An icon of the Annunciation appears on the central altar doors of every Orthodox Christian church. The “royal doors” are double doors, so the icon is a diptych, with Gabriel on the left and Mary on the right. As a young child, I found the movement of this icon mesmerizing as the doors opened and . . . . Continue Reading »
Fiddling with translations of the Lord's Prayer is an accommodation with secular culture. Continue Reading »
Una Voce: The History of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce by leo darroch gracewing, 504 pages, $35 In 1965, Evelyn Waugh wrote to the archbishop of Westminster of the growing tide of liturgical changes: “Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall . . . . Continue Reading »
PROTESTANT PARANOIA? R. R. Reno confirms Samuel Gregg’s suspicion that First Things is tempering its embrace of free markets (“Building Bridges, Not Walls,” November). Perhaps he can confirm—or deny—whether the journal is also rethinking its commitment to the free exercise of . . . . Continue Reading »
One Sunday in high school, we went to the Anglo-Catholic parish where my headmaster served as an assistant priest. Catechized by evangelical Episcopalians and Presbyterians, I believed that the Bible was divinely inspired by God. But I had never seen it treated as such in a physical or ritual way. . . . . Continue Reading »
Producing a genuinely beautiful translation of the Roman Missal would go some distance in satisfying young Catholics’ hunger for beauty. Continue Reading »
Sacrosanctum concilium declared that the liturgy should be “freed from unnecessary repetition.” But the Roman Missal's many repetitions are intentional—and express eternity. Continue Reading »
The original German version of Martin Mosebach's recent article “Holy Routine.” Continue Reading »
On the Road to Vatican II: German Catholic Enlightenment and Reform of the Churchby ulrich l. lehnerfortress, 414 pages, $49 On the Road to Vatican II focuses on German and Austrian theological debates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as examples of the Catholic Enlightenment. Historians . . . . Continue Reading »
The Church of England’s call for a transgender liturgy misses the philosophical implications of transgenderism. Continue Reading »
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