Faith Seeking Faith
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
Merry Christmas!
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas, and all the blessings of the day, from all of us at InsideCatholic!
It Is Bidden Us to Rejoice
On the Feast of St. Stephen, 1951, from St. Mary Magdalen College at Oxford, C. S. Lewis wrote a Latin letter to Don Giovanni Calabria in Verona (letters published with a translation by St. Augustine’s Press). The day after Christmas, Lewis prays for Calabria “all spiritual and temporal blessings in the Lord.” Lewis adds: … Read more
‘Tis the season for hope
With all of the bleak news out there these days, it’s easy to get discouraged — so Catholic Vote’s “Top Ten Reasons for Hope” list seems especially appropriate right now. Some of their nominations: 7. Priests, Religious, and More Priests From Ireland to New Zealand to many dioceses across the United States, Catholic seminaries are … Read more
Recession got you down? At least you aren’t fighting off Saxons.
If you think today’s recession is bad, be glad you’re not living in Britannia at the close of the Western Roman Empire. For two or three hundred years, beginning at the start of the fifth century, the economy of Britain reverted to levels not experienced since well before the Roman invasion of AD 43. The … Read more
An Anti-Nativity Scene in the Bleak Midwinter
A poem by Christina Rosetti, published posthumously in 1904, became a favorite Christmas carol after Gustav Holst set it to music for the English Hymnal two years later. The poem underscores the harsh setting of the nativity — the first stanza reads: In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, … Read more
What’s Your Lust Index?
As I warned when I started my considerations of the Seven Deadly Sins and opposing Virtues, there will be a test. Seven of them, in fact, each inspired by Walker Percy’s quizzes in his satirical work of apologetics, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. It’s a marvelous book: I only plagiarize the best. … Read more
Remembering the little ones at Christmas
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Divine Child, we face some sobering numbers: There are an estimated 145 million orphans worldwide — more than enough little ones to go three times around the planet at the equator. A few years ago, the United Nations put the number of child victims of trafficking … Read more
More evidence that Shakespeare was a Catholic?
The argument that Shakespeare may have been a Catholic is not new, but a seminary in Rome is claiming to have evidence that is. The Venerable English College says that a guest book for visiting pilgrims contains three signatures that could indicate that the Bard traveled there during his “lost years”: Father Andrew Headon, the … Read more
The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Documentary Hypothesis
It’s Christmas time again, and that means, among other things, that revelers around the world are quaffing nog, getting figgy with their pudding, and lifting their voices in song. “Christmas carols are the creed of Christendom,” wrote Frederick Wilhelmsen, and I don’t think he’s half wrong. It’s a pleasure to sing the ancient songs, as … Read more
Streaming The Criterion Collection
Netflix and The Criterion Collection, two of my my very favorite “people” in the whole world, have teamed up to bring me a surprise Christmas present a few days early: For years, the Criterion Collection has been around to provide one of the best film educations a casual viewer can receive. Just by checking out … Read more
Ben Nelson’s “Craven Betrayal” Raises More Questions
Kathleen Gilbert at LifeSiteNews has a fascinating interview with Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life. On the surface the interview tells the story of a senator who made rather boastful promises of sticking to his pro-life convictions but abruptly broke those promises with a nonsensical cover story of adding “Stupak-plus” language to … Read more
The revolving door continues between government and big business
Yesterday, Merck and Co. announced that Dr. Julie Gerberding has been named president of Merck Vaccine, effective at the end of January. As far as credentials go, she has them in spades… the most noteworthy is her recent position as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2002 to 2009. Of … Read more
Faithful Adaptations
My wife and I began a new Christmas tradition a couple years ago, and we’re trying to spread it. There is a beer – a very remarkable beer – that’s named after the season’s favorite saint: Samichlaus . Every year on December 6th, the Feast of St. Nicholas, the good beer brewers of of Austria begin … Read more
I Believe In Samichlaus!
My wife and I began a new Christmas tradition a couple years ago, and we’re trying to spread it. There is a beer – a very remarkable beer – that’s named after the season’s favorite saint: Samichlaus . Every year on December 6th, the Feast of St. Nicholas, the good beer brewers of of Austria begin … Read more
Little House in Nazareth
This is pretty cool: Archaeologists in Israel say they have discovered the remains of the first home in Nazareth that can be dated to the time of Jesus. The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about … Read more
Paul Krugman: Save the filibuster! Ban the filibuster!
The New York Times‘ house economist Paul Krugman is no fan of the filibuster… at least, when it’s used against the kinds of intrusive, big government legislation he promotes. In March 2005, he warned America that “extremists” were trying to eliminate the filibuster to push through their partisan (and pro-life) judges. But now that Obama … Read more
In Praise of Credulity
St. Thomas Aquinas was once tricked by his fellow students who cried out, “Look! A flying ox!” Thomas dutifully went to the window to look, and his peers all laughed at him heartily. Thomas’s reply (and one of the many reasons he’s a saint): “I thought it more likely that an ox would fly than … Read more
Poking Around Pandora
As an achievement in technical innovation, Avatar is phenomenal, a ride worth taking more than once, but as adventure movies go, it is impressively new in every way except the way that matters most. Its look will last. But its heart won’t go on. — Jeffrey Overstreet Deep down, Avatar is bone-headed, but it’s also … Read more
The Gospel According to James Cameron
Joseph saw Avatar this weekend so you wouldn’t have to — look for his review later today — but meanwhile, Ross Douthat has some reflections in the New York Times on what he calls “[director James] Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism,” that vague, naturalistic spirituality that he says has held sway with Americans for some … Read more
