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.

• May 17th, 2013NEWMAN A to Z: SAINTS, INVOCATION OFby Joseph Pearce

  You would not think it against the Gospel, I suppose, to ask for yourself the prayers of a good man on earth. Why then should you scruple to ask his prayers, when, having left this world and gone to God, he has become possessed of a far greater power?

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• May 17th, 2013True Democrats Are Not Democratsby Joseph Pearce

  It's a mark of my protracted absence from the Ink Desk that I am only now responding to a comment on one of my posts, dating April 8th, almost six weeks ago! The comment was written by "Ed" in response to my post "Tolkien and Democracy".

  Ed's comment raises some very interesting questions about the nature of democracy, which warrant further attention. I'm posting Ed's comment in its entirety, my response will follow:

  Tolkien a democrat?! Say it ain't so Joseph!

   

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• May 16th, 2013BIG BROTHER PERSECUTES CATHOLIC VOTERSby Joseph Pearce

  In light of the recent disclosure that Big Brother has been using its stormtroopers in the IRS to target dissident groups, I thought that visitors to the Ink Desk should read this letter from the Director of Catholic Vote.org Education Fund. It makes for frightening reading.

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• May 15th, 2013From Homeschoolers in Louisiana to a Prison in Englandby Joseph Pearce

  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. After two frenetic months of manic activity and almost ceaseless travelling, I can sense a respite on the horizon.  Apart from speaking at a homeschooling conference in Charlotte, NC, on Saturday May 25 (which is, in any case, only a two hour drive from my home), I have no other speaking engagements until June 7. 

  Last weekend I was at a homeschooling conference in Lafayette, Louisiana, one of my favourite parts of the country. I sampled southern hospitality and cajun cooking, the latter of which included deep-fried oysters and alligator legs. I also had a taste of home cooking when a teenage homeschooler brought me some home-baked English-style scones. They were truly scrumptious and reminded me of my home across the Water.

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• May 14th, 2013Strange Notionsby Dena Hunt

  I seldom recommend anything, lest Murphy's law kick in, but this looks really, really good. Watch the clip at:

  http://brandonvogt.com/strange-notions/

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• May 14th, 2013A Truly Catholic Educationby Joseph Pearce

  Following my earlier post about Cardinal O'Malley's boycotting of Boston College's commencement in protest at BC's honouring of a pro-abortion politician, I thought I would contrast BC's abandonment of the Faith with the fidelity of Thomas More College, an hour north of Boston, the genuinely Catholic institution at which I am honoured to teach. The extent to which the students at TMC receive an authentic and bona dife Catholic education was epitomised in a letter handed to the college President by a student following her final exam. Here's an extract from the student's letter. It speaks for itself.

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• May 14th, 2013Boston College and Baby Cullingby Joseph Pearce

  Boston College is the latest so-called "Catholic" school to promote the spread of abortion through the honoring of pro-abortionists. It is, however, heartening that Cardinal O'Malley is taking a courageous and uncompromising stand in defence of unborn children. Read on.

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• May 14th, 2013Abortion and the Obamanationby Joseph Pearce

  It's sickening but not surprising that President Obama has been deafeningly silent about the murder of babies in Philadelphia by an abortionist. Obama has consistently sided with abortionists and against babies whenever exercising his right to choose on which side to vote on the abortion issue. This article by the eloquently hard-hitting Anne Hendershott nails Obama for his hypocrisy in the wake of the conviction of Kermit Gosnell:

  http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/when-politicians-allow-the-murder-of-infants?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrisisMagazine+%28Crisis+Magazine%29

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• May 13th, 2013Romeo and Juliet: What’s Love Got to Do With It?by Joseph Pearce

  I gave an interview recently with Beliefnet's "Faith, Media, and Culture" blog on the Catholic dimension in Romeo and Juliet. Here's the link:
   
  http://blog.beliefnet.com/faithmediaandculture/2013/05/was-william-shakespeare-catholic-is-romeo-and-juliet-a-christian-parable.html.
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• May 13th, 2013Jesus and the Sins of the Fleshby Joseph Pearce

