(1) The Odyssey, an epic Greek poem [attributed to Homer], tells the story of King Odysseus and his heroic struggle against the gods. The tale begins when the ship of Odysseus is blown off course on the way home from the Trojan Wars. In his effort to get home, Odysseus lands on an island where… Read More Lashed to the Mast
New Oxford Review | July-August 2025 Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious By Ross Douthat Publisher: Zondervan | Pages: 240 | Price: $29.99 Review Author: Preston R. Simpson Ross Douthat’s Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious is a most unusual work of apologetics. You might assume that because Douthat is a Catholic this would be a work of Catholic apologetics, or… Read More An Invitation to a Spiritual Smorgasbord
A Light, Too Bright For Our Eyes. Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalene Teach me to believe, O Lord, even in darkness and obscurity; teach me to believe by relying only on Your word. Through its own efforts, the human mind is able to attain to a knowledge of God the Creator by considering created… Read More The Sacred Darkness
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene writes, “The Blessed Virgin teaches us to believe in our vocation to sanctity, to divine intimacy. We did believe in it when God revealed it to us in the brightness of interior light, and the words of His minister confirmed it; but we should also believe in it when… Read More Mary’s Faith
Why Catholic Critique? To confess the Faith to any who wish to hear or see. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9)…” “If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples…” (Jn. 8:31) This website is a small,… Read More Catholic Critique
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
When after hundreds of years the LORD finally heard the prayers and cries of his people in Egypt and delivered them from slavery under Pharaoh, he led them into the desert where they suffered for another 40 or so years. And the people were not happy about it: Then they said to Moses, “Was it because there… Read More Real Faith is Not For the Fainthearted
By Malcolm Muggeridge. Some eight decades ago I came into the world, full of cries and wind and hiccups; now I prepare to leave it, also full of cries and wind and hiccups. Whence I came I cannot know, least of all in the light of contemporary myths like Darwinian evolution, Freudian psychology, situational ethics,… Read More As daylight hours draw to a close
St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Doctor of the Church, teaches, “Brother, when the devil tempts you again to sin, if you wish to be lost, you have it in your power to commit sin; but do not then say that you wish to be saved. As long as you wish to sin, regard yourself as damned,… Read More St. Alphonsus de Liguori on Judgment and Mercy
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