The Church, acknowledging that man is not merely an intellectual being who can subsist on thoughts alone but a creature who approaches reality through his senses, has always emphasized the importance of incorporating sense-perceptible signs into her acts of worship. Even if we assent to supernatural truth sola fide, we do not engage with it…
It takes saints to make saints. The liturgical year of the Church is filled with quite literally a priceless array of treasures that are all oriented to make it easier for us to get to Heaven. The commemorations of the saints, the feasts and fasts, the monuments in the life of Christ and His Church…
The Catholic Church celebrates the memory of all her saints in her liturgy today. Besides feast days such as this, the Church also honours the saints in several other ways in the liturgy. Anyone with an understanding of the distinction between latria and dulia would know that this is not saint-worship, and would appreciate the…
Holy Communion is the Bread of Life, the Medicine of Immortality, the eternal pledge of God’s Infinite Love. The whole visible creation is as nothing at all compared to Jesus’ Real Presence among us in His Eucharist, which is truly and substantially His Body and His Blood, united to His Soul and His Divinity. Holy Communion is the Fruit of the Tree…
Like all ancient liturgical rites of the Church, the traditional Roman rite of Mass—especially if one includes the Asperges me and the Leonine prayer to St. Michael—is full of references and allusions to the holy angels, and more than that, prayers directly addressed to them. To cite all these wonderful texts, let alone comment on…
Here is a typical modern situation: A couple – or throuple – hires two television stars to renovate their historic house. The homeowners leave for two weeks while the celebrities argue about what tiles, fixtures, and lamps they plan to install. Meanwhile, an actual crew of laborers work behind-the-scenes to do the real painting and…
What might have been “self-evident truths” once upon a time are no longer evident to many clergy, to their superiors, and to their flocks. One of these truths is staggeringly obvious, yet its implications seem to be not only ignored, but suppressed: the priest, too, has a soul to sanctify and save. Stated baldly, this…
The blog Where Peter Is—a site which seems to promote a limitless ultramontanism exempt from the requirements of tradition, magisterial consistency, or reason itself—published an article by Terence Sweeney called “Pope Francis: Guardian of Tradition.” The article launches broadsides against the clericocentrism of the Tridentine rite and the need for a new Mass that would…
One night, many years ago, I found myself embroiled in an unusual argument at a bar on Second Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. For reasons I have long forgotten, I mentioned the Mona Lisa to a young lady sitting there on the barstool next to me. She remarked that she did not care for the Mona…
It was August 1940. Churchill was fighting the Battle of Britain. Half of Europe was under the Nazi boot. The Catholic Church in Germany was being persecuted, and the German bishops were gathered for their annual conference. To what grave matters might they have devoted their energies at such a momentous time? Being German bishops some could…
“Destroy the Four Olds.” This slogan was central to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, launched in Beijing in 1966. What were the Four Olds? Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Customs. The destruction began simply, with the renaming of streets, stores, and even people, who exchanged their traditional Chinese names for revolutionary ones like “Determined Red.”…
