“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth- in a word, to know himself- so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.”
― Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła), “Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason“
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“As St. Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only ‘as harmless as doves’, but also ‘as wise as serpents’. He wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.” C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity“
“At the back of our brains is a blaze of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.” G.K. Chesterton
An Extraordinary Life
“In the fall of 1896 my sister Emily and I started St. George’s School in two small wooden houses in Newport. I cannot refrain from bringing my sister’s name in at this point, as I am fully convinced that whatever measure of success the school attained as long as I was there was very largely…
Still Not Dead Today
Every year they die like this, and it’s beautiful. Without this annual death, there could be no spring, no explosion of new life and fragile green and blooms of every size and color parading across the warm months from cherries to summer hydrangeas and late Montauk daisies.
“What’s wrong with the world?”
“When the twentieth-century Russian spiritual leader Father Arseny was asked, in the depths of a Soviet prison camp, who was responsible for the catastrophe of communism, he didn’t blame the camp guards, the politburo, or Stalin. ‘Among us Russian people,’ he said, ‘many have lost the faith, lost respect for our past. We lost…
The Yoke Is On Us
We all wear a yoke of our own choosing; we might even make our own. Our yoke is chosen, but not optional. As Bob Dylan sang, “you gotta serve somebody.”
Most of our homemade yokes are some derivation or combination of the big four false idols of happiness: honor, wealth, pleasure, and power[ii]. At…
Visitation
Decades ago, the first time I watched a moose swimming on Webb Lake in Weld, Maine, I had no idea how to help the poor thing out in the middle of a near mile wide stretch of water. If it started to founder and go down, I’d never get it into my small canoe, and…
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