July 24, 2017
There are saints whose lives were inconspicuous and whose canonizations surprised some who thought they were unexceptional. There are others whose mystical gifts were so prodigious that they made every effort, sometimes amusingly as in the instance of Philip Neri, to distract attention from themselves.
July 17, 2017
In the nineteenth century, the poet Adam Mickiewicz dramatized the theme of his suffering Poland as the “Christ of Nations” and, in an image used by many others, Poland was crucified in the twentieth century between the two thieves of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany.
July 15, 2017
WASHINGTON –A floral artist from Washington state asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to reverse a decision by the state’s high court which concluded that the government can force her—and, by extension, other creative professionals—to create artistic expression and participate in events with
July 4, 2017
“Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you.
We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people.
July 2, 2017
The film Cabaret is better known these days than the novel The Berlin Stories on which its screenplay is based. Christopher Isherwood described the dissolute culture of a demoralized people, which gave rise to the National Socialists. Heroes in the German Church defied the Nazi outrages, and thousands became martyrs.
June 30, 2017
YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast—There’s nothing on earth quite like the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. It is one of the tallest churches anywhere, with a 518-foot-high basilica that tops the Vatican’s St. Peter’s. Guinness World Records calls it the largest church in the world.
June 19, 2017
The 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China by the British is coming up in July 2017. You must see The Guardian‘s “Chalk Girl,” the girl at the heart of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Here’s why: We hear much talk of China’s economic
June 19, 2017
Our Lord’s admonition that much will be required of those to whom much has been given, applies most vividly to us. We have been given so much in the way of inventions and medicine and comparative wealth, but above all in knowledge of the world around us. No king in his silken bed at
June 16, 2017
Vatican News (CNA/EWTN News) – The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops announced the launch of a new website for the upcoming synod on youth, and encouraged young people to take the survey available there.
June 15, 2017
Truthfully, it is impossible to effectively PROVE that we—in 2017, as a society/as humans—are more intelligent than those who lived centuries (or millennia) ago, or vice versa. However, if we consider a few thoughts, anecdotes and some data, we might arrive at a reasonable
June 12, 2017
The Feast of the Holy Trinity follows Pentecost because it is only by the inspiration of the Third Person of the Trinity, who leads into all truth, that the mystery of the Trinity can be known. Human intelligence needs God’s help to apprehend the inner reality of God. Certainly, human reason can employ natural analysis to some extent to describe God in terms of causality and motion and goodness. Saint Anselm, who models the
June 5, 2017
The fire that Moses saw was not by any definition what we know as fire, for it did not burn the blazing bush. The light that shone from Christ in his Transfiguration was not what is light in the canons of natural physics, because it was of an intensity beyond accessible description without damaging the sight of Peter, James and John. Fifty days after the Resurrection, in the Upper Room, there was a noise “like” a driving wind and then flames “as of” fire shone over the heads of the apostles, but the description required similitudes because the noise and the flames were not a natural noise and
June 4, 2017
Less than two weeks after the Manchester suicide bombing and just three months after a terrorist ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a policeman to death at Parliament, Saturday night, June 3, saw people scrambling amid two terrorist attacks – on the London Bridge and Borough Market. Video clips show
June 1, 2017
Bravo Coach Jasikevicius! EuroLeague pro basketball legend and current head coach for the pro basketball team Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian League, Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius flat stunned a reporter who repeatedly questioned why one of Jasikevicius’ star players didn’t play in the Semi Finals. Coach had let the player skip the game in order to be present at the birth of his first child. Standing at 6’4″, a former point guard, Coach Jasikevicius minced no words responding to the reporter, putting the
May 31, 2017
It is a wise policy, issuing from experience, and one hopes not from cynicism, to distrust email messages that begin by saying that the writer is “excited to share” something. Inevitably, this involves an overuse of exclamation points and much self-advertising. In religion, various movements keep pumping themselves up with
May 14, 2017
A few blocks north of our church, at 1664 Broadway in the old Warners’ Theatre which was demolished in 1952, the first Vitaphone talking film, The Jazz Singer, opened on October 6, 1927. I have been astonished that some of our bright young parishioners never heard of
May 4, 2017
Today, May 4, marks the 2017 National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme is For Your Great Name’s Sake! Hear Us…Forgive Us…Heal Us!, inspired by the Scripture verse Daniel 9:19. This year the National Day of Prayer Washington DC Observance moved to an evening event that will be held from 7:30 to 9 pm ET, and can be live streamed on the National Day of Prayer website (see links at bottom of article). An even bigger announcement, however, is that today
May 4, 2017
Just hours ago, the U.S. House of Representatives approved its version of repeal and replace what most refer to as “Obamacare.” Even political commentators at The Hill call the newly approved House bill “a good deal.” Eric Schleider of the Pro-Life
April 30, 2017
They say that Lyndon B. Johnson could arm-wrangle legislation through Congress like no one else. He would urge his aides to seize the moment in the wake of his historic 1964 victory, telling them that “Eighteen months from now, Ol’ Landslide Lyndon will be
April 30, 2017
Rare is the obituary that can match that of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart (1880-1963) who died as the most decorated soldier in the British Army. He was born to a Belgian father and Irish mother, though reputed to be an illegitimate son of Leopold II, King of the Belgians. His mother died when he was six, and his English stepmother sent him to the Birmingham Oratory School in England, founded by Cardinal Newman. He entered the