2017-03-09T16:53:45-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 4:53 pm   By

The French nov­el­ist Jean Malaquais once said, “The only time I know some­thing is true is the moment I dis­cover it in the act of writ­ing.” As it hap­pens, Malaquais was a Com­mu­nist; which makes me ques­tion the truth of the obser­va­tion. I don’t know whether the state­ment becomes any more or less accu­rate if I change it this way: “The only time I know some­thing is true is the moment I dis­cover it in the act of read­ing.” I like the thought, even if the truth may be less than pris­tine. I sus­pect — or at least I hope very earnestly — that there will be libraries in heaven, where the truth will never be in ques­tion. Until then, I often like to think of a dif­fer­ent, and still won­drous, cat­e­gory of books; and the only dif­fi­culty, for the sake of this par­tic­u­lar post, was in nar­row­ing them to seven. [Read more] Read more

2017-03-09T16:57:44-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 4:57 pm   By

On October 13, Bernard Fellay gave a homily in which he insisted that he's Catholic. It was meandering and schizophrenic, and I have not yet decided what was worst about it. It may have been the many occasions Fellay took to display his own brand of Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome (and Vatican II Derangement Syndrome ). Or it may have been a more general evil; namely, that his sect appropriates the name of Pius X to exercise its schism from the Catholic Church. Read more

2017-03-09T16:59:43-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 4:59 pm   By

I can tell that it has been some time since I've been to Adoration. The reason I know this is because I am tired. I have lacked patience, which normally is one of my rare---exceedingly rare---virtues. I am out of temperament, and morose. As water seeks its own level, so my less frequent visits to the adoration chapel can be gauged by my more frequent visits to the confessional. I can tell that I have not been to Adoration because even the word "water" sounds dry. Read more

2017-03-09T17:01:01-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:01 pm   By

In March, the Huffington Post described it as “Catholicism 2.0,” but listen to George Weigel talk about it and you will know that Evangelical Catholicism represents Catholicism 5.0. Two thousand years is much longer than many like to think, and the demands of history are always changing, and Catholicism has rethought itself—not its doctrines, but the way they are lived—many times before. I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Weigel speak on this last night. Read more

2017-03-09T17:02:04-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:02 pm   By

When I was a grad­u­ate stu­dent, I made a con­scious effort to try not to write in an aca­d­e­mic style. My first year, I had used all the proper jar­gon, and all the expected aca­d­e­mic log­jam of syn­tax (snooze yawn zzzzz), and only ended up hat­ing every­thing that I had writ­ten. When Sir Wal­ter Scott wrote about Dr. Dryas­dust, he knew whereof he spoke. I didn’t want to be Dr. Dryas­dust. So I said to myself, “Why are you doing this? Why not write about lit­er­a­ture as though you actu­ally do love it and think it mat­ters and ought to be read?” (I remem­ber Joseph Heller’s won­der­ful line in Catch-22: “He knew every­thing there was to know about lit­er­a­ture except how to enjoy it.”) Only one pro­fes­sor  under­stood what I was up to. Everyone else told me I was being overly-subjective. [Read more] Read more

2017-03-09T17:08:53-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:08 pm   By

I have next to me  a copy of the Amer­i­can Her­itage Dic­tio­nary. I looked at this valu­able resource, to see whether Dr. Caner has been play­ing fast-and-loose with the word “debate.” And what I dis­cov­ered was that the def­i­n­i­tion sup­plied by he & Dr. Geisler is lo! the very same as def­i­n­i­tion #2. To debate is “to dis­cuss oppos­ing points.” In fact, he who con­sults the AHD will have to con­tinue all the way to the very last def­i­n­i­tion to find Mr. X’s sin­gu­lar under­stand­ing of the word. Read more

2017-03-09T17:10:06-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:10 pm   By

"The medium is the mes­sage,” Mar­shall McLuhan said. The mes­sage that comes across on Twit­ter is that you can do thought in 150 char­ac­ters. But you can’t. You can trade barbs; you can prac­tice one-liners; you can try to be quick-witted with the riposte. But at bot­tom, Twit­ter feeds our hunger to think in sound bites, and sound bites feed our hunger not to have to think at all. Some­times you need a long para­graph ; some­times you need fifty pages to develop an idea. Read more

2017-03-09T17:12:15-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:12 pm   By

I am writ­ing this in a white heat, and I do not intend to change much, and that is so far from my nor­mal prac­tice that I am sur­prised that I am per­mit­ting myself at all. But if the writ­ing remains raw, then it remains raw. This needs to be said. And this needs to be said over and over and over, and not let go, until this awful and numb and pagan world we live in returns to some sem­blance of san­ity; even if it has to be shouted and beaten back into it, which may be the only thing that will work, because shock isn’t work­ing for us. If this story shocks you, world, too bad. I don’t have sym­pa­thy. I don’t want to hear it. Stop sit­ting on your butt and being shocked for two days. [Read more] Read more

2017-03-09T17:13:28-04:00

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:13 pm   By

For all this year I could not go an hour without wanting to smash a brick against my face. Now, when you smash a brick against your face, there are two things that could happen next. You could say, “That was a bloody stupid thing to do. Let me get myself to the hospital. I’m not going to try that again.” Or you could say, “That felt good. Let me do that again.” And so you keep smashing bricks against your face until you are a wretched disfigurement, but you have to keep smashing them more and more frequently, because at least that way you can remind yourself that you feel something. And what that leads to is the state of mind that says, “Oh, I can’t take any antiseptic right now, that would hurt.” [Read more] Read more

2018-03-04T14:00:29-04:00

Last updated on: March 4, 2018 at 2:00 pm   By

So I see this Seven Quick Takes fad every­where I go in the Catholic blo­gos­phere, and I think to myself, I hate fads. How can I get in on this one? I decided, sen­si­bly enough, that the best way to get in was to, well, get in. So here I am: with words about viral blog posts, Mystic Monk Coffee, Thomas Peters, St. Augustine's City of God, Job, and the Dark Night of the Soul. Seven Quick Takes is still, as always, hosted by the grace­ful Jen­nifer Ful­wiler at the peer­less Con­ver­sion Diary. I would be hence­forth unmen­tion­able by civ­i­lized man if I didn’t point out that Ms. Fulwiler’s writ­ing fac­tored greatly in my con­ver­sion, for she has an uncanny abil­ity to make the Church come across as what it, in fact, is: joy­ful. [Read more] Read more

Follow Us!
Browse Our Archives
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Catholic
Multiple Interpretations: The Key To Richer Text Engagement
And What is a Family?
The Spirituality of Taillights
Worthwhile Thoughts of 25 Plus Non-Catholic Christians
New Study—The Mental Health Benefits of the Rosary—SOUL...
Prophets And Justice: A Reflection On Modern Injustices
view all Catholic blogs