I miss Ash Wednesday, the Western liturgical churches’ entry into Lent. The ashes on the forehead in the shape of the Cross, the important reminder that we are mortal: “Dust you were and dust you shall be.” We don’t have that wonderful tradition in Eastern Orthodoxy, to . . . . Continue Reading »
When the famous Ellen DeGeneres Oscar selfie appeared on my Facebook wall on Mardi Gras, modified with ash crosses, I laughed. But on Ash Wednesday, I began to worry. Continue Reading »
Half an hour before sunrise on Ash Wednesday, hundreds of English-speakers from all over Rome will begin walking to the ancient basilica of St. Sabina on the Aventine Hill. They’ll start from student residences, from embassies to Italy and the Holy See, and from the Vatican. The Schwerpunkt, . . . . Continue Reading »
“Fasching—Mardi gras—is certainly not a Church festival. Yet, on the other hand, it is unthinkable apart from the Church’s calendar” begins Cardinal Ratzinger’s reflection “Mardi Gras: The Ground of Our Freedom.” Continue Reading »
At the urging of a couple of friends who had recently read it for the first time, I reread (after about thirty years) Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s modern classic A Canticle for Leibowitz. It was far better than I appreciated its being in my younger days (oh, for a nickel every time I realize how . . . . Continue Reading »
When Pope John XXIII is canonized this April, the honor will be long-awaited—and richly deserved. After serving as a model priest and prelate, he became an equally beloved pontiff, convening Vatican II and articulating the timelessness of the Church’s teachings. Among his most important . . . . Continue Reading »
Oh say, what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem / That the riches of worlds can produce, / And priceless the value of truth will be when / The proud monarch’s costliest diadem / Is counted but dross and refuse.” Hearing these words, sung with devotion and considerable musical talent by . . . . Continue Reading »
The God of the Gospel: Robert Jenson’s Trinitarian Theology? by scott r. swain?ivp academic, 258 pages, $24 How can we know if God exists? Is the existence of God philosophically demonstrable, and if not, is the act of faith a fundamentally subjective decision? After the rise of the modern . . . . Continue Reading »
God willing, the new evangelization will happen, but let us not imagine that this time will be like the first time. The old evangelization proclaimed the Good News among pagan, pre-Christian peoples to whom it came as something new. Nothing like that had been done before. But nothing like our task . . . . Continue Reading »
Judging by the tracks programmed by my local classical music radio station, no composer of merit existed before the Baroque period. DJs with soothing voices regularly serve up Vivaldi, Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach, especially during rush hour. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons ought to be renamed the Four . . . . Continue Reading »
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