Note from the Managing Editor:
"The Church will become small" are now familiar words of Cardinal Ratzinger, with which we begin this week. We reprint the quote with context, and what struck me was the parallel to the constant conversion necessary for personal faith, "self-denial which alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego." See "Dedication to the Church."
Then we reprint a beautiful section from Dietrich von Hildebrand on "Why the Light of Purity is Needed to See the Mystery of Sex." "Nothing reveals more plainly the presence of a mystery than this need of a special sanction from God to enter the sexual domain." The pure man, because he waits for that special sanction in marriage, treats sex with the respect and awe it demands both before — and after — the sacrament.
Aside from that, we have several pieces on the errors of Communism, ideas which are still very much with us — and gaining traction. All of them are worth a read; I especially enjoyed Theodore Dalrymple's "The Way of Che." Che is a popular figure, but charism does not equal right. "The triumph of marketing over truth and reality is nothing new" and we must beware.
Finally, in this month of November, it is good to remember the dead. In "The Vanishing Body and the Disappearing Cemetery," John M. Grondelski explains why we should still visit cemeteries, despite the shortening of grieving rituals and the prevalence of cremation. In a nutshell: for the benefit of those who have died — and for ours. - Meaghen Hale |
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"The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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New Resources
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Dedication to the Church - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - from Faith and the Future
The future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith.
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Solzhenitsyn's cathedrals - Gary Saul Morson - The New Criterion
On the literary works of Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
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What we learned from the Russian Revolution - Father Raymond J. de Souza - National Post
That day in November 1917 when Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks seized power in Russia may have been the darkest day in the history of humanity.
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Murderers' Row, Soviet-style - George Weigel - The Catholic Difference
One hundred years ago, on November 7, 1917, Lenin and his Bolshevik Party expropriated the chaotic Russian people's revolution that had begun eight months earlier, setting in motion modernity's first experiment in totalitarianism.
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The Way of Che - Theodore Dalrymple - Taki's Magazine
The Irish Post Office has issued a stamp to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Ernesto Guevara.
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Fantasizing about Illusions - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor
Annals new and old are filled with quotations that most people can recognize.
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32nd Sunday in OT - Father John Horgan - CERC
The parable of the five foolish virgins.
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Editorials of Interest:
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Editorials of Interest
The Principled Ambivalence of Pope Francis - First Things
These four principles dear to the papal heart are: "Time is greater than space"; "unity prevails over conflict"; "realities are more important than ideas"; and "the whole is greater than the part."
Prayer Isn't a Distraction - National Review
The anti-prayer tweets aren't encouraging a debate about gun control; they are discouraging expressions of shock, sympathy, and mourning.
Why I Pray, Even After the Texas Shooting - Daily Wire
I don't pray with an expectation that this prayer will finally break the cycle of evil and suffering, that never again will I or someone I love be devastated by suffering. Instead, I try to trust.
Opting Out - ISI
I do not dispute Dreher's claim that Christians need to wake up and recover more intentional patterns of discipleship. But it has ever been so.
Statistics We Refuse to Collect - Crisis Magazine
My first encounter with the deliberate fuzzing of numbers in order to tell political lies was when I read James Burtchaell's book, Rachel Weeping: The Case Against Abortion.
Emotions: The Devil's Playground - Mind & Spirit
If you're a typical person of average mental health, emotions don't just fall from the sky and land on you, rather they are always the result of a thought. Enter the Devil.
Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and St. Justin Martyr, pray for us |
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