"The Family That Prays Together" by Br. Gregory Santy at The Imaginative Conservative
Oct 3, 2024
"At the sociological level, one could answer that praying together as a family both manifests and reinforces the reality that the family actually exists, that it’s not simply an aggregate of individuals, but a true society. On a deeper, moral level, praying together as a family also fulfills a natural and fundamental obligation every family has to recognize its unique relation and dependence on God. But at the deepest, supernatural level, praying to God as a family also obtains grace for the family as such, and perhaps the very grace that this family praying together will indeed stay together."
The Family That Prays Together by Br. Gregory Santy at The Imaginative Conservative. At the sociological level, one could answer that praying together as a family both manifests and reinforces the reality that the family actually exists, that it’s not simply an aggregate of individuals, but a true society. On a deeper, moral level, praying together as a family also fulfills a natural and fundamental obligation every family has to recognize its unique relation and dependence on God. But at the deepest, supernatural level, praying to God as a family also obtains grace for the family as such, and perhaps the very grace that this family praying together will indeed stay together. Read
Catholic Education Spreads the Word by Mark Bauerlein at First Things. Richard T. Meyer joins First Things contributing editor Mark Bauerlein for the latest installment of an ongoing interview series. They discuss the success of JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Read
False Starts & Bad Habits: How Not to Start a Seminar by Andrew J. Zwerneman at Cana Academy. With rare exception, seminar leaders should begin their seminars by asking good questions. While that strategy may seem obvious, the rise of nonreading habits among today’s students makes it more difficult to see the obvious way as the right one. In fact, among schools that run seminars, asking good questions now has a competitor: warm-up reading. If you think that is a good way to start a seminar, think again. At best, warm-up reading hides deep-rooted bad habits. At worst, it breeds them. Read
The Decline and Fall of the Humanities by Brendan Reim at The Heights Forum. The humanities—or the academic disciplines concerned with languages, literature, history, philosophy, and the arts—are in steep decline and have been for a long time. For decades now, the percentage of students enrolling in humanities classes has steadily decreased while the STEM fields have swelled to ever greater numbers. Recently, however, the rate of decline has accelerated dramatically, with plummeting enrollment numbers now forcing universities to close whole departments and severely limit humanities course offerings…The trend has obvious implications for those interested in preserving culture. After all, the practices of the modern university influence education at every level and permeate into every domain of culture, and yet the cause of the crisis has largely gone unnamed. Some blame the economy, dwindling job prospects, or the increasing technological nature of our society. Read
Mark the Music: Beauty and Literature by Joseph Pearce at Memoria Press. The Latin word musica has its roots in the Greek mousiké, which refers to the nine Muses, the goddesses of inspiration and creativity. To the Greeks, the inspiration and creativity provided by the Muses were necessary to innovation in both the arts and the sciences. They were also inseparable from harmony, order, and proportion, each of which is a manifestation of the triune splendor of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. Read
Tips for Teaching Girls by Elizabeth Black at The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. The Church boldly declares that “Each of the sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way.” A profound statement, surely, yet as an educator I am always quick to ask what this might mean practically for education, particularly given the obvious differences between boys and girls in the classroom. After all, it is not a brain that learns, but a person, and a person who is either male or female. How are we as teachers responsive to the differences between the sexes in the classroom? Read
Associate Superintendent Discusses Kansas Diocese’s Tuition-Free Education Program by Grace Porto at CatholicVote. The Diocese of Wichita, Kansas has a stewardship program that enables tithing families to have full access to Catholic schools in the area, without having to pay tuition. Diocesan Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jamie Finkeldei spoke in a phone interview with CatholicVote about the diocese’s stewardship program, which has been around since the 1980s. He explained that stewardship “is a spirituality first” and defined it as “the grateful response of a Christian disciple who recognizes and receives God’s gifts and shares those gifts in love of God and neighbor.” Read
Head Meets Hands: New College Opens in the Grain of St. Joseph the Worker by Alex McKenna at National Catholic Register. Located in downtown Steubenville, Ohio, a few short miles from Franciscan University of Steubenville, St. Joseph the Worker College was set to open its doors last fall but had to hold off until it received final certification from the Ohio Department of Education. Now, the program, which features a Bachelor of Arts in Catholic Studies closely tied to rigorous training in a skilled trade — carpentry, electrical, plumbing or HVAC — is finally underway, with classes beginning this week. Read
Throwback Thursday
Should We Study Film? by Matt McKeown at CLT Journal on January 27, 2021. As a medium, cinema has been around for well over a century, and has become an important aspect of culture all across the globe. Film studies already exist at the college level and above, of course, and have since the founding of the Moscow Film School in 1919. I suggest that film studies be added to standard high school curricula, if not earlier—or, in terms of the Trivium, in the Dialectic and Rhetoric stages. This would be a substantial change, and it calls for justification. I suggest four reasons to make this addition, four lenses through which to view film. Read