Stratford Caldecott is a good egg

He is the editor of Second Spring and Humanum, and one of the editors of Magnificat in the UK. In addition to writing The Seven .Sacraments: Entering the Mysteries of God (Crossroad, 2006) and Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education (Brazos, 2009), he has now authored All Things Made New: The Mysteries of the World in Christ.

Here’s a description:

The coming of Christ changed the world. God entered creation in a new way. Eternity entered time. After long ages of preparation, human history had reached a watershed. The shattering impact of the Incarnation was felt first by the Mother of Jesus and by his closest disciples. Its meaning was best understood by Mary as she pondered these things in her heart, and the beloved disciple, John, who took her into his home. Mary and John at the foot of the Cross are witnesses and teachers of the mystery of God’s love, which was revealed to the early Church especially in the fourth Gospel, the Johannine letters, and the Book of Revelation or “Book of Unveiling” (the Church’s earliest mystagogical text). All Things Made New explores the Christian mysteries in the tradition of John and Mary, by studying the symbolism, cosmology, and meaning of the Book of Revelation, as well as the prayers and meditations of the Rosary, including the Apostles’ Creed and the Our Father. These reflections lead us step by step to the foot of the Cross, and to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, where all things are made new.

I once had the honor of sharing the toast-making duties at a Chesterton Banquet in Minneapolis (along with Stratford and Dale Ahlquist). The job was basically, “Tell a joke, then offer a toast”. Stratford’s joke turned out to be such a tortured piece of rigamarole, full of digressions, explanations, backtracking, rewording and rephrasing that it became absolutely hilarious, not because of the punchline, but because of the time it took to reach it. I thought Dale was going to slide under the table laughing. He (Stratford, not Dale) is a fine English gentleman, a fine writer, a holy and good and thoughtful man. Dale is those things too, but without the English part. Check thou out his (Stratford’s) work, especially All Things Made New. You should check out Dale’s work too, but that’s not what this post is about.