The following is a review of the film Calvary. Spoilers Ahead. Calvary is rated R and earns this rating. Viewer discretion advised.  I first watched the film Calvary four years ago. I remember leaving the theater feeling shocked and not a little disgusted. It was a brutal film, even an ugly film. And yet, four years later, I believe it […]

The history of salvation is in many ways a history of mediation. In the Old Covenant, God raised up mediators in the form of priests and prophets—like Moses, Aaron, and Samuel—to intercede for the salvation of his people. These mediators were specifically chosen, often reluctantly, to carry out the divine mission. These men were types […]

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the beginning of Holy Week. Worshippers of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church in Tanta, Egypt were gathered together, palm branches in hand, to remember the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of his Passion. Without warning, an explosion violently rocked the front row of the church, spraying the attending priest with […]

  One of the most pernicious lies of the modern world is that life is supposed to be easy and comfortable. There is even a sense in which moderns believe they are entitled to this comfort and ease—that it is some sort of fundamental human right. Many of us have absorbed this subtle thinking, even though we […]

St. Thomas More is one of the great English saints of the Church and he is a wonderful saint for those individuals who are undergoing persecution for their Christian faith. St. Thomas More was born in 1478 in London where his father was a lawyer and judge. He received a stellar education at St. Anthony’s school […]

The world, it seems, is falling to pieces. Each day brings ever worsening reports of war, violence, and devastation. Protests, riots, bombings, beheadings, rapes, kidnappings, persecutions—the list goes on and on. Yesterday, yet another horror unfolded in Paris, one of the most devastating yet in the Western world, and we feel with foreboding that it […]

You may have noticed that things have been quiet around here, with few postings on the blog or Facebook—and that’s because we moved on Saturday. The past week was an intense time of packing, tackling last minute chores, and now, unpacking with two toddlers constantly underfoot. Things have been rather crazy to say the least. The […]

Note: The following article is from a chapter in Dom van Zeller’s Suffering: The Catholic Answer, available from Sophia Institute Press. It is reprinted with permission. Psychologists tell us that one of the chief evils of our age, an evil apparently less evident in earlier ages, is that of easy defeat. Be this as it may, most people […]