The Narthex

Piety is both a moral virtue and a gift of the Holy Spirit. Piety allows one to recognize relationships and where one fits in those relationships. With regard to God, it enables the person to recognize that God is Creator and he is a creature or, to put it bluntly,…

As the Church prepares to close the 2026 Easter Season with Evening Prayer II next Sunday, I'll share some final reflections on this juncture in the liturgical year. Liturgical Anomaly The “pastoral” shift of the Solemnity of the Ascension from the 40th day after Easter (i.e., Ascension Thursday) to displacing…

Today is Karol Wojtyła’s/St. John Paul II’s 126th birthday. He was born on Tuesday, May 18, 1920. It is hard to believe that, after a 26-year pontificate supplemented by eight of the Ratzinger pontificate, the teaching and focus of the Wojtyła papacy as a lens to view the proper implementation…

The interval between the Ascension and Pentecost was archetypal for a particular kind of prayer: the novena. Before the end of His final post-Resurrection bodily appearances to His disciples, Christ instructed them on the fortieth day to remain in Jerusalem, wait, and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit.…

I have been a critic of the “pastoral adaptation” of the Catholic Bishops of the United States, whereby Ascension Thursday is transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter if that is the policy of an entire ecclesiastical province. Most of the United States has “adapted” except for some ecclesiastical provinces…

In last week’s Gospel, Jesus called Himself the “sheepgate,” the sole legitimate entrance to the sheepfold. In this week’s Gospel, St. Peter calls Jesus the “cornerstone.” He also calls Him a “stone that will make people stumble and a rock that will make them fall” (1 Pt 2:8, quoting Is…

Writing about the Gospel for this past Sunday, Fr. Paul Scalia pointed out something we might be prone to overlook: Jesus describes Himself not as the “Good Shepherd” but as the “sheep gate.”  “I am the gate for the sheep…  Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come…

“I want to make history” is something heard at least from the ambitious. Yet it seems those who succeed are few and far between. Go check out an encyclopedia and pick any “historical” figure at random. I’ll bet that, with very few exceptions, if their life gets to fill half…

Universalism is the heresy that all persons will eventually be saved. It is fueled by various motives: that a “loving” God could not condemn a sinner to eternal damnation for even persistent wrongdoing in a finite lifetime; that God’s “love” can eventually “overcome” human resistance without damaging free will; or…

At Mass for Wednesday in the First Week of Lent, the First Reading focuses on Jonah’s successful conversion of the Ninevites. Threatening them with God’s destruction should they not mend their ways, “the people of Ninevah believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put…

We are constantly flooded with stimuli -- so much so that we often fail to notice when seemingly unrelated developments share a common logic. Consider two recent pieces in The New York Times. In one, Oren Cass criticizes what he calls “financialization”: an economy increasingly devoted not to producing goods…

The Church’s weekday readings are making their way through the glory days of kingship in Israel, the reigns of David and Solomon. (That is to contrast them with the less-than-glorious rulers, subsequent to the division of Israel and Judah.) On Saturday, the First Reading featured Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, wisdom…

The Jewish website Mosaic carried Adam Eilath’s interesting article “Jews Must Resist Becoming a People of the Screen.” The author reflects on traditional Jewish religious education. It’s not by accident that Jews (and later Christians) were called “people of the Book,” because of the centrality of Scripture to their faith.…

Amazon has produced a docudrama on the First Lady, Melania. You might love it or hate it (or, like me, haven't seen it) but promotion of an incumbent First Lady is not uncommon. If you doubt it, ask how many times Vogue featured Jill Biden on its front cover --…

I grew up in a New Jersey Rust Belt town which has lost its factories and is now somewhat economically depressed: Perth Amboy. Its name is unusual, a blend of cultures.  “Perth” comes from the Earl of Perth in Scotland, who was one of the backers of the city's 17th…