Dr. K’s Weekly Roundup, December 5, 2025
Morello, Minerd, and Lamont; Traddy Daddy; Eastern reform; Lost treasures; Winning souls by beauty; Vindicating Our Lady; Back to the land; Apocalypse now; Cristero courage
As I am in Texas at Sanctus Ranch for a meeting of Pelican+ collaborators, this roundup will be somewhat shorter than usual, with less commentary — more of a “bulletin board” approach.
First, a high-energy taste of what is unique about Pelican+ and why you should give it serious consideration. Last night, Timothy Flanders, Kennedy Hall, Murray Rundus, Dan Sevigny and I got together to talk about why we created Pelican+, which is gaining steam and quickly establishing itself as a place for some of the finest Catholic content you will find anywhere online. You can watch our conversation here. (The special offer mentioned was only for the duration of the livestream, but the rest of what we talked about has permanent relevance.)
Recently released on Pelican is an excellent dialogue between Dr. Morello and Dr. Minerd, full of charity and the desire for wisdom:
John Lamont wrote a critique of Sebastian Morello at Rorate Caeli, to which Morello has now replied: “In Defense of Christian Neoplatonism.” A must-read for those interested in the debate over Neoplatonism and Hermeticism.
Speaking of Morello, I was very excited to get hold of his latest books: Unto the Ages of Ages: Essays on Political Traditionalism (Arouca) and Woodland Philosophy: Meditations on Hunting, Hiking, and Holiness (Angelico). As is my approach, too, Sebastian collects his best essays into thematic groupings, reworks them into a unity, and incorporates new material in the form of forewords, prefaces, afterwords, etc. I find him quite simply one of the most insightful and exhilarating Catholic authors now writing. No one who picks up one of his books is left unmoved or uninspired.
Of related interest is Robert Lazu Kmita’s article on the notion of reason among the ancients:
While for Descartes, Popper, or Kirk, associating a mathematical discovery cannot be linked to a religious sacrifice, for Thales and Pythagoras, this is entirely rational. Their conception of knowledge and its nature is completely different from today’s scientific one. For the former, any form of inspiration, divination, or intuition must be carefully excluded from the realm of knowledge. For the ancient authors, this was inconceivable.
A delightful romp
Os Justi Press has released its last title for the year 2025, Traddy Daddy: Memories and Thoughts of the Father of a Catholic Family.
When Joseph Bevan’s Two Families: A Memoir of English Life During and After the Council was published in 2024, it was hailed on both sides of the Atlantic as a triumph of entertainment and insight. The most frequent refrain was, in true Dickensian fashion: “More, please!”
Mr. Bevan has obliged with a new volume of reminiscences and reflections, ranging from wild days at Downside to the chaos of the first throes of liturgical reform, from managing a business to running a farm to scoping out Catholic schools, from handling losses and debilities to rejoicing in God’s unexpected providences. Traddy Daddy is a book every family man or woman will be able to relate to, laugh with, and learn from.
Here’s what Edward Pentin says about it: “Joseph has written a remarkable and compelling second memoir containing great pearls of wisdom, timeless truths shared with wit and candour, and an ever sound commentary on our contemporary ills, all delivered in the best way: through the lens of a well-formed layman’s deep Catholic faith.”
(N.B.: This book stands alone and doesn’t require reading Two Families first.)
I hope you’ll give it a try!
You can look inside, read additional endorsements, and purchase in paperback, hardcover, or ebook at the Os Justi website, or at Amazon.
Liturgical Lessons
If “reform” came to the East…
At NLM, we read about a “Proposal for the Revised Apostolic Liturgy (RAL) of John Chrysostom - Part 1”:
Since the post-Conciliar reform of the Roman liturgy has been such an outstanding pastoral success, and such a monument of scholarly erudition, well might one wonder why the Eastern churches have not availed themself of its wisdom and similarly renewed their liturgies. Wonder no longer! A consortium of liturgical scholars has final come together to bring all the benefits of the great renewal to the Byzantine Rite. In this first post, we have an outline of the general principles of renewal; a second post next week will give us the text of the “Divina Liturgia Normativa”, as it is currently being called, following the principles outlined here.
On a more serious note
In his “The Little Vespers of the Byzantine Office,” Gregory DiPippo helps to dispel the idea of an “unchanging Eastern liturgy,” which no one who knows history could take seriously:
There is a perception in some quarters that nothing has ever changed in the Byzantine Rite, a perception which is sometimes played up for propagandistic purposes, as a way of unfavorably contrasting the drastic liturgical rupture in the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican II with the continuity of worship in the Orthodox churches. There is, of course, a very considerable degree of continuity in the history of the Byzantine liturgy, as there is in the Roman, but there have also been some very significant changes, and especially in the Divine Office. And it was one of these changes that led to the institution of Little Vespers, which became a standard part of the rite in the later 14th century.
DiPippo goes on to explain how first the Studite typikon took precedence, then how the Sabaite typikon supplanted it; how double Vespers developed; and how it then disappeared in many places.
Rediscovering lost treasures
Also at NLM, “Learning to Speak the Ritual Mother-tongue of Old Europe: An Interview with Dr Miklós Földváry”:
Hungarian liturgical researchers have been in touch with New Liturgical Movement for nearly 20 years now. Recently, the research group behind the Usuarium database won a 5-year grant from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to move on from the processing of mediaeval missals to rituals – books that deal with the extraordinary ceremonies of the liturgical year, or have the formulas for sacraments and sacramentals, blessings, exorcisms, and various other rites. We are therefore very happy to share these excerpts from a recent interview with Dr. Miklós Földváry, the founder and principal investigator of the research group, in which he speaks about inculturation, mediaeval heritage, the Church’s ambiguous relationship with its European history, and what academic research has to offer to those who wish to implement tradition in practice.
You can read more about the powerful Usuarium database here.
For those who are curious, Paul Senz offers at Adoremus a brief tour of non-Roman rites and uses in the West.
Ambrosian rite in Milan
I am delighted to share some very important news.
For the first time in almost 50 years, on Sunday, December 14, at 8:30 p.m., for the Jubilee Year, a Solemn High Mass according to the old Ambrosian rite (liturgical books from 1954) will be celebrated at the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, at the very tomb of St. Ambrose.
For those who can get there in person, it’s a great opportunity to send a strong message to the local and universal Church that it’s time to abandon restrictions on celebrating this noble and ancient rite. Let’s fill this large and imposing basilica to say, loud and clear: We are here, we are many, we are energetic, and we only ask to be able to worship God according to this venerable Ambrosian tradition, rediscovering an immense heritage of faith and spirituality that otherwise risks being lost.
Beauty, God’s messenger
A fine essay by David Clayton, rich with experiential truth: “The Icon of the Transfiguration as a Symbol of Cultural Transformation.”
I was drawn to the Church not primarily through theological arguments, but indirectly. I was drawn to Christ by the light of Catholic culture – its art, music, and the graceful lives of believers – which served as heralds pointing toward something greater. The icon’s mandorla, with its bands that darken toward Christ at the center, illustrates my journey: initially I could perceive only the outer rings of divine light reflected in the beauty of Creation and Christian culture. Only after taking my “leap into the blinding Light” by entering the Church’s sacramental life could I encounter Christ more directly.
Read the rest of this article at Tradition & Sanity’s new home, Pelican+!