The Superior of the Jesuits, Fr. Arturo Sosa, recently denied the personal existence of the devil, calling him a personification of evil rather than an actual being–a symbol, he argued. He was quickly corrected by exorcists, who know the devil’s reality from personal experience. It is true that the Catechism Read more…
I’m joyfully anticipating Bl. John Henry Newman’s canonization on October 13th, a momentous day for the Church and for Catholic education in particular. Newman wrote the most comprehensive and in depth work on the nature of Catholic education in his Idea of a University. The book arose from a series Read more…
Monks created brewing as we know it, with the first large scale breweries in Europe and many advances to brewing techniques and technology. There were thousands of brewing monasteries, but then suddenly they disappeared. The French Revolution and its aftermath, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and the Napoleonic Read more…
Catholic art tends to depict Mary Magdalene’s beauty, emphasizing her as the embodiment of a conversion from worldly pleasures and the pomp of life (drawing from her debated attribution as the woman caught in adultery). The Scriptures do testify (regardless of this attribution) that she had a dramatic conversion: “And Read more…
Psalm 55 speaks of crying out to God at morning, noon, and night and Catholics traditionally mark these three key periods of the day by praying the Angelus at six, noon, and six. Sanctifying the key periods of the day began in the early Church by reciting the Our Father Read more…
Without St. Denis, there would be no Notre Dame de Paris as we knew it (and hope to see it again). Though not as well known, the Basilica of St. Denis is one of the most remarkable churches in Christendom. St. Denis, just north of Paris, initiated the Gothic revolution. Read more…
Neil Postman aptly described our society as a Technopoly, or what we could also refer to as technocracy – a society fundamentally shaped and ruled by technology. Technology has played a central role civilization from the beginning, but a shift has occurred as technology has passed beyond normal human proportions. Read more…
The Beer Option–the use of beer for evangelization and cultural renewal–continues to unfold. In particular, the footprint of Trappist beers, the flagship line of monastic brews, has grown throughout the world in just the last few years. In addition to the seven classics of the Lowlands (Belgium and the Netherlands), Read more…
Art enables us to engage in visio divina, a visual contemplation of the Scripture. Each artist attempts to capture particular details and when we put a few works side by side, we can contrast them to discover the elements of the story they emphasized and illuminated. Raphael draws out the Read more…
May is the month of Mary, a time of new growth and a return to life fitting for the New Eve. Blessed John Henry Newman spoke of how nature itself bears witness to the joy we find in Our Lady: Why is May chosen as the month in which we Read more…