Deadly Indifference: How the Church Lost Her Mission, and How We Can Reclaim It (Amazon; Sophia Press) Eric Sammons Crisis Publications 304 pages $18.95 Paperback; $9.99 eBook “Just shut up and stick to reviewing the book,” I remind myself while sitting down to write, attempting to feign as though nothing sordid is happening right now.…
Out I stepped into the glorious sunshine one Sunday morning after Mass, the church steps a bustling ground of laughter and pleasantries. However, looking around, I noticed a group of mothers gathered together. There were many tears and hugs being shared. What was happening, I wondered? Was there a miscarriage? A child in physical or…
Driving down the road one day with my family, we passed by a dead rabbit on the side of the road. At that moment an interior struggle entered my soul, one which every dad surely understands. “Lord, make me less stupid,” I begged, before adding, “but not yet…” Alas, as a fulfilment to my weak…
In a hole in the ground there lived a Catholic. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with liturgical dancing and felt banners, nor yet a dry, bare, ungodly hole with modern Jesuits and new pathways: it was a Catholic-hole, which means the comfort of timeless faith and beauty. It had a perfectly placed round…
“Honey, have you seen my corduroy blazer?” I ask my wife as we prepare to leave for Mass. “Yes dear. I saw it next to Jimmy’s beanie,” she affectionately replies. She too is preparing for Mass. Her Christian Dior dress makes her shine in perfect radiance and modesty. She is certainly the same glorious woman…
(Banner Image: Jfvoll, Martyrs Shrine Midland, ON – St. Jean de Brefeuf, CC BY-SA 4.0) Perhaps it is nostalgia that has me think back every March to when I attended an authentic Catholic college. The transience of those lighthearted years brings a bittersweet remembrance; as our student anthem suggested – Gaudeamus igitur, Juvenes dum sumus – Let…
Bear with me in a little folly. I present a fictional account on a hypothetical “what if?” question. That is, what if the great patron saint of parish priests, the Curé of Ars (St. Jean-Marie Vianney), were alive in our times and placed in a typical parish? Based on the Abbé Francis Trochu’s biography of…
This story begins in my third year of teaching. Among other things, I was, perhaps mistakenly, assigned to teach grade two Physical Education. Teaching smaller children is not exactly my forte. Thankfully, the young class was generally moving along without too much confusion or strife. A few fits of crying here and there, but hey,…
It is a dark and quiet night, and my family has just finished a rosary in our lonely parish church. Thank God that we have access to the building. As we head to the exit it is impossible to ignore the many little white boxes covering a table near the door, waiting for pick up.…
In one of my weaker moments, I did something rather foolish, born from curiosity. That is, I read Pope Francis’ new motu proprio: Spiritus Domini. It was not so much what the document promulgated that interested me – that women shall be made official acolytes and lectors of the Church – but rather in how…
Much has been said of a United States Catholic Bishop committee releasing a guide titled Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church. The guide has received cautious praise from Catholics, for it tackles many of the problems with post-Vatican II hymns (finally, we can at least agree that heresy in a hymn is indeed…
