical relationship plays itself out in the form of transcendent Providence, which is [...]
In giving us Portia, Shakespeare has given us a holy woman who is the match for any of his male characters in terms of virtue, intelligence, wit and wisdom. He also shows us in his characterization of women their true dignity as human persons, as prone to weakness and wickedness as men but equally called [...]
As with many other charges brought against him, the claim that Shakespeare was somehow prejudiced against women is quite frankly absurd. A quick look at the Bard’s portrayal of the feminine half of the species will suffice to clear his name. Here I will look at the weak and the wicked among Shakespeare's women. Shakespeare [...]
When most of us think of Shakespeare we don’t immediately connect him with the saints. We might think of the play Sir Thomas More, on which he collaborated with other contemporary playwrights and which was banned during his lifetime for its volatile pro-Catholic perspective. We might connect him with the positive portrayal of Edward the [...]
Some of my best and oldest friends are paintings. They have accompanied me down the years. They lift my heart every time I see them. I never tire of them. They always remain fresh and new, as long as I allow them to refresh and renew me whenever we meet. Here are some of them. [...]