Greed—like gluttony or sloth—is not conducive to human flourishing. Regarding greed, Russell Kirk commented, “Avarice, rather, is desiring more wealth than one’s soul can support properly. Avarice sometimes produces present poverty: the miser, proverbially, is ragged and lean.”[i] When he chose to personify greed in his fiction, Kirk had to look no further than his [...]
The Catechism praises almsgiving as, “Money or goods given to the poor as an act of penance or fraternal charity.” It may sound like a humdrum practice, but almsgiving would have been unthinkable, strange, to the ancient, pagan world. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was no virtue to give to the poor. In [...]
Many years ago, I had a wonderful plumber who was always there when I needed him. Nothing was too much trouble, both night and day, on weekends, and even on holidays, when he never charged more than the current rate. Sad to say, I never really appreciated him. He was just the man I turned to [...]
Do you know what it takes to build a shrine? It’s no simple task; a lot has to be done in order to turn a shrine into a reality. You have to choose the site and raise the money and draw up plans—plans tediously revised and approved. And once construction begins it can go on, [...]
All out of doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane in empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand. What kept him from remembering what it was That brought him to [...]
My gift suggestion for an original Christmas gift for a loved one is a calendar. It can be any calendar according to the needs and inclinations of the one who will receive it. It does not matter if it is a wall calendar, a pocket version or a personal planner, as long as it is [...]
A professional philosopher my friend Siobhan Nash-Marshall certainly was. But her own love of wisdom included the desire to change the world as well as interpret it. She constantly attempted to do so according to the wisdom that is foolishness to men. Perhaps it was because she was the child of diplomats and had learned [...]
It’s morning again in America. Trump has reclaimed the presidency, and a popular vote majority supercharges his mandate. But morning means it’s time to get to work. While we may now be unburdened by the disaster of a Harris administration, big changes are necessary. For the past sixteen years, we’ve heard the fantasies of the [...]
Editor’s Note: Author Siobhan Nash-Marshall recently passed away. Please enjoy this wonderful essay, one of many she penned for us. I have escaped the City, as I do every year in Summer. I know that this sounds trite, and perhaps even a tad snobbish, like a line from The Great Gatsby. But that heat that [...]
What marks Newman’s preaching? A concern for the everyday life of holiness. We are made for an eternal destiny: the resurrection of the body, the communion of saints, the beatific vision. And yet, those things are sought not only after this life, but among, during, and throughout all that life throws at us here and [...]
I became a Catholic—after seven years of teenage atheism—because of the lyrics of the album, "The Colour of Spring," by the English band Talk Talk. I didn’t know Mark Hollis, the writer of those lyrics, and I don’t claim that he actually practiced what he preached. But preached he did! First, I should really cool [...]
As one who has admired Hilaire Belloc for almost half a century, it is gratifying indeed to see such a revival of interest in this great and under-appreciated man of genius. For too long, he has walked in G.K. Chesterton’s shadow. Now, at last, he is emerging in his own right, basking in the light [...]
The poem I have chosen for December 17th in my Advent Anthology from Canterbury Press Waiting on the Word is my own sonnet “O Sapientia,” the first in a sequence of seven sonnets on the seven great ‘O’ antiphons which I shall be reading to you each day between now and the 23rd of December. You [...]
While one might respect the French traditions of haute couture and the artistic avant garde, who thought it was a good idea to mar the otherwise grand reopening of the historic Christian monument of Notre Dame by dressing the clergy in costumes so garishly outlandish? Once when I was living in England, I stood in [...]