St. Austin Review: Reclaiming Culture

Welcome to the Ink Desk

Enjoy the ponderings of the Star's contributors and add your own thoughts. As this section develops, we hope it may become a medium for an exchange of ideas among those who are working towards the cultural revival.

• February 8th, 2010The Rich, the Poor, Ham Sandwiches and Usuryby Kevin O'Brien

  I just finished reading a paper online by Brian McCall on usury and the damage it is doing to the modern economy (see http://works.bepress.com/brian_mccall/6/ ).

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• February 8th, 2010Facing the Farce of the Facebook Fan Pageby Joseph Pearce

  I understand from my friend, Sean P. Dailey, editor-in-chief of Gilbert Magazine, that there's a so-called "Joseph Pearce Fan Page" on Facebook.

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• February 8th, 2010Sneak Preview of the March/April Issue of StARby Joseph Pearce

  The March/April issue of the Saint Austin Review is almost ready to wing its way to the printers. It's another exciting, power-punching issue, filled to the brim with great articles by some of the finest writers in the English-speaking Catholic world, not to mention the odd fine writer from the non-Catholic world! The theme of the next issue is "G. K. Chesterton: Fidei Defensor" and we've assembled a veritable cornucopia of Chestertonian delights for the delectation of our readers.

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• February 3rd, 2010Bruce Fingerhut, StAR’s Publisher, On His Friend, Ralph McInernyby Joseph Pearce

  Further to the earlier tribute to Ralph McInerny, here are the words of Bruce Fingerhut of the St. Augustine's Press, the new publisher of StAR, who knew McInerny much better than I did:

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• February 1st, 2010Ralph McInerny - May Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Restby Joseph Pearce

  With the passing of Ralph McInerny on Friday, the Catholic world lost one of its greatest contemporary writers and one of its most invigorating voices of orthodoxy.

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• January 29th, 2010Bad Catholic Artby Kevin O'Brien

  There is an ugly flipside to all our talk in these posts about reclaiming the culture.  And that is the sad fact that many people who make an attempt to create a culture or a work of art from a Catholic perspective are somehow dishonest about it.  This is a difficult phenomenon to describe, so bear with me.

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• January 29th, 2010More Best Booksby Joseph Pearce

  Further to the earlier post giving my selection of "Best Books of 2009" for the IgnatiusInsight website, I thought it would be good to give people the opportunity to look at the "best book" selection given by other Ignatius authors. Here's the link:
  
  http://ignatiusinsight.com/features2009/bestbooks1_2009_dec09.asp

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• January 29th, 2010Was Shakespeare a Secret Visitor to Rome?by Joseph Pearce

  Evidence unearthed at the Venerable English College in Rome has heightened speculation that Shakespeare may have visited this Catholic seminary, the de facto headquarters of Catholic resistance to the English Reformation, during the 1580s, shortly before he embarked upon his playwrighting career in London...

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• January 29th, 2010The Best Books I Read in 2009by Joseph Pearce

  At the end of last year, Carl Olson, editor of Ignatius Insight requested that I list the best books that I'd read throughout the preceding twelve months. I was happy to oblige.

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• January 29th, 2010News, Musings & Wanderingsby Joseph Pearce

  It seems an age since I last posted anything on this site, and it has, indeed, been more than two weeks. Too long! I'll try to do better in the future. In the interim, I am grateful for Kevin O'Brien for keeping the site warm with his entertaining visits. Clearly I owe him an ale or two next time we meet, whenever that may be.

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• January 20th, 2010HBO from A to Fby Kevin O'Brien

  This is from a newsletter I send to our Upstage Productions Murder Mystery fans.  It's an article I wrote ten years ago about an experience I had with HBO.  I am not making any of it up!

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• January 18th, 2010I’ll Be Damned - with Faint Praiseby Kevin O'Brien

  There is an interesting secular take on Chesterton's book "What's Wrong with the World" at the U. K. Guardian, a wonderful example of damning with faint praise.

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• January 7th, 2010Announcing the Launch of C. S. Lewis Collegeby Joseph Pearce

  Great news has reached me from my good friends in the C. S. Lewis Foundation.
  
