Malcolm Muggeridge. “The coming of Jesus into the world is the most stupendous event in human history. . . . As it is, belonging to a civilization which began with the birth of Jesus some two thousand years ago, and reaching the conclusion—to me inescapable—that whatever is truly admirable in the achievements of the succeeding… Read More Fiat Lux. Into History Comes the Light
…and 25 forgotten diner sandwiches no longer wolfed down! “Cape Cod was never meant to be permanent. A glacial sandbar left behind by the Ice Age, it was rejected by the Pilgrims in 1620 as too barren to settle and stripped of its forests by the colonists who came after them. For two centuries, whaling,… Read More Why Fewer and Fewer People Visit Cape Cod Today
“The democratic revolution is the necessary preparation for the socialist revolution, and the socialist revolution is the inevitable sequel to the democratic revolution. The ultimate aim for which all communists strive is to bring about a socialist and communist society.” “The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party” (December 1939), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp.… Read More Socialism, Communism
Victor Gaetan is senior international correspondent for the National Catholic Register 8/21. The closer we look at decisions to deploy a second atomic weapon against Japan on August 9, [1945…] the more morally audacious the tactic appears. Step outside the American explanatory cloud—we bombed military installations to force unconditional imperial surrender—defining public understanding to see:… Read More Nagasaki Was A Strike Against Japan And The Catholic Church
Too many of the older Clerics, resting on their truly beautiful liturgical laurels, acted like brutal disciplinarians outside of Mass, especially in early school classrooms. But too many of today’s clerics have done the truly unthinkable thing: they have turned the greatest and most magnificent liturgical love story into a barren bore, making it hard… Read More Old Clerics, New Clerics
All the roses in the garden, they bow and ask her pardon… The phrase “Queen of all Argyll” refers to a beautiful woman from the Argyll region of Scotland, celebrated in a song by the band Silly Wizard. The song highlights her charm and grace, suggesting that she surpasses all others in beauty. Wikipedia / Bucknell… Read More …if you could’ve seen her there! boys if you had just been there! …
…and Ambiguity in Doctrine. The Kazakh auxiliary bishop launched the publication of Credo — Compendium of the Catholic Faith Oct. 26 in Rome. Edward Pentin, VATICAN CITY — A new compendium of the Catholic faith has been published that aims to provide clear answers to many of contemporary problems as well as counter the ambiguity… Read More Bishop Athanasius Schneider Says New Compendium Aims to ‘Expel the Darkness’ of Relativism
John Michael Talbot (born May 8, 1954) is an American Catholic musician, author, television presenter and founder of a monastic community known as the Brothers and Sisters of Charity Talbot was born into a Methodist family with a musical background in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and started learning to play the guitar at an early age. At age 15, he dropped out of… Read More The Long Journey Into Day of John Michael Talbot
SOURCE: James Finn Cotter. “Pagels’s Paradise Lost,” in The Hudson Review, Vol. XLII, No. 1, Spring, 1989, pp. 165-70. In the epilogue of her … book [Adam, Eve, and the Serpent], Elaine Pagels tells us that, dissatisfied with contemporary Christianity, she turned to the earliest Christians for answers. She assumed that in that era, when the movement was… Read More Elaine Pagels’s Paradise Lost
Track #2 from from Silly Wizard’s sixth and final studio album, “A Glint of Silver” (1986), now sadly out of print. An original jig by Phil Cunningham, coupled with an old Jacobite rallying song. Wha’ll be King but Charlie?” is a traditional Scottish song about Bonnie Prince Charlie, the leader of the 1745 Jacobite Rising,… Read More Who’ll be King but Charlie?
The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” (or “Loch Lomond“) is a traditional Scottish folk song (Roud No. 9598).[1][2] Its origins are thought to date to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Born in Rome to the exiled Stuart court, he spent much of his early and later life in Italy. In 1744, he travelled to France to take part in a… Read More On the Beautiful Banks O’ Loch Lomand
Planxty. Planxty[1] were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972,[1]: 99–100 consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitars, bodhrán, keyboards), and Liam O’Flynn (uilleann pipes, tin whistle). They transformed and popularized Irish folk music, touring and recording to great acclaim. Planxty
The exhumation of Anne Boleyn and restoration of the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula In 1848, a historian by the name of Lord Thomas Macaulay visited the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the grounds of The Tower of London. He recorded his thoughts on the place in the first edition of his… Read More The Opening of Anne Boelyn’s Coffin
” …but she has come down to condemn that wild ocean for the murderous loss of her man.” “The Fisherman’s Song” by Silly Wizard reflects themes of loss and longing, particularly the emotional struggles faced by a fisherman and his wife. The song conveys a sense of melancholy and the hardships of life at sea,… Read More Silly Wizard. The Fisherman’s Song (Tragedy).
