Something has disturbed me in watching the hype over exorcists the last few decades. I think it's come down to all the horror and thriller movies, where an exorcist priest is brought in as the last line of defense against evil. And it's true, they should be a last...
I learned something about myself this weekend that I didn't like. After watching a show, I couldn't decide what to think about it. So I pulled on the first available inner thread to see where it went. Now, to be fair, it's good to just sit and reflect and pull...
Spoiler warning ahead for the Netflix horror series. I've only seen this series once, and while I don't love it, I think it is grounded in a message that is deep, and relevant, to humans everywhere. (Check out my take on Catholics and the horror genre, and why horror...
I have a growing respect for horror as a genre. But I have never enjoyed them. I don't think that's possible. As a little kid, I was shattered and terrified at the black and white transformation of a man into a werewolf on late night tv. Later on in my early 20s, I...
6 years ago, I turned my thoughts on being an author into an ebook. in 2021, it's now updated as a course with 9 lessons, available for free through SmartCatholics! Are you excited to write a novel full of drama and meaning? Help your creative novel be the best it can...
One of the positives of our unusual times is that a lot more working fathers are at home and contributing to the education of their children. And that is a beautiful thing. Today our guest is the very clever creator of SmartCatholics.com, homeschooling dad, Dominic de...
Sometimes I think that if you're not in battle with God, you might not be moving at all. The meaning of 'Israel' is the God-Wrestler, someone who 'contends with God'. I think we all need to go through that challenge, if only that we can be broken by it. I'm not saying...
Apocalypses are fantastic tools to get people moving, to get them to do what you want them to do. As someone raised on the thin gruel of an apocalyptic future - a radical traditionalist - I should know. Our leaders kept us paralyzed or frenzied with fear at the amount...
Summary: The World Wars seemed to birth an unlikely legend, the saga of Middle Earth. Tolkien wove a new mythology for humanity, to help us move beyond a nostalgia for violence. Our world needs new stories, rooted in the goodness of the world, in the merriment of...