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Expel from him (her) every evil and unclean spirit which hides and makes its lair in his (her) heart. Priest: The spirit of deceit, the spirit of evil, the spirit of idolatry and of every 4 covetousness; the spirit of falsehood and of every uncleanness, which operates through the prompting of the devil. And make him (her) a reason-endowed sheep in the holy flock of Thy Christ, an honorable member of Thy Church, a consecrated vessel, a child of the light and an heir of Thy Kingdom, that having lived in accordance with Thy commandments, and preserved inviolate the seal, and kept his (her) garment undefiled, he (she) may receive the blessedness of the Saints in Thy Kingdom. (From the Orthodox baptism rite) The name of this Substack project is “Rational Sheep.” I am told that, i...

Within the liturgy, within our academic life, within our hard work in serving the poor in a needy parish, we are seeking in our own small way to take the Benedict option. Like St Benedict we’re not trying to change the whole world. We’re simply doing what we can with what we have where we are. I first encountered the Rule of St Benedict while I was a student at Oxford. I had enrolled to train as a priest in the Church of England, but a Catholic woman in the United States who had befriended me wrote and suggested I visit a Benedictine monastery. She didn’t quite understand that for a boy from Bob Jones University, monasteries and convents were one of the big dark secrets of the Catholic Church. The monks and nuns crept around in long black robes in huge, old buildings that looked like somet...

This was one of the most fun things that I remember doing. I got it in my head to write up a piece about this and shoot it all in one morning. I mean, why not? There’s no traffic in the city on Sunday 🙂 It was a while back when I was publishing on Medium and Aleteia, but I’ve decided to also write a ‘ 10 Most Beautiful Churches in Brooklyn’ this Spring, so I’ve updated this one and will follow with that soon. From the humble cabins where Catholics worshipped in the earliest days arose some of the most iconic architectural marvels in the Western Hemisphere It’s doubtful that when St. Isaac Jogues celebrated the first known Mass in New York City — for a congregation made up of a whopping two other Catholics in Manhattan back in the 1640s — that he could have envisioned what the fut...

Readings:2 Chronicles 36:14–16, 19–23Psalms 137:1–6Ephesians 2:4–10John 3:14–21 The Sunday readings in Lent have been showing us the high points of salvation history—God’s covenant with creation in the time of Noah; His promises to Abraham; the law He gave to Israel at Sinai. In today’s First Reading, we hear of the destruction of the kingdom established by God’s final Old Testament covenant—the covenant with David (see 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89:3). His chosen people abandoned the law He gave them. For their sins, the temple was destroyed, and they were exiled in Babylon. We hear their sorrow and repentance in the exile lament we sing as today’s Psalm. But we also hear how God, in His mercy, gathered them back, even anointing a pagan king to shepherd them and rebuild the temple (see Isaiah 44:2...

The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius are typically only associated with St. John Cantius Parish in Chicago. After all, it is where the community, now numbering almost 30 members, was founded and calls home. Both the canons and the parish have gained international notoriety for a number of reasons. Fr. C. Frank Philips, CR, beloved pastor emeritus, not only founded the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, he also facilitated a great revival in the the parish. Under his leadership the parish grew from 50 parishioners on a Sunday to 3,000 registered families. Fr. Phillips restored the church spiritually and physically to the gem that many today are fortunate to call their spiritual home. Only a portion of the community serves at St. John Cantius at any given time. The other canons staff two ...

The term “Christian nationalism” has sparked considerable debate online recently, especially in relation to its influence within political spheres and its distinction from mainstream Christian beliefs. During a recent appearance on MSNBC, Politico national investigative correspondent Heidi Przybyla attempted to differentiate Christian (or other theistic philosophical) views from “Christian Nationalism” but unfortunately muddied the waters of a key distinction. Make no mistake, dangerous antisemitic, xenophobic and racist movements sometimes mask themselves under Christianity. But the moniker “Christian nationalism” is being applied to ideas that are normal, constitutive parts of Christianity. Screenshot | X Trying to articulate changes in the Republican party under House Speaker Mike Johns...

Skip to content Those who are blinded by materialism cannot see the landscape of history. They see systems instead of people, and empowerment instead of virtue. They can’t see the beautiful because they refuse to raise their eyes to heaven. The past is present whether we like it or not or know it or not. The past is where we are. We can’t be anywhere else in the present because of where we have been in the past. This is why the knowledge of history is so important. If we don’t know where we’ve been, we don’t know where we are; and if we don’t know where we are, we can’t know where we’re going. The problem is that we can’t know where we are unless we know who we are. A false understanding of humanity will lead to a false understanding of history. Philosophical materialists, such as Auguste ...

Daffy people, big city problems, and media watch Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to this story here: The Pillar TL;DR – The Friday Pillar Post Happy Friday friends, And a happy feast of St. David to all of our friends and readers in the blessed principality of Wales. Or as it’s sometimes called by Americans, “Whales.” For those who do not know, St. David’s Day is the patronal feast of Wales, not unlike that other Celtic national day later this month, but usually observed with rather more dignity and by people with an actual connection to the place.  By tradition, the people of St. David’s magical realm wear the national flower, daffodils, in honor of the occasion — from thence Welshmen get the common nickname “daffies.”  Well, from that, and from their te...

Why would a free black man go to the South during the time of slavery? And not just to visit, but to paint numerous landscapes, risking life and limb? This was a question art dealers Michael and Julie Meyer asked themselves when they started collecting the paintings of 19th-century landscape artist, Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872). Duncanson was a black man and a highly regarded artist in the Hudson River School (HRS). The HRS was made famous by the father of American landscape art, Thomas Cole. Artists associated with the HRS featured the virgin forests and landscapes of the wild and untouched American terrain. Duncanson became a leading painter of the day in the West during the 1840s and ’50s with his work featured nationally before the Civil War. His fame has surged recently for his wor...

This is perhaps at once the most terrifying and practical of all the principles I have found in Thomas Aquinas. It explains so much of human unhappiness—especially today—while also pointing to a remedy, starting right in our homes. The principle is ten words, plus a line from scripture to back it up. “A spiritual thing is not known unless it is possessed: ‘No one knows but he who receives it.’ (Rev 2:17)” Aquinas continues, “So, when it is not possessed, it does not produce a desire [for itself].” Implications are stunning. Material passing things, by contrast, are “highly regarded and thought satisfying” and so they produce in us strong desires, even and indeed especially before we possess them. Once we possess them, however, they are generally found to be less satisfying than anticipated...

A long battle with cancer didn’t stop Mac Sinise as he poured all of his energy into what he loved most: music and faith. Catholic actor Gary Sinise took to social media this week to mourn the loss of his son earlier this year following a five-and-a-half-year battle with Chordoma, a rare spinal cancer.  McCanna Anthony Sinise was diagnosed in 2018 at the same time Sinise’s wife, Moira, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Writing in his post, Sinise said, “The summer of 2018 was a particularly challenging time for our family.” Sinise worked indefatigably, researching his son’s rare diagnosis and grappling with this new world of cancer while trying to care for his wife and son. “Two cancer patients, mother and son, within two months of each other?” he wrote, calling it a “real punch...