Book Reviews – June 2023

As a Priest Thinks, So He Is. Ed. by Beth Rath McGough and Patricia Pintado-Murphy. Reviewed by M. Ross Romero, S.J. (skip to review) Pray, Think, Act: Make Better Decisions with the Desert Fathers. By Augustine J. Wetta, O.S.B. Reviewed … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – October 2022

Touched by Christ: The Sacramental Economy. By Lawrence Feingold. Reviewed by Mark McCann. (skip to review) Transubstantiation: Theology, History, and Christian Unity. By Brett Salkeld. Reviewed by Dan Sherven. (skip to … [Read more...]

The Skirts of the Infinite

Art, Fashion, and the Catholic Imagination

___________ “[Christianity allows mankind to] grasp at the skirts of the Infinite. Since Christ the dead world has woken up from sleep. Since him we have lived.” — Oscar Wilde ____________ Introduction: Idyll or Idol? Memories of Subur … [Read more...]

The Sacred Liturgy as a Monument or Witness of Tradition

The Catholic who wishes to think with the Church, (sentire cum Ecclesia, as the expression goes), to take part in her life, and to grow in communion with her, must be attentive to her Tradition. For the faithful must hold fast to that which … [Read more...]

The Beauty That Beckons Us

An Introduction to the Theology of Fr. John Navone, S.J. (Part 2)

(As HPR’s way of honoring the lifelong work of our brother Jesuit, Fr. John Navone, S.J., we are running an essay in two parts by Gonzaga University’s Dr. Cunningham. See the previous issue for Part One.) Part Two Conversion John Nav … [Read more...]

Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Beauty and the New Evangelization

“I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth…are the saints and the beauty that the faith has generated.”[1. Joseph Ratzinger, “The Feeling of Things, the Conte … [Read more...]

The Church’s Year of Grace: History, Traditions, Beauty

Christian discipleship is fundamentally a dynamic movement from self to the beauty of Christ. In the absence of this dynamic movement, faith remains woefully incomplete. ...The essential characteristic of beauty then is to be transported … [Read more...]

The St. Noël Chabanel Responsorial Psalm Project

The St. Noël Chabanel Responsorial Psalm Project exists as a remedy for the problematic musical settings that often destroy a prayerful mood at Mass.

“The Chabanel Psalms are not only great music; they use a revolutionary form of distribution, both in terms of zero price and universal availability. In fact, the day the site went live, I knew I was looking at the future of sacred m … [Read more...]

Transcendence in music

SURPRISED BY BEAUTY: A Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music. By Robert R. Reilly (Morley Books, 1814 ½ “N” Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036, 2002), 351 pp. PB $19.95

Robert Reilly is a man of many talents. From Chicago, he is a graduate of Georgetown University in the same class as former President Clinton though perhaps not of the same easy bent of mind. He initially was an actor. He still carries … [Read more...]

Beautiful and Ugly Churches

IN TIERS OF GLORY. The Organic Development of Church Architecture through the Ages. By Michael S. Rose (Mesa Folio Editions, Aquinas Publishing Ltd., P.O. Box 11260 Cincinnati Ohio 45211 2004), 136pp. 200 color illustrations. PB $29.95.

In a previous book, Ugly as Sin, Michael S. Rose analyzed recent trends in church architecture and pointed out that there are three constants in great and traditional Catholic churches—permanence, elevation and iconography. There he offers a … [Read more...]

Contemporary Music in Church?

The church is the domain of the sacred, not the home for an adapted, accommodated worldliness.

Do not model your behavior on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and mature. (Romans 12:2)[1. As rendered in t … [Read more...]

Four Priests of the Word

A Catholic literary revival has been quietly under way in this country for more than two decades.

As long as human nature continues to be a bundle of tensions and contradictions, pining for truth and yet succumbing to pride, there will always be dissent in the Church. We therefore should expect some dissent and not despair when we see … [Read more...]