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December 2017

December 29, 2017

“Ever Since I Became Your Brother”: A Christmas Homily for the Melancholic

Among the literary gems I picked up at a recent parish bazaar was a compilation of...

December 19, 2017

Us vs. Them or Just Us?

Over the past two weekends, I've been performing in the chorus for a Christmas concert...

November 2016

November 06, 2016

Practicing the Virtue of Hope

This will not be about voting. It is, however, about lying awake imagining all the...

December 2015

December 05, 2015

A Disturbing Calm: a quote for Advent

From Jennifer Worth's memoir, Call the Midwife (the basis for the BBC/PBS TV series of...

April 2015

April 03, 2015

When We Crucify Our Lord

Two years ago the community choir I sing with in Toronto put on a concert...

March 2015

March 28, 2015

Book Review: The Cross as our Banner and Our Joy

Open Mind, Faithful Heart By Pope Francis Translated by Joseph V. Owens, SJ Crossroad Publishing...

March 02, 2014

Faithfulness and Loyalty

I ran across a lovely column by Fr. William Grimm, a MaryKnoll Missioner in Japan,...

October 2012

October 29, 2012

Archbishop Javier Martinez: Beyond Secular Reason

I recently stumbled across this gem over at Stratford Caldecott's Second Spring website, a place...

July 2012

July 18, 2012

Believing in One Holy Church and living in a sinful one

Julia's recent post calling for an ecclesiology which can account for fallibility engendered much discussion...

June 2012

June 27, 2012

As the Church Has Always Taught (Except When it Hasn’t)

Here is an ecclesiological proposition with far-reaching pastoral implications: we need an ecclesiology that accounts for...

January 2012

January 08, 2012

A question on natural reason

As part of diaconate formation, we are embarking on a close reading of the Catechism...

November 2011

November 24, 2011

A Study Of “On The Character of Men And the Virtuous Life”: Part XXXIX.

Introduction and Part II “The Son is in the Father, and the Spirit is in...

August 2011

August 19, 2011

What Can We Learn From St. Albertus Magnus’ Explanation For The Flood

History is a difficult science. To determine what happened in the past and why it...

May 2011

May 26, 2011

Purity Of Faith Must Be Preserved, Even When Faith Is Found Mixed With Error

Despite being known as reactionary, and often inquisitional, Pobedonostsev, when writing on faith, has remarks...

April 2011

April 13, 2011

Credo Ut Intelligam: Sam Harris and Pope Benedict on Faith and Doubt

“You have to pick yourself up by your bootstraps somewhere. It’s better than pulling yourself...

February 2011

February 17, 2011

On Avarice

The same Abba Isaiah, when someone asked him what avarice was, replied, ‘Not to believe...

April 2010

April 13, 2010

A Glimpse of the Resurrection During the Church’s Way of the Cross

This past Holy Week and subsequent celebration of Easter was a rough one for me...

November 2009

November 17, 2009

Henryk Gorecki: Totus Tuus

Composed (1983) for John Paul II's third visit to his homeland, Totus Tuus is a...

November 13, 2009

Jane Kenyon: Notes from the Other Side

I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no...

November 12, 2009

Vox Nova at the Rock Concert: U2, Moment of Surrender (Live from the Rose Bowl)

The song is from the critically acclaimed--but massively underperforming by U2 standards (it's only gone...

November 10, 2009

J.S. Bach: BWM 147.7 Jesus bleibet meine Freude

This most popular of Bach's (movements from his) cantatas requires little by way of introduction....

November 01, 2009

All holy men and women, pray for us!

This morning I was happy to help organize a choir for the annual Artists' Mass...

October 2009

October 27, 2009

We Who Prayed and Wept

We who prayed and wept for liberty from kings and the yoke of liberty accept...

October 26, 2009

George Herbert: Love

by: George Herbert (1593-1632) LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, Guilty of...

October 13, 2009

Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee…

NOT, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist—slack they may...

October 05, 2009

The Habit of Perfection

ELECTED Silence, sing to me And beat upon my whorlèd ear, Pipe me to...

September 2009

September 25, 2009

Vox Nova at the Poetry Forum: Jane Kenyon, Briefly it enters, briefly it speaks

I am the blossom pressed in a book, found again after two hundred years....

September 24, 2009

On meeting Peter Buck of R.E.M.

About a week and a half ago I was able to meet one of my...

September 19, 2009

Mahalia Jackson: Amazing Grace

Mahalia Jackson is the indisputable Queen of Gospel Music. Here she is in a stirring...

September 16, 2009

Jane Kenyon: Having It Out With Melancholy

1. FROM THE NURSERY When I was born, you waited behind a pile of linen...