On a very chilly Sunday in October of 2018, I attended Mass at St. Hedwig’s in Holdingford with my wife. I’ll carry forever with me the image of the last moment when Fr. Gregory Mastey—with neither fanfare nor introduction—suddenly started reciting the Prayer to St. Michael. Fr. Gregory has ended Mass this way ever since, … Read more
Until recently, the word snowflake enjoyed only one meaning: frozen rain in winter. But in the last year or so the word assumed a secondary meaning: students in elite college campuses who fall to pieces at the least offense or contrary opinion to their own. This new youthful brittleness makes perfect sense in the context … Read more
Modern philosophy is full of all sorts of absurd theories about the illusory nature of existence and the unreliability of everything we know to be true. But the boots on the ground, living, breathing, day to day philosophy of even the most angst-ridden German nihilist or the most wild-eyed French existentialist has to be common … Read more
I am wondering if a little noticed—certainly little commented upon—event, which took place Friday, July 5, in the gardens of Vatican City, establishes a connection between two apparently quite different subjects about which I have written recently: the first is the frequency with which Pope Francis refers to the devil; the second is the question of what … Read more