Lighter Christian Essays

From Idylls and Rambles: Lighter Christian Essays by James V. Schall, S.J.:

His [Hilaire Belloc's] reading now consisted entirely of The Diary of a Nobody, his own works, and the novels of P.G. Wodehouse, which he would read with the satisfied intentness of an old priest poring over his brievary. (p.24)

Sacred music, most proper to churches, should never be applauded, in my view, preferably not even in formal concerts... (p.153)

Women don't have rights. They have, rather, graces, and sacrifices, and tolerances, and patiences, and commitments that make the word "rights" sound ridiculous as a term adequate to cover what it is they confront and accomplish in life. I know very few women whom life has treated "justly". (p.158)

(On Fixed Prayer) Neither eloquence nor a pleasing personality ought to be downplayed. They too are gifts, but what is said or repeated ought not to be things that a talented Christian clergyman or layman simply makes up and "shares"–awful word–with whoever happens to be standing by. The ex tempore, valuable as it can be, in my experience, is almost always more narrow and less freeing than the precise, "rigid", more accurate forms of prayer that embody the simplicity, eloquence, and authority of the ages of the Church. (p.190)