The other day I described the Protestant mentality as a kind of separation of Church and State within the individual. That, of course, itself depends on the idea that there is something like Church and State in the individual, which I seems to me almost self-evident. There is in man that which seeks the ultimate … Continue reading Feast of St. Joseph: Church and State
Sunday Thoughts
St. Alphonso on Confession
From the Sermons of St. Alphonso de Liguori for this day: A disciple of Socrates, at the moment he was leaving a house of bad fame, saw his master pass: to avoid being seen by him, he went back into the house. Socrates came to the door and said: "My son, it is a shameful … Continue reading St. Alphonso on Confession
Brief Christ the King Thoughts
Instituted at a time when earthly monarchies were toppling or falling one-by-one, the Feast of Christ the King is meant to remind us that Our Lord does not only rule the 'spiritual' life and the Church, but all Earthly things as well. All nations are rightly subject to Him in all their affairs, not just … Continue reading Brief Christ the King Thoughts
Sunday Thoughts: The Heart
The heart is the seat of the passions, the raw, blazing energies that mediate between the reason and the appetite, enforcing the will of one or the other, according to how they are trained. We perceive goodness with the reason, but we feel it in the heart. As C.S. Lewis said, we moderns are, in … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts: The Heart
Sunday Thought: On Seeing God
The fact that we can so easily become distracted at prayer is proof of just how inadequate our ideas of God and the Heavenly Court really are. For, of course, if we had even a faint understanding of just what we were dealing with, it would be almost impossible for anything else to have a … Continue reading Sunday Thought: On Seeing God
Sunday Thoughts: On Mercy
We finished the Jules Verne biography on the way home from Maine (now's not the place for a full review, but basically it was about six hours of an interesting study stretched to twelve by a good deal of repetition, the biographer going off on his own pet theories, and his harping on Verne's sex … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts: On Mercy
Sunday Thought
At the end of the day, religion is a present thing. You can talk about history, the Bible, prehistory, and so on and so forth, but all that is secondary compared to what is happening right here and right now while you are at prayer or receiving the Sacraments. Just like when you meet someone, … Continue reading Sunday Thought
Sunday Thoughts
J.R.R. Tolkien, in (I think) On Fairy Stories made the point that children are not a special class of people (akin to women, men, Englishmen, Americans, etc.), but just people at a particular stage of development. Which is to say, it's misleading to say "children like this" or "children do that" just as it's misleading … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts
Sunday Thoughts: On Humility
I think one of the biggest challenges in religion that we face today is getting into the subordinate mindset. At least I find it so. Between science and liberalism, we're used to standing in an ostensibly superior position, where our judgment and our opinions are what really matter. We expect to be able to 'see … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts: On Humility
Sunday Thoughts; A Paradox of Faith
There is a paradox inherent in the act of faith. On the one hand, belief in God involves us in innumerable logical difficulties, especially involving the nature of time and free will and their relation to eternity. Just as a simple example based on today's readings, it seems revolting to our feelings that we should … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts; A Paradox of Faith
Serpent's Den 