Sunday was my thirteenth day in coronavirus quarantine. I must confess that although I have done some liturgical sewing and have spent more time than usual exercising, cooking, and praying, most of this precious downtime has slipped by without anything of note transpiring. But Sunday was different. My church — a small Melkite parish —…
Growing up in Bugnini’s liturgical reign of terror, for me, the only semblance of non–spiritually benumbed sanity at Mass came from watching EWTN’s daily Mass. I rejoiced at hearing hymns older than 1966, as well as encountering homilies void of social justice empowerment and the canonization of parish members. Most salient, though EWTN did not…
During the Great Fast of Lent, the faithful are enjoined to do penance. The three great works of penance are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.[1] In this article, we will define the penance of almsgiving in the form of a brief catechism. What are alms? Alms are “every spiritual or corporal work of mercy” [2]. Prümmer…
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 bird who followed the Mass from a missalette. The vernacular was supposed to make everything…
The theme of my conversation is: The new scenarios in Italy and in Europe during and after the Coronavirus crisis. I will not speak about this theme from a medical or scientific point of view as I do not have this competence. I will instead consider the argument from three other points of view: the…
It wasn’t long after I became a Catholic at the age of eighteen, during my freshman year of college, that I began to discern religious life. I figured that if I was going “in,” I was going all in, and the monastic ideals of stability, fidelity, and obedience appealed to the desire for “something more”…
During Lent, it is easy to focus a great deal on fulfilling your resolutions, but what is the purpose of these resolutions? If we lose sight of their proper end, we risk wasting our time and effort in the spiritual life. This article will discuss the aim we must have for the Great Fast of…
Looking through my files, I see that I must have been suffering delusions of grandeur shortly before we came out here to Oregon in 2008. Must have been, since I asked to be put on the agenda to speak at the next meeting of the parish council at a beautiful parish in the far western…
If someone asked you to explain why Our Lord instituted the Mass, what would you say? Could you tell him why it’s necessary for our right relationship with God [i]? As a result of the cosmic tragedy of Adam and Eve, the human race is plunged in darkness, misery, and guilt. Each one of us…
It all started with a text from my sister. I had just gotten off work and walked out to my car. There, waiting on my phone, was the news that my mom hadn’t shown up for work that morning, that there had been an accident with a fatality on her commute, that she wasn’t answering…
My goal as a writer and Catholic small business–owner is similar to the mission statement of this website: to evangelize and to rebuild traditional Catholic culture and orthodoxy through holy objects and educational materials about the faith. In keeping with this goal, I would like to talk about our daily prayer lives in connection with…
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