It’s Valentine’s Day, which means all the drugstores are festooned in red and pink; the secular advice columns are out in force; and the really, really bad movies jockey for position on screens around the world. Secular Valentine’s day is overly indulgent and kind of weird. This article, on the contrary, is about how to…
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9 Gospel: Luke 8:4-15 O God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do: mercifully grant that by the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles we may be defended against all adversities. – From the Collect for the Sexagesima Sunday As the Church continues to…
On this episode of the podcast, Steve and Tim Gordon of Rules for Retrogrades break down the initial reactions to Querida Amazonia, the just-released post-synodal apostolic exhortation from the Amazon synod. If you enjoy this show, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel or the audio-only version of our podcast on iTunes or Stitcher,…
If he lived today, would Mozart have composed a cantata like Davide penitente (The Penitent David), K. 469? Performed successfully for the first time on March 13, 1785 in Vienna’s Burgtheater, it was soon forgotten. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was asked by the Vienna Musicians’ Society (Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät), a pension fund founded in 1771 to…
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…
Let’s put the thing everyone wants to know right out in front: no, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia does not, within its text, explicitly provide for the ordination of “viri probati” — married men, likely married permanent deacons — to the priesthood in the Amazon region. Many early reactions to the document are celebrating the…
Last week I spoke of my attachment to Prime, one of the “little hours” of the Divine Office, and why Catholics today should consider taking it up as the backbone of their morning prayer. Today I turn to the Roman Martyrology. What is this book, and why do I connect it with Prime [i]? The Roman…
Today is the 7th anniversary of the announcement of the intention to abdicate by Pope Benedict XVI. In the following 7 years, the crisis in the Church has escalated exponentially, and during that time, one of the most notable things has been the absence of the majority of our bishops & cardinals in speaking out.…
With the pope’s long awaited post-synodal exhortation not far away, we can be sure that the modernists will be taking their axes to the roots of the discipline of clerical celibacy. We will hear claims that clerical celibacy was introduced only in the 12th or 5th century and that it is not a discipline that…
Since the Fall of Man, men and women have been locked in a contest of power. Instead of the order of humility and charity created by God, Adam and Eve chose pride and rebellion against God and each other. Pride produces a contest of power because pride cannot be satisfied unless it obtains more power…
I was born an old man. Cantankerous and curmudgeonly, I came to believe that miracles were possible — after a great deal of Thomistic tinkering. Still, I didn’t want to believe in them. I was a Catholic, but a bad one. “We really hit a wall after our second child,” my friend assured me on his…
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