Thomas Cole, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, 1834Lost in Translation #101Last week we examined the opening words of the Gloria in excelsis, “Glory to God in the highest.” Today we examine the second verse, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.Men of Good Will?Consulting the original biblical text helps us gain a better understanding of who these men of good will are. Εὐδοκία or ..read more

In the Synoptic Gospels, St James the Greater appears as a particularly prominent figure among the Twelve Apostles. When the names of the Twelve are given as a group, he always appears in the first set of four, along with the brothers Peter and Andrew, and his own brother John. After his calling, which is described at the beginning of Our Lord’s public ministry in all three Synoptics, he appears ..read more

Since a Eucharistic Congress just concluded in Indianapolis, and was by all accounts very successful, our readers might be interested to see these two newsreels from a similar congress held in Chicago in 1926, so long ago that moving pictures still did no have sound! From the always interesting archives of British Pathé.And here is a photograph of the first general meeting, at which a Solemn ..read more

Today is the feast of St Apollinaris, bishop and martyr. The traditional story of his life states that he accompanied St Peter from Antioch to Rome, was appointed by him to be the first bishop of Ravenna, a small city of the northern Italian region now called the Emilia-Romagna; after various persecutions and exiles, he was martyred in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, ca. 79 AD. This story is ..read more

One of El Greco's many paintings of the MagdaleneOn this feastday of St. Mary Magdalene, we might reflect on a curious detail recorded about her. In St. Luke’s Gospel, we read: “Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities ..read more

Today is the feast of St Lawrence of Brindisi, who was born on the feast of St Mary Magdalene in 1559, and died on the same day at the age of sixty in 1619. Although his family was Venetian, he was born in the major port city of Brindisi, then in the Kingdom of Naples, far down Italy’s Adriatic coast. After entering the Capuchins at the age of 16, he studied at the University of Padua, then the ..read more

July 20th in the Byzantine rite is the feast of the Holy and Glorious Prophet Elijah, a man whose singularly exalted status in salvation history suggests that his life deserves more attention than it receives. In my experience, eastern Christianity has been more faithful than western Christianity in celebrating the monumental figures of the Old Testament—men and women whose actions and interior ..read more

As booklovers know from repeated experience, acquiring a long out-of-print classic can be a chore. Old copies, if they are not prohibitively expensive, are often beaten up and malodorous; and newer “reprint” companies seem to take no pains either with their facsimiles or with their OCR’d products. I was therefore delighted when Peter Day-Milne, one of the best writers at Adoremus (see his archive ..read more

Govert Flinck, Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds, 1639Lost in Translation #100The Gloria in excelsis was translated from Greek into Latin, possibly by St. Hilary of Poitiers (310 ca. - 367). We are happy to honor this tradition while also entertaining the likelihood of a later redactor.The first verse of the Gloria is: Gloria in excelsis Deo,et in terra pax homínibus bonae ..read more

We are very honored to share this review by His Excellency Salvatore Cordileone, the Archbishop of San Francisco, of our contributor Dr Michael Foley’s book Lost in Translation; the essays which form the largest part of the book were originally published here on NLM. A shorter version of this review was published on Sunday at The Catholic Thing.Rooted in the conviction that the Sacred Liturgy, as ..read more