In a recent article I critiqued what I called “bad psychology” which “says that suffering is a result of outmoded rules which hamper sexual and emotional desires.” This psychology was a “false gospel” in the 1960s and 70s, blooming into the Human Potential Movement which has had a massive impact on the Church and the…
“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain Suffering is an inescapable reality of life. Man or woman, rich…
These days, we are often told that we need to examine our consciences about our relationship to the natural world. Are we being good stewards? Are we polluting or contaminating the soil or the water? Are we practicing good agriculture and husbandry? Are we re-using and recycling? Are we tempted to keep the air conditioning…
In a recent column for America magazine, Mike Lewis, editor of the papal positivist website Where Peter Is, writes to condemn “extreme” voices critical of Pope Francis, who in his view are causing a deep and bitter divide in the Church. This is a tired (if predictable) explanation that seeks to place blame for issues that…
190 years ago today, on August 18, 1830, His Apostolic Majesty Franz Joseph (1830-1916), the penultimate emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, was born in Schönbrunn Castle near Vienna. He reigned for 68 years, from 1848 until the First World War. Going through a portrait gallery of the members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine,…
Yesterday, I caught the homily for the XI Sunday After Pentecost from my friend Dom Daniel Augustin Oppenheimer, prior of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. (They’re livestreaming all their Masses and some Vespers these days, in case you’re interested.) Entitled “pray without ceasing,” the entire thing is worthwhile (I’ll link the video below)…
How is your spiritual life working these days? What’s your sense of the Church? Is it crippled? Is it humming along? Are we flourishing? Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been 8 months since I read my last TAN book. I haven’t been able to stream mass with any degree of regularity.…
One recent evening, my wife and I received a tornado warning alert on our phones. Normally, I give such warnings due consideration, but I typically don’t get too worried because of the rarity of touchdowns where we live. In the back of my mind, however, was the fact that just a few days prior, another…
What occasionally keeps me up at night, besides the yappy dog a few houses over, is wondering how to raise my children to become saints. There are so many questions my wife and I ponder. How do we get our children to a reverent Mass? Will homeschooling shelter them too much? Where will they find…
G.K. Chesterton once remarked, “the Catholic Church is like a thick steak, a glass of wine, and a good cigar.” When most secular people think about the Catholic Church – or, more often, some mischaracterization of it – I doubt anyone would list such a delightful series of sensory metaphors. Rather than dignifying the tired,…
This article was first published at OnePeterFive on March 31, 2015, under the pen name Benedict Constable. It is here republished under the name of its author. Catholics striving to be loyal to “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) are rightly and reasonably concerned about the state of the Church today. Things are…
