Editor’s note: This is the eighth post in our newest series, Beholding True Beauty, which consists of prayerful reflections on works of sacred art. The series will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month of October. Read the whole … Continue reading
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Walk Close to Jesus
Editor’s note: This is the thirteenth and final post in our newest series, reflecting on the Hillbilly Thomists’ recent, self-titled album. The series has run throughout the Easter season. Read the whole series here. This post concerns the song “Just … Continue reading
Preaching the Word, without Words
Editor’s note: This is the ninth post in our newest series, reflecting on the Hillbilly Thomists’ recent, self-titled album. The series will run each Tuesday and Thursday throughout the Easter season. Read the whole series here. This post concerns the … Continue reading
A Remedy for the Absurd
In 1947, Albert Camus published La Peste, a novel recounting a plague that settles into Oran in French Algeria. After a few citizens contract it, the weekly death toll climbs, prompting plague regulations that seal off the town and quarantine … Continue reading
Preferring the Light
Are you happy? Or, at least, happier? We’ve hit the halfway point of Lent—three weeks down, three weeks to go. That’s three weeks without whatever little pleasures we sacrificed for this penitential season. Three weeks deprived of coffee, or soda, … Continue reading
The Light of Conscience
Our friend Tom is in a moral pickle. His elderly mother—bedridden with dementia and slipping in and out of consciousness—nonetheless clings to life. There is no telling how long until she will “shuffle off this mortal coil.” In the meantime, … Continue reading
A Vision of Fiery Chariots
“Why?” It’s a common enough question, even from a very young age. We tend to ask the question differently as time goes on, though: “Daddy, why is that squirrel’s belly white?” becomes “Why didn’t my son come home from Iraq?” … Continue reading
Birdbrain
“Birdbrain” is actually more of a compliment than an insult. Ounce-for-ounce, birds have significantly more neurons in their brains than almost all mammals. The way birds migrate proves this. Have you ever wondered why birds don’t get lost when they … Continue reading
Hope in the Dark
My heart in hiding stirred for a bird,– the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! -Gerard Manley Hopkins I think everyone is a little bit scared of being alone in the dark. The travels of Caspian the Navigator have … Continue reading
Prayer of the Needy
One of the parts of the Mass in which the Church gives her priests autonomy over word choice is the introduction to the Prayers of the Faithful. There are many fine ways to direct the faithful to prayer, but one … Continue reading
The Light of the Just One
We tend to shy away from our sins and weaknesses coming to light. When we hear of someone caught and punished for committing injustice, we might be tempted to think them worse off than those ‘lucky’ evildoers who get off … Continue reading
The True Axis of the Earth
In C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, dead souls ascend by bus from a hellish suburbia to the edge of heaven. For the dead souls, everything in this new land overwhelms. The leaves are heavy, the light blinding, even the … Continue reading
Lenten Conference Audio: Beholding Light
Dominicana is happy to offer this audio recording of “Beholding Light: Living and Recognizing the Realities of Grace.” It was given by Br. Hyacinth Grubb, O.P. as the final installment of the 2017 Lenten Conferences at the Dominican House of … Continue reading
Dispelling Darkness
On a recent Sunday evening, another brother and I walked up to a snow-covered golf course at the edge of the grounds at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Up for the week visiting our campus ministry there, we had … Continue reading
Living in the Light
Once, in botany class, I conducted a memorable experiment. After planting a number of beans, I placed half of the young sprouts in a greenhouse and half in a dark cupboard. Each day, I would water the young plants and … Continue reading
A Prayer of Christian Philosophy
Why, O Eternal Wisdom, do the heavens move as they do, the rains fall, and the windows fog? Why does my breath make clouds? Why does the oil hover on the water and the light burn up the darkness? Why, … Continue reading
Light in the Darkness
Light veils monsters to weak eyes. This fact is familiar if you’ve ever been spotted in the dark. A blinding flash fills your doe eyes, abruptly ending your midnight escapades. Frozen, you hold your breath, waiting to see who is … Continue reading