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June 3, 2020

Note from the Assistant Managing Editor:

"We are dependent.  To the proud, this is anathema."  And yet, says Catherine Doherty in this week's reflection, "this is the first step to prayer."

Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote, "When a day passes it is no longer there.  What remains of it?  Nothing more than a story.  If stories weren't told or books weren't written, man would live like the beasts, only for the day.  The whole world, all human life, is one long story."  Wilfred M. McClay discusses the importance of knowing the story of our own countries in "Recovering Our Legacy: The Many Uses of the American Past."

"In Search of Father Damien" is a beautiful piece about saints who were protected from disease while ministering to the ill — and one who wasn't: Fr. Damien, who gave his life for the lepers of Molokai.

I loved this snippet from Bishop Robert Barron on why "Jesus compels a choice in a manner that no other religious founder does...Thus, we are either with Jesus or we are against him."

We end with a hopeful piece from Fr. Rutler.  "During these long weeks, the absence of votive lights in a darkened church has contrasted with the candles that used to burn here, and I hope that soon there will be even more lit than before.  But all this time, a lamp has burned before the Blessed Sacrament."

God bless you all this week! - Meaghen Gonzalez



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"Each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most." - G.K. Chesterton



New Resources


 
How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven - Servant of God Catherine Doherty, CM - from Donkey Bells, Advent and Christmas

We should start realizing what true poverty is.


 
Why Young Christians Get "Weird" - John Horvat II - The Catholic Thing

Many liberal writers have trouble explaining the attraction that young people have for religion, especially in its more traditional forms.


 
In Praise of Good Teachers - Peter Kwasniewski - Crisis

Both Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas speak of the debts of gratitude we owe to others — to God, to our parents, to our city or nation — anyone from whom we receive benefits.


 
Recovering Our Legacy: The Many Uses of the American Past - Wilfred McClay - The Imaginative Conservative

We Americans need to know our history. And we need to know it far better than we have in the past.


 
In Search of Father Damien - Michael Warren Davis - Crisis

The history of the Church during pandemic is full of saints who were miraculously defended from disease.


 
"I am the way and the truth and the life" - Bishop Robert Barron - Word On Fire

Friends, in today's Gospel Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life."


 
The contrast of light and dark - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor

In these days of closures, which must soon end, I am able to offer Mass quietly for the intentions of parishioners and others, and I often take the opportunity to use the Extraordinary Form, whose beautiful cadences end with the "Last Gospel."

Editorials of Interest:

Save Catholic Schools - National Review Online
Christianity and Sex - Catholic Culture
Interview with Roy Schoeman - Seattle Catholic
The Black Hours - The Morgan

Editorials of Interest


Pope Benedict XVI's letter marking St. John Paul II's birth centenary - NC Register

"Evil will not get the final victory. The mystery of Easter affirms that good will ultimately be victorious, that life will triumph over death, and that love will overcome hatred."


5 Things to Know about the Church Crisis - CPI

The level of chaos and crisis in the Church now is overwhelming, and it only promises to increase.


A Biblical Mystery at Oxford - The Atlantic

A renowned scholar claimed that he discovered a first-century gospel fragment. Now he's facing allegations of antiquities theft, cover-up, and fraud.


Reviving the Freedom of Association - Public Discourse

A competent First Amendment jurisprudence must adequately account for the rich web of associations that enable human flourishing. To live in communities according to shared values is essential to our humanity.


The Fate of the First Amendment Will Be Decided By These Nine Cases - Crisis Magazine

Even years later, the Obama administration's assault on religious freedom continues to impact religious organizations. And other serious threats have since emerged.


The Wisdom of Boethius for Uncertain Times - Church Life Journal

Boethius' most well-known text, and the one I think offers us guidance as we continue to shelter-in-place, is the one he wrote when the comfortable life he was living at the beginning of the 6th century was unexpectedly interrupted: The Consolation of Philosophy.


Bill Barr: the Unsung Hero of Covidtide - Crisis Magazine

It's good to know that the people of God who want to celebrate their faith under the harsh glare of lockdown advocates have U.S. Attorney General William Barr to protect forcefully their right to religious freedom.


Clarence, Get Me Back! I Want to Live Again! - Lion & Ox

Whereas Frank Capra's George Bailey was granted the experience of seeing what life would be like without him, we have been 'granted' the opposite experience: the horrible vision of seeing what we are like without life!


Save Catholic Schools - National Review Online

Their cause is before the Supreme Court. Let them serve. Help them serve.


The Cross and the current crisis - CWR

Fulton Sheen, in his Life of Christ, has the tedious habit of mentioning the Cross on almost every page, suggesting that everything Jesus said and did pointed to the Cross, and points us to our own crosses.


Christianity and Sex - Catholic Culture

Civilization is being uprooted from its foundations in nature and tradition and is being reconstituted in a new organization which is as artificial and mechanical as a modern factory.


Life-Giving Wounds: Healing for the children of divorce - NC Register

An interview Dr. Dan Meola regarding his ministry, Life-Giving Wounds.


What's love got to do with it? Surrogacy for the rich and famous. - NC Register

Anderson Cooper's recent acquisition of a child through surrogacy underscores that surrogacy is inherently unfair.


Education is personal, not just embodied: A friendly response to Randall Smith - CWR

The quality of education is not just a matter of where you are — online or in person — but depends even more on how personally involved the professor and students are.



Interview with Roy Schoeman - Seattle Catholic

Roy Schoeman is a convert from Judaism and the author of the book Salvation is from the Jews.


The Black Hours - The Morgan

This Book of Hours, referred to as the Black Hours, is one of a small handful of manuscripts written and illuminated on vellum that is stained or painted black.


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

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