A sub-category of News.
As a mother of five, I have spent many nights sitting in the hallway outside a bedroom door, listening to the angry, frustrated, or sorrowful noises of a child who does not want to go to sleep. Normally, that child has no idea how close I am or that I can hear him or her….
Around 10:30 p.m., as the moon rises over the St. Augustine Institute, Fr. Alex Mugalaasi turns his gaze back again to Our Lady, where he begins his fourth or fifth Rosary of the day. Kampala, Uganda’s wall of noise—incessantly whining engines of boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis), overlapping Muslim calls to prayer, cries of street vendors, the…
On October 17, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act, establishing the United States Department of Education (ED) as a federal agency. While the ED has been praised by both Republicans and Democrats alike, its creation has caused more problems than most Americans realize. The federal government should abolish the U.S….
The first papal encyclical I remember reading—or attempting to read—was Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), the last encyclical by Pope John Paul II. Published three days before I was baptized into the Catholic Church, it discusses one of the most important topics in the Catholic Faith, that of the Holy Eucharist. I won’t bore you with…
Above: Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi (St. David’s Cathedral) restored as a shrine in 2012. Author’s note: Our Medieval Fathers in the Faith loved grouping Saints – even though unrelated in life – in categories, according to what devotions or patronages were paid to them. So in the Rhineland of Germany, the Four Holy Marshals were St….
Here’s a take-home question for you. Are you at home in the world? I mean, entirely and completely at home? Are you, to put it in a boringly pedantic way, perfectly reconciled with your place of residence in a world bound by space and time, a world framed by the window of the five senses…
In the Louvre’s Richelieu wing, there is a marble statue, sculpted by François Rude in 1852, titled Jeanne d’Arc écoutant ses voix. Rude captures the young St. Joan of Arc in a moment of complete attentiveness. Her mouth is open, her head tilted, her right hand raised as she listens to “her voices”—St. Michael the…
Above: “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). The historical period known as the “Baroque” was not regarded positively even by those who gave it this name. Indeed, the term derives from the Portuguese “barroco,” which carries a negative connotation, referring to something irregular or uneven. Perhaps this judgment arose from a…
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is “the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself” (CCC 234). That sentence ought to make any preacher on Trinity Sunday take a deep breath before he says anything. We want to…
Above: Duchess Marie of Saxe-Alternburg (1818-1097) with her husband, King George V of Hanover and children. The grim reality of a world dominated by contraception is visible to the naked eye without any difficulty. There is no need for statistics: the empty pews—painfully visible especially in small churches—as well as the predominance of parishioners over…