  A few days before Christmas it was announced at a press conference that the site of the campus of the soon-to-be-launched C. S. Lewis College had been purchased.

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• January 7th, 2010New Year - New Issueby Joseph Pearce

  The new issue of StAR is the perfect way to get the New Year off to an edifying start. Its theme, "Tolkien & Lewis: Masters of Myth, Tellers of Truth", is a return to an ever popular theme. And the content of this issue is simply superb.

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• January 1st, 2010New Year’s Postby Kevin O'Brien

  Although this isn’t technically a new decade until 2011, we can still pretend, and so I found myself musing on where I was ten years ago, before the apocalyptic Y2K bug was about to bite us all.

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• December 28th, 2009Christmas, Communion, “Seinfeld” and “The Office”by Kevin O'Brien

  So this past Christmas the family get togethers were particularly trying.  You know what I mean.

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• December 25th, 2009What I Learned in Englandby Kevin O'Brien

  This past week I was in England with actors and crew from my company and from Corpus Christi Watershed, as we filmed a short movie on the conversion of the Venerable John Henry Newman.  We were graciously granted access to Newman’s retreat house at Littlemore, near Oxford, administered by the delightful Sisters of the Work.

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• December 25th, 2009On Chestertonby Robert Asch

  There is presently a real and refreshing interest in GK Chesterton among serious French Catholics. Several of his books are available in recent translations - including a version of The Flying Inn by the great philosopher and critic Pierre Boutang.

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• December 22nd, 2009New ways of loving: gay goldfish for French 9-year-olds ...by Ferdi McDermott

  France's children are now going to be treated to the ridiculous spectacle of a batty old right-wing cat, abandoned and trapped in a fairy-tale castle tower, which is all that is left of the old ways. This old pussy-cat, predictably named Agathe (Agatha is a really old-fashioned name in France as in England), is ripe for conversion to the beautiful, modern lifestyles emerging beyond the confines of her castle, (in which the only love imaginable is that dry and dusty old kind that exists between handsome princes and beautiful princesses ... )

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• December 21st, 2009Greetings and Happy Advent!by Jef Murray

  In the Roman Catholic Church, today marks the fifth day during which the "O Antiphons" of Advent are sung at evening vespers. These antiphons, seven in all, were the basis for the hymn "O Come O Come Emmanuel", although the melody is very different.

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• December 15th, 2009Censorship from Withinby Kevin O'Brien

  I am usually not a big booster of “Put Christ back into Christmas”.  Even de-Christianized Christmas is a magical time, as it was to me as an atheist before my conversion, and I figure if the secular Christmas (known as “The Holidays”) still manages to touch the hearts of the unwashed Pagans out there, fine.  We all know that there’s a special peace and joy to this time of year, and we see it in our pop culture, from movies about Santa Claus to secular “Holiday” music.

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• December 15th, 2009Solemnity of the Immaculate Conceptionby Robert Merchant

  On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  It began, appropriately enough, with Solemn Mass at the Ave Maria University Oratory, which Oratory has excellent acoustics.  The choir(s) are properly in the choir loft at the back of the Oratory (unlike children, choirs are to be heard and not seen) and aided by a sound cone (there's undoubtedly a better phrase) behind them which projects their singing throughout the cavernous 1100 seat Oratory.

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• December 10th, 2009Dúnedainby Jef Murray

  I sensed the soaring sandhills today…at least, so it seemed. A distant discord…cockled calls above clouds. “Come along! Come along!” Would that I could follow that cry….

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• December 7th, 2009Secular Fundamentalist Dictatorship or Religious Freedomby Joseph Pearce

  Ferdi McDermott’s post earlier today lamenting the outlawing of the crucifix by the iniquitous European Court of European Rights raises some intriguing questions. For example, isn’t the banning of Christianity in public places simply the imposition of secular fundamentalism? Isn’t it simply the draconian imposition of de jure atheism and relativism? Isn’t it the dictatorship of huge centralised states and courts over the wishes of ordinary people?

