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At the beginning of August, I traveled to Grand Coteau, Louisiana, to preach some conferences to the seminarians of the Diocese of Lafayette. I always love to go to Lafayette, not just because I have several priest and lay friends there but because within the diocese there’s a county felicitously called “St. Landry Parish” — counties are called “parishes” in Louisiana, as in Alaska they’re called “boroughs” — and in the heart of that county there’s a city named Opelousas with a majestic parish church dedicated to the same saint.  Outside of Louisiana, when I mention “St. Landry,” most people think I’m engaging in comical self-canonization. But there is a St. Landry. In fact, there are officially four: St. Landry, Bishop of Sées (405-480; feast day July 16); St. Landry, the 27th bishop...

One of the great illusions under which we labor is that if we only get just one more thing from this world, then we will be happy. Perhaps we think that if we just had a little more money, or a better job, or the latest iPhone, or if we were married to so-and-so, or if we lived in a better neighborhood, then we would be satisfied and content at last. But “at last” never seems to come even if we do get some of the things on our list. As Ecclesiastes puts it, The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing (Ecc 1:8). Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income (Ecc. 5:8). Although we realize this deep down, we continue to fall for the lie again and again. We think that just one more thing will do the trick. So we lay...

A painting representing the Immaculate Conception, produced in 1661 by Francisco de Zurbaran, almost fell into oblivion. This rare masterpiece by a great Spanish master is not kept in a museum. Francisco de Zurbaran’s painting of the Immaculate Conception sits discreetly behind grills in a recess of the church of Saint Gervais-Saint Protais, in Langon, a small town in the Gironde department of southwestern France. The work was painted in the last years of the painter’s life, and has as its subject the Virgin Mary at the moment of the Assumption, praying, wrapped in a blue cape billowing in the air which seems to push her towards heaven. Zurbaran painted several canvases representing the Immaculate Conception, in which the Virgin appears almost as a child, with the moon under her feet and a...

I’ve heard a lot of gloating in the last few weeks, as Catholics of a certain sort enjoy the discomfiture of their brothers who attend the Latin Mass. Evil motives prompt those brothers, they say: hatred of Pope Francis, disdain for Vatican II, unease with women in the sanctuary, and a Right-wing politics that makes a fetish of the unborn child while ignoring the Church’s social teaching as regards the poor. Well, to the assigning of evil motives there is no end, and both sides can play the game. The traditionalists may reply that their brothers spent more than thirty years ignoring what a Pole and a German had to say about modern aimlessness, the sanctity of marriage and human life, and the power of the holy to move the soul; that they use Vatican II as a ticket for what the council docum...

Whenever someone raises an objection about your faith, ask two questions: What do you mean? And why are you asking? Whether you are in high school or college, secular or Catholic, private or public, your faith and morals will be challenged in the coming school year. Even if you are not in school but into any mix of people from various backgrounds and belief systems, you will face objections to your worldview. In standing up to the ideas brought against Catholicism, there are two key questions you can ask yourself or the people involved to help you navigate hostile intellectual territory. As a matter of fact, these questions are an important habit of thought to develop for any kind of clear thinking. Clarity of thought is one of the major problems with the way your faith will be denigrated ...