August 2018

Witness to Wonder, liturgy, Catholic Mass

The Catholic Liturgy: Communion with the Sublime

Because the content of the Church’s catechesis is rooted in her life of worship, that being the time and place where Catholics ordinarily encounter the mysteries of Christ, celebrations of liturgy ought especially to evoke a sense of wonder. What other event on planet Earth can equal the marvels of the Catholic Mass? It is, simply put, God’s greatest, most powerful act of self-giving love the world has ever seen.

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St. Augustine’s Theology of the Eucharist

St. Augustine’s theology of the Eucharist stresses its proper effect, which is the unity of the Mystical Body. It has this effect of binding together the Mystical Body of Christ precisely because the members of the Church receive the real Body and Blood of Christ. In other words, the charity that binds the Church together is the proper effect of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.

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Emily Stimpson Chapman, blackberry cobbler,

A Recipe for Hospitality: Simple Blackberry Cobbler

A few months back, in the deep, dark, frozen recesses of January, a friend showed up at my door with two crates of blackberries in hand. Apparently, he’d already dispensed about a dozen more elsewhere. If you’d asked me before that January day if said friend had mafia connections, I would have unhesitatingly answered, “No!” Now, I’m not so sure—mostly because his explanation as to where the blackberries came from amounted to, “They fell off of a truck.”

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Before Church and State, St. Louis IX, France

St. Louis and a Most Christian Kingdom

Histories of St. Louis’s rule have tended to be dependent on the narrative of the secular State and normally follow this pattern. In the thirteenth century, France gained territorial integrity. This newly expanded kingdom was increasingly governed by the central authority. The king worked to monopolize violence, bringing more and more “feudal” activities under his purview. To this end, Louis outlawed private war and the duel.

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