Traditional Catholic Art Conference Moves to DC
It is a movement aimed at restoring beauty to its rightful place in our culture and building friendships between those so engaged.
New Album of Rare Sacred Music from TLM Choir
Above: the Victoria Consort at Winchelsea Church. Photo by Kt Bruce. Following on my recent theme of good news and the positive effects of entrepreneurial Catholicism so often seen in traditional circles, I bring you The Victoria Consort. Conducted by Ben Bevan, this group of talented British singers hails from around Kent. Initially established to…
Let’s Continue the Growth of Catholic Counter-Culture
In reviewing Frank LaRocca’s Mass of the Americas release through Capella records on September 20th, I mentioned that in times and places of great sin and strife, great beauty is possible. That particular pursuit of great beauty was released on September 23rd, and yesterday we learned that Frank LaRocca’s Mass of the Ages debuted at…
Modern Sacred Music at Its Best: the Mass of the Americas
And where sin abounded, grace did more abound… Amidst unnecessary contentions and frequent bad news in the Church, it becomes both essential and gratifying to share good news. Enter Catholic composer Frank La Rocca and the forthcoming CD/album release of his luminous Mass of the Americas. In recent years, San Francisco’s Benedict XVI Institute has…
On the Theological Impossibility of Dealing with Abusive Fatherhood
Like the Priesthood, and certainly even more fundamental than any clerical calling, biological fatherhood manifests its form in a single biological act which then reaches through a multiplicity of identities to the very existential zenith defined by God’s own self-revelation. It is a reality which lies at the cornerstone of human experience and being itself,…
Revenge of the Rigid: On Rejecting Grillo, Primitivism, and the Electric Slide
I often like to imagine how the radical liturgical reforms after Vatican II would have proceeded in the internet age. Certainly the quick availability of information and the means by which to network globally in seeking answers would have made the position of the extreme wing of reformers more precarious, and certainly the analog “fog…
Catholic Music: Revisiting The Unanswered Question
Can there still be an unanswered question in the great competition of metaphysical ideals? It may be that we are currently living in an era where clarity is available amongst the confusion of the questions of the modern and postmodern age. Seen against the disorientation and misery of the long-term project of total self-autonomy, the…
A War For Meaning: Anxiety, Eschatology, Rebellion, and Hope
As a person naturally prone to pessimism and yet equally geared for the long and stubborn grind of societal combat, I find it necessary to sort out my thoughts and observations towards a clear goal in these disorienting times. I take great comfort from the dearth of excellent current writing trying to diagnosis the crescendo…
The Miniature Benedict Option: Recent Books to Cope with Chaos
I have lately witnessed some of the strongest Catholics I know shaken deeply by the visage of a society driving headlong into unnecessary strife and madness, and I would be lying if I did not number myself among them. This has pushed many toward conversations about the so-called “Benedict Option” and what types of withdrawal…
Music for Catholics: Henryk Górecki’s Opus for Instruments
When introducing the instrumental works of a composer to a musically untrained audience, a bit of trepidation naturally sets in. Tastes in music are often entrenched and become even more so where instrumental music is concerned. People are naturally more responsive to the sound of the human voice in music, while the modern era of…
Music for Catholics: Rediscovering Henryk Górecki
There is a select group of composers who seemed to anticipate and ultimately embody John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, somehow also achieving great international prominence and influence despite their industry’s general hostility to all things Christian. They prove that a vital Christian musical art was possible even in the age where most subscribed to…