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Well, the verdict is in on my original black/white/orange theme for The Narthex: it looked really cool, but it was hard to read. I just switched the theme to something that should be a bit easier on the eyes.  I might experiment with some other themes in the coming weeks.  Let me know what you […]

Matt Palmer’s take on the worst holiday/Christmas songs got me thinking about two versions of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah” making the rounds of e-mail and internet posts this time of year. Both bring a smile. One features a well-organized “flashmob” that brings the chorus to a mall food court. At some point, some […]

Now I am somebody else. Last summer I appropriated that line from Crazy Heart, the film that got Jeff Bridges his Oscar. I’d sing it whenever a brother who will go unnamed introduced me to new friends with “He used to write sports for The Sun” – as if life had stopped when God took […]

Locusts and wild honey doesn’t sound like a very appetizing diet. I suppose some people have eaten chocolate-covered grasshoppers, but I haven’t been brave enough to try that. And I know there are cultures that regularly dine on certain insects as staples in their diet (plenty of protein, I’m told). You have a hard enough […]

Ronnie Hastie gets down on one knee and points skyward each time he scores a touchdown.  It’s his way of recognizing God for his gifts. Not anymore. Hastie, a Washington state high school football player, was penalized during a recent game for his ritual, which referees deemed was unsportsmanlike. This hasn’t been a good week for […]

It is said that after German bombers destroyed an English cathedral during the Second World War, dedicated volunteers worked to repair one of the church’s broken statues of Christ. Rather than restore the figure’s missing hands, the artisans left Christ handless – replacing the artwork’s “Come unto Me” inscription with “Christ has no hands but ours.” […]

Prince Caspian (amazon.com) Two years ago, I posted the blog below on our old blog format on CatholicReview.org. Since we’re talking Narnia and Aslan today, I thought I would share this blog from 2008. It was posted after I saw “Prince Caspian,” the sequel to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” —- Search for […]

Is Aslan really meant to be Christ? Actor Liam Neeson, voice of “Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia” film series, believes the magical lion represents more than Christ.  Neeson, who was raised Catholic in Ireland, believes Aslan is all great spiritual leaders rolled into one figure. He said this at a press conference to promote […]

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maryland’s former lieutenant governor, is weighing in on Sarah Palin’s new book, “America by Heart.”  Townsend, a Catholic, is particularly concerned that the former Alaska governor has criticized President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. It was in that landmark address that Kennedy asserted that he should be judged […]