Comment
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“That we are finite and live in a particular time, place, and moment in history is an essential aspect of our freedom.”
What Is Freedom For?
The vice of acedia tells us freedom is found in choice, but freedom is for something more: love.
comment.org
November 13, 2025 at 10:55 PM
“That we are finite and live in a particular time, place, and moment in history is an essential aspect of our freedom.”
“Catholicism is not reducible to community or ideology. It is, as Thomas Merton puts it, “life itself, alive at its source.” To convert is not to sign on to a platform; it is to be seized by a reality you did not invent and cannot manage.”
A Sacramental Reality
Conversions to Catholicism are on the rise, but many commentators overlook the real reason: that converts believe it to be true.
comment.org
November 13, 2025 at 9:49 PM
“Catholicism is not reducible to community or ideology. It is, as Thomas Merton puts it, “life itself, alive at its source.” To convert is not to sign on to a platform; it is to be seized by a reality you did not invent and cannot manage.”
“Without understanding the root of our behaviour, we never grow in the moral virtue necessary for our freedom.”
Jody C. Benson on living in the age of acedia.
Jody C. Benson on living in the age of acedia.
What Is Freedom For?
The vice of acedia tells us freedom is found in choice, but freedom is for something more: love.
comment.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:41 PM
“Without understanding the root of our behaviour, we never grow in the moral virtue necessary for our freedom.”
Jody C. Benson on living in the age of acedia.
Jody C. Benson on living in the age of acedia.
“Conversion is not arrival but turning, again and again, toward God—even through dryness and doubt.”
Finnegan Schick on what narratives about the rising number of Catholic converts miss.
Finnegan Schick on what narratives about the rising number of Catholic converts miss.
A Sacramental Reality
Conversions to Catholicism are on the rise, but many commentators overlook the real reason: that converts believe it to be true.
comment.org
November 13, 2025 at 3:04 PM
“Conversion is not arrival but turning, again and again, toward God—even through dryness and doubt.”
Finnegan Schick on what narratives about the rising number of Catholic converts miss.
Finnegan Schick on what narratives about the rising number of Catholic converts miss.
“Athletic performance is an instantiation of grace: something at once violent, unexpected, and terrifying, but always ordered toward an elegance that could not have been predicted yet nonetheless makes sense.”
The Grace of Sport
Sport and competition form the human person for good, and can even become an instantiation of grace.
comment.org
November 8, 2025 at 6:45 PM
“Athletic performance is an instantiation of grace: something at once violent, unexpected, and terrifying, but always ordered toward an elegance that could not have been predicted yet nonetheless makes sense.”
“The kingdom of God isn’t built on legacy or good taste, and its visualization isn’t limited to one style or era. It opens outward.”
The Kingdom Beyond the Frame
A look at the role patrons of the arts play in helping catalyze or control cultural production.
comment.org
November 8, 2025 at 5:38 PM
“The kingdom of God isn’t built on legacy or good taste, and its visualization isn’t limited to one style or era. It opens outward.”
“Mystical quietude differs from aesthetic calm: past a literary technique, it is an existential practice, a schooling of desire and attention. The silence of the mystics baptizes speech, allowing language to be born of awe.”
Silence, the First Music
Silence is banished in the modern world, but it provides the conditions for life and art to flourish.
comment.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:20 PM
“Mystical quietude differs from aesthetic calm: past a literary technique, it is an existential practice, a schooling of desire and attention. The silence of the mystics baptizes speech, allowing language to be born of awe.”
“We speak often of institutional trauma, the wounds they inflict on us. But this year has revealed the other side of the coin, one that many of us have not quite seen before: institutions themselves in trauma, stripped of the very tissue that gives them life—the public’s trust.”
The Institutions of Tomorrow
Institutional trust is down, but we still long for the goods institutions bring.
comment.org
November 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM
“We speak often of institutional trauma, the wounds they inflict on us. But this year has revealed the other side of the coin, one that many of us have not quite seen before: institutions themselves in trauma, stripped of the very tissue that gives them life—the public’s trust.”
“Institutions do not simply organize work. At their best they cultivate the conditions for character, channelling power toward service and shaping desire toward the common good.”
