The Narthex

"Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised."  The Collect for the 19th…

When we celebrate a Catholic wedding, we do so for more than the couple marrying. We do so for all those present. The same is true for baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. How many of the people present to witness a Catholic marriage are not Christian, are Christian…

Governors Kathy Hochul of New York and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania have announced they are providing free breakfasts to all kids in schools of those states because kids should not be in school with “empty bellies.” Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is introducing legislation to declare public transit free because…

A little over a year ago, I walked up Capitol Hill one morning behind two female staffers. Most staffers are very young -- generally twenty-somethings -- because they're either college/grad school interns or just graduated. The two young women were sharing one's excitement about moving into an apartment in DC.…

Thomas J. Burns reported the number of Catholic marriages -- in which Catholics administer the Sacrament of Matrimony to each other -- in the United States in five-year intervals in a July 5, 2023, report. His numbers were obtained from annual statistics gathered by the Center for Applied Research in…

The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom recently ruled that the legal definition of a woman is someone who is biologically female. In the United States, a return to sanity from the madhouse of transgenderism is apparent in our Supreme Court’s recent ruling that people who believe they were born…

The U.S. Supreme Court April 22 heard oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor. The case comes from just down the road from the Court -- Montgomery County, Maryland -- where the local school board has imposed a family life curriculum throughout elementary and secondary (even pre-) schools. The curriculum is…

A particularly deceitful attack on parenthood and children happens via fear-mongering on the supposed cost of raising a child. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an annual report from 1960 through 2017 entitled “Expenditures on Children by Families,” better known as “The Cost of Raising a Child.” The…

Fear-mongering continues regarding parenthood and child-rearing. I address two aspects here: risk of maternal mortality and dangers associated with unintended pregnancy. Risk of Maternal Mortality A frequent contributor to this blog, Professor John M. Grondelski, has addressed the contention that maternal mortality (any mortality, no matter the rate) requires the escape…

I recently read a lament about fathers not attending Mass and failing as role models for their kids. Of course a much worse tragedy is that millions of kids do not know their dads. I was a long-time friend of a recently deceased elderly couple. They regularly attended St. Mary's…

If memory serves, and it sometimes does, the first bit of philosophy that I read was as a callow youth in a cushioned chair at the local library. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson’s elegant little essay “Gifts.” A Unitarian turned transcendentalist, Emerson (1803-1882) championed the American Genius, especially in literature.…

The Bald and the Unbeautiful Head shaving has been among the jejune reactions of some frenzied women to Kamala Harris’s implosion. Social media is full of these virtue signalers demonstrating why haircuts should only be done by trained professionals. I’m surprised Biden’s FDA has not demanded warning disclaimers on these…

Jesus told His disciples that as they “receive” a child, they receive not just Him but He who sent Him. In the past I have written about Jesus’ words in light of Catholic teaching about parenthood and openness to life (article linked below). If we are to recognize children and,…

The Value of a Smile This morning, a woman sat opposite me on the Metro. I didn't know her nor she me, but I did notice one thing. She smiled, not just at me but at whomever she looked. She didn't try to pretend she saw nobody in a car…

Freedom Versus Self-Will Continuing my way through Roman Brandstaetter's superb literary corpus, I ran into a collection of short meditations he penned, inspired by his positive encounter with Franciscanism. He spoke of a writer, sitting at his desk, who noticed a bee walking along his window pane. Caringly, he opened…