Author Archives: Thomas

Our first snow on Thorson Ridge. At just under 3000 feet elevation, our weather here in the Sierra foothills is more like Camino than Pleasant Valley just south. Snow prompts me to think of renewal and new birth, appropriate for … Continue reading →

(This was written by St John Newman, “This Memorandum is given as written off by the Cardinal for Mr. R. I. Wilberforce, formerly Archdeacon Wilberforce, to aid him in meeting the objections urged by some Protestant friends against the doctrine … Continue reading →

It is hard to avoid being bamboozled by the tyranny of the here and now. Especially nowadays given television propaganda. Two contemporary voices to whom I’ve found it useful to listen are Dylan and Solzhenitsyn. Dylan’s Visions of Sin; Christopher … Continue reading →

A religious entity should be as clear as possible about its beliefs. In particular, it should spurn studied ambiguity. Moreover, the Christian tradition professes not the wise getting to God, to the source of all truth, but rather that God … Continue reading →

Aside from liturgical matters, what is the official language of the Catholic Church now? The Church needs an official language unless it is to go the way of the Orthodox. While the Catholic Church could have, in theory, more than … Continue reading →

Daniel Drain has an excellent article on Church Life Journal entitled ‘Education Should Aim at God, Not the Job Market‘. I think it could well be expanded into a book, elaborating its current three sections with three more (4 Extended … Continue reading →

If someone is unfamiliar with the novels of Willa Cather, AS Byatt has written an interesting article about them, titled American Pastorial, of which I quote the last part: In her 50s Cather published three novels which are often called … Continue reading →

Israel Bible, unabridged Revised Standard Version The Liturgy of the Hours Rome Greek New Testament: Readers ed. Vergil’s Aeneid; Sarah Ruden translation Homilies on John; St John Chrysostom The Confessions; by Saint Augustine The City of God; by Saint Augustine Summa Theologica; … Continue reading →

by L.Q. Cincinnatus Both Joe Biden and President Trump agree on one thing: the Trump presidency is “an existential threat” to the American ruling class. The difference is that Trump sees the elites as a threat to the populace, and Biden regards the populace as … Continue reading →

THOMAS KLINGENSTEIN: My name is Tom Klingenstein. I am the chair of the board of the Claremont Institute which is a conservative think tank, managing partner of a New York investment firm and playwright. I wish to make three points. … Continue reading →

From the preface to Hans Urs von Balthazar’s THEO-DRAMA, THEOLOGICAL DRAMATIC THEORY, VOLUME IV, THE ACTION We have prepared at considerable length for the “action” that is the subject of this volume. First, in the Prelegomena, we prepared the way … Continue reading →

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the … Continue reading →

The Cambridge School Shakespeare series is useful for teaching and performing Shakespeare: “An active approach to classroom Shakespeare enables students to inhabit Shakespeare’s imaginative world in accessible and creative ways. Students are encouraged to share Shakespeare’s love of language, interest … Continue reading →

The Library of America has five volumes of Faulkner’s works. For example: Novels 1930–1935, containing As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, Pylon Novels 1942–1954, containing Go Down, Moses, Intruder in the Dust, Requiem for a Nun, A Fable

A sermon of St Fulgentius of Ruspe The armour of love Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of his soldier.   Yesterday our king, clothed in his robe of flesh, … Continue reading →

Dennis Prager wrote the following: The editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, Mark Galli, wrote an editorial calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. In my view, this editorial only serves to confirm one of the sadder realizations of my life: … Continue reading →

Here’s a useful, wide ranging, hour long interview with Victor Davis Hanson  

In the useful book “Dying and the Virtues”,  Matthew Levering writes: Underscoring the significance of dying, the Orthodox philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev comments that “a system of ethics which does not make death its central problem has no value and is … Continue reading →

In the introduction to his poem The Hundredfold, Anthony Esolen writes: I am a battered old soldier on bad knees, who knows that the hill must be charged and who knows of one or two ways it might be done. … Continue reading →

From Leszek Kolakowski’s  essay  God in a Godless Time …. The world in which we live, however, is not a world of people who are fixed in satisfied and contented lives of belief or unbelief. It is much more an … Continue reading →