Modern Liturgical Music

Last updated on: May 28, 2014 at 12:28 am By David Cruz-Uribe

Resolved: As Roman Catholics observe the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council’s “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,” it seems an appropriate time to consider ways contemporary liturgical music supports the word proclaimed and preached. Contemporary liturgical composers and lyricists have done a great service to the church by cultivating “easy access to Sacred Scripture…for all the Christian faithful” (No. 22). They have sowed the word in the hearts, minds and memories of the faithful by uniting... Read more

50 years ago

Last updated on: May 25, 2014 at 12:53 am By Matt Talbot

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK, on May 22, 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson stood before that year’s graduating class at the University of Michigan and delivered the speech that launched his Great Society program. It is a sad commentary on both the state of our economy and our politics that a Democratic president giving a similar speech today is almost unimaginable. In a way, Johnson was speaking directly to us, the descendants of those policy makers and visionaries: “The challenge of... Read more

Resisting Empire

Last updated on: May 22, 2014 at 12:57 pm By Matt Talbot

IS THE UNITED STATES AN IMPERIAL POWER? I would say that it is, and that the evidence for this view is overwhelming. We spend more on our military than all of our main rivals — combined. Our troops garrison the world, we have bases on every continent, our Navy rules the waves, and so on. We are not the world’s most powerful country just by some accidental circumstance, but by design. Here is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind describing a... Read more

Vowing Nonviolence: What Does It Mean?

Last updated on: May 18, 2014 at 8:01 pm By Julia Smucker

This weekend, I stood with my local Pax Christi chapter, as well as a sizeable number of parishioners at the church where we meet, to take Pax Christi USA’s Vow of Nonviolence. The text of the vow is available through the above link, but I will also reproduce it in full here. Recognizing the violence in my own heart, yet trusting in the goodness and mercy of God, I vow for one year to practice the nonviolence of Jesus who... Read more

Some Thoughts on Promoting Vocations

Last updated on: May 17, 2014 at 8:22 am By David Cruz-Uribe

This past Sunday was World Day of Prayer for Vocations. In my own parish my pastor apologized for not addressing this in his homily. As he put it, he was faced with Good Shepard Sunday, Mothers Day and Vocations, and could not figure out how to combine the three. So he decided to preach a very thoughtful sermon on Christ the Good Shepard and our need to respond to the call of the truth from Him. In the past I... Read more

Revising the Maundy Thursday Rite

Last updated on: April 19, 2014 at 10:23 am By David Cruz-Uribe

Resolved: the ritual of footwashing on Holy Thursday should be abolished or completely revised. Another Holy Thursday has come and gone, and with it the predictable storm over washing women’s feet during the ritual laving at the evening mass. Pope Francis has made his opinion on this matter very clear, going out to wash the feet of 12 men and women with disabilities at a home in Rome. Bishop Morlino led the opposition, very publicly instructing his priests that they... Read more

Out With The Old

Last updated on: April 15, 2014 at 8:21 pm By Matt Talbot

MY MIDDLE SCHOOL CLOSED ITS DOORS FOR GOOD four and a half years ago. I discovered this while I was on one of my nostalgia benders (what is middle age for?) and had stopped by to walk the grounds after school hours and savor bittersweet memories of gym class, a girl in eighth grade named Monica and long-ago pick-up basketball games that filled my after-school hours. (more…) Read more

Being Poor in the Third World

Last updated on: April 13, 2014 at 8:33 am By David Cruz-Uribe

Nine years ago the science fiction writer John Scalzi published a blog post entitled Being Poor. It became very popular and was reprinted in a number of venues. It consisted of a series of short statements that attempt to encapsulate what being poor in America really means. The list is long, but here are a few examples: Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she... Read more

A Lenten Exercise on the Creed, Part III

Last updated on: April 5, 2014 at 10:12 pm By David Cruz-Uribe

In this post we conclude our Lenten reflection on the Nicene Creed. Parts I and II can be found here and here. Please contribute! I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and... Read more

Shifting the Focus: Objectification, Porn and the Longing for Belonging; A Guest Post by Leah Perrault

Last updated on: April 1, 2014 at 12:16 pm By voxnovablog

Vox Nova is happy to present this post by Leah Perrault. Leah’s previous guest post at Vox Nova is available here: I’m Right Here. See Me. Last week, John Rogove, over at Ethika Politika, put out a piece that got me thinking about pornography again. It was a fascinating economic analysis of the “market” for the bodies and intimacy of women in the face of rising costs of living (in this case, of university tuition). I think the author is... Read more