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September 11, 2019

Note from the Assistant Managing Editor:

If I could make one recommendation this week, it would be to spend some time with "God & Bertie Wooster."

"Suppose that laughter offers blessed escape for a while from the terrible mattering that possesses modern times.  Suppose that Christendom — the deep unity of Western culture through the years — survives best not when it is trying to respond to the relentless thud with which secular history marches, but when it dances a little.  And suppose that God's grace doesn't dwell just in the tears we shed at the tragedy of the world, but also in the play of comedy.  Wodehouse titled one of his best novels Joy in the Morning, after a passage in Psalm 30 that Jeeves quotes to Bertie Wooster: 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.'  And it's true.  Joy does come in the morning, and laughter from reading P. G. Wodehouse.  That's a small grace, but a real one."

If you've been despairing over the fate of the world, it will give you hope.  And if you've been going through a difficult time personally, I highly recommend Something Fresh. - Meaghen Gonzalez



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"Joy is the flag that flies over the castle of our hearts, announcing that the king is in residence today." - William Knight



New Resources


 
"I desire mercy, not sacrifice" - Mother Marie des Douleurs - From an unpublished manuscript

Charity is universal and its obligation is always absolute.


 
God & Bertie Wooster - Joseph Bottum - First Things

In those dark days of the twentieth century, in the middle of the apparent collapse of it all, there was at least one man who had the courage, the intelligence, and the sheer persevering goofiness simply to ignore the whole mess.


 
Introduction - Peter Kreeft - from Symbol or Substance?

A dialogue on the Eucharist with C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Billy Graham.


 
The Good Censor - Anthony Esolen - Magnificat

The doctor came into the hospital room, where a man not yet in his old age was getting dressed to go home. The doctor was a little nervous.


 
Is Catholic Confession Biblical? - Edward Sri - Edward Sri blog

"Why do I need to confess my sins to a priest? He can't forgive my sins. He's not God!"


 
Loneliness is a human catastrophe — and it's getting worse - Barbara Kay - National Post

This new form of social poverty is, paradoxically, most evident in the world's richest nations.


 
A family mission statement: Why and how to make one - Thomas Lickona - Psychology Today

Creating a sense of purpose and identity.

Editorials of Interest:

Some Thoughts For Late Summer - Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Prosperity Breeds Idiots - First Things

Editorials of Interest


The legal, political, spiritual and canonical implications of Cardinal Pell's conviction - NC Register

This case is a stark warning of a new circumstance in which faithful Christians have to reckon with suffering for their beliefs.


The unvarnished truth about celibacy - Mercatornet

People can live without sex; what they can't live without is love. Celibacy is a sign to a world starved of love.


The perils of our present liturgical context - Catholic World Report

A deadly separation has occurred between liturgy, theology, and piety.


Brewing Monks: A List of the World's Monastic Beers - Building Catholic Culture

Monastic beer is experiencing a Renaissance.


Some Thoughts For Late Summer - Archdiocese of Philadelphia

In his weekly column, Archbishop Chaput recommends two new books that are too worthy to ignore and talks about the reality of the devil.


The Hazards of Online Faith-Writing - Church Life Journal

What happens to faith when you package and market it? What happens to you?


Mass Shootings and Émile Durkheim - First Things

Mass killings may be of a different order; we may not have yet explained their nature.


Prosperity Breeds Idiots - First Things

In the end, all streams of socialist thought flow in the same direction.


'Woke capitalism' is no substitute for Catholic social teaching - Crisis Magazine

181 CEOs, including those of Walmart, JP Morgan, and AT&T, have pledged to "lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders — customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders."


Early attachment is vital to happiness - Mercatornet

All the Faith and Family Findings of the last few months drive home the most basic fact about human nature: we are made to belong, and cannot belong just to ourselves.


'Everything Is a Blessing': The Secrets of Large Families - NC Register

Large families prove the exception to the demographic rule in US.


If you don't find your identity in a family, you'll look for it in the Primal Screams of identity politics - Public Discourse

In her new book, Mary Eberstadt argues that today's identity politics arose from the deep anthropological wound slit open by the sexual revolution.


Some Human Beings Carry Remnants of Other Humans in Their Bodies - Church Life Journal

It would be one thing to have the cells from another person in your body and for them to do nothing. But it is another thing entirely that these cells become integrated into maternal tissue and are active and working in ways that we are just beginning to understand.


Here's what ex-transgenders are telling the Supreme Court - The Federalist

In an unusual amicus brief, a group of people who used to be transgender say that not only should gender identity not be a protected class, but that it's an imaginary construct of traumatized minds.


How do you help someone reconsider a decision to have an abortion? - Life News

Imagine how many families are on the fence, except when they come to abortion facilities there is no one waiting outside to hear their story and offer them another place to go.


5 Reasons Satan loves pornography - Aleteia

First, Satan loves pornography because he hates freedom.


New anti-porn program connects men with hope and a plan to kick addiction - NC Register

The program throws a lifeline to the pornography-obsessed.


Sex in the Garden - CWR

Contrary to popular opinion, Saint Augustine does not denigrate sex.


When talking about morality, start with natural law - NC Register

Just as the nature of a violin dictates what you should and should not do to it if you want it to function well, so the nature of a human person reveals how we ought to conduct ourselves so that we can thrive.


A Special Interview with David Greenwalt - Word on Fire

Hollywood writer and producer of Grimm and Angel on good storytelling and his conversion to Catholicism.


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

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