As I listened, all those years ago, to Rush Limbaugh defend Terry Schiavo's life and all human life, I remember thinking at the time that it was the most eloquent defense of life I had ever heard. Although it was 16 years ago, I remember it vividly. I was driving down I-270 in Maryland toward [...]
If we are beginning a journey upon which our whole future depends, it is of paramount importance to understand exactly where we are going. When we begin to pray seriously, St Teresa of Ávila makes it clear that our destination is what she called the Mystical or Spiritual Marriage. If we are beginning a journey [...]
Crushed into near despair by a particularly nasty cold, a man reaches blindly into his pocket searching for relief. He grasps a cough drop—the sole salve for his burning throat—and unwraps it. Something catches his eye. He finds printed on the wrapper lines such as “Impress yourself,” “Bet on yourself,” and “Elicit a few ‘wows’ [...]
The fact is that “unity” is not always good, and “division” is not always bad. Indeed, some unity is downright diabolical. There is, for instance, nothing more united than a mob. The mob mentality is nothing other and nothing less than toxic unity. When G.K. Chesterton first came to the United States and visited New [...]
Please enjoy Barbara Elliott's presentation on "Catholic Imagination and Contemporary Culture," delivered at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. DSPT Fellow - Barbara Elliott's Presentation on Catholic Imagination and Contemporary Culture from DSPT on Vimeo. This lecture was first published here in March 2012. Dr. Barbara Elliott's presentation at the Third Annual Convocation of [...]
Ernest Hemingway's spiritual sensibilities were the foundation of everything he wrote. Indeed, despite his own weaknesses and flaws, his Catholic spirituality infused his writing. Robert Lazu Kmita: Dear Ms. Mary Claire Kendall, thank you for agreeing to engage in this dialogue. For our readers, I specify that it relates to your recently launched volume, shortly [...]
Some years ago, my wife and I decided to forego the over-crowded restaurants and parking lots on Valentine’s Day, light a few candles of our own, and enjoy a romantic dinner at home. With this year’s health concerns and, in some cases, more limited restaurant seating to compete for, it may be just the year [...]
Yes, we Catholics are all aware of the problems plaguing Holy Mother Church right now. So, why then do we persist? Perhaps one way of addressing this question is to focus on the precise nature of what ecclesial Christians believe about the Church. Many Christians are scandalized or crying “I told you so” in the [...]
O strange awakening to a world of gloom, And baffled moonbeams and delirious stars, Of souls that moan behind forbidden bars, And waving forests swept by wings of doom; […]
With his bold pronouncement in the Dred Scott decision that Congress had no jurisdiction over the territories, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney hoped to preempt all political discussion and debate. But he was sadly disappointed, for his majority opinion itself became the focus of a new, and ever more vicious, round of political battles as [...]
What constitutes a well-ordered house from the national perspective? How do we know what order it is in? According to the conventional wisdom we need the statistics of aggregate income, spending and output. We need, in other words, the GNP approach whose figures bombard us whenever we read something about the national economy on particular [...]
One of my mentors in becoming a Christian was, at one point, barely able to feed his family because of a degenerative back condition, which prevented him from working and which would normally have led to paralysis. Because of this, his family was very poor and lived without many amenities the rest of us are [...]
When you need to explain a difficult topic, analogy is the way to do it. Analogies are useful tools. They can convey complex truths. They help to give a reference, a touchstone, to the unknown. Say you wanted to tell me that Joe, your cousin, doesn’t have good vision. Telling me that “his prescription glasses [...]
The music of little-known Baroque composer Francesco Antonio Bonporti embodies a kind of Arcadian serenity and joy, like the music of Mozart. Art conceived along those lines is closely tied to the refinement of the spirit, in which the senses do not go their own brutish way but are reconciled with the mind by means [...]