I just finished reading John Anthony McGuckin’s The Eastern Orthodox Church: A New History. Rather than a traditional chronological history, McGuckin offers reflections on the nature of the Orthodox Church through particular figures and events of history. As a professor at Oxford and publishing the volume with Yale University Press, Read more…
This post completes a trilogy on the saints. The first two focused on convert-saints from Protestantism and modern Benedictine saints. Advent and Christmas lead us to talk about child saints. We have the patron saint of children, St. Nicholas, on December 5; we focus on the Annunciation and Visitation, which Read more…
My last post focused on saints who converted from Protestantism. This post looks at another angle on the saints, modern saints from the Benedictine tradition. November 13th is the feast of All Benedictine Saints. The Benedictines have more Saints and Doctors of the Church than any other order, largely because Read more…
The litany of the saints that we pray today for All Saints Day includes a prayer: “Bring back to the unity of the Church all those who are straying, and bring all unbelievers to the light of the Gospel.” The saints themselves show us the path toward this unity. About Read more…
This year we celebrate the Year of Dante, marking 700 years since the poet’s death on September 14, 1321. It is fitting that Dante died on the day when we commemorate the triumph of the Holy Cross, as he narrates the drama of salvation as it plays out concretely over Read more…
Rarely do I find myself looking to modern Hollywood for morality tales, either on screen or in headlines. And yet, every once in a while, a film is released that draws on truths incorruptible by CGI and modern mores.The latest film to do so is The Green Knight, in theaters Read more…
What does it mean to be a Latin rite Catholic? Does “Latin” have much a determining factor on how we worship and understand our life as Catholics. Latin not only served as the basis of Catholic theology in the West, it also served as the basis for law and education. Read more…
The Catholic Church, along with every major Protestant denomination, has witnessed a precipitous decline in Church attendance. This slide, set off during the 1960s, has accelerated with the rapid rise of the “nones,” Americans claiming no religious affiliation. We could wonder, has the bottom fallen out with this huge exodus? Read more…
The greatest unresolved issue for the Church, in my opinion, consists in how to make sense of the modern world. Is there something there positive that will show us the way forward? Do we just need to abandon it and start from scratch? How do we live in this increasingly Read more…
Although Mother’s Day arose as a secular holiday, through the initiative of Anna Jarvis in the early 20th century, it’s easy to baptize the day. For Catholics, it’s not only a day to express love and gratitude to our mothers, but also to pray for them and to honor our Read more…