I’ve just finished this beautiful little book, The Mother of the Little Flower: Zelie Martin, written by Céline Martin (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face), the sister of Thérèse of Lisieux. Though quite short, this biography gives a full portrait of an exceptional woman whose greatest desire was to glorify God, even in times extreme suffering. It includes personal anecdotes of her charity and devotion and also supplies excerpts from her letters, in which she never fails to express her gratitude for and trust in God’s unfailing love. Yesterday I began reading Jacques Philippe’s The Way of Trust and Love, which is based on a retreat he gave on Thérèse of Lisieux. He closely examines her writings, explaining her “completely new little way” of spirituality and how one can apply it everyday life. Philippe recommends reading the book “one chapter a day and then taking time to meditate on it, re-reading the quotations in the context of your personal prayer, and asking yourself what light they throw on your own life, what invitations our Lord is making to you through them.” Continue Reading »
In the pages of the Times of Trenton on January 20, a psychologist named Ronald J. Coughlin published an op-ed titled “Fundamental Changes Would Better American Society.” Mr. Coughlin is worried about a lot of the right things: alcohol abuse, the divorce rate, childbearing out of wedlock (particularly among teens). But what ideas he has for “fundamental changes”! The idea, for instance, that because science tells us about the maturing brain we ought to raise the drinking age to twenty-five is going to go over big, with an electorate that can vote at eighteen. (Mr. Coughlin may want to change that too, for all I know.) Continue Reading »
Everybody knows how important it is to read to toddlers. Apart from the emotional element, reading out loud every day during the pre-K years sends a child to kindergarten with a significantly larger vocabulary than a child without that experience possesses. And what happens in kindergarten and after is that the gap grows (because of what is called the “Matthew Effect”). Continue Reading »
An article in the latest Harvard Law Review points to the wider significance of the historic moment which the Hobby Lobby decision represents. Continue Reading »
The murders at Charlie Hebdo were not justified, and we oughtn’t surrender our values to placate Islamists. But it’s worth remembering that much of the world, not only Islamists, sees things rather differently from us. Continue Reading »
