We are to speak well of one another, even of those who hate us. We are also to speak truthfully, sometimes even bluntly, when necessary. Strictly speaking, an insult is rude or contemptuous speech designed to hurt someone’s feelings or arouse his anger. The insult is deliberate, intended to hurt. No doubt it can be … Read more
Among some clippings, I came across the following letter from Brian Tubbs in The Washington Times. The letter began: What happened to Merry Christmas? For the past few years, America has drifted away not only from the original meaning of Christmas, but also away from the name of “Christmas.” Already, Santa Claus, Rudolph, and the … Read more
One evening, during my retreat at an old Jesuit novitiate, I read an unforgettable letter in L’Osservatore Romano, English, June 12, 1996. In it, Dom Bernardo Olivera, the Abbot-General of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or Trappists, writes about the brutal, wholly arbitrary murder of seven Trappist monks in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria … Read more
The October, 1992, Crisis carried a handsome photo of president bush— “Should Catholics vote for this Man?” My column for that issue was entitled “An Apocalyptic Election? Is This Election about Jobs, or Souls?” I thought it was about souls. I still think it was. Two days after the 1993 Inauguration, while five Roman Catholic … Read more
A priest friend told me that he gave a sermon at Mass in which he explained that in Christian teaching, God has an internal life, a life that manifests itself in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To his surprise, days later a parishioner accused this priest before his pastor of … Read more
In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche tells us that both “Jesuitism” and “democratic enlightenment” reduce the pressure for living according to the “truth”—the truth that Nietzsche himself wanted to reject. Jesuits, by their casuistry, and democratic enlightenment, mainly by inventing newspapers, made people comfortable and distracted in their moral slavery. Instead of teaching people to … Read more
St. Thomas often cites the famous phrase, “sapientis est ordinare“—the function of the wise man is to order. We human beings have the added burden, if I can call it that—for it is also a glory—of ordering ourselves. To order means that we properly place ourselves amidst the other things, including human things, that are … Read more
April 15, 1781, was Easter Sunday. Boswell tells us that he went to services at St. Paul’s in London, then to Dr. Johnson’s for a chat. Dr. William Scott dropped in and remarked that some of the best essays in The Spectator were written with “the warmth of wine.” When Johnson did not want to … Read more
The Feast of St. Joseph is March 19. We would like to know more about St. Joseph. What we do know about him is confined to a few lines in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. A friend of mine once told me that she made a thirty-day novena to St. Joseph because her husband … Read more
Intellectual disorder eats at the heart of every university, journal, city, and, yes, church. We are taught that there is no truth to be known—the only thing that exists is power. Everyone stands for an arbitrary commitment. Truth-tellers and truth-claimers are the most dangerous people in our social contract: They imply that it is possible … Read more
In John Paul II’s letter on the Third Millennium and in his encyclical on Christian unity, he has let us know what he things about the diversity among Christians. Rouhgly, it ought to stop. While not lessening the importance of prayer for unity, the Holy Father is putting considerable pressure on all of us, Catholics, … Read more
Somwhere, I once acquired from a book story, a copy of The book of Common Prayer of the Protestant episcopal Church in the United States. I have the volume on the Sacraments, Rites, and Ceremonies, which contains the Christmas Service. This book was published in New York with no date. On the inside title page, … Read more
Aristotle suggests that there is something higher than praise, even though praise is perhaps one of our highest acts. Praise results from our capacity and willingness to acknowledge that someone else, besides ourselves, has actually accomplished something worthwhile. Praise is, in this sense, our highest reward from others and the most precious gift. Yet, there … Read more
On July 3, 1778, Samuel Johnson wrote to James Boswell at Auchinleck, his home in Scotland. Boswell had evidently been complaining that Johnson had not replied to his precious letters. Johnson responded to Boswell by saying, in effect “Look, Sir, stop complaining.” Johnson then proceeded to give Boswell a memorable lesson about good correspondence and … Read more
On April 28, a Friday morning, about ten-thirty, I boarded United Express at Islip, Long Island, for the flight back to Washington. The plane landed at about noon at Dulles. On the flight back, I thought I had better make arrangements for a ticket to the West Coast to see my family after classes ended … Read more
In And the Beagles and the Bunnies Shall Lie Down together, we see little Sally busily writing, head down, almost on the notebook. Charlie Brown is looking at her, as he does at all women, with some perplexity. “I have to do a paper for school on Ken and Abel,” she explains to her brother. … Read more
The word “breakfast” obviously means the moment when we break a fast, when we first eat in the day after our night of sleep. The word probably had something to do with the older and perhaps wiser rules about Holy Communion, fasting from midnight before one receives the Sacrament. To break the fast, with its … Read more
One Saturday afternoon in late Winter I decided to take one of my usual walks. I put on a jacket with a hood, Levis, sturdy shoes, and gloves. It was chilly. One walk I sometimes take goes down Prospect Street out of the university, to 33rd Street in Georgetown, across M Street, which is the … Read more
That something is wrong with human nature has been known since ancient times, in all cultures, by any individual who, like Augustine, reflects on himself, on his own life, in the unclouded honesty of his memory. But let me be more accurate: On the whole, human nature seems to be intact; human nature is good, … Read more
One Sunday noon hour during January, it was the Epiphany in fact, I read Michael Medved’s article in Policy Review (Winter, 1995) about what was “right” with America. Naturally, he had to mention what was wrong. “The problem with this country isn’t too much violence on TV, and it isn’t too much promiscuous sexuality in … Read more