tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82048879348885900512024-09-19T13:47:24.043-05:00I believe in order that I may understand.DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-65410860993142395662009-02-08T00:01:00.005-05:002009-02-08T08:13:05.891-05:00

I have high praise for Melanie Phillip's book, Londonistan. If only her recent reaction to the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson were as measured and objective as her treatment of radical Islam...After blasting the Pope and the Vatican over the decision, Phillips goes further to suggest the presence of a dormant

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-90741266571239570682009-01-15T21:57:00.004-05:002009-01-15T22:24:37.570-05:00

I will not forget reading these words on Raymond Arroyo's blog on January 8th: "Father Richard John Neuhaus has gone to the Lord. My heart breaks with so many of you who loved and respected Father Neuhaus."Like so many, I will admire and respect Fr. Neuhaus for the rest of my life. I didn't know him personally, but I read him regularly, most often in the pages of First Things. And in his writings

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-4512301495884274432008-04-15T01:04:00.003-05:002008-04-15T01:20:16.659-05:00

As we in America prepare to welcome Pope Benedict XVI today, I will offer my prayers for his safe and fruitful missionary journey.I know that I am not alone in holding this intention, nor am I alone, as a Catholic, in experiencing a special spiritual bond with St. Peter's successor as he visits my country. I anticipate a special week. Our Holy Father's presence here among us should usher in a

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-23465516951780011212007-09-14T23:10:00.000-05:002007-09-15T00:08:14.106-05:00

Alan Jacobs of Wheaton College has proposed a thought experiment whereby the problem posed to atheism by the existence and dominance of widespread religious belief is made clear. In his words, "if all religions are fundamentally mistaken about the thing that most concerns them, then why are human beings everywhere and in every time so overwhelmingly religious?" [source: The Future of Atheism]

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-9890406633168478952007-06-06T00:22:00.000-05:002007-07-17T23:44:10.533-05:00

“Mosul Christians are not theologians; some are even illiterate. And yet inside of us for many generations one truth has become embedded: Without the Sunday Eucharist we cannot live...The terrorists might think they can kill our bodies or our spirit by frightening us, but, on Sundays, churches are always full. They may try to take our life, but the Eucharist gives it back...There are days when I

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-44637596461932159722007-04-01T04:36:00.000-05:002007-04-01T04:41:04.264-05:00

O Lord and Masterof my life,take from me thespirit of laziness,meddling, ambitionand vain talk.But give me a spiritof prudence, humility,patience and love.Yes Lord and Kinggrant me to see myown sins and faultsand not judge mybrother.For You are BlessedForever and ever.Amen.(Prayer of St. Ephrem)

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-55835920642827674802007-03-21T23:17:00.000-05:002007-03-21T23:44:48.709-05:00

Have you been to a Catholic church constructed in America after the decades following Vatican II? If so, what qualities of its architecture and interior design are distinctly "Catholic?" What qualities might even be distinctly "sacred?" Ask yourself the same questions about a Catholic church constructed in America at least twenty or thirty years prior to the council. From which era can you list

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-10828418339859560782007-03-17T00:54:00.000-05:002007-03-17T01:53:35.797-05:00

I bind to myself todayThe strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:I believe the Trinity in the UnityThe Creator of the Universe.I bind to myself todayThe virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.I bind to myself todayThe virtue of the

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-50753206131069114182007-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:002007-01-11T00:24:38.571-05:00

Recently I finished reading Paul Collins' SixPence House: Lost in a Town of Books. It is an amusing memoir of the author's experience living in Hay-on-Wye, a small village in the Welsh countryside known for its disproportionate number of rare and antiquarian bookstores. Collins had me chuckling on every other page, and smiling in between. This quote from page 132 of the book seems representative

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-79189785251444485982006-12-07T01:35:00.000-05:002006-12-07T01:52:10.865-05:00

David Phelps wrote an article for the Acton Institute journal, Religion and Liberty, entitled The Twin Vocations of Art and Work. He proposes the following:"The artist is a worker; the worker is an artist. Each can learn from the other, and perhaps find encouragement that the vocation to create and the vocation to serve are in many ways the same vocation."In support of this point, he cites the

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-83982473037278906852006-11-28T00:59:00.000-05:002006-11-28T01:17:14.437-05:00

Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture under this title to an audience at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006. The subsequent wave of angry and violent protest that spread around the world served to demonstrate his point that:"'Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God', said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-52353727695886161052006-11-23T00:20:00.000-05:002006-11-23T00:35:34.240-05:00

"All the truths we are blessed in knowing, all beauty we are allowed to enjoy; every moment of good health and every bit of nourishment we take - all these are undeserved benefits in no wise due to us. How often do we misuse the gifts of God; with how much ingratitude and indifference do we requite His blessings? Yet, as soon as habit deludes us into misjudging our metaphysical situation, as soon

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-7132000322377494502006-11-22T23:02:00.000-05:002006-11-22T23:28:32.740-05:00

It was not long ago that I had the privilege to teach two of my young nieces how to play chess. Having already succumbed to the graceful, beautiful intrigue of the game, they were very excited and eager to learn. I sat down with the youngest first, and we proceeded to organize the black and white pieces by color. She took the white pieces; I opted for black. I explained the rules of movement for

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-20901732882465028222006-11-19T17:18:00.000-05:002006-11-23T00:32:26.219-05:00

Joseph Epstein wrote a piece for Commentary that pointed me in Ralph Ellison's direction. This excerpt from his book, entitled Friendship Among the Intellectuals, drew me in quietly. Before reading it, I hadn't been thinking about Invisible Man, invisible men, coming-of-age stories, and the like. Nor had I known of Norman Podhoretz's book entitled "Ex-Friends." Certainly I hadn't been thinking so

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-83630412487543418372006-11-18T23:11:00.000-05:002006-11-23T00:32:58.708-05:00

Recently I enjoyed a lecture delivered by biographer Joseph Pearce about the Recusants. The lecture quickly narrowed in on the topic of Shakespeare, his family's place in the Recusancy, and some counterpoints to scholarly opinions that Shakespeare wasn't Catholic. These counterpoints and much of the substance for Pearce's lecture were taken from a new and promising biography of William

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204887934888590051.post-35292812936191826362006-11-18T01:47:00.000-05:002006-11-23T00:33:23.708-05:00

Last summer I was struck by a poem written by Samuel Menashe in First Things entitled "Nothing New". How or when does now become then? I think C.S. Lewis was on to this question and perhaps even on to the poet's point when he considered salvation, damnation, time, and eternity in The Great Divorce:"'Son,' he said, 'ye cannot in your present state understand eternity... But ye can get some

DJShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16864865002593119221noreply@blogger.com0