  I am continually astounded by the brilliance of Anthony Esolen. Here is his excellent article on the teaching of Christ on sexual sin from today's Crisis:

  http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/what-jesus-really-said-about-sins-of-the-flesh?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CrisisMagazine+%28Crisis+Magazine%29

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• May 13th, 2013Dancing in Our Fairy Woodby Joseph Pearce

  Our family is blessed to live in a relatively secluded corner of South Carolina in a house surrounded by woods. We have named our home and its surrounding land Ladydale, dedicating the valley in which we live to the Mother of God. Recently my wife happened to catch a glimpse of a wood elf dancing in the trees, capturing the moment for posterity with the camera she happened to have on hand. In truth, the photo is of our five year old daughter, Evangeline, who is even more enchanting, at least in the eyes of her father, than any beguiling visitor from Faerie.

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• May 13th, 2013An Invitation to Join My Classesby Joseph Pearce

  Any visitors to the Ink Desk who would like to sign up for my on-line courses on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings should check out the following link.
   
  http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/about/instructors/joseph-pearce/
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• May 12th, 2013Mortification at the Cathedralby Kevin O'Brien

  I tried to blog in the confessional today.
  
  What I mean by that is I tried to tell the priest what I told my readers in Feeding the Hungry I, my post from this morning.  "The works of my Hungry I are works of the flesh as St. Paul calls them," I said.  "I have been sowing to the flesh and not to the spirit," I said, echoing Galatians 6:8.  
  
  "Well, what can you find in the desires of your Hungry I that can be redeemed?" he suddenly asked.  

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• May 11th, 2013Death, Genesis, and All Thatby Dena Hunt

   

  Jimmy Akin ponders entropy and immortality as they relate to dinosaurs, Genesis, and St Thomas Aquinas: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/did-animals-die-before-the-fall/ Heaven knows there’s never been a theory shortage on this subject, never been a dearth of opinion about death and (im)mortality. Everybody and his brother has had some notion about it.

   

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• May 8th, 2013Uncle Sam Becomes Big Brotherby Joseph Pearce

  Those who believe that Big Brother bit the dust with the fall of the Soviet Empire are in for a nasty shock. Big Brother is alive and well in the United States. He is not only alive and well but growing bigger with every year that passes.

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• May 8th, 2013The History in Historical Fictionby Dena Hunt

  When I decided to write Treason, set in sixteenth-century England, I read a great deal. The novel purposely avoided the more famous names of that period (like Robert Southwell, Edmund Campion, etc.) and it avoided the famous Jesuit missionary priests—because my purpose was to tell what life would have been like for ordinary people, and for an ordinary young Englishman, one of many over the years, returning to his homeland as a priest after attending seminary at Douai. We know the famous names, and their stories, but we know nothing about the unknown, nameless thousands who suffered, enduring unfulfilled hope year after year of Elizabeth’s long, torturous rule. History gives us facts and information, but it can’t tell us about unknown people, or their experience; for that, we have to turn to fiction. 

   

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• May 8th, 2013DIscovering England and Oxfordby Joseph Pearce

  I've just received an e-mail from one of my students at Thomas More College, requesting suggestions for places to visit in Oxford and London. I thought my response might be of interest to visitors to the Ink Desk who might be contemplating visiting these two English cities.

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• May 7th, 2013The Saint and the Scientistby Joseph Pearce

  My good friend at Ave Maria University, Dr. James Peliska, has sent me this excellent link to a short talk by the physician who saved Mother Teresa's life in the late 1980s. It is both funny and edifying and is well worth the investment of the few minutes of time that it takes to watch.

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• May 7th, 2013The Meaning of Loveby Kevin O'Brien

  Yesterday I wrote a bit about the third chapter of Colleen Caroll Campbell's book My Sisters, the Saints, in which she writes about Divine Mercy and Human Desire.

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• May 6th, 2013Divine Mercy and Human Desireby Kevin O'Brien

  Colleen Caroll Campbell has written a dynamite book, My Sisters, the Saints.  

  I am reading it aloud to my wife Karen.  Tonight I read Chapter Three, which is about how St. Faustina and the concept of Divine Mercy helped Colleen to make a very difficult decision in 2003, the year she served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush. 

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