Books
Divine Ironies
From its very outset Christianity was . . . a feeling which merely disgusted, hid and decked itself out in its belief in a ‘another’ or ‘better’ life . . . a Beyond, invented in […]
T.S. Eliot
Essay
“And let my cry come unto Thee”: On Ash Wednesday
Salutem in Domino (Health and salvation in the Lord)! That traditional Latin greeting encapsulates our hope and prayer every day of our lives, but one that we raise with particular intensity for the next forty […]
General
A last and marvelous encore from The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson
In his incomparable biography of Samuel Johnson, Boswell recounts that while the poet, critic, essayist, and lexicographer was researching his Lives of the Poets (1781), the last of his great literary projects, “the tranquility of […]
The Dispatch
“I should be glad of another death”: T.S. Eliot’s timeless poem for Epiphany
With its natural imagery suggesting a spiritual coming-to-life, Eliot’s 1935 poem moves symbolically from the barrenness of winter into the verdant fertility of Christ’s arrival. […]
The Dispatch
“In my beginning is my end. … In my end is my beginning”
On the Readings for December 10, 2017, the Second Sunday of Advent […]
Essay
Rediscovering the Form of Things: On My Work To Date
I would like to recall a scene of almost two decades past. I was in my first year of doctoral work and was studying, at home on a bright Sunday afternoon. I found myself reflecting […]
The Dispatch
The Best of Christmas Poetry: A Festive Garland of Verse
If I were to package together all my favourite Christmas poems, wrapping them up for my friends and placing them under the tree, which would I choose? Having asked myself this question, I set about […]
Essay
Advent and the Four Last Things
Editor’s note: The following homily was preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., First Sunday of Advent (December 1, 2019), at the Church of the Holy Innocents, Manhattan. Today we begin a […]
Essay
The Form of True Education
Editor’s note: The following essay is a summary of an address given at Martin Saints Classical High School, in May 2019. ——– Modern education as we have known it for a century now tries to […]
The Dispatch
An old flag in the collective attic
If you’ve been following our so-called Catholic Literary Revival, you’ll have noticed that James Matthew Wilson has had a banner year—a new book, poems in the Hudson Review, and Best American Poetry. He has also […]