Regular Contributions
Sausages, Fireplaces, and The Mystery of Christmas Traditions
Well, I am within the 12 Days of Christmas, so I don’t consider this article late (by the way, don’t forget the Epiphany House Blessing!). My bride and I both spring from good ethnic stock–she, a Chicago Polack; I, a Cleveland Slovenian. But through the strange twists and turns of Providence (and decisions that I can only…
Forget New Years: It’s still Christmas!
I’m always amazed at how effectively our society can put Christmas behind everyone before it’s even really started! Christmas began last week — it is still the octave of Christmas now, today. We live in an upside-down world, though: they thought Christmas started the day after thanksgiving, and ended last week. That was advent. Today is Christmas! It’s an…
Merry Christmas from the Bellarmine Forum!
May the birth of Jesus bring great blessings and grace to you and yours! Sing with the Angels and the shepherds today, “Gloria!” Enjoy this homily of St. John Chrysostom on the Nativity: BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a…
Christmas Novena Begins Today
Today, the feast of St. Andrew, begins the Christmas Novena. Said fifteen times each day until Christmas day, it is held in pious legend to deliver what is asked. Sometimes, it’s called “Prayer to obtain favors” for that reason. This version of the novena prayer received an Imprimatur from Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York on…
Book review: My Battle Against Hitler
My Battle Against Hitler, a posthumously published memoir and collection of essays by “20th century Doctor of the Church” Dietrich von Hildebrand, is a timely cautionary for a world that is again on the cusp of momentous world events. It is sobering to read, for example, a Provincial of the German Dominicans remark, in the…
Truth in Advertising: Promoting the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in Chicago
One long-standing complaint about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an annual Catholic “poverty” appeal, is that it has consistently misrepresented its work to the people from whom it solicits donations. CCHD exists to create progressive social change. An analysis of CCHD’s nation-wide 2013-2014 grants – using the most recent information available 1 –…
What the Catechism said on voting 100 years ago
Today is the mid-term election in the United States. At stake are state governorships and the representative positions. I’m sure many readers are painfully aware of the debates and nonsense of politics. There’s often a lot of debate over the role of Catholics in elections, and particularly what to do when you are faced with bad choices, no…
Make some friends in high places. Poor Souls: Who will pray for you?
While there is a bit of calendar hijinks that happen due to the way Sundays translate some feasts to adjacent days, but at the same time feasts on other days are made optional (such as All Saints’ Day yesterday), it can be confusing as to when you ought to pray for the Poor Souls in…
St. John Paul II and a Caution against the Age of Fraud
Fifty or a hundred years from now, the sociologists that write books to describe our time will have only one term to discuss today: fraud. It’s everywhere, and people think nothing of it. I think that’s because they don’t realize that the ancient Greeks long before the time of Christ, determined that there would be a time…
Out of Depth
Minne’s Diner is a fantastic breakfast joint in Rogers, Minnesota. Right off I-94, the place reminds one of so many other classic breakfast places in the big city–only the hours are different, i.e., this place actually has a closing time. It was here, last Thursday, that I and some colleagues gathered for breakfast and Evelyn Waugh’s short story,…