Site Summation – updated – Chat Gpt Catholic Critique presents itself as “Christian World View & Analysis,” edited by Stephen Hand. Its stated purpose is not formal teaching but the sharing of opinions, interpretive principles, excerpts, reflections, and outside resources judged helpful in spiritually challenging times. The site repeatedly frames itself as Catholic, Christ-centered, culturally… Read More Catholic Critique — Alphabetical & Topic Index
By Father Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, O.C.D. Even without the presence of other causes, it is possible to pass from a state of sensible spiritual fervor to one of absolute aridity. This happens by the direct work of God which makes it impossible for the soul to pray with the help of the mind… Read More Aridity and Spiritual Progress
“The Russian intelligentsia produced a faith based upon a strange syllogism: ‘Man is descended from the apes, therefore we must love one another.’” — Vladimir Solovyev. On Lenin’s desk in the Kremlin there stood, for most of the years he worked there, a strange bronze statue of an ape gazing with an expression of profound… Read More Lenin, the Ape and the Skull
By Carlo Carretto, 1910 – 1988 (*). Carlo Carretto PFE was an Italian Catholic and member of the Little Brothers of the Gospel. See other links at this website. His books can be purchased at Amazon.com. ~~~ “Charles de Foucauld said one day: “If the contemplative life were possible only behind monastic walls or in the silence… Read More Contemplation in the Streets
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,and has lifted up the lowly.He has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.He has come to the help of his servant Israelfor he has remembered his promise of mercy,the promise he made to our fathers,to Abraham and his children forever.… Read More Jesus and the Poor
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you… Read More St. Paul Prisoner of Love
The value of sufferings in Christ By Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. O Jesus Crucified, teach me the science of the Cross. 1. The Passion of Jesus teaches us in a concrete way that in the Christian life we must be able to accept suffering for the love of God. This is a… Read More Personal knowledge of the Cross
By the grace of God somehow, for the past 30 years we have lived in the midst of lush green woodland(1). The beauty which surrounds us, despite the inevitable effects of slow but sure urban sprawl, uplifts the spirit. We also regularly make incursions into Lowell so as not to lose touch with the other… Read More More to Creation / Nature
Excerpt from the book The Desecration of Man by Carl E. Trueman …”Setting aside any moral concerns, it is surely a strange world where movies from the 1940s now come with trigger warnings because they contain scenes where people smoke cigarettes, presumably because of the health risks, and yet there is a window in a… Read More The Desecration of Man
“In the climate of the Second Vatican Council, of ecumenism, of openness, the word “heretic” has become not only unpopular but unspeakable—except, of course, among integralists, who often construct their own identity on accusations of heresy directed at others. But has the concept of heresy become completely irrelevant? Has our awareness of the duty of… Read More Thomas Merton on Heresy and Self-Contradiction
How we came to where we are today. By Dinesh D’Souza “The typical socialist today is not a union guy who wants higher wages; it’s a transsexual eco-feminist who marches in Antifa and Black Lives Matter rallies and throws cement blocks at her political opponents. We see it in the riots and looting sweeping the country… Read More The Philosopher of Antifa
… is well over a Hundred Years Old. Rerum Novarum was Radical then. It is Radical today. Discover why this 130-year-old document remains startlingly relevant to contemporary economic theory and thought.. The only real and viable economic “centrism” between Capitalism and Socialism / Communism has always and only been found in Catholic Social Teaching. Quasi-Marxists have… Read More Forget the Marxist Counterfeits, The Only Real and Viable Economic Centrist Position…
By Christopher Rufo. | America’s Cultural Revolution The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin raised his glass to a group of artists assembled at the home of famed writer Maxim Gorky in 1932. “The ‘production’ of souls is more important than the production of tanks,” he said, explaining that the communists desired not only to remake the… Read More Reengineering the Human Soul
Fr. Phillip Stark, today in his 90s and frail, has been a wonderful priest to everyone who attends his Mass at St. Anne’s chapel in Still River. He still says Mass almost daily; he was a Jesuit and secretary to Thomas Merton whom he admires to this day, whatever Merton’s theological complexities. He was ordained… Read More No Greater Love
