William F. Buckley Jr. called out a major aspect of the spiritual struggle in our time, increasingly atheistic education, 1951: “I had always been taught, and experience had fortified the teachings, that an active faith in God and a rigid adherence to Christian principles are the most powerful influences toward the good life… A number of… Read More The Struggle of Our Time
Ireland. So, you asked me,“Where’s it going?” Well, it’s pretty dark… Evil, in a strange way, brings us together, forces us to discover strands of commonality and fellowship in our seemingly divergent cultures. When I was growing up, the particularities of my homeland, Ireland seemed to function as a barrier to connections with other places.… Read More Explaining the Cycle of Ireland’s Constant Destruction. John Waters.
… in the face of Tribulations. The great modern Thomist, Josef Pieper, writes, “Fortitude … does not mean mere fearlessness. That man alone is brave who cannot be forced, through fear of transitory and lesser evils, to give up the greater and actual good, and thereby bring upon himself that which is ultimately and absolutely… Read More Christians, Called to Endure
“The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer – the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace – including some intended… Read More How Evil Thee, Sidney? How Evil We?
“If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You. And if You wish me to be in light, again I shall bless You. If You stoop down to comfort me, I shall bless You, and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall bless You forever.” — Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ,… Read More In Darkness, A Light Too Bright for Our Eyes
“The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same… Read More Saints of Flesh and Blood
Catholic Critique 