While we are concerned about our work being efficient and completed according to plan, God has different criteria. Waking, praying, packing, working, returning, eating, talking, sleeping, and... repeating! So our days go by, filled with activities, always on our toes, constantly jumping from one thing to the next, becoming dizzier and dizzier day by day. [...]
Pioneering priests such as Frs. Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Projectus Machebeuf are unsung heroes of Christendom, but deserve to be recognized. From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein’d, All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers! —Walt Whitman [...]
A lighthearted romp at first blush, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” yet tells the story of how the example of simple goodness can be transformational. The category of “Thanksgiving movies” is a select one indeed, but it is not meant as faint praise to crown John Hughes’ 1987 film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the greatest Thanksgiving [...]
Like a crooked district attorney who throws as many charges as possible against a defendant, hoping that some of them will stick, I as a teacher throw as many texts and topics at the students as possible without overloading them. Thus, one can see what works and what doesn’t—but never be short of material. “We [...]
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air – Between the Heaves of Storm – The Eyes around – had wrung them dry – And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset – when the King Be witnessed – in the Room – I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away What portions of me be [...]
Will this Democratic defeat trigger another batch of wilderness years for the party? And if so, how long will this period last? The recently concluded presidential election is not without its historical parallels and ironies, both of which speak to the country’s immediate future, as well as to the future of the Democratic Party. At [...]
Is Psalm 81 false? Will God not help us at once? Is God really helping us when we surrender to him if following the Lord so often involves trials? What if God assists us precisely by afflicting us? With the Sacred Scriptures as its principal source-text, each Lectio Divina (“Sacred Reading”) essay offers a prayerful [...]
C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” is a model work in the muddled and subjective world of ideologies, state-led terrorisms, gulags, holocausts, and killing fields. Sprinkled with timeless wisdom and profound insights, it is about fundamental aspects of Christianity and seeks to go beyond denominational differences without creating yet another new denomination. After C.S. Lewis converted to [...]
St. Cecilia Mass is the common name of a solemn mass in G major by Charles Gounod, composed in 1855 and scored for three soloists, mixed choir, orchestra and organ. The official name is Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile, in homage of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. The work was assigned CG 56 in the [...]
In "Pagan America," John Daniel Davidson argues that the minute the Christian order falls in America, the most barbarous acts and persecutions will occur. Then the Benedict Option will not be enough, as pagan America will never let Christians live in peace. Real Christians will have to do much more. Pagan America: The Decline of [...]
In the name of God, amen. We whose names are under written… [h]aving undertaken for the Glory of God, and advancement of the christian [sic] faith, and the honour of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in [...]
Our search for truth in this earthly life is not a march to the grave, but a journey of progressive illumination, in which each day brings the promise of some new wonder, some fresh joy. “Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will [...]
Have I actually had a true friend since those childhood days of simple and blissful friendship? My other friends have come and gone. As I reflect, I’m now not sure if I actually have a single real friend. The leaves rustle underneath my feet as I meander in the park. They are November’s leaves— brown, crunchy, and [...]
Fr. Joseph Fessio I have always had a soft spot for the Society of Jesus, even though my heart has been hardened by those modernized and modernist Jesuits who have abandoned the Holy Spirit for the spirit of the age. These Jesuits à la mode are wolves in shepherd’s clothing who betray the [...]