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October 14, 2015

Note from the Assistant Editor:

In this week's reflection, Pope St. Gregory the Great reminds us that we are still in an age of miracles: "Every day the Church works in the spirit what the Apostles once did in the flesh."  See "The Signs to Seek."

We have published the introduction to Fr. Jacques Philippe's book, Thirsting for Prayer.  "Those who have prayer have everything, because on that basis God can freely enter their lives and act in them, working the marvels of his grace."

Then Mitchell Kalpakgian reviews Anthony Esolen's book Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity.  "A masterpiece of apologetics, all twelve arguments justify God's all-wise, all-loving plan for marriage as a divine work of art."

On September 23rd, Pope Francis canonized Saint Junipero Serra in Washington, D.C.  In "How the Church Has Changed the World: The Father of California," Anthony Esolen tells the story of the saint, "the father in the brown robe, who came to teach the natives, correct them, protect them, and love them with a love they had never known."

Again we have Mitchell Kalpakgian, this time talking about Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire'" (so beautiful to read aloud).  Hopkins' sonnet depicts the virtue of graciousness as one of the forms of beauty in the world.

Finally, Fr. Dwight Longenecker asks, "To Laugh Is Human, But Is Comedy Divine?"  "Laughter is a mark not only of authentic religion, but mature humanity," he says.  "Laughter lightens and enlightens the soul.  Laughter is a sign of confidence and enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm, after all, comes from the word 'enthuse,' which is derived from the Greek en theos — or 'God within.'" - Meaghen Hale



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The Church is ". . . an institution [we are] bound to hold divine — but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight." - Hilaire Belloc



New Resources


 
The Signs to Seek - Pope St. Gregory the Great - from a sermon on Mark 16:17-18

For the faith of believers to grow it had to be nourished with miracles.


 
Introduction - Father Jacques Philippe - Thirsting for Prayer

What the world most needs today is prayer.


 
Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity - Mitchell Kalpakgian - The Wanderer

In a crass world that debases everything beautiful and holy from the innocence of children to the sacredness of life to the beauty of nuptial love, Anthony Esolen's book restores the nobility of love to the realm of marriage and the family.


 
How the Church Has Changed the World: The Father of California - Anthony Esolen - Magnificat

Several years ago my son and I were sitting in the beautiful courtyard of San Juan Capistrano.


 
Gerard Manley Hopkins' "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" - Mitchell A. Kalpakgian - Crisis Magazine

Every time someone receives a personal letter, the surprise of a gift, or a friendly visit, a kingfisher catches fire.


 
Walking the Dog - Theodore Dalrymple - The Salisbury Review

A dog supplies what is missing in a loveless world.


 
To Laugh Is Human, But Is Comedy Divine? - Father Dwight Longenecker - The Imaginative Conservative

In a world of overly serious ideologues we should take ourselves lightly, enjoy the joke, and radiate an eternal lightness of being.


 
Marriage and the temptation of self-centerdness - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor

The opening of the No. 7 subway stop down the street is another reminder of the increasing importance of our part of Manhattan.


 
28th Sunday in OT - Father John Horgan - CERC

What is lacking is a real sense of relationship with God.

Editorials of Interest:

Musings at the Midpoint - The Catholic Thing
Everyday Artificial Stupidity - Chronicle of Higher Education
Benedict Option FAQ - The American Conservative

Editorials of Interest


Musings at the Midpoint - Aleteia

The Synod grinds slowly on, and you can see in Rome, with the naked eye, Synod Fathers who look haggard and worn out from long days spent in endless discussions.


Pope's Dormitory of Homeless is Inaugurated - Aleteia

The building was offered to Pope Francis by the headquarters of the Society of Jesus as a response to Francis's October 2013 appeal for buildings to be placed in service of the needy and those in difficulty.


Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the opening of the synod - Catholic Philly

In his opening remarks on the first day of the synod, Francis urged his brother bishops to be guided by three principles in the days of discussion ahead: apostolic courage, evangelical humility and trustful prayer.


