Can Hymns or Songs Replace Propers at Mass? For some background go here. Read more

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists officially recommends “feticide” for its “beneficial emotional, ethical and legal consequences”. Our civilization is winding itself up to pay out a massive judgment against itself.  Only the mercy of God keeps us from the utter destruction we aim to visit on ourselves in our sin. Read more

A reader has an interesting brainwave: I have been thinking lately about how OWS has brought into the public realm the idea of using public space to make a point. For many years Nativity scenes have been declared unwelcome and in violation of the law, but really, aren’t they just “a demonstration of speech representing a point of view”? Maybe we could all go out this Advent and “occupy” various parks and public spaces in front of city halls with... Read more

…is doing good things!: In my capacity as Director of the Christian Leadership Center of the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND, I’m launching a subsection of our website dedicated to preaching. An ecumenical endeavor involving Protestants like Nick Perrin of Wheaton College and Catholics like Brant Pitre, the site will offer treatments of the lectionary texts for each Sunday and holiday, discussion of preaching the Gospels, and reflections on the task of preaching. I had the pleasure of meeting... Read more

A reader writes: Are you able to explain this article to me? If the writer can grasp that the suspect is utterly delusional about his status as a doctor, why can’t it also be pointed out that he is equally delusional about being female? Or, if we accept that “he” can change into “she” by personal declaration, then why doesn’t self- identifying as a doctor make him one? Beyond the fundamental explanation that Sin Makes You Stupid, there is the... Read more

There’s a bunch today, so buckle up prayer warriors. First a reader writes concerning Tia, the two year old who had swallowed a battery a couple of weeks ago: The most recent news I heard of Baby Tia is that they did the other surgery and she is off the respirator and breathing on her own! God is so good!! Thanks for all the prayers! Keep the prayers coming for complete healing… Father, hear our prayer for Tia’s complete healing... Read more

From Mike Flynn, who has forgotten more about medieval philosophy, science and technology than most of us will ever know: Robert Grosseteste (1175-1253), rector of Oxford and Bishop of Lincoln, in his ‘Treatise on Light’ (De luce), wrote that out of nothing pre-existing, God had created a single point from which the entire physical order emerged by way of extension or expansion. The first dimensionless point was light which was one and simple, “containing matter implicitly in the form of... Read more

…that the main effect of voting is not the impact it has on somebody winning an election, but the impact it has on you. Making a man like Newt Gingrich the Face of American Christianity is a fantastically foolish thing to do. Then again, conservative Christians have demonstrated a sort of anti-charism of discernment over the past decade, not just backing but giving full throated veneration to spectacularly unreliable people and vilifying their critics as enemies of all that is... Read more

…and I reply here. Let me know what you think. Read more

The sensible Ramesh Ponnuru tries to flag the Newt Gingrich Crazy Train down before it plunges off the trestle. Hopefully, this mania is, like most manias, only temporary and his supporters will wake up with a hangover saying, “What was I thinking?” Read more