The Institutions of Tomorrow
Institutional trust is down, but we still long for the goods institutions bring.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:40 PM
“Institutions do not simply organize work. At their best they cultivate the conditions for character, channelling power toward service and shaping desire toward the common good.”
“For those becoming allergic to good news or dabbling in despair, skepticism metastasizes quickly. We have too few riveting portraits of life to the full and conviction-led, justice-serious, costly self-risking.”
The Sifted
Portraits of steadfast conviction.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:35 PM
“For those becoming allergic to good news or dabbling in despair, skepticism metastasizes quickly. We have too few riveting portraits of life to the full and conviction-led, justice-serious, costly self-risking.”
“Identity is not discovered or created; it is established. And as we are uprooted from day-to-day relational commitments, values, and practices, not only do we lose these networks of meaning, but we lose self-intelligibility too.”
The Search for a Durable Identity
What is our true self? Where do we find identity? Kevin Brown argues that what we seek in identity is durability, roots, and obligation.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 6:45 PM
“Identity is not discovered or created; it is established. And as we are uprooted from day-to-day relational commitments, values, and practices, not only do we lose these networks of meaning, but we lose self-intelligibility too.”
“In Kyoto, the remnant flickers in those who remain at the table, not because they are certain, but because they find themselves on a stage of brief relevance, willing to outlast their own expectations in the quiet tension of those who just keep showing up.”
Negotiating the Invisible
The Fujimuras review "Kyoto," a play that shows the complexities and complicities of climate policy.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 5:38 PM
“In Kyoto, the remnant flickers in those who remain at the table, not because they are certain, but because they find themselves on a stage of brief relevance, willing to outlast their own expectations in the quiet tension of those who just keep showing up.”
Reposted by Comment
The silence of the mystics baptizes speech, allowing language to be born of awe:
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@commentmagazine.bsky.social
#meditation #writing #music #art
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@commentmagazine.bsky.social
#meditation #writing #music #art
Silence, the First Music
Silence is banished in the modern world, but it provides the conditions for life and art to flourish.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The silence of the mystics baptizes speech, allowing language to be born of awe:
comment.org/silence-the-...
@commentmagazine.bsky.social
#meditation #writing #music #art
comment.org/silence-the-...
@commentmagazine.bsky.social
#meditation #writing #music #art
“Is there such a thing as a populism of solidarity? A populism that is less like wildfire and more like a construction crew?”
Amber Lapp journeys to the Rural Revival festival.
Amber Lapp journeys to the Rural Revival festival.
A Populism of Solidarity
Amber Lapp attends the Rural Revival Festival and finds hope for a populism that brings people together rather than dividing them.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:20 PM
“Is there such a thing as a populism of solidarity? A populism that is less like wildfire and more like a construction crew?”
Amber Lapp journeys to the Rural Revival festival.
Amber Lapp journeys to the Rural Revival festival.
“Silence is a human inheritance. It is the ground where thought clarifies, where prayer ripens, where friendship deepens. Even politics needs stillness: Václav Havel described the power of the powerless as a refusal to participate in lies, a silence that carried more truth than many speeches.”
Silence, the First Music
Silence is banished in the modern world, but it provides the conditions for life and art to flourish.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:41 PM
“Silence is a human inheritance. It is the ground where thought clarifies, where prayer ripens, where friendship deepens. Even politics needs stillness: Václav Havel described the power of the powerless as a refusal to participate in lies, a silence that carried more truth than many speeches.”
“The very conditions that allow private museums to operate with disinterested aesthetic freedom, unconcerned with popularity or ticket sales, are themselves products of an unequal global economy.”
The Kingdom Beyond the Frame
A look at the role patrons of the arts play in helping catalyze or control cultural production.
comment.org
November 7, 2025 at 3:04 PM
“The very conditions that allow private museums to operate with disinterested aesthetic freedom, unconcerned with popularity or ticket sales, are themselves products of an unequal global economy.”
“The work quietude performs is subtle but steady: it threshes wheat from chaff, desire from distraction. It teaches us to speak more slowly, to choose words as though they mattered, to withhold judgment long enough for truth to ripen.”
