Issue: September 2023
Letter from the District Superior
One of the most precious heritages of our Catholic Tradition is the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This issue brings to our readers some of the rich reflections that have been drawn from the Cross over the ages.
The (Old and New) Mass and the Cross
By His perfect priesthood as both God and Man as well as both Priest and Victim, Christ could offer the perfect sacrifice. He did this upon the Cross. He had already done this the night before, at the Last Supper under the symbols of bread and wine, in a manner reminiscent of the ancient Passover meal. At the same time, He provided the Apostles a means to perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Cross and His Priesthood, through visible sacrifice...
Found in Translation: An Introduction to “The Dream of the Rood”
When I begin to ponder the very existence of the exquisite Anglo-Saxon devotional poem known to us as “The Dream of the Rood,” I am struck simultaneously with sorrow and awe...
The Hidden Treasure of the Church: Major Polish Film on the TLM
On May 13, 2023, an organization called Trudno Być Katolikiem (It’s Hard to Be Catholic) released a Latin Mass documentary in Polish (with English subtitles) called The Hidden Treasure of the Church...
Reading the Cross of Christ’s Cradle: The Nativity
Nativity poems are most candid when they are about the crucifixion. Indeed, no story is more full of birth than that of Christ’s death, only you have to cross your eyes to read the tragedy straight. The optical illusion is this: Life Himself was born to be killed, but not to die, since by the cross, death is crucified. As Richard Crashaw puts it, “Death will on this condition be content to die"...
Walking the Via Dolorosa
There is nothing so profound as walking in the actual footsteps of our Incarnate God. This article provides a glimpse of this experience for those who have not yet been able to go to Jerusalem.
Haunted by the Cross: The Crucified Christ in Eliot’s Poetry
The writer of faith, insofar as he or she is interested in communicating truth, has quite a challenge in an age of radical disbelief when the necessary means of words and symbols, no longer governed by objective reality, have been stripped of meaning, hollowed out, over-used, sentimentalized, or “transed,” changed to suit the ideological whims of the purveyors of mass media...
Kilmer and the Cross
The paradox of cheerfulness and suffering would be foreign, perhaps even repugnant, if Christ had not proven the truth of it on the cross. Think, for a second, with the eyes of a non-Christian. What has your mind gone to Golgotha to see? A tortured corpse who claimed to be God? A street-preacher who, according to all the stories, taught peace and love, but angered his political authorities and opponents? A teacher of better morals forced to die for his doctrine, like a second Socrates?
Carrying the Cross in the School of Fra Angelico
To know how to carry one’s cross, let us go to the school of Fra Angelico who painted several frescos depicting St. Dominic at the foot of the cross. Through his paintings he expresses the dispositions of the Christian soul when faced with suffering and also the effects of the cross in our soul.
Étienne Gilson by Fr. Laurence Shook
What is it to be a philosopher in the 20th Century? What does it take? Is it a profession or vocation? Technically, utility is not the primary concern of Metaphysics, but still, what is the use of philosophy? Do philosophers contribute anything to the society they live in? Or better, do they reform the ills they see afflicting the society? If so, how so?
My Path to Tradition
I grew up in the American South. I can recall almost zero contact with Catholicism. As a child, I did respond one Sunday to a Baptist altar call. However, the pastor later visited to dissuade me: “You’re going to have to stop fighting with your brother, you know… Do you really think you can do that?” Even then, I knew something odd was afoot. Wasn’t Jesus supposed to help me be good? Why, then, was I being talked out of baptism?
Lexicon of the Crisis: “Revelation”
This lexicon takes some traditional terms and shows the difference between their traditional meaning and Modernist reinterpretation, and how they have been employed by the documents of Vatican II and the Conciliar Popes.
The Man of Sorrows
St. Thomas Aquinas not only composed the Mass and Office of Corpus Christi, at the request of the pope, but also a Eucharistic hymn for his own private use, the Adoro te devote. In the penultimate stanza of this hymn, he declares that one drop of the Blood of Christ would have been able to free all mankind from all crimes.
The Mystery of the Redemption
God decided that the Word would become incarnate, and we could have imagined Him coming on the clouds of Heaven as our Lord will come in glory at the end of time, or perhaps as He was on Mount Tabor, radiant with glory. Those seem like ways our Lord should have come into this world...
Meditations on St. John's Gospel-Chapter 21
Some propose that the gospel of St. John was happily concluded with the end of chapter 20, where John said Jesus did many more signs than what has been recorded, “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; and that believing, you may have life in his name” (20:30f). Then chapter 21, the whole of which is found only in the fourth gospel, would be an appendix or afterthought...
Questions & Answers
The confession of sins must be integral. What does it mean?
The Last Word
The problem with the Catholic religion—according to some of its critics—is that it’s too good to be true. A God who gave His creatures free will? And then this God, loving the creature so much and refusing to force its free will, became one of these creatures and died on a cross to save them? And this salvation actually does save them by forgiving sin and conferring the divine life, and this, if they are faithful, will bring about the impassibility and immortality of the body and open the gates of heaven? Well, if only… it were true. It must be a myth...
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