I am so grateful that Advent is upon us; my favorite time of year! It is all hope, depth, mystery and promise of light, and it feels like we need it; it feels as though we have all been so occupied with politics, natural disasters, willful (and unpersuasive) belligerence and our own daily anxieties and stresses — so many people I know are anticipating Christmas with dread rather than joy — that we need our heads turned toward something great!... Read more
I have been meaning to write for several weeks about Mary DeTurris Poust’s lovely new book, Everyday Divine: A Catholic Guide to Active Spirituality, which I had a chance to read while stuck in a plane that never did leave the ground for Baltimore. I liked the book very much, as it gives some very personally-rendered, tried-and-true practical advice for bringing a contemplative habit to so much that is “ordinary” about our days, and helps to make them much less... Read more
As Elizabeth Duffy beautifully depicts in her most recent post, the life of faith is no sugar-coated fantasy and prayer is no vending machine into which one puts something in order to receive something. It is co-creative, and that means it is messy, complicated and ultimately as beholden to a big bang borne upon the intentional winds of “yes” as was the very first moment: If there is a “contraceptive mentality” in Catholic marriage, it has almost nothing to do... Read more
We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong. In these current fashions it is not really a question of the religion allowing us liberty; but (at the best) of the liberty of allowing us a religion. These people merely take the modern mood, with much in it that is amiable and much that is anarchical and much that is merely dull... Read more
Cartoon source During the summer, I had an idea that was meant to be relevant to this week. I wanted to ask all sort of writers to express in a couple of hundred words just who they were thankful for the formation of their faith — not so much the famous people but the obscure ones, the people no one had ever heard of, perhaps long dead, whose names may not have been spoken in decades. It was an idea... Read more
Actually, my column at First Things this week is both: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 6:25 AM: In the palest light, I follow footprints left in the season’s first frost, just a few minutes behind the regulars. The church’s glaring overhead lights are softened by the flame-glow of a few dozen candles—real wax, seven-day candles that burn a constant supplication—and by the shimmer of one gloriously large and eye-catching Icon of the Crucifixion scene. I wait to stand my candle as a... Read more
About three years ago, a Democrat congressman — I think it was Stark but I’m not sure, anymore — said he wanted to see the marginal tax rate raised to 90%. That story quickly went down the memory hole. You can’t get re-elected saying stuff like that. But now, the election is over, so the guards are being let down. This is why you can read Krugman today, recommending a 91% tax rate. It’s why you can hang out on... Read more
Let me just say it and get it over with: I hate Thanksgiving. I don’t mind hosting Easter dinner and I love welcoming the family for Christmas, but I really do hate Thanksgiving, and not just because it falls heavily on the shoulders of women when they have work “outside the home” (it falls heavily on the shoulders of those who do not, as well.) I don’t mind the sentiment about the day; it’s a good sentiment, and gratitude is... Read more
The mainstream media keeps wondering about UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and the fact that post-Benghazi she went on five Sunday Mornings shows, five days after the event, to say — over and over again — that the attack on our Libyan consulate and the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens was all due to a video no one had ever heard of, is just odd. I mean, hey guys, almost ten days days after Rice’s appearances (and five... Read more
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