“It is not the torture, but the cause which makes the martyr.” – St. Augustine In reading Lian Xi’s Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, A Martyr In Mao’s China, the aforementioned words of the great doctor of the Church raised the question for me: for what cause did Lin Zhao, the fervent…
Jordan Peterson is one of the most fascinating thinkers in the world today. He has captured the attention of untold millions with his attempt to find meaning and truth in a time when people seem hell-bent against the apprehension of either. And over the past two years, he’s gone through hell and back. In order…
Fifty years ago today, on April 6, 1971, at the age of 88, the composer Igor Stravinsky died of a heart attack in New York. He was a musical genius of the twentieth century who did not limit himself — so they said — to turning a page in the history of music; instead, he…
It is said that the knowledge of Church history is a consolation. Most often this is meant in the sense that, for those who are troubled about the Church in the present age, all you have to do is look back at the history of the Church and you are sure to find an era…
I hope you all had a lovely Easter and are continuing to do so this Easter Monday Morning. A few things have come to my attention over the weekend that I wanted to briefly share with you here, as they may be of interest. First, I was surprised to note that Pope Francis offered an…
And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon…
Want to listen to this post instead? Check out our audio recording of this essay. Musical accompaniment by Frank LaRocca, “Miserere,” taken from the album “In This Place“: The sky was overcast, steel-gray clouds admitting only a few rays of light as I ascended the hill. It looked like rain, but none had yet broken…
Today is Holy Thursday, also known colloquially as “Maundy Thursday,” which begins the Easter Triduum. What does “Maundy” mean? It’s a derivative of the language used in the “new commandment” given by Christ as he washed the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper. “Maundy” comes from “Mandatum” in the expression, “Mandatum novum do…
Editor’s note: Today we are pleased to reprint, with the author’s permission, the following essay from Prof. Roberto de Mattei, an eminent scholar of Church history and one of the most notable thought leaders of European traditional Catholicism. Herein he offers helpful guidance on the matters of both the moral liceity and the questionable efficacy…
Recently, I bumped into a friend who expressed her surprise that 2019 was the first time I had ever attended the pre-1955 (i.e., ancient or unreformed) Holy Week liturgies. She was under the impression that someone who travels, reads, thinks, and writes a good deal about the sacred liturgy would surely have done this long…
Of sexual immorality and impurity, St. Paul says, “Let them be not so much as named among you” (Eph. 5:3). He further counsels that we think on those things that are noble, pure, lovely, and admirable (Phil. 4:8); but there comes a time to look into the Abyss and call it by name. The specific…
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