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• December 7th, 2009“Smelling the Ducks and Ducking the Smell”by Kevin O'Brien

  I know I’m getting older for two reasons.  First, not only do I like Judge Judy, I now like the way she looks.  Second, for years I was a young Curmudgeon, but I have now passed beyond Curmudgeon to Crank.  You don’t hit Crank until you have the years to back it up.

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• December 4th, 2009Freedom of Religion or Freedom from Religionby Ferdi McDermott

  That's the question many of my friends have been asking over the course of the last couple of weeks, in the wake of the European Court of Human Rights decree that the Italian law mandating a crucifix in every state school classroom is an infringement of human rights.

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• December 4th, 2009Ruth Asch’s Poemsby Robert Asch

  It's with understandable pride that I am able to announce the forthcoming appearance of my wife, Ruth Asch's first book of poems, Reflections, to be published by the St Austin Press this month.

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• November 30th, 2009“Is Catholicism a cult?” and other joys of being a Catholic author in the Southby Lorraine V. Murray

  Flannery O’Connor once wrote an essay about the rather strange experience of being a Catholic author in the Protestant South. This was back in the 1950s, when Catholics were regarded as very odd ducks indeed.

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• November 30th, 2009St. Austin and St. Augustineby Joseph Pearce

  As of the forthcoming issue, St. Augustine’s Press, one of the premier Catholic publishers in the English-speaking world, takes over as StAR’s new publisher.

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• November 24th, 2009Loome’s to Open Sacred Gifts Departmentby Jessica Marie Smith

  Via Matthew Alderman at Holy Whapping (self-plug for Matt, but we approve), Loome Theological Booksellers, one of the best places to get your God read on, will be featuring sacred gifts, to include Mr. Alderman’s lovely illustrations.

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• November 16th, 2009World Record Holderby Kevin O'Brien

  Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves.  You are reading a blog post by THE FIRST ACTOR IN HISTORY TO PLAY ALL THE ROLES IN A SHAKESPEARE PLAY.

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• November 16th, 2009Award-Winning Grassroots Films Looking for Internsby Jessica Marie Smith

  The Film Company which has cornered the barely-there market on film making with a soul wants you! Well, if you happens to be a college registered student in the greater New York area looking to use your social networking skills.

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• November 10th, 2009S.O.B – Saving Our Boatby Kevin O'Brien

  I was sitting at the table with a number of priests, one of whom had had a tad too much to drink.  It was a fundraiser banquet for an orthodox Catholic cause, and most of the priests were rather stolid types.  I had just finished explaining the homily I had endured that day.  The Gospel reading was the Woman at the Well, and the homilist had explained to us how this encounter shows how Jesus “grew” in his ministry, how he learned to be less “sexist and judgmental”, and how we, like Jesus, should learn to “grow beyond our boundaries”, that that’s what Lent is all about, learning to “grow beyond your boundaries”.

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• November 9th, 2009Speaking Engagements for Novemberby Joseph Pearce

  After a frenetically busy few months in which I seem to have been travelling to far flung corners of the continent of America, north and south, I’m pleased to have a relatively quiet November. In fact, I don’t leave the state of Florida for the entire month. I am, however, giving a few talks in the SW Florida area. If you live in the area, please try to attend one or more of these. I’d be delighted to see you!

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• November 5th, 2009Something Beautiful for Godby Joseph Pearce

  On the evening of All Souls Day, the Oratory at Ave Maria University was filled with the aural incense of Maurice Durruflé, Cristóbel Morales, Heinrich Biber and Gregorian Chant.

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• November 5th, 2009Cloning and Bad Homiliesby Kevin O'Brien

  I am convinced that cloning is in fact going on, and has been for many years.  For instance, the so-called “cantor” at most suburban Catholic parishes has been cloned.

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• October 28th, 2009If “It’s a Wonderful Life” were made today ...by Kevin O'Brien

  GEORGE:  I’m gonna jump, I tell you!  I’m gonna jump!
  
  CLARENCE:  Don’t jump, George.  I’m Clarence, a benevolent illusion.

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• October 26th, 2009Dappled Things…and ninjas!by Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  Hi, this message is all about ninjas Dappled Things,* THE NEW ISSUE OF DAPPLED THINGS. This message is awesome. My name is Bernardo and I can’t stop thinking about the new issue. This issue is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

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• October 26th, 2009An Iberian Resurrection?by Joseph Pearce

  Sudden and still – hurrah!
  Bolt from Iberia!
  Don John of Austria
  Is gone by Alcalar.
   