Dr. Marcus Peters | New Oxford Review | Jul-Aug 2026. January 30 is a strange combination of historical anniversaries. It is the anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi’s assassination, when the Indian proponent of nonviolence fell to a bullet fired at point-blank range. It is the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s inauguration into power, when German political office… Read More Gandhi, Hitler & Churchill in Limbo: A Trialogue
Trading Salvation For Nights of Gin and Lace… Mississippi Delta Blues in the Cotton Fields | 1930s Rural Harmonica & Steel Guitar “Travel deep into the cotton fields of the 1930s Mississippi Delta, where the sound of steel guitar and lonely harmonica drifted across dusty roads and endless Southern farmland. This collection captures the raw… Read More The Devil’s Loose Change
“Today the first and perhaps the only duty of the philosopher is to defend man against himself: to defend man against that extraordinary temptation toward inhumanity to which—almost without being aware of it—so many human beings today have yielded.” — GABRIEL MARCEL :“The generals and fighters on both sides, in World War II, the ones… Read More Thomas Merton: Nuclear Weapons and Sanity
“The bones likely belong to people sacrificed during the reign of Ahuízotl, eighth king of the Aztecs. The dead included men, women and children alike.* — l Courtesy of INAH. Smithsonian Magazine. “Archaeologists excavating a famed Aztec “tower of skulls” in Mexico City have uncovered a new section featuring 119 human skulls. The find brings the… Read More Apocalypto 2020. Researchers in Mexico City discovered a macabre late 15th-century structure
The Tin Man weighs in. “Good morning, my dear Scarecrow. I see you’ve wandered into one of the darkest corners of the Tudor forest. It is exactly the sort of question where history, rumor, politics, and genuine mystery become almost impossible to separate.The short answer is this: Catherine of Aragon almost certainly died a natural… Read More Did the Tudor Court Think Catherine of Aragon Was Likely to be Murdered by Henry?
It is ‘them’ and us. Hosea 8 to the old and new Israel — Set the trumpet to your lips,for[a] a vulture is over the house of the Lord,because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law.2 To me they cry, My God, we Israel know thee.3 Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. 4 They made kings, but… Read More What is Apostasy? A Vulture Circling Unnoticed.
The Devolution of Alastair Campbell’s and RoryStewart’s Mental Health. Alastair Campbell’s confessions about his own ongoing mental health instability are famous (his role in instigating the bloody Iraq war could doubtless explain some of that) but not everyone is familiar with Rory Stewart’s mental health battles and near suicide attempt after political disappointments and Boris… Read More Rory Stewart’s Mental Health
Exercising the brain and memory as deep older age sets in. In seven months I have learned piano and relearned guitar which I haven’t played in over 50 years. Between the two I can now play most of the musical catalogue I’ve loved since my youth and more. I wanted to do this in order… Read More Aging and the Brains God Gave Us
“We ought not to be swayed by the authority of the writer, whether he be a great literary light or an insignificant person, but by the love of simple truth. We ought not to ask who is speaking, but mark what is said.” — Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Bk. 1 Ch.5 A… Read More You quote dubious Catholics!
Fundamentalist Protestant incomprehension of the Catholic doctrine regarding Mary as the Mother of God is largely and essentially an incomprehension of the Incarnation itself, whereby the Word, who is God, was made flesh (John 1:1; 14). It is rooted in a failure to contemplate, with the Catholic Church, the stupendous implications of this wondrous mystery.… Read More Our Blessed Mother, Mary, in the Order of Grace
… even though they share the same rock bottom principles. Here are some of mine. SH.
What is Order to the Spider is Chaos to the Fly. —Morticia Addams. The LORD presented our first parents with wondrous Creation, being. The Enemy of souls however proposed a counter-reality. And our Maker allowed this test of the only real freedom there is. SH. Two presentations. The Thomistic Institute and the proposed “World Brain”… Read More The iPhone is Changing us …
From the very first pages of Genesis, the God of the Old Testament, in truth, demythologized the ancient world, destroying the ancient “gods” who were “lies” and “vanity” (Jer. 16:19-20) and, indeed, nothing (Acts 14:14; 17:23); He put an end to the horrors related in pagan mythology which daily translated into the most cruel barbarism and even human sacrifice. For… Read More Modernism in Our Time
