Like Christ, we are condemned to suffer and to die because of sin. He suffers willingly and innocently; we suffer, in the beginning at least,
When I imagine liturgists, this is what comes to mind: Inculturation, the adaptation of liturgical texts, languages, rites, and, most especially, of music, to respect
Enviably, I recently canvassed a room full of young people, my students, about church attendance. The occasion was an all-school Mass earlier that day. A non-Catholic student broached
To study any subject at depth is, in a certain way, to lose one’s innocence. Before the Copernican revolution, it was easy, indeed natural, to
This coming Sunday is the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, and it was with a quote from the Secret Prayer of this Mass that the Fathers
Many of us have been pilgrims, walking the paths saints have trod before us. How many of us have been saints, treading paths worthy of pilgrims yet
When it comes to revising old hymn texts, I am typically a curmudgeon. I find excision as it is usually practiced a patronizing exercise in
On Holy Saturday night, I met a woman whose son has a disorder on the autism spectrum known as Sensory Processing Disorder. As she explained
There are way more things to know in this Universe than you have the brain cells to record, and any one field of human study
Flecte quod est rigidum. I write inspirational quotes on the dry-erase board in the servers’ sacristy at my parish in illuminated calligraphy whenever I have
My training is in Classics. That kind of nearly obsessive focus on grammar bears some peculiar fruit in my day to day life. For one,
I have been nerding out since I discovered that archive.org has digitized the 1912 edition of the Decreta Authentica Sacræ Congregationis Rituum, which contains all 4,284
Have you ever thought about yourself like you think about others? People can be idiots, prigs, jerks, crazies. People can just get on your nerves,
Peter Maurin believed in teaching ancient principles to the man on the street in the language of the man on the street. Peter Maurin believed
“Live as though dying daily.” -St. Antony of Egypt, as recorded by St. Athanasius We have almost no viable perspective from which to evaluate our
Eastern Christians often refer to the area behind the iconostasis as the “Holy Place.” We Latins prefer to call it the Sanctuary. Our separated brethren
My favourite kind of art explores the darkness. I don’t mean the sensational darkness of psychological trouble, of psychopaths and murders and crime. Nor do
