The Four Types of Watchfulness
“Where did that thought come from?” Have you ever experienced an intrusive thought, seemingly out of nowhere, and embarrassingly realized how evil it was? Or, after clenching your fists and grinding your teeth for five minutes, have you realized you had been internally contemplating a current event that caused…
Drawing People into the Very Mystery of Christ Himself
Of St. Ambrose’s many written works, his On the Mysteries and Treatise on the Sacraments are unique in that they are, principally, catechetical lectures intended for those who are converting to Christianity and seeking baptism. While the practice of bishops personally offering catechetical instruction to new converts may seem unusual…
Time Well Wasted
There is arguably a connection between growing levels of stress and anxiety, especially among young people, and a culture of hyperactivity. There is a tendency to think that a person is valuable only inasmuch as he or she is contributing in a tangible, calculable way to civil society or to…
Avoiding the Unreal: How to Read the Great Books Well
I. Reclaim your Education “We are concerned as anybody else at the headlong plunge into the abyss that Western civilization seems to be taking,” wrote Robert M. Hutchins, editor of the 1952 Great Books of the Western World.[1] In order to “recall the West to sanity,” Hutchins, and his associate…
Cervantes and the Vice of Curiosity
In El Curioso Impertinente—“The Curious-Impertinent”—we meet Anselmo and Lothario, two dear friends since birth, close enough to be called “The Two Friends of Florence” by all who knew them. Anselmo, of a romantic nature, was always enamored of love and poetry, and so won the hand of one of the…
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The Holy Angels
Today, September 29th, the Church celebrates the feast of the Archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, and on October 2nd celebrates the memorial of the Guardian Angels. In light of these liturgical celebrations, it would be good to have a basic understanding of angels and the role they…
The Argument from Existence: Aquinas’s Philosophical Approach to God
Aquinas’s argument for the existence of God starts from his commonsense theory of existence for particular things. For Aquinas, existence is something things present in reality actually have or participate in. Existence, in other words, is that in virtue of which something is included in reality, or actually is, instead…
30th Anniversary of Veritatis Splendor
St. John Paul II wrote, during his relatively lengthy reign as Supreme Pontiff, many noteworthy and helpful documents. His first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, reminded the faithful of the efficacy and universal scope of Jesus’s salvific work, setting the stage and tone for his entire pontificate; his last, Ecclesia de Eucharistia,…
St. Irenaeus on the Holy Eucharist
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century Greek bishop that established churches in what is now the south of France, is a go-to Church Father when it comes to establishing the early Christian belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. His teaching is very clear: “the mixed cup…
Are you Vicious?
Are you a vicious person? The answer to this question depends on whether you have vice. But what is vice? Perhaps it’s best to contrast it with virtue. Where virtue is an enduring disposition, or habit, to perform good human acts—acts that are befitting our nature as human beings, vice…
Parents as Educators
As a new father, I look forward to the education of my daughter with a certain amount of anxiety and trepidation. Marriage is primarily for the sake of the procreation and education of children. Sometimes we forget about that second part. Especially from the standpoint of the father, procreation is…
Odysseus, Aslan, and Untamed Catholicism
We find our hero Odysseus on his journey home from the Trojan war. Ten years he fought on the plains before Troy; and now ten years more he will journey home. After several adventures, Odysseus and his men land on an island and come under the care of the witch…
St. Cyril of Jerusalem and the Mystagogy of Baptism
Sometime around the year 350, St. Cyril was named Bishop of Jerusalem. St. Cyril served as Bishop of Jerusalem during tumultuous times, both political and theological. During his reign as bishop, he was banished from his see three times and was three times reinstated. In 381 he was one of…
Pentecost and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
There are key moments in our own lives, stages of development and achievements worth remembering and celebrating. We can think here of birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and so forth. Something like this is true of the Church’s life as well. We can think of the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Great…
Liberalism and Its Discontents
We are by nature social or political animals. We find our full flourishing as human beings not in isolation but in communion with other persons. And so Christ’s injunction not to be of the world (Jn. 17) does not necessitate being some place other than the world in which we…
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