  These are Chesterton’s rousing lines about Don John of Austria en route to his victory at Lepanto in 1571, passing “by Alcalar”, the site of a Christian victory over the Moors in 1246.

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• October 26th, 2009Facebook Folliesby Kevin O'Brien

  After swearing off the Vast Vacuity that is Facebook  for some weeks, I am back on.  I still think there’s a way to make it worthwhile, perhaps by kicking off all the friends who are giving me grief – kind of like life.

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• October 13th, 2009Joseph Pearce at Notre Dameby Joseph Pearce

  Catholicism lecture celebrates C.S. Lewis - by Tess Civantos (The Observer)

  Although C.S. Lewis made fun of Catholics as a teen, he was actually incredibly close to being Catholic himself, associate professor of Literature and Writer-in-Residence at Ave Maria University Joseph Pearce said in a lecture Tuesday.

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• October 10th, 2009Sterility can take many formsby Kevin O'Brien

  First, there’s simply being too lazy or too preoccupied to produce anything.   This explains why, although Joseph Pearce cajoles his writers to blog regularly for The Ink Desk, I haven’t posted anything in over a month.  (Ha!  Little does Joseph know – writers are almost as unreliable as actors).

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• October 9th, 2009Preview of the November/December 2009 Issueby Joseph Pearce

  The next issue of StAR is now safely in the hands of the graphic designer and I’m delighted to be able to offer a sneak preview. It’s another power-punching issue, this time on the theme of “Fides et Ratio: Faith and Philosophy”. Highlights include:

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• October 2nd, 2009Speaking Engagements for Octoberby Joseph Pearce

  Here are my speaking engagements for the coming months. If I’m in your area come and introduce yourself!

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• September 17th, 2009Christian Cultureby Andrew Thornton-Norris

  Modernity might be defined as the age when mankind tried to do without God for the first time. The effect on culture has been extraordinarily stimulating. From the Renaissance and Reformation, through the Baroque reaction, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and the Modernist reaction, Western culture has flourished.

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• September 15th, 2009An Ode to an Elderly Friendby Lorraine V. Murray

  “Don't knock me over!” These are her words, delivered with laughter, when she sees me walking into the living room of her little condo, and heading toward her for a hug.

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• September 6th, 2009Television of the Wordby Kevin O'Brien

  Just a plug here for my television show, “The Theater of the Word”, which premieres this week on EWTN.  I am the host of a 13-part anthology series of Catholic drama, featuring performances by and interviews with folks from all over the States who are evangelizing through the dramatic arts.

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• September 3rd, 2009Speaking Engagements for Septemberby Joseph Pearce

  Here are my speaking engagements for the coming months. If I’m in your area come and introduce yourself!

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• September 3rd, 2009Tastelessby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  I scream. You scream. We all scream...at Ben and Jerry's.

  It is not an incident that should bother me unduly -- I do not eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream and, moreover, think that the notion of mixing pretzels and ice cream sounds too much like a concoction thought up by drunken frat boys.

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• September 2nd, 2009“Caritas in Veritate”: A Forumby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  Like all Church documents, Caritas in Veritate deserves continued and marked attention. The recent public forum should therefore be of interest (videos, we are told, are forthcoming). The panel was singularly impressive (Fr. Allen is a delightful, brilliant man and a family friend):

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• August 29th, 2009Edward Kennedy and Christ’s Toughest Commandmentby Joseph Pearce

  On first hearing the news of Edward Kennedy’s death I was filled with mixed and conflicting emotions. I was sorry that a prominent Catholic had died without any apparent contrition for his unceasing support for in utero infanticide.

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• August 28th, 2009Vocational Recruitmentby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  Watch a new 90-second video on Vocations from the Archdiocese of New York

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• August 26th, 2009The Cultivation of Saintsby Kevin O'Brien

  Duluth, Minnesota
  
  I’ve been coming to Duluth performing shows for about ten years now with my ragged assortment of actors.  There are glimpses of striking beauty around here, especially Split Rock Lighthouse, north of here, the most beautiful lighthouse on earth – placed high on a cliff above the waves crashing upon the shore of Lake Superior.  It is one of the most stunning sights you can imagine.

