Since everyone is talking about the Person of the Year, why not a blog dedicated to Catholic culture? That’s something I wouldn’t have expected until a friend sent me an article linking Swift’s songs to the medieval Cathar/Albigensian heresy: “The Dark Truth about Taylor Swift: Too Many Young Women Yearn 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…
Classical music speaks to us, even if much of it is wordless. It communicates to us, nonetheless, through its powerful and complex melody, rhythm, and harmony, employing a beautiful and mathematical language that enchants, agitates at times, inspires, sooths, and stimulates. In contrast to the immediately pleasing and entertaining pop Read more…
Every Sunday we proclaim our belief the Risen Lord in the Creed: “And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.” The phrase “according to the Scriptures” builds directly upon Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians: For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also Read more…
Even if know that Easter is the most important feast of the liturgical year, Christmas still seems like a much bigger deal. Christmas is known for its cheer–singing, treats, presents, fires, and family–but we’re not quite sure how to celebrate Easter. Pascha (the feast’s Latin name) focuses like the original Read more…
On March 29th, the Polish composer, Krzysztof Penderecki, passed away. Most people would not recognize his name, but his music appeared in eerie Hollywood films such as The Exorcist and The Shining. Despite that connection, Penderecki produced many sacred works and even Catholic themed opera. Along with a few others, Read more…
Halloween has become a national spectacle that ranges from cute to the macabre. In a culture that tries to forget death in daily life, it breaks forth dramatically and briefly each year, though in a way that trivializes it. Through the Solemnity of All Saints and the Feast of All Read more…
Giovanni Battista Draghi (1710-36), known simply as Pergolesi, died far too young. It may be fitting, therefore, that he is known for his musical setting of the Stabat Mater, the hymn we know mostly from the Stations of the Cross. Its emotional and spiritual power may derive, in part, from Read more…