She Gave an Onion
Dostoevsky was concerned lest his depiction be considered blasphemous, and he thus includes in his postscript “one small nota bene: please don’t imagine that I would allow myself, in a work of mine, even the…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Microscopic Goodness
Grushenka recounts a Russian folktale about a wicked woman who dies and is condemned to the burning lake. Pitying her, her guardian angel recalls that the woman did one good deed in her life: she…
Today’s One-Liner (#274)
Wicked as I am, I want to pray! –Grushenka, in Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 8:8
Resurrecting the Frozen Heart
“Brother, in these past two months I’ve sensed a new man in me, a new man has arisen in me! He was shut up inside me, but if it weren’t for this thunderbolt, he never…
Today’s One-Liner (#273)
I looked with deep tenderness, and for the first time in my life I consciously received the first seed of the word of God in my soul. ––Starets Zosima, in Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Gradual
A lost-looking pedestrian with a violin case asked a New York City policeman: “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” the answer was: “Practice, man, practice.” There’s no easier way. You learn to do it…
Today’s One-Liner (#272)
Yet who can tell how many times each day our curiosity is tempted by the most trivial and insignificant matters? –Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin
Liturgical Impermanence
Much of the excitement of guitar Masses, living-room Masses, sport-shirted celebrants, readings from Eldridge Cleaver, coffee-and-donut Eucharists, and post-communion dancing has depended on the dramatic clash of the old and new, the unexpectedness of it…
Today’s One-Liner (#271)
We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourselves. –Samuel Johnson, Adventurer 107, cited in Paul Fussell, Samuel Johnson…
The Depraved Intellect
Dante delineated a hierarchy of sins that, as a Thomist, he based on human reason. Thus the worst sins were lying, deceit, and treachery—the use of the intellect to subvert the truth rather than to…