2014-12-27T10:17:38-05:00

There is a double yearning in me, and I suspect it is pretty much universal, and that is to be both a hobbit and a hermit. Give me the hobbit’s life of adventure. I want to shrug on my backpack, pick up my stick and set off on the open road. I want to sleep rough with nothing but the freedom of the quest. Give me dragons to fight and giants to tilt. I’ll set off with a gang of... Read more

2014-01-03T10:42:03-05:00

Father Roger was just over five foot tall. A very spiritual priest, he was much involved in the healing ministry, exorcism and visiting prisons and mental hospitals. He told me that one day he was walking down the corridor of a mental hospital when around the corner came a huge man–well over six foot tall and three hundred pounds. He was bellowing out blasphemies and was rushing straight for Roger brandishing a kitchen knife. Roger stopped and said, “In the... Read more

2014-12-27T10:10:39-05:00

Why are modern men such layabouts? It’s simple. When the family declines. Men decline. Rod Dreher writes about it here. Quoting various articles he concludes that men who are disassociated from family life soon become de-motivated, shiftless and under achieving. I’ve known men with severe self esteem problems. They are stuck and can’t achieve their potential. Invariably their fathers told them they were crap or they were stupid or no good. What the father says about the child –especially the... Read more

2014-12-27T10:11:09-05:00

  This amusing article by John Niven in the Daily Telegraph suggests not to bother with the usual New Years’ resolutions. Here’s the thing, if you’re the kind of lazy, self-indulgent maniac who needs something as momentous as THE START OF AN ACTUAL YEAR to remind yourself not to eat an entire box of doughnuts in one sitting, or to stop watching 15 hours of TV every day, the chances are that NOTHING short of hiring a squad of armed personal... Read more

2014-01-01T11:59:53-05:00

As we enter the new year remember the little way. Here’s my latest article for Aleteia–a reflection on the Christ child and the need to be little. We are so used to hearing Jesus’ teachings about children that we forget how radical they are. In the first century people did not have the sentimental view of children that we do. In their day a child was lower than a slave and only one step above the animals. That Jesus said... Read more

2013-12-31T15:49:29-05:00

I mentioned here a delightful new book by Inklings scholar Devin Brown. Devin is the author of The Christian World of The Hobbit. That longer study is a direct explication of the Christian themes and context for Tolkien’s work. Now he has produced a shorter, more accessible work for a wider audience. Hobbit Lessons: A Map for Life’s Unexpected Journeys pulls life lessons from Tolkien’s classic. Unlike other more academic studies of Tolkien’s work, Brown mines the text for homely lessons... Read more

2013-12-31T13:58:39-05:00

Kathryn Lopez writes here about the Person of the Year behind the Person of the Year. Pope Benedict stands as a kind of foundation for the papacy of Francis. It is as if Francis is putting into action the plan and agenda of Benedict. Lopez writes, If you love Pope Francis, thank Pope Benedict XVI. And do him the favor of listening to the new pontiff. “God is love,” Pope Benedict wrote in the third volume of his series on... Read more

2014-12-27T10:11:44-05:00

John Zmirak writes forcefully here about the question of religious liberty and the Catholic faith. Does the Catholic Church support religious freedom or is it true that “error has no rights”? Are we to be tolerant or shall we bring back the Inquisition? As religious freedoms are under increasing threat worldwide and persecution of Christians is on the rise why are some Catholics becoming more militant against moral evils, heresy and other religions? John talks about the cancer of inquisition,... Read more

2014-12-27T10:12:01-05:00

Soon after I converted to the Catholic faith a dear old Dominican sister gave me a word of advice, “I think it is generally a good idea,” she said, “to not refer to yourself any longer as a ‘Christian’ but use ‘Catholic'” I was rather flabbergasted by her suggestion since to my mind in becoming a Catholic I was becoming the most fulfilled and complete Christian. What she meant, however, was that in many people’s minds to be a Christian... Read more

2014-12-27T10:12:20-05:00

In a sleepless moment the other night I found myself discovering the world of Catholic garage churches. A garage church is a church somebody has in their garage. Within the Anglican cosmos I was always fascinated by the umpteen little Anglican churches that you could find lurking in various out of the way places. I called them garage churches because you would come across their website which would be billed as something like, “The American Anglican Orthodox Church” or “The... Read more

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