Even when they call us mad,When they call us subversives and communistsAnd all the epithets they put on us,We know that we only preach The subversive witness of the Beatitudes,Which have turned everything upside downTo proclaim…
The boldest people are those who are rightly related to divine things. –Josef Piper, The Human Wisdom of St. Thomas: A Breviary of Philosophy from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, #355
Turn your attention upon yourself and beware of judging the deeds of other men, for in judging others a man labors vainly, often makes mistakes, and easily sins; whereas, in judging and taking stock of…
The sinner is the very heart of Christianity. –Charles Péguy, cited by James V. Schall, The Classical Moment
Would the re-sacralization of the priesthood pull the Church back from her work with the poor and the friendless? Would we become a house of self-regarding bourgeois pietism? Well, seek out for yourself a slum…
Truth is so obscured nowadays and lies so well established that unless we love the truth we shall never recognize it. –Blaise Pascal, Pensées, translated by A.J. Krailsheimer
If you’re looking for a silver lining in these years of chaos and rancor, consider this: We now know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the calvary ain’t coming. We know that our elected officials,…
To pray the psalms with even half a heart was to be comforted and discomfited, set in motion, set in stillness, set free, set on edge, led outside, led within. –Daniel Berrigan, Uncommon Prayer: A…
Around the turn of the last century, a prominent London newspaper called The World put the following question to its readers, offering a prize for the best possible answer: “What’s wrong with the world?” Not the newspaper, of…
Even among the saints he has the air of a sort of eccentric, if one may use the word of one whose eccentricity consisted in always turning towards the centre. –G. K. Chesterton, from his…