Here’s your statistical overview of Vox Nova in 2012: We were viewed 470,000 times, which WordPress reminds us is about nine times the volume of tourist traffic that the Principality of Liechtenstein gets every year, so we’ve got that going for us … We sported 355 new posts, bringing the total archive of this site to just over 5,300 posts overall. Our busiest day was February 27, when 2,751 people stopped by, mainly to read MM’s post titled, “Santorum is... Read more
In all these Marian feasts that are a part of the Catholic faith I’ve embraced, I’ve participated with a kind of curious fascination during the past couple of years, trying to get my mind around it all – and often finding that in the end the most I could do was, like Mary herself, to keep all these things and ponder them in my heart. Marian doctrine was never really a make-or-break issue for me, but I had a few of the... Read more
We are pleased to present a second guest post by Leanne Ogasawara, who writes from Japan, where she is a freelance translator and writer. When the German explorer Albert von Le Coq was at Kizil as part of his grand travels to “borrow” ancient artifacts in Central Asia (carving frescos right off the walls in some cases!), he was stunned to come upon cave temples in what was by that time the middle of nowhere with murals of such beauty... Read more
For the past few years I have been hearing about “John Paul II” priests. This appellation, sometimes self-applied and other times applied to others, refers to a loosely defined group of priests ordained during the long years of JP II’s pontificate. They are usually defined in opposition to the priest ordained in the years just after Vatican II. They are variously described as: more doctrinally orthodox, less pastoral, more wedded to a hierarchical vision of the Church, true to the... Read more
I have heard the haunting melody of the Coventry Carol any number of times, but without having taken much notice of its text which refers to the massacre of the Holy Innocents, whose feast the Church observes on this day (see today’s Gospel reading, Matthew 2:13-18). But here it is indeed, and this year it has taken on a particularly bitter poignancy. Lully, lulla, Thou little tiny Child, By, by, lully, lullay. Thou little tiny Child, By, by, lully, lullay. O sisters, too, how may... Read more
My wife and I have many customs at Christmastide. Some are silly: for example, on Christmas Day we always cook hotdog wraps (hotdogs in a shell of biscuit dough) for our main meal. This started when the kids were really young: after going to midnight mass, putting all the presents out, and then getting up at 6 AM when the kids did, we were too tired to cook the elaborate meal we had planned. Hot dogs were quick, the kids... Read more
From a Christmas sermon by St. Augustine Wake up, O man – it was for you that God was made man! Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. For you, I say, was God made man. Eternal death would have awaited you had he not been born in time. Never would you be freed from your sinful flesh, had he not taken to himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Everlasting would be your... Read more
I couldn’t wait till midnight. I was on my first 30-day retreat as a Jesuit in the Novitiate, and tonight at midnight I was going to ask Mary in my imagination while doing Ignatian contemplation to hold the baby Jesus in my arms. I was so excited. I had been waiting a long time for this. Finally the moment came, and I asked her if I could hold Jesus. And she said… “no.” Sort of stunned I asked, “why not?”... Read more
The Risk of Birth This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war and hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out and the sun burns late. That was no time for a child to be born, In a land in the crushing grip of Rome; Honor and truth were trampled by scorn- Yet here did the Savior make his home. When is the time for love to... Read more
President Obama got it right: we can’t tolerate this anymore. In his speech at Newtown’s interfaith prayer vigil on Sunday, while appropriately keeping the primary focus on voicing and responding to the nation’s grief, Obama showed a hint of political courage that hasn’t been seen on the problem of public shootings from either side of the aisle for as long as I can remember: Since I’ve been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart... Read more
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