Editor’s note: we received this photo essay before the devastating earthquakes that have recently afflicted Italy, and have damaged the Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia. As the monks of Norcia pause to regroup and rebuild, we present this work as a reflection and reminder of the profound beauty and goodness of the traditional Benedictine monastic…
In the 1962 Roman Breviary, there is a recurring theme each night as the day’s office is completed. Asking God’s protection from the enemy, the supplicant calls to mind the words of St. Peter: Brothers: Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.…
There’s a lightness and clarity that is so charming about the book, The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home, by Leila Maria Lawler and David Clayton. I read it all in one night, and I’ll be returning to it soon. The opening line explains this very straight-shooting book’s purpose: “This book is…
In our year-long course on music at Wyoming Catholic College, students read and discuss a chapter from Joseph Ratzinger’s book A New Song for the Lord, “The Image of the World and of Human Beings in the Liturgy and Its Expression in Church Music,” one of the best things ever written about church music. Ratzinger masterfully…
Saint John Paul II, in his prescient Letter to Artists, reminded us that “The Church needs art,” and that art needs the Church. While much of the Catholic world has forgotten about this document, it fell like a thunderbolt amongst Christian artists, helping further intensify the growing rebirth of spiritual synergy between art and Mother…
Part I | Part II The fundamental problem with Praise & Worship In the first part of this essay, I offered a critique of the profane stylistic traits of Praise & Worship music, whether “soft” or “hard.”[1] Praise & Worship music is not suitable for liturgical use. Its style reinforces a false conception of the…
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…
“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…
NASA is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the agency in 1958.
I have struggled with anger for my entire life. It is what some people might call an “Irish temper” – quick to flare up, burning brightly, but just as quickly extinguished. More often than not, these outbursts leave a trail of hurt (and on my part, guilt) in their wake. In my personal life, my temper has undeniably…
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…
