Pope Leo: Pray the Rosary for Peace
Pope Leo XIV has asked us as Catholics to pray the Rosary daily for peace throughout the month of October. The Holy Father is not alone in singling out the Rosary as our path to peace – yet we should...
Author: V. J. Tarantino
A Personal Reminiscence (with an Afterword)
My paternal grandparents owned a home in Rosedale, Queens. Although I was there only a handful of times, I remember their Tudor house in striking detail. I can still feel the fibers of the large, oval braided rug set beneath...
The Vision of Pope Leo XIV
In general, popes are rarely eager to set forth an agenda before the white smoke above the Sistine Chapel clears, as it were – the first six months or so of a papacy tend to be fairly quiet. The impatience...
On the Violence in Minneapolis
Early yesterday morning, a note came into my Substack home page expressing utter scandal that Pope Leo said that before we are believers, we are human. I let it pass. It’s not mine to put out every fire — and...
On Gaza
This is a loud cry of pain from children whose dignity has been wounded. It cannot and must not leave anyone indifferent. -Pope St. John Paul II …yet how indifferent have we become. The utter tragedy of Gazan families has...
Bread into Stones
A new friend, an accomplished writer whom I met for the first time last weekend, gifted me a copy of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. I couldn’t put it down. While I’ve studied World War II as history,...
New Martyrs in Africa
A very brief post, but all the more significant for that: Last night in Komanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an all-night Eucharistic liturgy was interrupted by men armed with guns and machetes, believed to have been members...
Loaves, Fishes and the Living Bread
Chris Jackson at the Substack Hiraeth in Exile has generated some controversy recently with a number of hot takes on Pope Leo; I’m focusing here on one in particular, because it epitomizes a way of understanding the Church and the world. I’ve noticed...
The Most Blessed Subjectivity of the Logos
A learned (and acerbic) Dominican professor under whom I studied told this story: An eminent Dominican scholar, easily identifiable by his fiery red hair, was in the habit of taking his daily walk past the Jesuit house. One day, one...
In the Name of God, War
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, o ‘Lord, Lord… did we...
David Danced and So Did We: A Tale of Joy and Praise
Note: Over the last few months, the founders of the Association of the Faithful Sacred Beauty, V.J. Tarantino (aka Val) and Paul Chu, have been contributing writing and editing (and sometimes even music) to WPI. This piece, which appeared on their Substack two weeks ago,...
A Meditation on Christ’s Agony, Part III
Already posted in this series: Part One; Part Two I am troubled now. John, mystic among Evangelists, treats of the Agony’s psychological inner content only as a pericope within the context of Palm Sunday and the entry in Jerusalem, Jesus...
Popular Posts