Why I Am Catholic
On a Fall day in the year 1898, an almost 17 year old future Pope wrote the following in his journal, (more…)
On a Fall day in the year 1898, an almost 17 year old future Pope wrote the following in his journal, (more…)
Joe Six-Pack here with a short little post on the worlds’ fascination with the orgasm. Remember my little missive on the subject before? (more…)
I caught Stephen Colbert interviewing Pulitzer prize winning author Garry Wills when the following clip was posted by Rod Dreher of The American Conservative. I found it to be amazing not just because Wills seems to be outfoxed by the court jester who can quote the Letter to the Hebrews with the best of them, but because of Wills’ assertion that St. Augustine didn’t believe in the Real Presence.
Roll clip, (more…)
Back in the Fall, I shared thoughts of the Dalai Lama on the efficacy of religion, and those of G.K Chesterton as a counterpoint. As a result, I had someone charge me with being arrogant for the attempt. (more…)
Remember my affection for the Harvard Classics, the Five Foot Shelf of Books? Admittedly, I haven’t looked them over much since I became a Catholic. Not because I’ve outgrown them, but because there have been far too many other books to occupy my time since the spring of 2008. Mostly stuff from authors whose names begin with “S”, as St. Philip Neri suggested when he counseled that reading the works of the saints is profitable.
But I dipped a toe back into the HCFFSB water today and found these thoughts of Sir Francis Bacon. (more…)
Beware the conventional wisdom. I mean, everyone knows that the Catholic Church is dead in Europe, right? And in Canada, our neighbors to the north? Aren’t they arresting parishioners and marching them off to gulags and such up there?
Well, in a word, no. (more…)
—Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
I’m always the last one to know. And that is pretty much because I keep my head down, my blinders on, and just keep plowing. You know, as if everything I needed to know about anything can be conceived of, and imagined, inside my little head, or from my limited experiences.
But then I woke up after a very long slumber. (more…)
About a week ago, I reported that the world thought the Vatican got all starry-eyed about the latest James Bond film. Did you know that the Bond family were a line of recusant Catholics? Orbis non sufficit.
Perhaps that is part of the reason why L’Osservatore Romano loved the film.
Idea! How about a look at a nonfictional story of recusant Catholics? (more…)
Search the Bible: Resources
There are several good on-line resources for this. I have found these resources to be helpful.
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition
USSCB Revised New American Bible
For help finding a particular verse: Biblos and Bible Gateway
What follows are a few paragraphs from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s lecture that, according to the endnotes, was “delivered only to the Swedish Academy and not actually given as a lecture.” It was delivered in 1970, and is an homage to the trinity of truth, goodness, and beauty. The entire essay is simply entitled Nobel Lecture in Literature 1970.
Solzhenitsyn’s insights are valuable not only because of his stature as an artist, but because of the life that he lived. The following excerpt comes from the sixth of seven sections, and resonates with me especially these days. These thoughts should give us pause as we venture further into the political circus that rages around us nowadays. They are the harsh light of truth, trained upon the realities of our political systems, and how easily they lead us astray. (more…)
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