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• August 22nd, 2009Priests Bring Christ’s Light into Our Livesby Lorraine V. Murray

  It is so easy to criticize priests. This one delivers dull sermons. That one is always asking for money.. The other one sings off-key.

  And of course many lay people think they know the perfect cure for whatever ails any particular priest. “Oh, if the Church would just let them get married,” they say, “everything would be fine.”

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• August 21st, 2009Chesterton in Africaby Joseph Pearce

  Further to Kevin's post about the Chesterton conference in Seatle and my more recent post about the Chesterton Crusade in Chile, here is news of a superb Chestertonian intiative in Sierra Leone in Africa.

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• August 20th, 2009Chesterton in Chileby Joseph Pearce

  I was pleased to read Kevin O'Brien's recent post in which he waxed lyrical on the rambunctious splendour of this year's Chesterton Conference in Seattle. My reading of his article was not, however, untainted by a degree of wistfulness bordering on envy.

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• August 16th, 2009A Culture of Lifeby Kevin O'Brien

  I’ve been to the mountain and back again.
  
  That’s my report from the annual American Chesterton Society Conference.  That’s always my report.  The conference is a kind of Mount of Transfiguration where we see things more clearly than we do below; it is a place where lovers of Chesterton and lovers of the Lord he loved get together to socialize, share ideas, and celebrate something you don’t see much these days … Catholic Culture.  True, not every fan of Chesterton is Catholic, but the Culture that is his cultus is entirely Catholic and overflowing with health and joy.

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• August 15th, 2009In response to a letter accusing the Pope of heresy on the Four Last Things ...by Ferdi McDermott

  Dear Jennifer,
  
  Thanks for the letter and enclosure you sent me a while back. In them you suggested a dialogue about the popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. You also implied that perhaps they were not popes at all.

  Your main problem was that they emphasised universal salvation and thereby - you thought - effectively denied all the Church’s doctrine about sin and the need for redemption from it.

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• August 14th, 2009A Monster For Our Timeby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  Some months ago I penned a piece for the National Catholic Register on the phenomenon of "The Abortion Story" in Catholic literary circles. It's a "rite of passage for young Christian writers", I declared. Most if not all of us have written such a thing at one time or another. Most of them are completely unoriginal and unsuccessful.

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• August 3rd, 2009The Prodigal’s Returnby Joseph Pearce

  Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:23-24)

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• July 31st, 2009Preview of the September/October Issueby Joseph Pearce

  One of the benefits of keeping an eye on this site is being able to learn the contents of the next issue of StAR long before the issue is delivered to the journal's happy band of subscribers, indeed long before it has even reached the printers. I have just delivered the articles for this issue to our graphic designer, Michelle, and am happy to offer you the customary preview of what you can expect in the forthcoming September/October issue.

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• July 30th, 2009Keep Your Eyes on the Anglicansby Robert Asch

  While the Church of England is clearly entering the last stages of decay, with Rowan Williams's proposal of a two-track church - one accepting homosexual union and clergy, the other rejecting it - it would be a mistake for Catholics to crow over its demise, for at least three reasons: 

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• July 26th, 2009How Does Your Garden Grow?by Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  I’m rooting about in the dirt, making a general nuisance of myself about the flowers. The chrysanthemums—victims of my plan for transplantation—register distress mildly by bobbing their heads about, while an azalea bush looks on impassively. A flock of impatiens, sitting close by, remains obnoxiously sedate, despite the fact that their colorful spread is interrupted by an astonishingly long earthworm.

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• July 25th, 2009The Wandering Joeby Joseph Pearce

  Since my last post, way back on July 13th, I have been on the road almost continuously. Hence, and by way of an excuse for my absence, I have been exiled from my family as well as from this site. Nor is there any respite in sight. 

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• July 23rd, 2009Dappled Things: SS. Peter and Paul 2009by Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  From the Editors of Dappled Things:

  Has the summer heat gotten you down? Fear not! The cool new edition of Dappled Things is sure to refresh you with an invigorating selection of prose, poetry, and art.

