Whatever other methods of prayer we may at times find helpful, we must never forget and always turn back to the Scriptures as the Christian prayer book par excellence. Lectio Divina – Divine Reading In vocal prayer, despite the time given to brief moments of silence, we have been doing most of the talking. However, [...]
Death must come some time; this world isn’t our home, only a kind of hotel where our rooms will be wanted sooner or later for somebody else; life is meant to be only a span of time, and a comparatively short one. When I say it’s meant to be, I am, of course, assuming the [...]
Dwight Longenecker Father Dwight Longenecker will be no stranger to readers of The Imaginative Conservative. Apart from the numerous essays that he has written for this illustrious journal for more years than I care or dare to remember, he has written many excellent books. As with the essays, so with the books. They [...]
Hector Berlioz brightened the world with his art. He marched to the beat of his own drum—sometimes literally. My binge on Berlioz has made me warm to the composer. And I am readier, I think, to accept him on his own terms. Many years ago, a reader introduced himself to me outside the Metropolitan Opera [...]
Today, as we wash off yesterday’s ashes, we stand six weeks away from Easter. The long winter of sin is thawing; a new day is dawning as the Resurrection approaches. Easter and springtime seem to go together, and with the approach of spring comes yet another reason for hope—Opening Day. While Opening Day may bring [...]
Einojuhani Rautavaara Yuja Wang was the star we’d all come to seeat San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall last Sunday afternoon. A change in programming had rewarded us in dividends; she’d be performing not just one but two piano concertos. For most of the audience, I’m guessing, it was Ravel’s intense Piano Concerto for [...]
Recently, my cousin Keena’s husband of nearly thirty years died after a two-year fight with colon cancer. I was glad to attend the funeral and spend time with her and the family afterward. Mourning with those who mourn is a command we ought to take seriously, for it carries its own blessings, even if we [...]
Malcolm Muggeridge and Marshall McLuhan are two now-mostly-forgotten TV stars who converted to Catholicism. In the current issue of the St. Austin Review, Daniel J. Mahoney writes of Malcolm Muggeridge, describing him in the title of his essay as a “vendor of words, scourge of ideology, Catholic convert, and witness to the truth.” In introducing Muggeridge [...]
If you are unfamiliar with theological classics and want an easeful entryway, here is what you should do: run to On the Incarnation, a short treatise written by St. Athanasius of Alexandria in the fourth century, in the English translation done by Sister Penelope Lawson in 1944. It features an introduction by C S. Lewis, [...]
T.S. Eliot’s “Ash-Wednesday” helps us to consider our earthly transience, just as Ash Wednesday reminds us of this same fact that our time on earth is passing. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita . . . There is something telling about man’s tendency to view his life as a journey, for journeys convey the [...]
Often placed, more or less justifiably, in the lineage of John Courtney Murray S.J. (1904–1967), Michael Novak (1933–2017) distinguished himself through systematic efforts in the direction of building a theology of economics. At the risk of making a statement that may seem too daring, I believe that Michael Novak’s work can be considered one of [...]
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi’s music is timeless. Performed within the orchestral world, period films, and popular culture today, his works and melodies are recognizable, even to a movie crowd. Yet his work was often discredited in his lifetime because he was prolific. Composers and critics alike believed that Vivaldi’s sheer quantity of production outweighed his quality. Vivaldi and [...]
The truth of Pope Innocent III’s world is naturally dependent on a move out of nature and into faith. The political was a fundamental aspect of the pastoral. The movement of ascent to God passed always through the carnal, through the law, and on to liberty through grace. We are trapped within the historical, but [...]
American wars produce songs of hope, encouragement, nostalgia, longing, sadness, and humor. Only one war produced a stirring song of triumphalist heresy. The war that made us independent gave us “Yankee Doodle,” a frivolous tune that threw back in the face of the Brits a term they had used to belittle us. The most popular [...]