2024 Digital Edition

Church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza Madonna della Pietà by Michelangelo Buonarroti, plaster cast

Brother Isidore quickly shot to attention upon hearing the harsh beeping of his alarm. Gingerly throwing off his bedsheets, he twisted his body and once again began to climb out of his bed. Before his feet had touched the ground, he said a short prayer under his breath, the same one he offered every morning:…

“Non tener miedo!” “Be not afraid!” This was an outstanding message from Pope Francis concluding the World Youth Day (WYD) festival on August 9, 2023, in Lisbon’s Parque de Tejo. His words summarise the intent of these events: an affirmative and growing experience in one’s faith. In a world characterised by the decline of Christianity…

Because she was leafless, the patient sun seemed useless. She had no chloroplast to photosynthesise such kindness, except the naked branches – that could not even house a hummingbird – awaiting to be fortunately fetched and chopped for fire. Gone were those green days, when she could dauntlessly dance to the heavy drumming of the…

“St Kevin and the Blackbird” by Seamus Heaney And then there was St Kevin and the blackbird. The saint is kneeling, arms stretched out, inside His cell, but the cell is narrow, so One turned-up palm is out the window, stiff As a crossbeam, when a blackbird lands And lays in it and settles down…

And you staggered on as the Urchin Guard, not indestructible but divisible, ghastly-golden pale, wreaking havoc in the heart of the cruel immovable Emperor who would not be betrayed, who would not be delayed in his fury. In your Praetorian days you extended your sidereal mirth, with sempiternal ambition and eternal devotion you spoke of…

I want to be a priest Because He wants me one, But I know I’m the least Among those He has won. I want to be a priest Where it’s almost a crime, To be there in their midst I don’t care about the time. I want to be a priest And give to Him…

Portrait of Joris-Karl Huysmans by Jean-François Raffaëlli Among the great literary converts of the last century’s Catholic revival, Joris Karl Huysmans is a crucial French figure. Overtaken by seasonal blues, I resolved to dive in the monstrous beauty that is so specific to his work, a sort of synthesis between Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire…