Why is Lent 40 days?
Question: Why is Lent 40 days? Answer: Lent is 40 days for us because it is a time when we imitate Jesus, when he was led by the Spirit into the desert to fast and be tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1), ...
You don't get what you pay for
In the market, because better things are rarer and more widely sought after, in general you get what you pay for. If you want the best steak you must pay $30 per pound or more, and if you pay only $10 ...
What is enlightenment? -- among angels and us
intellectual historian I once knew used to say that you can really break through to understanding a deep thinker, if, when you encounter some bizarre passage, instead of dismissing it, you try to figure ...
The 'Catena Aurea': Read the Gospel this Advent with St. Thomas Aquinas
Suppose this Advent you were resolved to start reading the Bible on a daily basis, as the saints have advised and Pope Francis is famous for recommending: "It is very beautiful to think of life with the ...
The actual great transformation
I smile and look back with gentle pity when I think of myself as a newly converted Christian at Harvard, huddled together on Friday evenings in Phillips Brooks House with other members of the InterVarsity ...
Newman and the start of the academic year
The memorial of a canonized saint is typically his "dies natalis," his "birthday," the day he passed from this life and was born into everlasting life. But St. John Henry Newman died on Aug. 11, which ...
Demographic decline as caused by 'procreation'
What do we do when we have children? I want to say that the two words we use for it, "reproduction" and "procreation," are almost at war with each other. The word "procreation" connotes what theologians ...
Visiting the dying, a distinct work of mercy
It is not quite one of the corporal acts of mercy. These include "visiting the sick," even if the illness is temporary or slight, and "burying the dead." True, by extension, burying the dead includes ...
