(Subiaco Cave, where St. Benedict of Nursia lived) My piece at First Things this week looks at the point and the lesson behind Pope Benedict’s embrace of monasticism over his remaining time on the papal throne: The failure is heard in the shrieks of pain, ignorance, and hatred directed at the Church throughout the chambers of mainstream and social media; it is seen in the faithful priests and laypeople who read one awful headline after another and continue on, but... Read more
This picture from L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO took my breath away. It’s copyrighted, so you have to go to the link. But be prepared for how worn, thin and unwell Pope Benedict looks. He is an introvert. Hopefully when he has removed himself from the Throne and has quiet time and solitude, he will recharge a little. I do not think he will be our monastic prayer warrior for very long. But I am sure that while he is in his monastic... Read more
Over the weekend, we watched a little indy film that we liked a lot, The Giant Mechanical Man: The protagonists are both struggling, in large part because they are social misfits; in a world that demands you have your goals lined up, your sites set and your trajectories launched without a shred of doubt, they are not sure what they want, what they even like or what they think. All they know is they don’t want to be part of... Read more
Stay with it til the end. Read more
Since I am both socially inept and an introvert (not an automatic blend; I’m just a particularly clumsy amalgam of the two) to me, watching from sidelines is altogether preferable to deep engagement. This has made me pretty observant, or at least that’s what I took from it when my mother — reaching for an answer when queried as to why I was “so odd” — said, “well, she’s very observant…” Two really excellent columns by women I admire have... Read more
Because The Catholic Answer publishes only six times a year, when I wrote this piece ostensibly about this Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, I of course had no idea that our current Peter would be days away from humbly leaving the Throne in order to take on a life of prayer and penance, for the life of the church, and for the world. Excerpted here, and definitely not swaggering: Perhaps because they were a generation raised in economic... Read more
The Chinese New Year has just passed and we are now in the Year of the Water Snake, according to my Chinese friends who take the zodiac with varying degrees of seriousness, this means we face a year characterized by “toil and transformation”. “Your pope offered his resignation, almost as the year began,” one friend said to me. “It’s going to be a busy year of changes for all of us.” I don’t subscribe to zodiacs, myself, but one can’t... Read more
If you listen to Ave Maria radio, you already know Dr. Greg Popcak from the “More 2 Life” radio podcasts he hosts with his wife, Lisa, in which they apply Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to the practical challenges of everyday life. But if you’re not so familiar with “Dr. Greg” Popcak you very soon will be, because he seems to have a lot of energy, and while we’re “officially introducing him to you today, he’s already... Read more
“I call as my witness Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected.” That is what each Cardinal Elector will say each time he approaches the altar to deliver his vote for the next pope. Pretty grave stuff, right there; I would bet that each time he repeats that sentence — on top of all the prefacing vows and promises — the weight of... Read more
T.S. Eliot has always been my favorite poet. I don’t know anything about this man except that he reads it well, and apparently paints it, too. The opening stanzas: The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven, The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit. O perpetual revolution of configured stars, O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of... Read more
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