"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
This Taos Pueblo church, photographed just after Mass sometime between 1915 and 1925, is the picture of simplicity. If only the "simple" churches of today were so evocative. (Via American Memory)
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Here's to this South Carolina church for saying to liturgical renovators: If you're going to put a baptismal font front and center, why not a proper one? It doesn't have to be a Jacuzzi! (Via Pontifications)
I think that ritual is probably what most men want. They don't want to come to church to hold hands and cry with each other. They want to experience something ordered and serious. They're ready for asceticism and reward. Putting on a cassock and surplice for the first time was akin to putting on a baseball uniform for the first time, or receiving my Eagle Scout medal. You realize that you have enveloped yourself into something grand and mysterious. The rules change. A sense of duty and honor fills your soul.
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The online Adoremus Bulletin runs all its letters for a change. Included are thoughts on the destruction of altar rails, and on the pre-Vatican II phenomenon of the "whiz church." (Via Thos Fitzpatrick)