A funeral I attended recently illustrates a musical dilemma that fuels the ire of Catholics on Facebook whenever the subject of liturgy comes up. To set a tone of solemnity, two women chanted a Latin prelude as mourners entered. The … [Read more...]
Archives for 2015
The Great Catholic Music Debate
“Post-Vatican Folk” vs. “Reformist Retro”
August 9, 2015 by Bill Kassel
A Divine Reflection: You and the Holy Eucharist
August 9, 2015 by Margaret O'Reilly
It has often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, it would seem that a mirror image of a picture must be worth twice as many words! But what if the mirror shattered into a myriad of pieces, and in every shard the same … [Read more...]
Homilies for August 2015
July 27, 2015 by Fr. Timothy Shea Valentine
Overview: The Sunday lectionary for August continues what began on the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, namely, a brief departure from the Gospel of Mark. The focus shifts to the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, beginning with the … [Read more...]
July Editorial: Interview with Dr. Janet Smith of the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit
July 27, 2015 by David Vincent Meconi
Fr. Meconi: It is an honor to be with you. Your reflections on the beauty of Humanae Vitae, and the Church’s incessant teaching on the divine will for married love, have helped many come to see what Christian marriage really means. R … [Read more...]
A “Categorical Silence” in the Preparatory Questionnaire for the 2015 Synod
July 27, 2015 by Fr. Mark A. Pilon
“Make no mistake, my brothers: those who corrupt families will not inherit the kingdom of God.” —Ignatius of Antioch, To the Ephesians In his 2007 autobiography, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, retired Archbishop of Bologna, recalled his surpr … [Read more...]
The Forgotten Vice in Seminary Formation
July 27, 2015 by Fr. James Mason
We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. —C. S. Lewis from The Abolition of Man. (This article originally appeared in the May 2006 print e … [Read more...]
“Why Do I Exist?”: The Unavoidable Wonderment
July 27, 2015 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
(Socrates) “Could anything great really come to pass in a short time? And isn’t the time from childhood to old age short when compared to the whole of time?” (Glaucon) “It is a mere nothing.” (Socrates) “Well, do you think that an immortal b … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
July 27, 2015 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Question: Pope Francis recently questioned the ethics of trickledown economics. Are there principles for governing competition in the workplace? Answer: One of the primary moral problems with a semi-capitalist economy is the relation of … [Read more...]
Summer Reading for August 2015
July 27, 2015 by Book Reviews
The One-Minute Aquinas: The Doctor’s Quick Answers to Fundamental Questions. Kevin Vost, Psy.D. (Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2014) 265 pages. $24.15. (Reviewed by Jeffrey S. Burwell, SJ) The Saint Jerome Study Bible: Genesis t … [Read more...]
What’s Changed?
A Comparison of Self- and Divine-Referential Pronoun Usage in Hymns Written Pre- and Post-Vatican II
July 12, 2015 by J.E. Sigler
“He that sings praise, not only sings, but also loves him of whom he sings.”—St. Augustine Noticeable Change in Pre- & Post-Vatican II Hymns Some HPR readers may be unaware that people have been arguing about the language of Church hym … [Read more...]
How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian
The Problem of Divine Violence as Considered in Recent Curial Documents
July 12, 2015 by Dr. Matthew J. Ramage, PhD
Introduction If God exists, he is not the God of the Christian Bible. At least this is the conclusion drawn by many prominent authors and cultural commentators in our society today. The rise of agnosticism and atheism in contemporary … [Read more...]
Toward a Theology of the Papacy
Reading Between the Lines of the Church Fathers
July 12, 2015 by Dr. William R. Luckey, PhD
Most Catholics seem to know, whether they accept it or not, what the job of the pope is. He sort of runs the Church from a central location; he is infallible (protected from error) in his serious public pronouncements on the subject of … [Read more...]
An Anthropology of Gaudium et Spes
July 12, 2015 by Francis Etheredge
The radical originality of God: When God created man, male and female, “He established Himself” as the “un-originate origin” of the diversity of the sexes. Part I of II In Part I of this essay (Part II is here), there is an examination o … [Read more...]
Kneeling Ban: Good Liturgy or Loss of Religious Freedom?
July 12, 2015 by Fr. Regis Scanlon, OFMCap
Some religious leaders in the Latin Rite are pressuring Catholics not to kneel at the Consecration, or to genuflect at their reception of the Eucharist. This trend has gained a great deal of traction in recent years, and is causing alarm … [Read more...]
“Go Gaily in the Dark”
Alfred the Great and Preservation of Christian Civilization
July 12, 2015 by Dr. William C. Zehringer, PhD
Epigraph From G.K. Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse (words spoken by Mary, the Mother of God, to a sadly dispirited Alfred the Great): The men of the East may spell the stars, And times and triumphs mark. But the men signed o … [Read more...]
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