October 4, 2006

G.K. Chesterton Theodore Roosevelt Has anyone ever noticed the remarkable resemblance between these two great men? I wonder if they are related? Who will ever forget the day Mr Chesterton led the rough riders up San Juan Hill, and how wonderfully the poetic Mr Roosevelt celebrated this famous victory with his poem Lepanto, with its stirring lines, Don Gilbert laughing in the moustache curled,Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,Holding his head up for a flag... Read more

October 4, 2006

Here’s an excerpt from my book Adventures in Orthodoxy for St Francis. Picture a fat, middle aged Englishman trying to stand on his head. This is not just any Englishman. This is your honest to goodness Edwardian Englishman in a tweed suit. With his wide brimmed hat, a drooping moustache, walking stick and ridiculous pince nez he looks like an overblown Teddy Roosevelt. The porcine face puffs as he tries to plant his head on the ground, then the chubby... Read more

October 3, 2006

Is Jerome the patron saint of sarcastic bloggers? I don’t think so. He was too grumpy. I nominate (on the eve of his Feast Day) St Francis…the jongleur de Dieu…the juggler of God, and since he was the Court Jester to the King of Kings, I nominate The Curt Jester as an honorary Franciscan blogger. Since we are nominating Holy Fools I declare that because I have absolutely no authority whatsover to make this nomination, I therefore have the highest... Read more

October 3, 2006

Do we have an embarrassment of riches this week or what? Within these seven days we’ve got St Michael the Archangel, Therese of Lisieux, the Guardian Angels and St Francis! This is a week to send all the rationalists, atheists, humanists, sceptics, cynics and all the ‘show me’ men from Missouri chewing their beards, howling with ridicule and spitting with rage. In the face of the angels and the holy fools, those who wish to reduce the faith to a... Read more

October 2, 2006

Some years ago, by the miracle of the internet, I got back in touch with a college friend from my years at Bob Jones University. David Gustafson was, by then, high up in the justice department in Washington, and I was a new convert to the Catholic faith….high up in the mercy department if you please. We spent many hours tapping away at our keyboards in a transatlantic religious disucssion which evolved into a book called Mary-A Catholic Evangelical Debate.... Read more

October 2, 2006

Are angels solid or are we? For the celebration of our Guardian Angels here’s a true story: My parents were driving home from the Christian youth group they ran as a young married couple. As a little tyke, 1I was asleep in the back of the station wagon with my brother and sister. Mom and Dad were driving down a narrow country road in Pennsylvania with steep banks on either side. As they went over the brow of a hill... Read more

September 29, 2006

Today is Michaelmass.. the feast day of St Michael the Archangel, and I’m reminded of that bit in C.S.Lewis’ science fiction books where his Ransom discusses the reality of the angel-like beings the Eldils. It’s a cool argument that the Eldils are invisible to humans not because they are less real, but more real. Because these non-corporal beings are eternal it is our physical world which is ‘unreal’ or insubsantial to them. To us they appear to move through solid... Read more

September 29, 2006

Grandma: So, Billy, how was Mass? Billy: We couldn’t hear a thing because the agnostics were so bad. Read more

September 29, 2006

On my post about Francis and Therese someone commented on the toughness underneath their apparent simpering sweetness. Absolutely! In the great adventure that is the spiritual life the sweetness is only valid when it’s supported by strength. Francis was no weakling. Therese was no softie. I had my own experience of meeting Therese. In the summer of 1987 I was still an Anglican priest, and was living in England. I had three months free between jobs and decided to hitch... Read more

September 26, 2006

We’re following a Franciscan theme at school this year so I decided to show Zeffirelli’s classic film, Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Phew! I forgot what a flower child Francis was made out to be…all that soft focus running through poppy fields with butterflies and bumblebees and Donovan yodeling in the background. Yucch. Luckily I only have an hour of school time so I had to cut out all that stuff. It was too much syrup for my liking. There were... Read more


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