David Mills

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation for Catholics. Here, for those who might find it helpful, is something I wrote last year giving a hit-and-run introduction to the dogma: Delivered From All Stain . . . . . Continue Reading »

For those of you interested in the changes in the new Mass, beyond those explained by Anthony Esolen in Restoring the Words (November), my friend Mike Aquilina has written a popular article on “And with your spirit” , just published by The Priest . The experts have picked out the . . . . Continue Reading »

The other day an opinion-maker remarked with apparent surprise that after 9/11 Americans had not started attacking American Muslims. Readers will remember how many earnest warnings against violent reactions were issued in the days and weeks after the attack, and how many patronizing lectures on Islam as a religion of peace were given. You’d think that every group of Americans, other than those who read the New York Times, was a lynch mob just waiting for an excuse to feel righteous in venting their anger on victims who were easy and safe to hurt… . Continue Reading »

A great story about a man who felt himself lucky in circumstances many of us would have felt unfortunate if not cursed: the story of Hugh Mulcahy , who played in the majors for a terrible team and lost twice as many games as he won, and then spent five years fighting in World War II, and never . . . . Continue Reading »

In my Occupy Wall Street’s Empty Anger on Monday, I wrote about the group — for whom “movement” would be too binding a term — and its lack of any end or purpose that would make their anger effective — to the extent that anger isn’t part of an inner personal . . . . Continue Reading »

When writing yesterday’s “On the Square” column, Occupy Wall Street’s Empty Anger , I reread parts of George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier . The crowd at Zuccotti Park reminds me of the famous lines from the book in which Orwell describes the developed form . . . . Continue Reading »

They make you miss Marx, these Occupy Wall Streeters. Though even the New York Times first treated them as a slightly comical affair, the major media now give them the same extensive, sober, even deferential treatment they give a major movement of which they approve. But not, I think, because the “Occupiers” are really going anywhere with their protest or doing anything very useful, no matter to how many cities the occupations spread, but because others”the Paul Krugmans and Nicholas Kristofs of the world, for example”can project upon the Occupiers what meaning they want and appropriate their “anger” and “passion” and “outrage” for their own purposes. … Continue Reading »

In Virtual Deity , our friend and writer Maureen Mullarkey reflects on the new memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. “Without a doubt, King is owed a memorial in the company of statesmen,” she writes. “But whether he—and we—deserve this particular one is less clear.” . . . . Continue Reading »

A reminder of tomorrow’s evening’s lecture here at the office, at which the writer and director of the Off-Broadway production of  The Screwtape Letters , now touring the country, speaks on the craft of writing plays and the calling of the Christian artist. Come hear Jeffrey Fiske . . . . Continue Reading »

A reminder: We invite you to attend a talk by playwright Jeffrey Fiske on the evening of Wednesday, October 26th, at 6:00 p.m. Jeffrey is an independent playwright and director, best known for writing and directing the Off-Broadway production of C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape . . . . Continue Reading »