Part I | Part II Whenever the popes speak about sacred (i.e., liturgical) music, the very first quality they put forward is holiness or sanctity, which they describe as a certain worthiness of or suitability for the celebration of the sacred mysteries of Christ, and freedom from worldliness or even that which is suggestive of…
Minimalism, in its proper context, can be beautiful. We see this in the peaceful feeling of an uncluttered house, a simple graphic design, the clean lines of good architecture, or the stark contrast of a cherry blossom against the white backdrop of a Japanese silkscreen print. But when it comes to Catholicism, there is a danger in…
“Boldness should be the eleventh commandment.” – Mother Angelica This week, the Catholic world celebrates the life and mourns the death of Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation — known to most simply as Mother Angelica. Among her various accomplishments, she is most heralded as the founder of and driving personality behind the Catholic media powerhouse known…
As the smoke clears in Brussels, my mind turns to the Europe that once was. I love that continent in a way that’s hard for me, as an American, to explain. When I studied history, I was always far more drawn to the Catholic drama of the kingdoms that grew up from the ashes of Rome than…
It is the simple truth: God created us for happiness. Not jealous of the good He has (or rather is), God fashioned finite intellectual beings—angels and men—capable of sharing His good through knowledge and love, and thus capable of entering into His eternal joy. We honor and love Him by seeking and welcoming this gift…
Cardinal Walter Kasper — the most infamous member of the German episcopacy — appears to be just tingly with anticipation for the coming apostolic exhortation on marriage and family. Ed Pentin reports (with my emphasis): According to the Italian newspaper Il Terreno, the German theologian told an audience in the Italian city of Lucca on Monday evening that in a “few…
My maternal grandmother had the merriest brown eyes of anyone I’ve ever known, but they’d take on a special light when she recalled one of the poems she’d learned as a young girl. Her favorite, Daffodils, she could recite to her dying day, with such obvious pleasure that her listeners believed she beheld in her…
Part 1 | Part 2 The best way to walk through the door of the Confessional is to regularly pray and ask the Lord to lead you there whenever you need it. Remember this, ponder this, and let this sink in all the way: If the soul is in a state of Mortal Sin it…
The German Church is in a dire state. Threatened by burgeoning apostasy and heresy within its own ranks, orthodox Catholics around the world look with a wary eye to the nation that gave us Martin Luther and the Protestant “Reformation”. The original title of Fr. Ralph Wiltgen’s essential account of the ecclesiastical revolution that took place at the…
I recently took a trip across the country, and, as it happened, found myself in a certain chapel (under the care of one of the traditional Catholic priestly societies in good standing) for the Third Sunday of Lent. As the homily began, my ears immediately perked up at a quotation from 1 Peter 5. What followed was…
Part 1 | Part 2 The Sacrament of Penance (now commonly called “Reconciliation”) is the ordinary means by which the Christian soul is restored to an objective State of Grace/Habitual Grace/Sanctifying Grace. The soul must be in the State of Sanctifying Grace at the moment of death for it to be welcomed by God into…
