Here is an excerpt from the chapter of my book Adventures in Orthodoxy on the Blessed Virgin: As I gazed on that luminous Madonna I made contact not only with something beautiful, but with Beauty. It was also an astoundingly intimate experience of purity and power. For a moment I caught a glimpse of a kind of purity which was both as soft as moonlight and as hard as diamonds. I suddenly realized that purity, like all things beautiful and... Read more

On the first of May all the students of St Joseph’s Catholic School (where I serve as chaplain) have the day off to go out in the community to do charitable service. It was great to see 460 kids gather with their household to head out in convoy across the town. They were involved in house fix up for the poor, working with homeless shelters, centers for disabled children, community clean up, and a whole range of other activities. Most... Read more

  You can read here about a Dutchman who has built a replica of Noah’s Ark. It’s huge, but only 1/5 of the size of the real thing. He’s filled it with models of animals and a wax figure of an exhausted Noah stretched out for a nap. I can remember being brought up in a fundamentalist church, being enthralled by the seemingly endless number of books and films that came out about the search for Noah’s Ark on Mount... Read more

Jolt yourself from your comfy American life and read this beautifully written account of Catholic life in the Phillipines. Read more

Check out Amy Welborn’s article about the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal clipped from the NY Times. Read more

I mentioned in an earlier post about the readings from Acts of the Apostles after Easter being crammed with ‘mini resurrections’. The little resurrections aren’t just Bible stories. They happen today. There was a knock on my door. A young woman in her twenties stood on the doorstep. She looked distressed, and was holding her side as if in pain. I didn’t recognize her, but invited her in. She said her name was Jane, and could she talk with me.... Read more

Sometimes non-Catholic Christians question whether St Peter was ever in Rome. The New Testament itself offers pretty slim evidence. All we have is the verse at the end of the first epistle of Peter which says he is in Babylon with Mark. (1 Pt. 5:13) However, when the rest of the documentary evidence is compliled we find that Papias (108) confirms Mark’s presence with Peter, saying that Mark’s gospel was based on the memories and sermons of Peter. Clement of... Read more

I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about today’s post. Did I dare to call St Mark an ‘evangelist’? After all, Protestants have Evangelists! Would I be accused of selling out to Billy Graham, Ernest Angely, Jimmy and Tammy and Jimmy Swaggart? If I used the word ‘evangelist’ would I be accused of being a 60’s liberal or a purveyor of low church liturgies and a form of religion that wants people to have ‘a personal relationship with Jesus’? Horror of... Read more

I recently commented on the desire of Catholic Charismatics to welcome the new liberties for the Latin Mass to be celebrated. Within the post I joked about what a Charismatic Tridentine Mass might be like…a tambourine instead of the sanctus bell etc. Well, all the way from Wales comes a most bizarre post. It seems that American Pentecostals have become very fond of Catholic vestments. John Browne posts about his finds on facebook. (HT to that other indomitable British blogger,... Read more

Brad tags me for this meme: The assigned task is to list my four favorite saints, one favorite blessed, and one person I think should have been a saint. Here goes. Four favorite saints: St Joseph, St Therese of Lisieux, St Benedict, St Elizabeth Ann Seton. Favorite Blessed: Bl. Teresa of Calcutta The last category is ambiguous. Am I putting down a person I wish would be a saint and isn’t? That list would be pretty long. Am I putting... Read more