Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 206

Mary Mother of God from Scripture

Tim Staples explains how the title Mother of God has it’s foundation in Scripture. It all goes back to the story of the Visitation when Elizabeth calls Mary “Mother of my Lord.” First, when Elizabeth “exclaimed with a loud cry… why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me” [Read More...]

Groovy Man! An Old Hippy Goes to Church

Frida Berrigan at the Huffington Post tells us what it was like growing up in a groovy Catholic Church: For starters, there was no rosary involved. Eucharist of watered down wine and old bread was shared around a circle in the living room, consecrated by whoever was “up” that week and shared by agnostics, atheists, [Read More...]

The Leprosy of Sin

When I visited India in the mid 1980s I had the chance to visit a leper colony run by the Missionaries of Charity. It was a good chance to learn about leprosy and understand the meaning of this horrible disease and why it features so significantly in the Scriptures. The gospel stories always carry several [Read More...]

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming

Rod Dreher has written a moving memoir on the life and tragic death of his sister Ruthie Leming. At the same time he tells his own story–how he left small town Louisiana for the big city and a successful career as a journalist only to head home again and learn that “the end of all [Read More...]

My Conversation With Tolkien’s Daughter

A couple of years ago I was visiting England and was invited to celebrate Mass for a friend at his parish. I happened to know that Priscilla Tolkien–J.R.R. Tolkien’s only daughter was a parishioner there, so I asked the sacristan if she was likely to be in attendance. “Oh yes, Miss Tolkien is there in [Read More...]

And You Have My Rosary!

Yesterday for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary we had a special school Mass and I described for the children this scene from the Council of Elrond–extended version of LOTR. After Frodo says, “I will take the ring to Mordor, but I do not know the way…” Which, by the way, is probably [Read More...]

The Hermeneutic of Continuity Continues

We have underestimated the effects of the long papacy of John Paul with its “extension papacy” of Benedict XVI. I call Benedict’s papacy an extension of John Paul’s because he was for so long the right hand man of John Paul, and his obvious successor and “keeper of the flame.” Together they guided the church [Read More...]

The Scalfari Interview Gaffe

Does anybody remember the brouhaha when Pope Benedict lifted the excommunication of wacky SSPX Bishop Williamson who turned out to be a right wing anti Semitic holocaust denier? The fact of the matter is the Pope messed up and the Vatican press people messed up. I reckon we will look back on Pope Francis’ interview [Read More...]

Frodo and Therese

The Little Way Through Middle Earth. Here is my article which compares St Therese’ Little Way to Lord of the Rings.

Scalfari Interview Flawed

Just as I thought–the Scalfari interview was steered mostly by the atheist journalist. John Allen reports here that certain parts were factually incorrect and this fact indicates that Scalfari was putting things together as he thought best, but without checking all the details. It has also emerged that Scalfari did not record the interview or [Read More...]