“The poet Rainer Maria Rilke and many others bowed in humble and awed obeisance to the ‘War God.’ Und wir? Glühen in Eines zusammen,/ In ein neues Geschöpf, das er tödlich belebt.* [“*And we? We glow as One/ A new creature invigorated by death.”] Invigoration by death: such was Germany's ‘rite of spring.’”

Modris Eksteins Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Era

“The first impulse of an enlightened person on hearing the proposal to broadcast the debates of Parliament is merely that it is one of the typical triumphs of modern science. It is telling us that everybody can listen to what nobody wants to hear.”

G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News April 5, 1925, quoted in “Radio (and TV and Movies)” in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)

“Father once mused that his ecumenical motto would be ‘Come home to the Catholic Church! It’s terrible here.’”

Dale Ahlquist reviewing Father Joseph Fessio, S.J.: California Blackrobe by Cornelius Michael Buckley, S.J., in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #3 (Jan./Feb. 2025)

“The BBC reports that the North Hertfordshire Museum will now refer to Roman emperor Elagabalus with the female pronounces of she and her.”

Mark Pilon in “News with Views” “Compiled by Mark Pilon” in Gilbert: the Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #4 (March/April 2025)

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also are like unto him.” “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”

Proverbs XXVI:4 and 5 [King James Version]

“At one time, I was arrogant enough to believe I had an intellectual conversion to the Catholic faith. But, fundamentally, it was because God loves me, as he loves us all, and gave me the grace to convert. I only cooperated in his grace from time to time.”

Jeff Miller in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)

“When I was growing up, I had no idea what Black Sabbath was, but you better believe I knew about Ozzy Osbourne. That’s because he and his family were a part of mine. In the early 2000s, around when my dad started calling the TV the ‘idiot box,’ the early reality show The Osbournes was often on in our den. Watching that show was like peering into a portal into an alternate universe where dads had tattoos and daughters might decide to give themselves a pink mohawk on a Tuesday morning before school. Dinner guests might include Courtney Love or Marilyn Manson. The only rule in the Osbourne house was: No rules allowed.”

Suzy Weiss on The Free Press July 26, 2025 [but of course “No rules allowed” is a rule, if a feebly self-annihilating one].

“Every day as I do the liturgy of the hours in the morning as well as throughout the day, I am exercising my acceptance of God’s will, whatever it may be, and to strive to go where I hope he’s leading.”

John Walker in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 28 #6 (July/August 2025)