From War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, by journalist Chris Hedges : a story about new life and a lowly cow and an old man who sacrificed so that the light shine for someone else. A story, in other words, about Christmas: “I sat one afternoon with a Bosnain Serb couple, Rosa and […]
CULTURE
“DRESS CODES” AT THE AUTRY

As Yves St. Laurent said, “I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity—all I hope for in my clothes.”
RICHARD DIEBENKORN’S OCEAN PARK SERIES

Take, for example, Ocean Park No. 140 (1985). It may not be a landscape, but its two triangular swaths of gorgeous saturated color—dark green and deep blue—to my eye irresistibly evoke land, sea and sky.
THE UNION OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE

That we should be counted worthy to receive the Eucharist — in any setting, under any circumstances — even once in our lives would be the summit of our existence.
FINDING FREEDOM AT THE LOST KITCHEN

“Finding Freedom” is the story of how Erin French picked herself up by the bootstraps, begged, borrowed, scavenged, refurbished an old Airstream trailer and opened a popup, made a handshake deal for an abandoned gristmill in rural Maine and bit by bit, breathed a world-famous restaurant into life.
VIVA MAESTRO!: COMPOSER GUSTAVO DUDAMEL

Dudamel’s philosophy, work and life constitute a resounding rebuke to those who maintain that art is a frivolous whim in these dark times.
THE CASE AGAINST THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION

Instead of spouting identity-politics ideology, “New Statesman” columnist Louise Perry turns to evolution, biology, and psychology and asks: What is best for the well-being of women? What do women really need?
MIDWEST AUTUMN

Chicago, Lake Forest, and Oak Park were incredible. But way more important–I made a new friend.
REHABILITATING ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX

In this culture of perpetual aggrievement, could it be that we’ve been missing the message that’s right in front of our faces?
DEATHSONG: MEDIEVAL CHANT WITH DR. ELAINE STRATTON HILD

Dr. Hild’s fervent wish is that we might all come to play music, chant, or sing around the bedside of our dying loved ones.
PIANIST MARIA YUDINA: HOLY FOOL

“Yudina was a strange person, and very much a loner.” “Strange things kept happening to her.” “Yudina saw music in a mystical light. For instance, she saw Bach’s Goldberg Variations as a series of illustrations to the Holy Bible,” Shostakovich observed. “She always played as though she were giving a sermon.”
THE SHADOW OF THE SUN

‘Why do you stay here, Father?’I asked. ‘Why don’t you leave?’ He gave the impression of a man in whom some small part had already died. There was already something missing. ‘I cannot,’ he answered. ‘Someone has to guard the church.’
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. KEVIN

“The hermitage garden is designed to provide a place where nature, scripture and Glendalough’s history are combined in harmony, delighting the eye, comforting the soul and leading pilgrims to prayer and a deeper awareness of God.”
THAT FEEL WHEN NO GIRLFRIEND

For all their solipsism, these young men are not self-pitying so much as they’re bewildered: by the state of the world, the culture, and the fact that as young males they’re unseen, unwanted, unremarked upon.