If you’re a Catholic, you’ve probably seen it: a mysterious series of letters and numbers, looking for all the world like an equation, inscribed in chalk over a doorway at your parish, or at the home of a friend. Maybe …
Category: Catholic Traditions
The Kitsch Council
Back in 1994, my inquiry into the claims of the Catholic Church took a decisive turn. I transitioned from reading books in the safety of my own home to visiting actual parishes and signing up for RCIA. At this point, …
On Vatican II, Piety, and Being an Obedient Catholic
Liberals and Modernists of every stripe attempt to defend their own identity as Catholics by an appeal to infallibility. This appeal is not an effort to safeguard the Tradition of the faith, but an effort to excuse one’s conscience from …
For the Love of Tradition, Don’t Fetishize It
I let out an audible groan when I came across an opinion piece in The New York Times a few weeks ago titled “Christianity Gets Weird.” The accompanying grainy graphic of a pair of praying hands and the label-maker tags …
A Traditionalist’s Spiritual Charter
Over the years of my adult life, as I have gotten to know more and more intimately the traditional liturgy, theology, spirituality, hagiography, and cultural accomplishments of the Catholic Church prior to the temporary bout of madness that seized churchmen …
Rather than Interfaith Prayer, Why Not Rogation Days?
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues deep into May, the majority of Catholics in Western society are still without public Masses. Some Catholics are without any sacraments at all, depending on the diocese. On May 14, the Pope Francis called all …
Taking the Tradpill
This article contains sections of the author’s forthcoming book Joy to Our Youth: Why Millennials are Returning to Traditional Catholicism. It is edited here with the author’s permission. If you enjoy this transcript, be on the lookout for this book …
The Catholic View: We’re All Guilty, and We All Must Suffer
The pandemic pandemonium of the coronavirus — in its volatile mixture of undeniable physical evils and the superimposed moral evils of social engineering by political elites only too happy to take advantage of a global train wreck — has brought …
Taming the Thrilling Wilderness of Gregorian Chant
I wanted to learn how to chant. Those inky little square notes zigzagging across the four-line staff were as exciting to me as the markings on a pirate treasure map. My first attempts were in large scholas in which experienced …
Your Local Mass Canceled? Try Meditating on the Texts of the Traditional Mass
Growing up in the Novus Ordo, I was never accustomed to using a missal, nor did I ever see anyone else using one. Preacher said we had to take up our hymnal and follow it, but it was a rare …