As the author of The Beer Option, I have a confession to make. I felt the Lord calling me about two years ago to give up alcohol, making it a sacrifice for both my physical and spiritual health. I am prone to migraines and I’m sure I was attached to Read more…
What’s the point of reading fiction? Wouldn’t it just be better to read works of theology and the spiritual life? Well, I wouldn’t replace spiritual reading with fiction. Novels and shorts stories, however, do make a contribution to Catholic life and culture by engaging our imagination in a vicarious engagement Read more…
Yesterday Pope Francis met with participants from a conference on the arts jointly organized by La Civiltà Cattolica and Georgetown University, offering remarks on the importance of the arts and literature: I have loved many poets and writers in my life, among whom I think especially of Dante, Dostoevsky and Read more…
A few years ago I wrote a popular article for Catholic Exchange, “Understanding the Mysterious Sword of St. Michael.” I proposed that these sites became dedicated to St. Michael to overcome previously established pagan sites at these high places along the line of the sun on the summer solstice, an Read more…
Rodney Stark’s famous The Rise of Christianity proposed an oft-cited model for Christian growth in the early centuries of the Church: Rather than proposing exact numbers, Stark is simply trying to prove the point that a consistent rate of growth compounds over time, even if it begins with such a Read more…
I have already remarked on the fact that Pope Francis made a non-Catholic a Doctor of the Catholic Church. St. Gregory Narek was a monk in the Armenian Apostolic Church, who died in the early 11th century. Figures like St. Gregory, provide examples of how Eastern Churches have brought saints Read more…
I’m very excited to join such an incredible line up of speakers highlighting the key sources of Catholic education. See the full list at adeodatus.com I will be speaking of the Bible’s vision of education. This is the first conference in a series focused on the work of renewal for Read more…
Although we are in the Easter season, it is worth looking back to a Lenten theme for this new composition: Lucio Mosè Benaglia‘s Stabat Mater für Mariupol, which just premiered on April 2nd within a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Munich. In response to the bombing of Mariupol (which means Mary’s Read more…
Recently I reflected on the “End of the Beer Option” after the Trappists of Spencer Massachusets decided to close their brewery. Since then, the Guardian has also reflected on the decline of Trappist brewing in Belgium: “Last orders? Belgium’s Trappist beers under threat as vocations run dry.” Belgium has already Read more…
Laxism is a moral position that in a position of doubt tends to the easiest or least demanding alternative. Christians certainly suffer from this position, but I want to focus rather an the general laxity of the practice of penance, which continues to wear thin with almost nothing expected of Read more…