Musical Offering: Mendelssohn’s Ave Maria
On this Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, body and soul, here to help celebrate is a magnificent rendition...
A Possible Addendum to the Chesterton – Darrow Debate
Recently I returned to an unsigned New York Times review of the Darrow - Chesterton debate in 1931. In that review the author quotes...
The Definitely Not Complacent Flannery O’Connor
I recently reread Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot. What does that have to do with Flannery O’Connor, you might ask? Well, bear with me....
Sunday Musical Offering: Bach’s Cantata for Trinity Sunday
J.S. Bach composed this cantata for Trinity Sunday in 1725, first performed on May 27th of that year. The libretto begins with Es ist...
What Beatrix Potter Tells Us of a Life Well Lived
I read a biography about Beatrix Potter, and I was amazed at how much I learned about virtue from her life. She was an...
The Two Passions of J.S. Bach
As we enter in Holy Week, it is fitting to suggest some solemn music to fit the season, here the two settings of the...
Musical Offering: Bach’s Cantata for the Purification of Mary
J.S. Bach was a devout Lutheran, and, unlike some of the Protestant sects, had a great devotion to Our Lady. In 1725, on this...
Cody Lambert, a ’90s Sitcom Hero, and the Catholic Moral Imagination
Over the past few months, I have found myself scrolling through Facebook Reels that surface fragments of 1990s television, shows like Step by Step,...
Bach’s Christmas and Epiphany Oratorio
Between 1734 and 1735, J.S. Bach composed six Oratorios - or six parts of one long Oratorio - for the Christmas season, which the...
A Christmas Carol: Thoughts, and an Audio Book
Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol was first published on this December 19 back in 1843, and it has been a much beloved classic...