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• July 20th, 2009The Virtue of Detachmentby Kevin O'Brien

  Detachment is an ugly word.  It carries the connotation of stoicism and cold-heartedness – perhaps even ruthlessness.  But what the saints mean by “detachment” is “renouncing possessiveness”.  Thus it is not wrong to be “attached” to people and things that we love (in other words to care for them and long for them), but if we become possessive of them, then we enter into something that might lead to idolatry at worst, selfishness at best.  The mother who loves her son and misses him when he moves away is “attached” to him; the mother who sabotages her son’s psyche and makes him a perpetual adolescent, still living at home at age thirty is “possessive” of him.

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• July 13th, 2009The Foolishness of Hopeby Kevin O'Brien

  We talk in these pages about our culture, which is clearly a Culture of Death.  But this is this because it is a Culture of Despair, a society that cultivates Despair and makes it bearable by making it fashionable and natural.

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• July 13th, 2009Pope Benedict and the Challenge of Globalizationby Joseph Pearce

  Last week saw the release of the Holy Father's new Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. In response to its publication, the Catholic World Report's website published the views of several Catholic commentators on the Encyclical's importance. I was one of those asked to submit a response. Here it is:

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• July 3rd, 2009Bathroom Humorby Kevin O'Brien

  Today is my daughter Kerry's 14th birthday.  In honor of her near total maturity, I present an article I wrote many years ago that's bound to embarrass her.

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• July 3rd, 2009Changelessness at the Beachby Jef Murray

  I’m dragging the suitcase up from the basement. Each summer, Lorraine and I spend a week at the beach, usually with other family members. In previous years, I’ve notched up plenty of bruises and abrasions while body surfing with my great-nephews. Their decades-younger rubber bodies seem immune to the surges and slaps of tropical storm-tossed breakers; mine, on the other hand, always comes home battered.

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• July 1st, 2009“I’ve, like, got to get there, like, now:” A Rant on Language, Unintelligibility, and Irrevereby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  Once upon a time, the word “like” had a soul. Modern tongues have since beaten the word like the proverbial dead horse, badgering it to the meaningless status of non-verbal filler. “Um” and “like” can be used almost interchangeably.

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• June 30th, 2009Pure BSby Joseph Pearce

  One of the myths or lies of pluralism and secular fundamentalism is that religion should be excluded from the public square. Regardless of their protestations to the contrary, secularists don't believe that religion should be excluded; on the contrary, they believe that all religion should be excluded except their own.

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• June 27th, 2009Another Postcard from Orange Countyby Joseph Pearce

  I never thought that I'd be waxing lyrical about the merits of California. For as long as I can remember, California has epitomised what I like least about modern America. From the dross and decadence of Hollywood, the rootless autocentric mayhem of LA, and the queer queeziness of San Francisco, the Golden State had as much appeal to me as the golden casket in The Merchant of Venice. And yet on visiting the left coast I found myself unwilingly and unwittingly seduced by its charms. No, not the "charm" of Hollywood or LA but the hidden charm of the unseen California.

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• June 23rd, 2009The End of Civilization as We Know Itby Kevin O'Brien

  Last week I wrote of how my wife and daughter talked me into watching a movie on our DVD player -  and about how I walked out of the movie, which is easy to do when you’re sitting in the living room.

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• June 23rd, 2009Getting Revenge on a Liturgistby Lorraine V. Murray

  He is grimacing with effort as he croons forcefully into the microphone. He is wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt along with sandals. He holds the notes a bit too long and he is sadly off-key.

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• June 22nd, 2009A Postcard from Orange Countyby Joseph Pearce

  I'm currently enjoying the first family vacation that the Pearces have taken for five years. The last time we had a family holiday was back in 2004 when we had the great pleasure and privilege of being at St. Peter's in Rome for the canonization of Gianna Beretta Molla and five other saints.