Archbishop Chaput to Synod Fathers: We Need to Call People to Grace, Not Confirm Them in their Errors - Aleteia

The work of this synod needs to show much more confidence in the Word of God, the transformative power of grace, and the ability of people to actually live what the Church believes.


Married to an angry man: An open letter to the Synod Fathers - Patheos

I have never heard one put urgency behind the words of Pope Francis: spouses must say "please" and "thank you" and "I'm sorry" or you are sinning against the gift of marriage, just as surely as when you look at porn.


Radically Living the Catholic Faith: An Exclusive Interview with Dr. Janet Smith - Aleteia

Marriage prep would be such a high thing on my list for this Synod. That, and natural family planning and contraception.


The Church Deserves Better (and May Get It) - The Catholic Thing

Seeking to praise everything that shows some human value, as our contemporary politicians try to do, leads to absurd confusions between what normally works — tolerably well — and some of the most dysfunctional phenomena in the history of the human race.


The Catholic Church: Never Changing and Ever Changing - Patheos

Once it is understood that the things that cannot be changed are immutable by the very nature of their structure and nature then more people will understand why the Catholic Church does not change very much.


Embracing the Demands of Priesthood, and Demanding the Embrace of Priests - DeSales

The pope's visit may inspire Catholics to be more demanding. Just as people shamelessly run up to the pope to ask for his blessing and his prayers, they may also run up to their parish priest to ask for his prayers, his blessings, and his presence.


Annulment Reform and Pastoral Challenges for Struggling Couples - CWR

While recent reforms to the annulment process may be a blessing for some, other struggling couples may find them an additional source of anxiety.


After struggling, Jerry Brown makes assisted suicide legal in California - LA Times

The California law will permit physicians to provide lethal prescriptions to mentally competent adults who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and face the expectation that they will die within six months.


Harvard's prestigious debate team loses to New York prison inmates - The Guardian

Prisoners participating in Bard College initiative to provide them a liberal arts education beat Ivy League students who won national title only months ago.


'Hundreds' of Yazidi women killing themselves in ISIS captivity - CNN

A former Iraqi lawmaker, Ameena Saeed Hasan is now making it her mission to rescue as many Yazidi women as she can.


Syrian Priest Abducted by ISIS is Free, Celebrates First Mass - Aleteia

Fr. Jacques Mourad, a Syriac Catholic priest and former prior of the St. Elian Monastery (Mar Elian) in Quaryatayn was set free on Saturday, and on Sunday, he celebrated his first Mass since his abduction.


Everyday Artificial Stupidity - Chronicle of Higher Education

Machines are great at data-searching and number-crunching in narrowly defined domains; but the user-interface software they currently use is artificial stupidity.


How Do You Grieve a Friendship When You Never Wanted to Let It Die? - Jezebel

Friendship will meet different needs in each of us, but even the best friend will never heal all our wounds.


How porn turns men into little boys - Catholic Gentleman

Addictions physically affect the frontal lobes of the brain. When the frontal lobes of the brain are weakened, the person slowly loses impulse control and the mastery of his or her passions. The very thing in the brain that is the mark of adulthood and maturity is the thing that is eroded as we view more porn.


On Resistance: What are the Options? - Crisis Magazine

In the end the question may be less what forms of cooperation with destructive social structures are permissible than how we will manage to make a living in an age of ever more comprehensive leftist Gleichschaltung.


Roger Scruton: 'My tribal religion' - Catholic Herald

An eccentric priest, a single mother and French vineyards offered Roger Scruton "a glowing exit sign" from the Church of England to Rome. So why did he never take it?


The old lies of the Young Turks - New Criterion

In a recent poll, well over 50 percent of Turks still believe that the Armenian Genocide is a figment of the Armenian imagination. This is in spite of statements made by Pope Francis and an increasing number of world leaders recognizing and acknowledging the events of 1915 as the twentieth century's first mass genocide.


Benedict Option FAQ - The American Conservative

The "Benedict" refers to Christians in the contemporary West who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American empire, and who therefore are keen to construct local forms of community as loci of Christian resistance against what the empire represents.


Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and
St. Justin Martyr, pray for us

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