Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 119

Celebrating Cyrano

My essay this week for Imaginative Conservative is a celebration of one of my heroes– Cyrano de Bergerac. Did you know Rostand’s character is based on a real person? Until recently I did not know that the knight with the nose was an actual historical figure. Rostand based his amusing musketeer on a genuine character from [Read More...]

Retreat Forward

That hungry beast called a blog has not been fed this week because I have been on retreat. He is very hangry…(that’s the combination of “hungry” and “angry” I did not have WiFi. What did I do on retreat? Slept, read, prayed, looked at the sky, slept, read, prayed and looked at the sky. It [Read More...]

Pope Francis: An Evangelical Charismatic Catholic?

Is the Pope an Evangelical Charismatic Catholic? Here is an article I have written for Catholic World Report. Is Pope Francis an Evangelical, Charismatic Catholic? Three other signs indicate that this is the best way to understand him. First is his repeated discussion of the reality of Satan and the need for spiritual warfare. This [Read More...]

Why I’m Writing for CRUX

Last week CRUX columnist Margery Eagan asked the question why we disregard St Paul’s teaching on slavery, but do not feel free to disregard his condemnation of homosexuality. I attempted to answer Margery’s question on my blog and the CRUX editor offered to publish my response. It is published today here. Which leads me to [Read More...]

Old Monk on How God Answers Prayer

Novice: How can God possibly hear and respond to everyone’s prayers? There are so many! Old Monk: That’s easy. He gives everyone the same answer.

The Joyful Pains of Purgatory

  Here is my article for National Catholic Register on purgatory for All Souls’ Day When we pray for the “repose of the souls” of our departed loved ones, it sounds like a passive activity. It sounds like we are merely putting them to bed and praying for them to rest in peace. However, our [Read More...]

Francis, Faith and Family

Here is my latest article for Aleteia on Pope Francis’ comments on faith and family. With the Synod on the Family ending its first round, Pope Francis has used the opportunity to re-affirm and strengthen the church’s teaching on marriage and family life, and with it a refreshing understanding of what it means to live [Read More...]

Mantilla the Hon on the Cappa Magna

Guest blogger Mantilla Amontillado is the founder of Veritas Vestments. She holds a degree in Ecclesiastical Haberdashery from Salamanca University. She has done the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella three times on horseback and is engaged to the famous matador, Senor Augusto Torquemada. Lemme tell you hon, that Cardinal Burke, he some kind of crazy [Read More...]

Answering Margery Eagan on Homosexuality

Margery Eagan, the spirituality columnist at Boston Globe’s CRUX website poses a question about homosexuality in this column. Listening to the reading at Mass this week from Ephesians Margery heard St Paul say, “Slaves be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling.” The priest explained that times were different back then and St [Read More...]

Does Beauty Matter?

True story: here in the Bible Belt a young Baptist high school kid goes into a Catholic Church. He’s smart and amazingly well read. Already by eleventh grade he has rejected Baptist fundamentalist Christianity. He’s explored the other world religions and rejected them all. He’s on the brink of atheism Then he steps into a [Read More...]