Silence, the First Music
Silence is banished in the modern world, but it provides the conditions for life and art to flourish.
comment.org
November 6, 2025 at 11:13 PM
“The work quietude performs is subtle but steady: it threshes wheat from chaff, desire from distraction. It teaches us to speak more slowly, to choose words as though they mattered, to withhold judgment long enough for truth to ripen.”
“The most vital devotional art holds doctrine and presence together; its formal language and iconography express theological truth even as they invite us into divine encounter.”
The Kingdom Beyond the Frame
A look at the role patrons of the arts play in helping catalyze or control cultural production.
comment.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:11 PM
“The most vital devotional art holds doctrine and presence together; its formal language and iconography express theological truth even as they invite us into divine encounter.”
“We flee into digital detox retreats, or into apps that sell quietude back to us as a subscription service. Noise is the religion of our age, demanding constant sacrifice of our attention.”
@ysl.bsky.social on silence and the flourishing of life and art.
@ysl.bsky.social on silence and the flourishing of life and art.
Silence, the First Music
Silence is banished in the modern world, but it provides the conditions for life and art to flourish.
comment.org
November 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
“We flee into digital detox retreats, or into apps that sell quietude back to us as a subscription service. Noise is the religion of our age, demanding constant sacrifice of our attention.”
@ysl.bsky.social on silence and the flourishing of life and art.
@ysl.bsky.social on silence and the flourishing of life and art.
“Private museums may indeed provide a venue for the overlooked and the new, but they do so in a context defined by uneven access to resources.”
Arthur Aghajanian on the fraught world of culture, capital, and creativity.
Arthur Aghajanian on the fraught world of culture, capital, and creativity.
The Kingdom Beyond the Frame
A look at the role patrons of the arts play in helping catalyze or control cultural production.
comment.org
November 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
“Private museums may indeed provide a venue for the overlooked and the new, but they do so in a context defined by uneven access to resources.”
Arthur Aghajanian on the fraught world of culture, capital, and creativity.
Arthur Aghajanian on the fraught world of culture, capital, and creativity.
“I learned of the God who is mightier than the forces that threatened me, the God whose punctured hands had punctured the void.”
Salvation by Dread Alone
A journey to Chaco Canyon induces memories of dread conquered by Christ.
comment.org
November 5, 2025 at 4:20 PM
“I learned of the God who is mightier than the forces that threatened me, the God whose punctured hands had punctured the void.”
On a new episode of Conversing, biblical scholar Michael J. Gorman joins Mark Labberton to explore how Christians can read Revelation responsibly rather than with fear or sensationalism.
Reading Revelation Responsibly
In this episode of Conversing with Mark Labberton, New Testament scholar Michael J. Gorman unpacks the heart of Revelation as a vision of worship and discipleship shaped by the crucified Lamb. Based…
comment.org
November 5, 2025 at 3:41 PM
On a new episode of Conversing, biblical scholar Michael J. Gorman joins Mark Labberton to explore how Christians can read Revelation responsibly rather than with fear or sensationalism.
“We are still creatures who long to belong, who rejoice in finding our fragile dignity called forth into something noble and glorious, who long to join the work of being part of something that stretches behind us and before us.”
The Institutions of Tomorrow
Institutional trust is down, but we still long for the goods institutions bring.
comment.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:52 PM
“We are still creatures who long to belong, who rejoice in finding our fragile dignity called forth into something noble and glorious, who long to join the work of being part of something that stretches behind us and before us.”
“The darkened room crackles with energy; I’d wager most attendees are under thirty, definitely under fifty. Photographers and videographers slink through the crowd. A choir sings, tech folks with glitter strands in their hair click through graphics.”
Revival Among the Techies
Many in Silicon Valley are turning to Christianity. Is it just the next spiritual craze, or is genuine revival happening?
comment.org
November 3, 2025 at 11:30 PM
“The darkened room crackles with energy; I’d wager most attendees are under thirty, definitely under fifty. Photographers and videographers slink through the crowd. A choir sings, tech folks with glitter strands in their hair click through graphics.”
“The wars over history, empire, and colonialism that have flared up so viciously of late are about the future as much as the past.”
The Empire Wars
Modern debates about empire and colonialism are not so different from those that took place thirteen hundred years ago.
comment.org
November 3, 2025 at 10:55 PM
“The wars over history, empire, and colonialism that have flared up so viciously of late are about the future as much as the past.”