Can I Live Without The Internet For A Month? I’m About To Find Out.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Fear: The Root of Many Faults

FEATURED ARTICLES

READ ARTICLE

You Can’t Buy Holiness

FEATURED ARTICLES

READ ARTICLE

How Irish Monks Saved the World (From the Dark Side)

FEATURED ARTICLES

READ ARTICLE

Americans: Join Us in Prayer for Our Nation

FEATURED ARTICLES

READ ARTICLE

Neo-Paganism and Catholic Mystery

FEATURED ARTICLES

READ ARTICLE

2 days ago in Technology

Can I Live Without The Internet For A Month? I’m About To Find Out.

Since I was sixteen, nearly two decades ago, I have gone online almost every day. Starting August 2, for one month, I’m going off. No email, no social media, no keyboards, no podcasts. No audio books, no video memes, no texts. Not a single smiley-face emoticon. Nothing. Smart phone powered down and stuck deep in a drawer. How is that...

4 days ago in Virtue

Fear: The Root of Many Faults

Many of our faults and failings are more complex than we at first realize. Our patterns of behavior are rarely random, and surface sins are often merely symptomatic of deeper, more subtle wounds in our souls. Fear is a prominent example of a deeper wound, for fear, perhaps second only to pride, is the cause of many of our faults...

2 weeks ago in Books, Virtue

You Can’t Buy Holiness

I don't have a book problem, I tell my wife, I have a bookshelf problem. Our home is overflowing with books on every conceivable topic, with nearly every bookshelf double stacked. Yet, despite this superabundance of tomes, my wishlist remains filled with hundreds more books I would like to buy in the future. No matter how many I seem to...

2 weeks ago in Asceticism, Work, Worship

How Irish Monks Saved the World (From the Dark Side)

Modern historian and commentator Kenneth Clark said in his popular BBC show Civilization, “Western Christianity survived by clinging to places like Skellig Michael, a pinnacle of rock [seven] miles from the Irish coast, rising seven hundred feet out of the sea.” It’s an intriguing claim, crediting the solitary monastery on Skellig Michael with a role in the survival of Western Christianity. Author...

2 weeks ago in Prayer, Spiritual Weapons

Americans: Join Us in Prayer for Our Nation

"Let us always keep before our eyes the fact that here on earth we are on a battlefield and that in paradise we shall receive the crown of victory.” – Padre Pio All great saints and holy teachers of the faith testify that the spiritual life is a continual warfare against three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. In...

4 weeks ago in Liturgy, Prayer

Neo-Paganism and Catholic Mystery

I recently visited the website of a popular company that sells products like deodorant and toothpaste with natural ingredients. Curious to learn more about the business, I visited their blog which was purportedly about the latest trends in health and wellness. What greeted me was not what I expected. Rather than tips on exercise or healthy eating, the blog featured...

2 months ago in Faith, Virtue, Work

Works, Faith, and the Paradox of Grace

One of the most paradoxical aspects of the spiritual life is the tension between human effort and Divine generosity. That is, the question of whether we are saved by what we do or by what God does. Confusion arises because we are quite clearly told in scripture that we must do certain things. We must forgive or we will not be forgiven....

2 months ago in Events

You are Invited to The Idea of a Village Conference 2018

As many of you readers know, my family and I moved some time ago to live in the shadow Clear Creek Abbey, a traditional Benedictine Abbey in the Ozark hills of Oklahoma. We were in search of a different way of life---a life of simplicity and contact with the earth, anchored by the ora et labora of the Abbey's monks. We are...

2 months ago in Art, Asceticism, Evangelization

7 Lessons in Evangelization from Jordan Peterson

Recently, an unlikely thinker has exploded on the world stage. His name is Jordan Peterson. A Canadian clinical psychologist and professor, he is an unlikely candidate for a global intellectual superstar. Yet, his YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, his recent book has risen to a global bestseller, and his current lecture tour is selling out theaters and auditoriums...

2 months ago in Faith, The Church

The Future of the Church

The late 1960s were a time of social, political, and religious upheaval. Revolution was in the air and threatening all the most time-honored traditions and institutions. Then, as now, many were uncertain about the future of the Church. How could the Catholic faith hope to survive in an increasingly secularized world? What would the future of the Church look like?...

2 months ago in Education, Porn

Pornography and Education Part 2: Reopening Windows of Wonder

My school was recently visited by two monks from the Benedictine Monastery in Norcia, Italy. After talking to our students joyfully about the monastic life, they told the faculty gravely that one of the main reasons they turn down their many applicants is the problem of pornography. They gave us their opinion that there is no one, no boy particularly, who...

3 months ago in Education, Porn, Purity

Pornography and Education: Closing Windows of Wonder

In older days, a young woman was assigned her first teaching post in a rural Irish schoolhouse. Though a diligent and disciplined person, she had difficulty capturing the attention of her rowdy students. Then one day, unruly as usual, she happened to say something about Cuchulain. “Who’s Cuchulain?” one boy asked. The teacher began to tell of that hero and,...