I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and [...]
How could a small “heretical Jewish sect” of little consequence convert the vast pagan empire of Rome, created and sustained by the greatest military power the world has ever known, and in such a short time? In the early Church, once a person heard the good news and expressed belief in Christ, baptism followed almost [...]
"The most deadly foes of the Catholic religion have always waged a fierce war, but without success, against this Chair; they are by no means ignorant of the fact that religion itself can never totter and fall while this Chair remains intact, the Chair which rests on the rock which the proud gates of hell [...]
“Forms that Fit: The Permanent Things in a Turbulent Time” In his magisterial study of the character of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville notes that, in democratic ages, the formalities tend to be abandoned and undermined. This is because, he says, “men living in democratic ages do not readily comprehend the utility of forms: they [...]
Few remember Athelstan, Alfred’s grandson, who is neither lionized by the poets nor canonized by the Church. Yet he was a warrior king who is perhaps equal in greatness to Alfred and possibly rivals Edmund and Edward in piety. See you the windy levels spread About the gates of Rye? O that was where the [...]
"Too wild and terrible" is what Ludwig van Beethoven is reported to have said about Mozart's famous Requiem. And despite the popularity of this great, unfinished work, the "wild and terrible" side of Mozart has generally been obscured in the public mind, in favor of his seemingly "lighter" works: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the overture to [...]
In John Ganz's account of the breaking clock of the early 1990s, the woeful era was apparently little more than a prelude to, or the dress rehearsal for, the eventual coming to power of one Donald J. Trump. When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists and How America Cracked up in the Early 1990s, by [...]
From Adam working the garden to Christ doing the works of the Father, the Scriptures prominently feature the theme of work. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul goes so far as to say that all those who do not work should not eat (3:10). But, why? What is the significance of work? [...]
The sheer impact of St. Augustine upon the life of the Church, of the emerging medieval world he had a hand in shaping, has never been equaled. Perhaps the first and most obvious thing to be said about St. Augustine, the span of whose life was close to eighty years—from A.D. 354 to 430—is that he [...]
Every Alleluia that we omit during Lent we make up for during the Easter season. By my count, on an ordinary weekday, we friars typically employ the word Alleluia about 13 times in our common prayers. When Lent comes, we omit all of these Alleluias. Then, in what may seem like a dramatic overcorrection, on [...]
In Episode 1 of "Jiao Tu’s Endeavour," Donald Jacob Uitvlugt sets his man-like beasts in a fascinating tale that hints at matters far deeper than the material. Jiao Tu’s Endeavour: Episode 1: The Kidnapped Mousling by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt, foreword by Anthony Perconti (342 pages, independently published, 2022) All the world’s wiseacres in arms against [...]
Culture, for Immanuel Kant, should be understood not as an aesthetic pursuit of the transcendentals, but as overarching basis for the moral improvement of all humans. The “Conjectural Beginning of Human History”[1] is Kant’s attempt to recast the creation story of Genesis. The procreative act of Yahweh is cooperative in the sense heaven and earth are [...]
At its highest, love is not a spontaneous feeling. There is nothing spontaneous about an egalitarian community of comrades—it requires hard work and full commitment. There is nothing spontaneous even about sexual love, which is only ever satisfied by the proof that it is, at bottom, a free and deliberate choice: even among non-religious people, [...]
Pope St. John Paul II and Russell Kirk defended freedom within the limits of truth and its authentic or right use. They knew it was crucial to distinguish license and liberty. But they have different approaches to truth. As we discussed the work of Russell Kirk, written in 1954, revised in 1962 and 1988, I [...]