Praised Be to Jesus Christ Now and Forever!
With the end of summer upon us, this week’s issue is a lighter one, so why not take the time to look through it and read an article or two (or three)?
Our offerings for this issue:
After the Listening: What Should Come After the Synodal “Listening Sessions.”
With August moving toward it’s close, the consultation/”listening session” phase of the synod on synodality is, mercifully, coming to an end. Those paying attention may be forgiven for thinking it has been an unmitigated disaster. Regardless, they have happened, so where do we go from here? What now? We have been told, ad nauseum, that we must listen to everybody. So be it. We’ve listening. What comes after the listening? Read our view here.
Dogmas of Our Lady: The Church's Response to the Modern World
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (in the East, called the Dormition) is perhaps the oldest of all Marian feasts, dating back to at latest the fourth century. Yet it is the newest of the Church’s dogmas, proclaimed less than a century ago. The dogma of her Immaculate Conception, too, was declared relatively close to our time. History tells us that the fact of Our Lady’s entrance into heaven, body and soul, had been on the level of universal belief and solid tradition for well over a millennia. Why were such old traditions only so newly declared as required beliefs? Read why it was so fitting they be declared here.
A Call to Engagement: Louise Imogen Guiney’s “The Kings,” and JRR. Tolkein and the Long Defeat
Faithful Catholics are finding increasingly powerful forces arrayed against them in the modern world. Some have been tempted to turn to JRR Tolkein’s concept of the “Long Defeat.” But the “Long Defeat” is not an excuse to disengage and accept defeat, but a call to fight all the harder as the odds are longer. We cannot withdraw from the field, we are to battle on, knowing that, in the Lord, we do not battle in vain. Read more here.