June 19th, 2007
This just in from the Catholic News Agency:
London, Jun 19, 2007 / 11:49 am (CNA).- The British Secret Service, MI6, has published an alarming report in the magazine Sunday Express revealing that some 200 million Christians in 60 countries around the world are at risk of suffering persecution.
Click here to read the rest of the [...]
June 18th, 2007
A friend of mine from our local mythopoeic book group just put me on to this “social networking” sight for bibliophiles: Goodreads.com. It’s a great place to list the books you read and recommend books to others.
I just signed on and my profile is here. If you join up, I would enjoy being added as [...]
June 16th, 2007
Thanks to Kevin Jones of Philokalia Republic (and a fellow member of the Yahoo discussion group, Literate Catholics Unite) for bringing to our attention at LCU a YouTube posting of Walker Percy’s 1989 speech at Notre Dame upon receiving the Laetare Medal. Click on the arrow below to begin.
June 14th, 2007
…Or how language can cease to have any meaning. The City Journal has a very useful article presenting “some thoughts on writing well.” Because language is mutable, it is prone to manipulation. A perfectly hilarious demonstration was offered by an NYU professor who submitted for publication to the postmodern magazine, Social Text, an essay [...]
June 11th, 2007
I’ve always been fascinated by the so-called “Romantic Movement”, particularly as it developed in England. We tend to associate Romanticism with often dangerous things like hyper-individualism, the exaltation of feeling over reason, the cult of the Celebrity Anti-hero, and even a sort of foreshadowing of Sixties’ Free Love and all sorts of pseudo-revolutionary mischief.
Those negative [...]
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
Joan of Arc: A Life (Penguin Lives) by Mary Gordon
None
There is a sense of insignificance which is trying and discouraging and leads to envy of the rich and great. It leads also to a certain selfishness even amid poverty and absolute want. The absence of the ideal of the self as potentially great and capable of great deeds keeps it small and self-centred….The greatness of the Church, coupled with a true sense of the dignity of the individual human soul, if looked at as a Christian should look at it, is the true antidote.
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Kelly Hatzenbihler on 