The world today is in turmoil. It is united only by a decadent version of Western culture, which is the domination of all life by objectification and subjective valorization. Older and more spiritually integrated cultures struggle against this in order to reassert themselves, but often in the mode of what are
The State of the Liturgy Prior to Vatican II Although the liturgical renewal had percolated for approximately sixty years prior to Vatican II, it had had little impact on the laity in the parish setting. The vast majority of Catholic faithful recognized that they were attending the all-holy sacrifice of
Introduction With the promulgation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, the bishops at Vatican II enthusiastically and ardently hoped to renew the Eucharistic liturgy. While achieving much of what the Council desired, the postconciliar implementation of this renewal has also included many undesirable aspects and unforeseen distressing
Purpose, Personal, and Collective The field of positive psychology consists of the study of the “conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing” of persons. Under its umbrella is a small subfield that focuses on how the presence or absence of one particular factor, purpose, affects happiness and health. This
SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers follow immediately below. In the final episode of Better Call Saul, there is a flashback with Mike Ehrmantraut and Saul Goodman in the desert as they are transporting seven million dollars of bail money for Lalo Salamanca. They come across a cistern full of water. After Saul
Sometime in the first century CE in Rome, a child disgruntled over educational drudgery etched a curious graffito on the wall of his schoolroom. A delightfully executed donkey turns a millstone, grinding grain, while the accompanying inscription states with all the sarcasm this young scholar could muster, “work, little donkey,
Historian Lynn White, in an often-quoted article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (linked here), blames Christianity for the ecological crisis. According to White: Christianity inherited from Judaism . . . a striking story of creation. . . . God planned all [of creation] for man’s benefit and rule:
When I finally got around to watching Matt Walsh’s documentary What is a Woman, I was struck with a sense of déjà vu. The experience was eerily familiar, and it took me a minute to trace the source: a memory of sitting on a Goodwill couch in a one-bedroom apartment,