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How Duke Ellington Kept Christmas All Year Long

The story goes that if the legendary composer and orchestrator Duke Ellington had met you and gotten his hands on your mailing address, you could expect a Christmas card from him. It may not come at Christmas but at some point during the year, his personally written and signed greetings would grace your mailbox. “Duke Ellington and I exchanged Christmas greetings each year,” wrote Joe Delaney of the Las Vegas Sun. “Mine were sent in Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

Got Questions for Jesus? He Has Some for YOU!

Just received a copy of Leonard DeLorenzo’s new book, A God Who Questions, and I want to make a point of recommending this slender volume to everyone, because it is such an unusual, thoughtful book and one that can really reinvigorate your prayerlife or jump-start your practice of lectio divina. What DeLorenzo has done with this book is turned the tables on us a little, in a counter-intuitive but enlightening way. Our habit is always Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

Who Wants to Kill…Will Kill, Who Wants to Forgive, Will Forgive

I only just realized today that we have just passed the second anniversary of the shooting massacre in Las Vegas, a strange story — they’re all strange, but this one particularly so, because not only have all the questions gone unanswered, they are no longer even being asked as this particular event seems to have been tossed down a collective memory hole. It’s so easy to forget about the loss of nearly 60 lives when Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

“No one was saved”: Paul McCartney out-harshed Lennon’s Critique with 4 words

Well, Happy Birthday to James Paul McCartney, who was born this day in 1942 and grew up to be one half of what became arguably the greatest songwriting partnership in popular music. What a gift he had, to seemingly exhale melodies. What a remarkable, innovative bass player, to boot. What unforgettable harmonies (so tightly wound, so perfectly matched) he and John Lennon (and George Harrison) brought to us out of their scrappy Liverpudlian backgrounds, all Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

God means to woo us and to have us, but always with our consent.

Is there more “mad eros”* than that which led the Son of God to make himself one with us even to the point of suffering as his own the consequences of our offences?Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced in the cross! … On the cross, it is God himself who begs the love of his creature: he is thirsty for the love of every one of us.—Pope Benedict XVI, Lent 2007, Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

Failure and Victory: Finding Personal Meaning in the Wreckage of Notre Dame

I write this just days after watching Paris’ Cathedral of Notre Dame become engulfed by flames and fearing that the most famous and treasured place of worship in all of Christendom after St. Peter’s Basilica would be reduced to stone and ash at the start of Holy Week. Thankfully, the Cathedral is not wholly lost, but as it burned, it truly did seem like familiar parables and lessons were playing out before our eyes: “In Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

Jesuits to admit women: Who will be the first female Jebbies?

I think this news is actually bigger and more exciting than I seem to be saying where I am quoted in this piece. It’s about time the Jesuits had female members. All the other great religious orders have them. Even the Oratorians have created a role for women — the Flammae Cordis (recalling Philip Neri’s heart of fire) — and has given them cool red habits, too, with the distictive collar of the Oratory. That’s Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago

Think you’re too busy to pray? Guess again!

A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece for Aleteia encouraging people to Jumpstart Your Prayerlife and cited several small ways to bring prayerful practices into one’s life: The kiss of God is attainable, and wholly by grace; our own effort need consist in very little more than the wanting to do the right thing, or admitting to the simple desire to pray. “I believe that the desire to please you does in fact Read more…

By Elizabeth Scalia, ago