Five Fun Facts About Saint Nicholas
As part of today’s celebration of a great saint, here are some factoids that did not make into my own reflection on Saint Nicholas of Myra. And a merry day to one and all.
Nota in Brevis
Dom Alcuin Reid, and Sacrosanctum at Sixty
December 4th, 2023 marks the 60th birthday of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Liturgy from the Second Vatican Council, and Dom Alcuin Reid has a superlative take on the history, and possible future, of the fateful document. Many of the radical revisions made to the liturgy, especially the Mass, had little to do with[…]
Evelyn Waugh’s Edmund Campion
Five years after his conversion to Catholicism in 1930, English author Evelyn Waugh set his considerable literary talents – he has been described as the greatest prose stylist of the twentieth century, famous for Brideshead Revisited and numerous other works – to writing the life of the Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion, who was no literary[…]
Feast of All the Franciscan Saints
November 29th is the traditional day on which are celebrated all the Saints of the Seraphic Order. It is with every reason that today the Universal Church celebrates the many Franciscan Saints who faithfully followed Jesus in St Francis’ humble and courageous footsteps, to serve as encouragement for everyone within the Franciscan Family to live[…]
A Panegyric on Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Saint Catherine of Alexandria – Whenever we think of her we cannot not mention her outstanding courage and resolve to follow Christ until the end. It was not a joke that an eighteen year old woman, especially in those days of huge conflict which fuelled the political and social turmoil of the time, would challenge[…]
The Presentation of Mary
November 21st is normally the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary at the temple (this year superseded by Christ the King, but a few thoughts may well be in order). This feast has its origins in the Eastern Church, introduced by Emperor Justinian himself, who erected a magnificent Church dedicated to Mary within[…]
Math and the Modern World
Many students – well, let’s broaden the genus, and say many former students, with haunted memories of vague equations and sine-curves and integrals – claim to ‘hate math’, that they were ‘never good at it’, and they’re just not a ‘math person’. Au contraire. Like music, anyone can, at some level, do math – it[…]
Blessed Karolina and Anna, Martyrs for Chastity
Today, particularly in Poland, we recall the virgin-martyr, called the ‘Polish Maria Goretti’, Karolina Kózka, killed during the First World War, defending her chastity against a Russian soldier. Providential that she shares the same last name as another Polish saint, Stanislaus Kostka, of whom we wrote a few days ago. John Grondelski has a moving[…]
The Worm Turns
Dr. Joseph Campbell presents the evidence for injuries stemming from the mRNA therapy, and the first High Court case for some sort of recompense. It’s becoming more evident that risks were downplayed and hidden, and benefits overplayed and exaggerated – whether deliberately or not, remains to be seen. But the worm seems to be turning,[…]
Iceland’s Eggshell
I vaguely recalling reading somewhere that if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of an egg, its crust would be far, far thinner than that the shell of the egg. And below that fragile exterior, across this (apparently) stable planet are vast swathes of frothing and boiling molten lava, subterranean volcanoes just waiting[…]