I’m re-reading The Story of a Soul and I never re-read it without reading The Last Conversations as well. What I find so exciting about Therese is that she is so fantastically subversive. There she is as a little bourgeois French girl traipsing into the convent with little girly girly images of God and being good, and yet within all that there lives a soul so unique and fabulous that I can hardly put it into words. People dislike her... Read more

A friend has asked me this question about the Latin Mass: What would you do Father if a group of parishioners at St. Mary’s or St. Joseph’s requested you to offer the Traditional Latin Mass regularly. The motu proprio is quite clear on what the Pope and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei expects. Would you follow the Pope to the letter of his motu proprio? I expect h is referring to this from the moto proprio: Art. 5. § 1... Read more

I’ve just finished watching a Spiderman movie with my oldest son, and while watching it, I began wondering why it is that America has produced the cultural phenomenon of the comic book superhero. Popular culture is far more interesting to me than ‘high’ culture. I’m interested in what interests the vast majority of ordinary people. I’m not too interested in what interests professors of literature at Ivy League colleges or literary critics of the major newspapers. I’m interested in what... Read more

For those who do not have much interest in debates about liturgy, I apologize that this blog has become rather ‘liturgically obsessed’ of late. One of the things this debate has made me think about is the futility of argument in these matters. Some of my friends who love the Mass of Blessed John XXIII pull out all their arguments and keep on firing away. They sometimes express frustration that I don’t answer their arguments. At times I am accused... Read more

I am still on a steep learning curve about the attraction of the Latin language in the liturgy. I suggested that the liturgy was originally put into Latin so that more people could understand it, and wondered if the fact that it was in Latin today didn’t rather defeat that original purpose. Someone was good enough to correct me and point out that the original Latin liturgical language was not the ‘vernacular language of the street’ but a form of... Read more

I have always been fascinated not only with religion, but with the games people play with religion. Having been brought up within Protestant fundamentalism I knew some very devout, sincere and holy Christians within that world. They really taught me how to live by faith. They regarded faith as a huge risk, and the greatest adventure that anyone could embark on. As I moved through Anglicanism to Catholicism, I continued to meet such courageous Christians–individuals who heard the call of... Read more

I have deleted a long comment by my friend Jamie Bogle defending the Extraordinary Form of Mass–the Mass of Blessed John XXIII. I have done so for several reasons. First of all, comment boxes are for just that: comments. They are not the places to conduct long online debates. The place to do this online is in a chat forum. To leave long arguments in comboxes is internet bad manners. If you have a point to make start your own... Read more

Episcopal bishop Clarence Pope became a Catholic in 1994 then went back to the Episcopal Church. The Holy Whappers report his reversion to Catholicism here. The question of Anglican clergymen coming over to Rome and then going back to Anglicanism was one we faced from time to time in England working with the St Barnabas Society. There weren’t many who did this, but among those who did we found that most had come into the Catholic Church for the wrong... Read more

I never noticed the full meaning of this passage in Luke’s gospel: “Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?”And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all... Read more

Our full time hospital chaplain was away for a few days, so I got the call to the intensive care unit of the hospital. A man on vacation fell from a waterfall up in the hills of North Carolina and had extensive head injuries. They only gave him a few more hours to live. They are Catholics so they called for a priest and the call came to me. What a terrible and wonderful privilege to be there at that... Read more