The Narthex

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…

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when she was taken body and soul to heaven, might seem to have affinities to the Resurrection and Ascension. Let’s examine them. First of all, the Assumption is not a resurrection. In proclaiming the dogma of the Assumption, Pope Pius XII took pains…

August 14 is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, martyr. Kolbe, a 47-year old Polish Franciscan, gave his life in substitution for another man in Auschwitz’s starvation bunker. To recap: Kolbe was arrested by the German occupiers of Poland in February 1941 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In…

Vatican II talked about the Church in dialogue with the modern world. Some of us have wondered whether that dialogue has been largely one-sided, i.e., modernity talking and the Church listening. One hopes the dialogue also would proceed in the other direction, to a world largely convinced of its rightness…

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Celebrated in the midst of summer, it perhaps gets short shrift from many Catholics. Catholics more regularly are reminded of the Transfiguration each year on the Second Sunday of Lent, when we read of it in one of the three Synoptic Gospels. It’s…