Of Shakespeare Ben Jonson wrote that he had "little Latin and less Greek." That describes me more or less although my Latin is bit beyond serviceable. A few years ago I took on, as a Lenten exercise, reading the Gospels in Greek. I only managed to get through Mark but this year I am going
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I have been reading John Richardson's third volume of his magnificent biography of that demonic genius, Pablo Picasso. In the late 1920s Picasso was part of the Parisian intellectual elite and not infrequently was in the company of Marcel Proust. It struck me that I have never been tempted to pick
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The British literary critic, Terry Eagleton, recently said of Graham Greene that the novelist belonged to that exclusive club of "lapsed or unorthodox " Catholics. He went on to comment that no organization in the world is more effective than the Catholic Church in allotting honorary
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I learned from the "Guardian" (UK) that the long reigning champion in the search for the world's worst poem, William McGonagall, whose opus on the Tay Bridge Disaster ends with the risibly horrible lines "And the cry rang out all o'er the town/Good Heavens! The Tay bridge is blown/
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The other day I ran across an article in The Guardian that reported on a regular list published by the Travelodge Corporation noting the titles of books left behind after guests departed following their stay in one of their motels/hotels. Among the top ten last month was the latest Harry Potter.
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Recently a young person studying at an East Coast university wrote me about his interest in becoming a Catholic as a result of having read Thomas Merton's "Seven Storey Mountain." His query got me thinking about life changing books. As a young person I read Bernard Haring's "The Law
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In one of his meditations given on Bavarian radio before he became pope, Cardinal Ratzinger made passing reference to the custom known as the "risus paschalis" or "Easter laughter". This curious custom, traceable to the fifteenth century, had the parish priest telling funny
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While the bloggers are worried about the recent motu proprio (a tempest in a teapot in my estimation) I have been thinking about art. Every time I get to New York I try to visit the Frick to stand before Bellini's "The Ecstasy of Saint Francis" - the greatest painting in the whole city
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For over twenty years I have been writing the "Religion Book Notes" for Commonweal so it may seem a bit intrusive to recommend a book on this site but I have just finished Terry Eagleton's "The Meaning of Life" (Oxford University Press). The title may seem like a sketch for
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The saint making machine at the Vatican shows no sign of slowing down. We have just had released to us a list of those Servants of God who are now lined up for beatification. Almost without exception they are vowed religious/founders and foundresses, and priests except for the pacficist martyr (and
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I have just finished reading and it is with some trepidation that I post this message since the blogosphere is cluttered with reactions. It is not my intention to review the work but let me say that I did think it is a powerful book. Those who think it only a work of devotion are mistaken as are
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Nearly two hundred students here at Notre Dame elect Theology as their major. Some do a full double major in philosophy and theology (price of admission: one year of a classical language) while others have different co-majors. We just graduated our seniors this past Sunday. What
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It has long been my habit to try to read something from the classical tradition of Catholic theology each day (I do not always manage to do this if truth be known). Recently I have been reading early each morning some of the shorter treatises of Saint Bonaventure in a new volume from the Franciscan
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Even though the news reports on the tragedy at Virginia Tech have virtually disappeared from the mass media, the image of the murderer is still on my mind. We now know that he made meticulous plans over a fair period of time before he actually began to act. That period of planning made him similar
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I have been indulging my addiction to biographies by reading Walter Isaacson's new life of Albert Einstein. It is a sympathetic portrait with a clear enough explanation of Einstein's scientific contributions that even a layman like me can follow by reading with care. What has
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I loved the photos of the religious signs in the current issue of Commonweal. Over the years I have jotted down such signs as I ran across them. It is to my eternal sorrow that I am not a photographer but here are a few samples I have recorded in my journal:
(1) Just beyond the Georgian line
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