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March 31, 2021

Note from the Assistant Managing Editor:

This week, this Holy Week, I feel a calling to be silent, to pray, and to ponder. There is much inspiration for each of these activities in our newsletter this week.

For now, I will yield the floor to the always pertinent G. K. Chesterton, who wrote this in Orthodoxy about the Passion:

But in that terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'

No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God.

And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay, (the matter grows too difficult for human speech,) but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.

A blessed Holy Week to you all. - Meaghen Gonzalez

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	"The purest suffering bears and carries in its train the purest understanding." - St. John of the Cross

New Resources


		Handed Over for Love of Us - Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap. - The Gaze of Mercy, A Commentary on Divine and Human Mercy Greater love has no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends, Jesus said at the Last Supper.


		Tenebrae: A Sacred Journey - James Monti - Magnificat Tenebrae, named after the Latin word for darkness, is a unique celebration of the early morning prayers of the Divine Office for the three days of the Easter Triduum.


		Barabbas: A Holy Week Examen - Fr. Paul D. Scalia - The Catholic Thing In their respective narratives of our Lord's Passion, all four Gospels mention the crowd's election of Barabbas over Jesus.


		To Be or Not To Be, a Craftsman - John A. Cuddeback - LifeCraft "And aren't the respective crafts by nature set over them to seek and provide what is to their advantage?" - Socrates, Plato's Republic


		Strong Families, Strong Selves - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. - First Things To borrow a thought from Catherine of Siena, nothing great is ever achieved without suffering.


		Time for a Restoration — of Women's Glory - Carrie Gress - Catholic World Report The last fifty years truly have been an assault on the feminine. It is high time we restore both to their glory.


		The Spiritual Works of Mercy - Robert Stackpole - The Divine Mercy Works of mercy can be directed not only toward the needs of the body, but the needs of the soul as well.

Editorials of Interest

Cardinal Sarah Joins Calls to Withdraw Rules Suppressing Individual Masses in St. Peter's Basilica - National Catholic Register

Cardinal Robert Sarah has become the latest cardinal to publicly oppose recent norms suppressing individual Masses in St. Peter's Basilica

Cardinal Zen expresses 'pain and indignation' at St. Peter's Basilica private Mass restrictions - CNA

The former bishop of Hong Kong said March 30 that if he could, he would fly to Rome and kneel outside the pope's residence until the decree was withdrawn.

Cruel and (Very) Unusual: On the banning of Masses in the Vatican Basilica - CWR

The recent and bizarre diktat violates both universality and hospitality while ensuring a more jumbled, less reverent atmosphere at the altars.

Remembering the real St. Patrick - CWR

The United States is still, even in the 21st century, a missionary country. Yet, by some mystical irony, the one and only saint that is universally "honored" in the land of the neo-pagans is St. Patrick the Missionary.

Shroud of Turin Leads to Conversions, Founding of Shroud Center - NC Register

"The Shroud seems to have a great pastoral mission, causing many unexpected conversions," says the founder of the Shroud Center of Southern California, "especially from among young people."

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen on Irish humor, suffering, and love for the Catholic Faith - CWR

Ireland's "particular contribution" to America, said the famous and beloved priest, speaker, and author, "was the emphasis on the fundamentals of our holy religion, namely, a love of sacrifice, and a beautiful and simple faith."

Joe Biden's Transgender Agenda Encounters a Backlash From America - NC Register

From Sen. Rand Paul's grilling of Rachel Levine to a litany of state bills to protect girls' sports from unfair competition and gender-confused children from dangerous drugs and surgeries, the 'gender wars' continue to heat up.

Why Deadnaming Matters - The American Conservative

When we allow the other side to the set the terms of discussion, and police ourselves to conform to them, the battle is already lost.

Dividing by Race Comes to Grade School - WSJ

Students, ages 5 through 11, are urged to 'check each other's words and actions; and become committed activists.

Race debate: Critical race theory - Washington Examiner

This week, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis took the extraordinary step of preemptively banning the implementation of a radical new school curriculum called "critical race theory."

Full text: Vatican doctrinal office's response to a question on the blessing of same-sex unions - CNA

Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?

Teachers compile list of parents who question racial curriculum, plot war on them - The Daily Wire

"Infiltrate . . . shut down their websites . . . expose these people publicly."

Death and Lockdowns - City Journal

There's no proof that lockdowns save lives but plenty of evidence that they end them.

Locked-Down Women Discover True Freedom - Crisis Magazine

Early March saw a flurry of tweets from blue-checkmark women bemoaning the looming return of life to its pre-pandemic whirlwind.

Homosexuality and Authentic Freedom - CWR

The tragic impasse that exists in our culture on the issue of homosexuality stems from two errors.

Jordan Peterson cries talking about Jesus Christ - YouTube

"Sometimes the objective world and the narrative world touch."

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

Note from the Assistant Managing Editor:

"The purest suffering bears and carries in its train the purest understanding." - St. John of the Cross

New Resources

Editorials of Interest