Commentary by Thomas Howard

Themis
Times are changing.

Finding the Way In
A thunderous domain where language becomes the very avatar of bliss.

Newman and Lewis on the Limits of Education
What is the job of the university?

Open to Experience
Would "pleasure" be closer to the mark? Or diversion? Or ecstasy?

Searching for Holiness and Glory
How are things going when the idea of the holy seems remote or strange?

The Other Inkling
It was his novels that gained him a modest measure of fame.

Real and Imagined Stories
What is this weight that seems to attach itself to that merely imaginary world?

Brokenness and Sin
We will have to come clean and expunge the mystery of God's wrath.

Despondent Converts
Why does a Catholic go to Church?

Redrawing the Moral Map
Should there not be at least one voice encouraging us climbers to trust it?

Rethinking the Global Village
What, exactly, is the footing on which we will raise the new world?

Augustine's Pears
A great antidote for all that is confused and squalid about our own epoch.

A Portrait of Dietrich von Hildebrand
"A 20th-century doctor of the Church."

Dr. Oz and the Fountain of Youth
Ad te omnis caro venit. Unto Thee shall all flesh come.

The Barber Shop
There's so much in it!

Harmonizing Athens and Jerusalem
The two regions of high human culture.

The Carolina Wren and Others
So exquisite -- they manifest God's handiwork, and hence His glory.

Ex Aegypto
Poems of Christian meditation addressed to Egypt.

The Good Doctor Donne
A jolting reminder of the exercise of fierce self-examination.

Look at Me!
"We all have to cope with various forms of vanity..."

Isabella and Angelo
A succinct summary of the human situation and the grace of Christ.

Songs of Absurdity
Language that outstrips mere common sense and rests on the bedrock of faith.

What about Din?
My own curiosity about the general genre "rock."

A Diva's Sentiments
Sustained the tests that love worthy of its name is asked to sustain?

The Italian Concerto
The Last Day will scrutinize what we have been doing with it.

An Odd Reminder
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord: and to sing praises unto thy Name.

What about the Day of Wrath?
Everything that has been concealed will be revealed.

A Note on the Dark Night
A somewhat piquant topic for reflection upon one's own state of soul.

A Photo in Transylvania
How on earth do they carry on?

An Advent Note on Ikhnaton
Two icons for Advent worth pausing over.

Of Abbots and Actresses
The Abbot Pambo came upon an actress...

What About the Dragons Now?
Literalist creationists are naïve, poor lambs; we must construct a new outlook.

Ecce Quam Bonum
What do my eyes see anyway?

The Three Monkeys
Is there a trace in what he said for our profit?

'But, Monseigneur...'
This is when the good lady's advice to the archbishop may be apt.

'Brideshead Revisited' Revisited
A story about sin and grace.

King Michael
The dignity of this king points to something.

'She Knows Who I Am'
What my soul most yearns for is that the Sovereign know me.

Notes Upon Hearing Mozart's Bassoon Concerto
The saints seem to speak of something like this.