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• June 15th, 2009On Bad Artby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  The other day futurist Dave Zach forwarded me philosopher Roger Scruton’s recent article “Beauty and Desecration”. In this ably penned piece, Scruton does battle with the “modern intoxication with ugliness”. His argument is well constructed, though these issues have been addressed exceptionally well by others in the past [See Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI (more recently here), and Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P—and, of course, indirectly but clearly St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Prima Pars, Q.5.] and will be addressed well (we hope and pray) many times in the future.

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• June 15th, 2009What to Watch - and What to Watch Out Forby Kevin O'Brien

  Over the weekend, my wife and teenage daughter talked me into watching a movie with them that smelled a bit odd from the start.  It was some sort of movie about dangerous crabby curmudgeons (guy flick) who warm up to their nephew (chick flick), with the old coots played by Robert Duvall and Michael Caine (guy flick), with the curmudgeons buying a lion that the nephew bonds with (chick flick) – that kind of patchwork thing.

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• June 15th, 2009Preview of the Forthcoming Issueby Joseph Pearce

  The July/August issue of StAR has now gone to the printers and will be winging its way to our subscribers in about two weeks from now. Here's a sneak preview of the articles gracing this particular issue, the theme of which is "Literary Converts":

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• June 11th, 2009What Suits Usby Kevin O'Brien

  "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." – Mark Twain

  Yesterday I went to the evening prayer service at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis to welcome our new archbishop, Robert Carlson.

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• June 9th, 2009Lux aetérnaby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  The reason for my two-week abrogation of Ink Desk responsibilities is the direct inspiration of this re-inaugural post: the death of my paternal grandmother. In the days leading up to her death—blessed days of farewell—I wondered what sort of moods and thoughts would result from the whole. As always, the reality proved more incredible than I could have imagined.

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• June 9th, 2009The BBC: From Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hydeby Joseph Pearce

  The BBC never ceases to amaze me. At its best, it is simply the best there is; at its worst, it is plumbing new depths of depravity. It reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson's strange character of Dr. Jekyll who metamorphoses periodically into the evil Mr. Hyde.

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• June 9th, 2009The Sounding of the Solsticeby Jef Murray

  Summer is upon us. And aside from our customary charges (Ignatius the spoiled-rotten hamster and about 20,000 honeybees), we’re now managing our neighbors’ menagerie while they’re away. New wards include snails, guppies, tadpoles, three dinner plate-sized turtles, and Olive the Bassett Hound.

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• June 6th, 2009More Flanneryby Joseph Pearce

  Following in the footsteps of my colleagues, Lorraine Murray and Kevin O'Brien, I'd also like to post something related to Flannery O'Connor. In fact, I'd like to hold her responsible for my absence from this site over the past two weeks or so. Actually, that's a little unfair; she has only kept me busy for a chunk of this week. I have Solzhenitsyn to blame for keeping me away from the site over the previous week. Let me explain ...

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• June 2nd, 2009Flannery O’Connor in the Desertby Kevin O'Brien

  We were in Phoenix for Christmas, where my father has gone to retire.  It was Sunday, the 28th of December, and my stepmother had promised to take us on a real treat, a visit to Glendale Glitters, an outdoor holiday festival in the Arizona suburb of Glendale.

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• June 1st, 2009My Summer Vacation with Flannery O’Connorby Lorraine V. Murray

  This is not how I planned to spend my summer. I wanted to sit by the pool and get a break from writing. After all, I told myself, it’s time to relax: You’ve written five books in nine years!

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• May 24th, 2009Conference for Catholic Writersby Joseph Pearce

  Regina Doman is presenting an exciting conference for Catholic writers, including writers of Catholic fiction, in New Jersey at the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show in Somerset NJ from Aug 5-7, 2009.  Regina will be speaking on "How to Create Evil Characters if You're a Good Catholic," which she describes as "a very fun talk to give".

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• May 23rd, 2009More on the Top Tenby Joseph Pearce

  Kyle asks whether there is "any rhyme or reason to the ordering of the list". Since I placed Sheehan's Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine at the top of the list, he was wondering whether I consider this the most important book for Catholics to read after the Bible and the Catechism.

