In general, when someone says they enjoy reading for a hobby, one assumes that person has a wholesome hobby. However, reading of modern romance novels is often used as a means of entertainment or escape for women, and this activity can be … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – April 2025
March 28, 2025 by Book Reviews
How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization. By R. Jared Staudt. Reviewed by Matthew B. Rose. (skip to review) John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed. By Ida Friederike Görres. Translated by Jennifer S. Bryson. Reviewed by Clara Sarrocco. … [Read more...]
Failure in the Christian Life
Pastoral Lessons from Dostoevsky’s Idiot and Endo’s Silence
April 26, 2024 by Adam G. Cooper
Recent years have witnessed a burgeoning range of books, articles, and online publications dedicated to the problem of failure. Much of the material is aimed at helping leaders and professional groups deal with failure by using strategies … [Read more...]
Reading as an Act of Homage
December 29, 2023 by Dr. Donald Graham
Can reading be considered as “an act of homage”? At first blush, this seems a strange question. We regularly read for the sake of leisure and learning, but aside from overtly religious pursuits — such as Lectio Divina, proclamation of the Wo … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – April 2023
March 29, 2023 by Book Reviews
The Order and Division of Divine Truth: St. Thomas Aquinas as Scholastic Master of the Sacred Page. By John F. Boyle. Reviewed by Sr. Mary Micaela Hoffmann, RSM. (skip to review) Twelve Great Books: Going Deeper into Classic Literature. … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – December 2022
November 25, 2022 by Book Reviews
Before Austen Comes Aesop: The Children’s Great Books and How to Experience Them. By Cheri Blomquist. Reviewed by Kathryn Sadakierski. (skip to review) Through the Heart of St. Joseph. By Fr. Boniface Hicks. Reviewed by Joseph Tuttle. ( … [Read more...]
Questions Answered – June 2022
May 27, 2022 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Can Holy Water Be Mixed? Question: Can you replenish holy water that you have for personal use by adding to it with regular water when it gets low? Answer: First it is important to discuss just what holy water is and what it signifies. … [Read more...]
Flannery Was Right
The Problem of Nihilism Within the Catholic Church
February 26, 2022 by Fr. Damian J. Ference
In a letter to Betty Hester dated August 28, 1955, Flannery O’Connor wrote: “If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe.”[1. Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being, hereafter HB (New York: Far … [Read more...]
Christian Joy and Human Sadness
January 27, 2022 by S. E. Greydanus
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). This and other exhortations in Scripture have shaped Christian tradition with the understanding that joy is meant to be part of our life. It’s traditionally counted a … [Read more...]
Quod Scripsi, Scripsi: The Life and Legacy of Marvin R. O’Connell
April 22, 2021 by Richard J. Janet, PhD
At the end of his recently published posthumous memoir, Father Marvin O’Connell quotes the words of Pontius Pilate from Scriptures. “Even though I too can write Quod scripsi, scripsi, my trouble is not the same as Pilate’s. My trouble has to … [Read more...]
Expanding the Narratives of Scripture
April 9, 2021 by Brandon P. Otto
For all the depth hidden in Scripture, it can often appear barebones to the storyteller; frequently only the simplest actions, the most basic order of events, is described. One can hunger for more detail, for more color, for more character. … [Read more...]
The Emerging Catholic Literary Renaissance
Interview with Poet James Matthew Wilson
February 25, 2021 by Roseanne T. Sullivan
“You know, there is, at the moment, an exciting rebirth of Catholic poetry in the United States and it’s full of talented young writers, but even in this interesting cohort James Matthew Wilson, I think, is one of the leading people that you … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – June 2019
June 18, 2019 by Book Reviews
The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays By Dana Gioia. Reviewed by Ken Colombini. (skip to review) Raymond E. Brown and the Catholic Biblical Renewal By Fr. Donald E. Senior. Reviewed by Rev. John P. Cush, STD. (skip to … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – March 2019
March 28, 2019 by Book Reviews
Servant of All: Status, Ambition, and the Way of Jesus By Craig C. Hill. Reviewed by Matthew K. Minerd, PhD. (skip to review) The Priestly Blessing: Rediscovering the Gift By Stephen J. Rossetti. Reviewed by Fr. John Cush. (skip to … [Read more...]
Words of Life for Cutting Words
A Catholic Response to Teens on Social Media Writing Sites
January 28, 2019 by Mark C. McCann
With more and more young people reaching out to one another through social media, there has been an increased call for new forms of ministry to teens within these virtual worlds. With the advent of public writing sites that allow for the … [Read more...]
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