When EWTN aired Raymond Arroyo’s first "World Over" television interview with Dean Koontz on October 18, 2012, many viewers were surprised to learn that the author of over a dozen #1 New York Times bestsellers is a practicing Catholic. The l … [Read more...]
Dante, the World’s Second Greatest Poet
April 27, 2015 by David Vincent Meconi
Sometime this month back in 1265, exactly 750 years ago, the World’s Second Greatest Poet was born in Florence, Dante Alighieri. Not many realize that Popes Benedict XV and Paul VI issued official Vatican statements lauding Dante for the u … [Read more...]
Words Written on Ice and Wind
A Creative Writer Reflects on the Craft of Preaching
March 30, 2015 by Fr. Raymond Tucker Cordani
At the turn of the century, I graduated from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Armed with an MFA in creative writing, I set out to write the Great American Novel. I taught writing at the University of Central Florida in … [Read more...]
Spring Reading for March 2015
March 30, 2015 by Book Reviews
Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers That Even I Can Offer. Leah Libresco (Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 2015) 192 pages; $12.12. (Reviewed by Fr. David C. Paternostro, SJ) --------- Master Thomas Aquinas and the Fullness … [Read more...]
The Holy Cross: A real life “Mockingjay” for Catholics
March 24, 2014 by Dusty Gates
To me, the idea that ties the religious significance of this story together best is the “mockingjay.” I find in the image of the mockingjay a clear and resounding symbol of the Cross of Jesus Christ. The popular trilogy of novels turne … [Read more...]
Liberal education and the priesthood
The winner of the second annual Pastores Dabo Vobis Award in Honor of Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J.
July 28, 2011 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
“Like all great churches, that are not mere store-houses of theology, Chartres expressed, besides whatever else it means, an emotion, the deepest man ever felt—the struggle of his own littleness to grasp the infinite. You may, if you like, f … [Read more...]
The practice of excellence
Human flourishing means seeing what is and acting accordingly.
June 1, 2011 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
“A man properly nurtured in poetry will quickly spot shoddy, poorly made works and ill-grown things, and his joy and aversion will be properly placed; he’ll approve beautiful things, joyfully take them into his soul, and from their nurture g … [Read more...]
How American Catholicism Was
THE EDGE OF SADNESS. By Edwin O’Connor (Loyola Press [Loyola Classics Series], 3441 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60657, 1962/2005 reprint), 640 pp. PB $13.95.
April 1, 2009 by Book Reviews
Once upon a time, before the priest scandals, Catholicism in Boston was rampant with good ol’ Irish “Cat’lics” who looked at religion as an extension of their everyday lives. Families were proud of the priests in their ranks, all went to Mas … [Read more...]
Insight into Wilde’s soul
THE UNMASKING OF OSCAR WILDE. By Joseph Pearce (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522, 2004); 1-800-651-1531; 412 pp. HB. $19.95.
April 1, 2009 by Book Reviews
Distinguished classical scholar in his college days at Trinity College in Ireland; gifted poet, dramatist, and author of fairy tales like “The Selfish Giant” and “The Happy Prince”; famed wit, dandy, bon vivant, and sophisticated convers … [Read more...]
No Academic Grounds Are Safe
THE CASE OF THE MUSE OF MADNESS. A Novel by Charles M. Kovich and Curtis L. Hancock, A Father Schrader Mystery, Book 2 (Liber Media and Publishing, 10401 Holmes Rd., #120, Kansas City, Mo. 64131, 2004), 166 pp. HB $21.88.
April 1, 2009 by Book Reviews
Rockhurst University’s two murder-mystery, academic novelists, Charles Kovich and Curtis Hancock, have teamed up to produce the second volume in their Father Dietrich Shrader series. We are not wrong to suspect that something both p … [Read more...]
A big house for a small house
THE PHILOSOPHY OF TOLKIEN. By Peter J. Kreeft (Ignatius Press, 2515 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA 94118, 2005), 237 pp. PB. $15.95.
April 1, 2009 by Book Reviews
This masterpiece of philosophy and literary criticism epitomizes liberal education at its best and illuminates C.S. Lewis’s statement that Alexander Pope’s famous line, “The proper study of mankind is man,” needs correction: “The proper stud … [Read more...]
Four Priests of the Word
A Catholic literary revival has been quietly under way in this country for more than two decades.
June 1, 2003 by Anne Husted Burleigh
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...]
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