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• May 21st, 2009A Post-Dis “Patch-Work”by Kevin O'Brien

  On a silent spring night two weeks ago a husband and father of two healthy boys strangled his wife and sons in his suburban St. Louis area home, a crime he had premeditated weeks in advance, having concocted fake death threats he claimed were sent to him because of his work as head of security for Joyce Meyers Ministries, and having spray painted messages on the walls of his house after the murders, messages he hoped would appear to have been written by the “real killers”.

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• May 21st, 2009The “Top Ten Books” Controversyby Joseph Pearce

  It seems that my recent listing of "The Top Ten Books I Think Catholics Should Read" has sparked a mini-controversy. Dena reprimands me for omitting the Bible and the Catechism, a little unfairly, it seems to me, because I obviously took these books, quite literally, "as read".

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• May 20th, 2009Speaking and Editingby Joseph Pearce

  I've been meaning to post something to the site for several days but I've been preoccupied with speaking and editing commitments. Over the past two weekends I've been speaking at home school conferences in Chicago and Buffalo NY. At last weekend's conference in Buffalo I had the great pleasure and privilege to meet the inestimable Alice von Hildebrand.

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• May 20th, 2009Shades of the Tudorsby Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  The gradual compromise of principles. The slow, sneaking stifling of integrity. The earnest desire for dialogue—to get along. To agree to disagree. To keep one’s beliefs to one’s self in the interests of peaceful coexistence.

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• May 15th, 2009Top Ten Books that Catholics Should Readby Joseph Pearce

  I have been asked by Aquinas and More, the nation's largest online Catholic store, to provide a "Top 10 list of books I think Catholics should read". I thought this list might also interest visitors to this site.

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• May 13th, 2009Facing Up to Facebookby Kevin O'Brien

  Eleanor Bourg Donlan below writes a wonderfully curmudgeonly attack on Facebook, the strange vacuity that is the hit of the internet.  I, too, have some reflections on the Facebook fad, having been FB-ing for a few months now.

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• May 13th, 2009St. Walpurga’s Nightby Jef Murray

  Was it a noise I’d heard? I open my eyes and stare at the ceiling. No, it was a lack of noise. The night had become suddenly still. Try to remember the dream I was having, I think. Whispered voices…something creepy about the way they sounded. I glance at Lorraine. She’s still asleep. The clock reads midnight.

  Midnight. On St. Walpurga’s Night. The night when the dead walk among the living.

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• May 11th, 2009Status Update!by Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  When I jettisoned Facebook some weeks ago, I considered composing a self-explanatory statement—an anti-Facebook apologia. I later dismissed the idea—mostly because I feared it would prove a silly, self-satisfied, time-wasting, pontificating exercise (which nearly sums up my objections to Facebook itself).

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• May 9th, 2009GK Chesterton on the Shrinking of Macbethby Joseph Pearce

  I've spent the last week or so in the unsettling company of that most dysfunctional of married couples, the Macbeths, writing an introduction to the forthcoming Ignatius Critical Edition of Shakespeare's Scottish Play. It's always a joy to spend time with the Bard, even if he introduces us to demonically twisted characters whom we'd rather not meet under any other circumstances! Shakespeare's singularly brilliant presence always edifies and educates in the most powerful way.

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• May 8th, 2009North of the Borderby Joseph Pearce

  My good friend, Pavel Chichikov, is not only a very fine poet; he also has a healthy sense of humour. He forwarded this amusing scenario to me, which had been sent to him by a friend in Scotland. As a good example of "poetic humour", I'd like to share it with visitors to this site:

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• May 8th, 2009Redeeming Reading(s)?by Eleanor Bourg Donlon

  I concluded my studies at the University of Virginia with a firm conviction of the fact that my beliefs—religious, political, and literary-critical—were diametrically opposed from those of most if not all of my professors. This was very helpful to me in the discernment of what it meant to embrace a literary vocation.

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• May 4th, 2009Harvest of Faithby Lorraine V. Murray

  “I didn’t know you had a lawn service,” I say to my sister.

  We are sitting at the breakfast table in her home in Oklahoma City with the unmistakable roar of a mower in the background. “It’s the neighbors,” she replies.

  Turns out her neighbors come over and mow and weed whack without being asked.

  Normally her husband would do all this, but my brother-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer and can’t do what he once did.

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