The Narthex

World Vasectomy Day Nov 21-22 is the 12th Annual "World Vasectomy Day," an annual "celebration" during which vans prowl some neighborhoods offering male sterilization. Since 2022 the act has been designated a sign of male "ally-ship" with post-Dobbs women by "taking responsibility" for fertility. Such euphemistic claptrap has become so normalized…

November is the month dedicated to prayer for the faithful departed. Many Catholics visit cemeteries during November. For that reason I want to share Father Józef Tischner’s reflections on cemeteries, found in the just-released translation of one of his seminal works, The Philosophy of Drama. Tischner is most known as…

Yesterday, November 17, marked an anniversary: 35 years ago the Lord freed the Czech and Slovak peoples from Communist oppression through the Velvet Revolution. Let us not forget that great moment in human freedom in 1989. Five years ago, I walked across Charles Bridge, that famous span in Prague, going…

Social media is beset by hysterical women and soy boys having collective hissy-fits and meltdowns that their country has “betrayed” them by electing Donald Trump. A certain Schadenfreude has led to re-postings of breakdowns, and to normal people asking whether they're real. Alas, they are real. They're real and they…

As November begins, light or its lack becomes something of a focus. The American poet William Cullen Bryant described the end of October, leading into November, as when “suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief.” In England, bonfires traditionally illumined the hills on these days as the harvest…

Each year as Columbus Day rolls around, I recall Mrs. Tkac. Mrs. Tkac was a childhood neighbor whose funeral I attended on Columbus Day 1968. They say that childhood impressions last longest and, I have to say, in this case, it’s true. I didn’t know Mrs. Tkac personally; I was…

October 2 is the feast of the Guardian Angels. I hold a particular devotion to the Guardian Angels. Angels, after all, testify to a certain hierarchy of being: from inanimate things (rocks) to beings with simple vegetative souls (the principle by which something lives, e.g., flowers) to beings with simple…

October 1 marks the start of the fourth and final quarter of 2024. In 90 days, we will be celebrating New Year’s Day and making “resolutions.” It’s your last chance to consider what you did with last year’s resolutions. I’ve tried this year to flag the passage of the quarters…

Jesus told His disciples that as they “receive” a child, they receive not just Him but He who sent Him. In the past I have written about Jesus’ words in light of Catholic teaching about parenthood and openness to life (article linked below). If we are to recognize children and,…

A commonplace excuse for why people do not pray is they “don’t have time.” Taken at face value, some might imagine it plausible but, honestly, probed a little harder, the excuse often collapses for the rationalization it is. September 19 is the anniversary of Our Lady’s appearance at La Salette…

Imagine a scenario where Jesus and his modern disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asks his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" They say in reply, "Allah, others Brahma or Buddha, still others Confucius or one of the ethical teachers." And…

The Value of a Smile This morning, a woman sat opposite me on the Metro. I didn't know her nor she me, but I did notice one thing. She smiled, not just at me but at whomever she looked. She didn't try to pretend she saw nobody in a car…

Following the Fall, the human reaction was to hide from God. When God calls to the man and the woman, the man announces he is hiding, ostensibly because of his nakedness -- which he also was before he sinned -- but really because of the guilt sin unleashed. It unleashed…

Bentley is a private university in Waltham, just outside Boston, Massachusetts. It started life as a business school but a cursory look at its webpage suggests it has graduated to woke. It’s “more than business” because it creates “leaders for positive change” by “redefining success” (check with your employer whether…

As the Solemnity of the Assumption once more fades away for another year, some parting thoughts on the significance of the feast: One: It's a Pro-life Holy Day Three unborn children appear in the readings for the Solemnity, one in the First Reading, two in the Gospel. The child in…