The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societiesby ryszard legutko encounter, 200 pages, $23.99 In The Old Regime and the Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville described the French Revolution as a religious movement: The ideal the French Revolution set before it was not merely a change . . . . Continue Reading »
Only say the word and I shall be healed. Isn’t that the most humble unadorned thing you can say about faith? Don’t you always say that with a shiver in your heart? The hair prickles on my head sometimes when I say that. Continue Reading »
When the celebrant turned around to speak to the congregation—to say things like “Pray, brothers and sisters”—the words took on special force; one's awareness of being directly addressed and invited to participate was heightened. Precisely because the priest had turned with the people to address the Lord, his turning back toward them and speaking to them was imbued with greater significance. In other words, vive la différence. Continue Reading »
The common orientation of priest and people during the Liturgy of the Eucharist symbolizes—or perhaps better, lives out—the Church’s conviction that the Mass is an act of worship offered to the Thrice-Holy God. Continue Reading »
A roundup of recent pieces of substance on the continuing controversy over Cardinal Robert Sarah's call for a return to the ad orientem posture. Continue Reading »
Why the lack of a catholic appreciation for legitimate liturgical diversity? No one can truthfully claim that the Ordinary Form prohibits ad orientem celebration. So, who’s afraid of ad orientem worship, and why? Continue Reading »
A primer and links on the recent dustup over Cardinal Robert Sarah's call for a return to ad orientem posture. Continue Reading »
My weight is my love. Wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me.–Augustine, Confessions What do you want? This is the fundamental question of Christian discipleship. Christ asks two future disciples quite pointedly in the Gospel of John, and asks it indirectly in a number of places: “Will . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since my son, Stephen, and I spent two months in Rome—all of Lent and Easter Week—preparing a book that would allow readers to make the city’s ancient Lenten station church pilgrimage at home. But so it goes; tempus indeed fugit. Yet the . . . . Continue Reading »
I listened in on a conversation recently on “the worship wars” in evangelical-style congregations and I heard some interesting observations. My main dissent, which I did not express, was that the discussants were treating the battles about worship as a relatively recent phenomenon—several . . . . Continue Reading »
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