The Narrow Gate Blog

Rod Pattenden, July 2024This lavish, large format publication on the work of iconographer Michael Galovic is a welcome addition to the coverage of the arts and spirituality in Australia. It is a beautiful book, an art work in itself. In around 260 pages it surveys the work of one of Australia’s most well known painters of icons, covering traditional themes, innovative new work, and important commissions around the country.Born in Belgrade, Michael Galovic arrived in Australia in 1990 and set abo …

This article first appeared at: stpaulcenter.com In contemporary society, most people have no awareness that the offering of sacrifice to God is a central act of the virtue of religion and thus a good and morally obligatory thing. Even Catholics who attend Mass are generally unaware that they are participating in an infinite offering to God or that that is the principal reason why there is a Sunday Mass obligation. The more society becomes secularized, the more the notion of sacrifice and its ob …

This article first appeared at: stpaulcenter.com Piero della Francesca was born in approximately 1415 and died on the very day Columbus landed in America, October 12, 1492. Better known in his time as a mathematician and geometer, he is now recognized as one of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance. We see on the left of this fresco’s background a barren landscape and leafless trees, whereas on the right nature is blooming, symbolic of the world before and after the Resurrection. The act …

This article first appeared at: stpaulcenter.com Amidst the somber beauty of the many readings at Easter Vigil Mass, there’s a line from the prophet Isaiah which feels rather jarring: “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back” (Is 54:7, NABRE). For souls whose hearts have been pierced by deep suffering, this verse might feel disconcerting. Why would our loving Father ever abandon us, even for a brief moment? And does that mean He might be abandoning me r …

This article first appeared at: stpaulcentre.com So what is the difference between a heretic and a schismatic? St. Optatus, another of the great African Christian writers, wrote a surprisingly polite argument against a Donatist named Parmenian, in which he makes the important distinction clear. The Donatists are schismatics, but not heretics. They believe the same fundamental truths that Catholic Christians believe. They have the same sacraments. But because their predecessors broke away from th …

This article first appeared at: catholic.com The (Catholic) Eucharist appears in a striking and mystical way in the book of Revelation.On Easter morning, two disciples of Jesus are on their way from Jerusalem back to Emmaus. They might be husband and wife, but the text doesn’t say for certain. St. Luke names only one of the two: Cleopas. If they are a married couple, they might be Jesus’ aunt and uncle. (Hegesippus, a Christian writer from the second century, references “the Lord’s uncle, Clopas …