Augustine was standing at a precipice when he heard the story of two men very much like himself. He recalls in the eighth book of his Confessions how he learned of two men foregoing promising careers in Milan in favor of the peaceful austerities of the monastery. They came upon the cloister while taking a stroll, and [...]
The woman's life was meant to be lived at least on a human basis of justice. In the divine life of charity, she attains her fullest development, her fullest happiness; for here justice and love rule, not strength. On such a basis, she has open to her a life of fullest perfection, the kind of [...]
Before the 1960s, mental prayer took place behind the closed doors of a personal prayer life. However, as the charismatic movement began to spread amongst Catholics, communal charismatic style prayer became more and more popular, not least because of unusual phenomena, from speaking in tongues to slaying in the spirit. When criticised as a deviation [...]
Kevin Roberts sees the need for what amounts to a second American revolution—a peaceful one of fundamental change, which he hopes will result in the downfall, if not destruction, of institutions that buttress the corrupt "Uniparty" in Washington. Kevin Roberts. Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America. (285 pages, HarperCollins, 2024. During the [...]
Franz Jägerstätter and Fr. Gabriel Gay are two lesser-known victims of the Nazis. May their prayers deliver Europe from the wolves of secularism and restore the European nations to the Faith which forged them. Franz Jägerstätter In the previous essay in this series, we honored Blessed Otto Neururer, the first priest to be executed [...]
G.K. Chesterton once said, “The opposite of employment is not unemployment, but independence.” Employment, or work, is activity done for some utilitarian end. So, when he says the opposite of employment is independence, he is saying that true independence (or freedom) involves doing things for their own sake. Things done for their own sake he [...]
Why did I help organize a new men’s event? Well, the short answer is that it’s needed. Much contemporary Christian life is dominated by women, for good and for ill. One of the ill parts of this is that there is a certain feminized quality to many events that turns men off. Our catchy name [...]
Why would Christoph Schönborn—a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and a theologian who specialized in Patristic studies—dedicate so many essays and conferences to a doctrine that appears to overlook the Christian faith? Theology in The New York Times In the context of the debates caused by the “Intelligent Design” movement, an important Catholic contribution [...]
The first half of Augustine’s life was spent amid the remnants of a Greek and Roman world; the latter half was spent in the company of provincial Africans, to whom he would unravel the mysteries of a shared faith. In the immediate aftermath of his conversion, following a life not infrequently strewn with sin, Augustine [...]
The idea that eternity will be a culture and a civilization, not a disembodied never-never land, is perhaps the most powerful takeaway from Fr. William J. Slattery's "Enchanted by Eternity," and I assume it will be news to many people. It opens up a vast field of wonder and possibility. Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the [...]
The classical tradition considered the hands the bodily expression of intelligence, and therefore understood work as a way of knowing the world. A program of education centered on mentorship in forms of human work is indispensable in this regard. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, by Matthew B. Crawford, (246 pages, [...]
How Will We Save Western Civilization? This was the urgent question and theme for a gathering of international leaders in London in late February, where I had the honor of representing Christendom College. Many among the leaders were Catholic and we found ourselves naturally reframing the conference’s question within the context of our faith and [...]
The bonds among the Church, the Holy Family, and the “domestic church” founded on the sacrament of marriage are intimate and profound. In a host of formal and informal pronouncements and teachings, Pope John Paul II consistently underlined the central importance of the family as the basic cell of human society, and sacramental marriage as the sole foundation [...]
Last Thursday, all of the Dominican student brothers here at the House of Studies jammed together to watch the reveal of a new pope. We were not alone. The whole world trained its eyes on a balcony in Rome. And after some waiting—and some more waiting—there emerged Leo XIV, the 267th Pope, the Successor of [...]