Many years ago I formulated what I call the Pony Principle, which is this: if you really want a pony for Christmas, ask your parents for a pony. You probably won’t get it—but if you don’t ask for a pony, you certainly won’t get it. Or, to put it less colorfully: ask for what you really want, even if it seems unreasonable. Of course, you have to ask cheerfully, and you have to be willing to take no for an... Read more
When you’re a layperson, the world is your cloister. Read more
Thomas Aquinas, by Denys Turner, might be the best book on Thomas Aquinas that I’ve yet seen. It’s a book about Thomas the man, Thomas the saint, and only secondarily about Thomas the philosopher and theologian. The author says, It is a profile sketched out in thin strokes of the pen, exaggerating a few features out of all proportion and omitting many more altogether. It is therefore a caricature. But caricatures do not always distort. At best they reveal the... Read more
Looked at one way, the interior life is a long series of repairs. We are broken people in so many ways, we fall so far short of the perfection God has in mind for us; and as we grow in the interior life these things slowly get fixed. I wrote this post in the middle of a long kitchen remodel; and perhaps not coincidentally, it occurred to me that growing in the interior life is less like being a handyman... Read more
This was posted to my old blog in February of 2003. I was reciting limericks to my boy David after dinner tonight, and I told him one I’d made up when I was in college: A young man both hungry and odd Decided to dine upon sod. To do this he dared, But was quite unprepared For the weeds that grew out of his bod. After that I ran out, and of course he wanted more. So I had to... Read more
So Elizabeth Scalia welcomed me to Patheos on her blog a couple of days ago, and quoted my post “Righteously Bad Theology.” One of her readers left a rather cryptic comment on her post: wonderful selection, I’m Catholic patheos is taking the progressive approach… I’m assuming that some word like “glad” or “pleased” or “happy” was omitted between the words “I’m” and “Catholic”, in which case the reader is assuming that I’m going to be a progressive voice at Patheos.... Read more
Justin Martyr, one of the Church’s earliest apologists (and a key witness in my own reversion to the Church), was killed by the Romans around 165 AD. Until recently, the oldest copy of any of his works that we’ve had available to us was one dated to 1364—but now they’ve found one more than 1000 years older. Tom McDonald has the details. Read more
For all Carmina Burana fans, I present the misheard lyrics to O Fortuna. Yeah, if you’re a Carmina Burana fan you’ve already seen it…but you want to watch it again, you know you do. Read more
A few days ago, Francis Beckwith asked the musical question: Where did all these Calvinists come from? It seems that Calvinism is gaining ground in Evangelical circles (usually under the name “Reformed Theology”), and some of the older members of that community have been wondering why. The article Beckwith links to gives a number of sources, and one of them takes me back to a bygone era. The book in question is Desiring God, by John Piper. I first ran... Read more
A little something for Halloween. I Hear the sledges with the bells – Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells – From the jingling and... Read more
Cry 'Woof'
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