by Jason Craig | Sep 26, 2018 | Uncategorized
When the Papacy is vacant the whole Church looks longingly for a puff of smoke from a little chimney – the household of the Church feels lonely without Papa. When it comes we rejoice, because our father has come home. When I see puffs of smoke from a little...
by Thomas Van Horn | Sep 21, 2018 | Uncategorized
History of the Ember Days The Ember Days, which were historically kept four times during the liturgical year, have a venerable history. Here is the explanation from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia. The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by...
by Jason Craig | Sep 13, 2018 | Uncategorized
I recently hosted a retreat with 30+ college students at my farm. These young men spent a week in work, prayer, and rest, with an intentional focus on building Christian brotherhood and character. Because so few had experienced work their new callouses bled and...
by Jason Craig | Sep 11, 2018 | Uncategorized
Something has gone wrong with our culture, or at least it seems that way by how many people make a living criticizing it, trying to fix it, or checking out of it altogether. That last one is impossible, but it makes a good story. Just consider how many institutes,...
by Jason Craig | Sep 7, 2018 | Uncategorized
I recently had a priest friend visit my farm to help me eat a pig. He had, in fact, wanted to be there “for the bullet”, meaning when I began what is politely and (I think) cruelly called “processing”. “Processing” is thoroughly modernist farm-speak that helps...
by Jason Craig | Sep 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
In Wendell Berry’s book The Unsettling of America he has a short but powerful little commentary on The Odyssey. He’s describing the disarray of Ithaca, Odysseus’s home and kingdom. With Odysseus gone for so long, there are men eating up the stores of food, with...
by Jason Craig | Sep 5, 2018 | Uncategorized
Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo is often called the beginning of contemporary Catholic social teaching because it was the first encyclical to deal with the unprecedented disruptions of traditional societal order due to the industrial revolution. For fathers, Rerum is one of...
by Thomas Van Horn | Aug 31, 2018 | Uncategorized
From an excerpt of Dr. Taylor’s “How to Raise Beautiful Comb Honey” ————————– Everyone, unless he waits too long to exercise it, has a fundamental choice that he can make with respect to his own...
by Jason Craig | Aug 30, 2018 | Uncategorized
My sons have an excellent book I recommend to other families called Reverence for Wood by Eric Sloane, which, in classic wording, an image proposes the wonder of wood to the young imagination. And wood does indeed deserve such instilling at young ages. Wood beckons...
by Thomas Van Horn | Aug 29, 2018 | Uncategorized
Eight years ago, I read a book that changed my career and my family. Successful Fathers is a short, simple read that provides profound thoughts to consider as a man and especially a father. One thing that Mr. Stenson focuses on is the home life and challenges we face...
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