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.

• April 20th, 2013Hobbits and Moreby Kevin O'Brien

  I have a story to go with the above photo.  This is Tolkien's office set at EWTN.  In one scene, I am Tolkien, reading from The Lord of the Rings. 
  
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• April 20th, 2013No Life without Fatherby Kevin O'Brien

  As a father, I never thought I was doing anything special. Our son Colin was born 21 years ago - April 20, 1992.  It was a day that changed my life entirely for the better.

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• April 19th, 2013R.I.P. Richard Kerleyby Colin Jory

  I write from Sydney, where I am in temporary residence away from my native Canberra, doing a 4-week course of intensive studies.

   In February 2012, on the other side of our vast continent, on the outskirts of the little town of Nannup, West Australia, in a depression in large paddock, human bones were found. Nannup, insofar as it is close to anywhere known anywhere else, is close to Bunbury, which is 94 kilometres (58 miles) north. I’ve never been to Western Australia, but from what I can infer from the omniscient Internet, Nannup would have been a one-horse town until the last horse died of terminal boredom.

   

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• April 16th, 2013Where Was God at the Boston Marathon?by Lorraine V. Murray

  Here's the link to the column I wrote for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about that little boy who died in the bombings at the race. Just click "continue reading" and you can see the whole column: 
  
  http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/where-was-god-at-the-boston-marathon/nXNkK/

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• April 16th, 2013Pope Francis and Our Blessed Motherby Lorraine V. Murray

  When I first saw Pope Francis step onto the balcony, shortly after he had been elected pope, I noticed how calm and joyful he seemed. Here he was, a man who had gone from being a humble cardinal in Buenos Aires to becoming shepherd for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics—and yet he didn’t seem ruffled at all. I wondered what his secret was.

   

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• April 15th, 2013Reflections on the Christian Life: Life’s Meaning through Esolen’s Eyesby Hannah O'Connor

  Imagine walking through a field of the most abundant and varied wildflowers; imagine gathering them in your arms; imagine carrying them with you.  This is how it is to read Anthony Esolen’s latest work, Reflections on the Christian Life.

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• April 15th, 2013God Really Is Alive and Well!by Lorraine V. Murray

  The evening news often seems extremely distressing and depressing, so I recently wrote something hopeful for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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• April 13th, 2013Gunsby Dena Hunt

   

  It was 1984, and I lived and worked in New Orleans. My godfather gave me a gun. It’s a little Italian automatic, very small, fits in my palm, and it is now—as I write—in the drawer by my bed, just where my godfather told me to keep it.

   

   

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• April 11th, 2013Gunsby Dena Hunt

  It was 1984, and I lived and worked in New Orleans. My godfather gave me a gun. It’s a little Italian automatic, very small, fits in my palm, and it is now—as I write—in the drawer by my bed, just where my godfather told me to keep it.

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• April 10th, 2013Scapulars and Tattoos meet Tolkien and Chestertonby Hannah O'Connor

  I will never forget my College’s president, Dr. William Fahey, saying he had found the best way to describe his students was “Scapulars and Tattoos”.  I often think of this when I look at the people around me and I always marvel at the wide array of young, energetic, passionate, faith-filled people that are pursuing truth. Many have tattoos. Many have scapulars—that wonderful gift from Our Lady.  But all of them, each having journeyed to Thomas More College by a unique path, are bound together by a common love and thirst for the Truth that will set you free. It especially came to mind of late in the case of a current student who recently joined the Church. 

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• April 9th, 2013Shakespeare as Schoolmasterby Pavel Chichikov

  A story at the BBC tells us that young Will Shakespeare may have been, for a few years, a provincial schoolmaster and not a director, producer, actor or writer of plays.

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• April 8th, 2013Tolkien and Democracyby Joseph Pearce

  After my talk on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings at Princeton University last week, I had an interesting conversation with a student who is in the midst of research on Tolkien's approach to democracy. I promised to suggest some avenues of research that she should pursue. Here are my suggestions.
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• April 7th, 2013For Love or Moneyby Kevin O'Brien

  "People will do anything for a fifty dollar bill," said George Bernard Shaw, "except work for it."

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• April 6th, 2013Turning the Other Cheek is an Act of Mercyby Kevin O'Brien

  Have you ever noticed that we can't hurt someone or do an injustice to someone without vilifying that person first?  We can't do a dirty deed unless we've rationalized it.  Part of the witness of Christ Himself was His "passive resistance" at His trial.  By allowing us to do what we did to Him, He showed us our sins and shamed us.  Had He resisted, we would have said, "Well, this man deserves it!  Listen to how he spoke to the High Priest!  Look at how angry he got!  Listen to how he curses us from the cross!  Look at how he spits back when we spit on him!" 

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• April 6th, 2013We’re Off to Kill the Wizardby Kevin O'Brien

  Tonight we performed my totally re-written script of We're Off to Kill the Wizard for the first time.

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• April 4th, 2013A Postcard from Princetonby Joseph Pearce

  I am currently in Princeton to give a talk at the university this evening on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Rather unusually, I have time on my hands, enabling me to explore campus and the surrounding area. I was here once before, about ten years ago, to give a talk on The Lord of the Rings at the time that the Peter Jackson movie adaptation was first released. There is, therefore, an inevitable sense of deja vu. As with my previous visit, I am staying at the Nassau Inn, which dates back to the 1750s and must be one of the oldest hotels in the United States. Unfortunately, it has been so thoroughly renovated and modernized that a casual visitor would have no idea of its vintage.

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• April 3rd, 2013Dirty Dancing is Grinding Me Downby Kevin O'Brien

  My limerick about Lansing, Kansas ...

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• April 3rd, 2013Thoroughly Modern Mindlessnessby Kevin O'Brien

  Reader Bonnie has asked me to comment upon Chesterton's view of modernity or the modern man.

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• April 3rd, 2013Gay-Marriage Activist: “The Institution of Marriage Should Not Exist”by Kevin O'Brien

  "Gay marriage" is not about marriage equality.  It's about DESTROYING MARRIAGE.  That's not my take on it.  That is, in fact, the simple agenda of the activists behind this movement and they admit it.

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• April 2nd, 2013Our New Popeby Dena Hunt

  The priest at my church is over the moon about our new Pope. I’ve never seen him so happy. He says that our new Pope may not write any encyclicals—because he IS an encyclical. He is “living Jesus” because he washes the feet of juvenile offenders, including a Muslim, and because he disdains white pants and red shoes in favor of black, and because he “loves the poor” and chose the name of Francis, etc.

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