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,...
Author: V. J. Tarantino
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...
A Meditation on Christ’s Agony, Part II
For Part I, link here. My soul is sorrowful, even to death. To attribute Christ’s desolation to anticipatory fear before his betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion is profoundly inadequate (although St. John of the Cross teaches that the more spiritual an...
A Meditation on Christ’s Agony, Part I
St. Alphonsus Liguori tells of this legend: “St. Thomas Aquinas was one day paying a visit to St. Bonaventure, and asked him from what book he had drawn all the beautiful lessons he had written. St. Bonaventure showed him the...
Fr. Ripperger’s Metaphysics: An Honest Assessment
Mike Lewis has been on a righteous crusade to expose the fundamental incompatibility of the activities of Fr. Chad Ripperger, “celebrity exorcist” (two words especially jarring when paired), with the beauty and dignity of Catholicism as religio vera – and...
Teach Me to be Gentle with All
I try to limit the amount of autobiographical material I post. For one thing, I have no way of keeping up with the universal and enduring truths which need to be explored. At any given time, there are anywhere from...
The Testament of Pope Francis
The preaching of St. Peter Julian Eymard on the Institution of the Eucharist has deeply left its mark on me. I have returned to one particular homily many, many times through the years, even copying it out in my own...
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