Author Archives: Gil Bailie

A 9|11 Memorial Remembered

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Gil Bailie

Remembering the 50th on the 5th (this was initially posted on our old blog site on September 11, 2006) My father was killed in the Battle of the Bulge on January 7, 1945 a few months after I was born. … Continue reading →

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Unplanned

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Gil Bailie

  Archeologists in Peru have discovered 227 bodies of children sacrificed by the pre-Columbian Chimu culture to appease the gods of wet weather – the El Niño. “Wherever you dig, there’s another one,” the chief archeologist Feren Castillo said. We … Continue reading →

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Without me, you can do nothing

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Gil Bailie

Christian anthropology – based on the revelation of Christ and the philosophical insights which that revelation awakened – insists that grace perfects nature. What isn’t apparent until the grace-nature connection is widely abandoned is that not only does grace perfect … Continue reading →

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Civilization & Barbarism

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Gil Bailie

Hans Urs von Balthasar, quoting and commenting on observations of the French novelist George Bernanos: “The thing we still call ‘civilization’ has outstripped every form of barbarism in accomplishing works of destruction. It now threatens to destroy, not only the … Continue reading →

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An intimate conversation

Posted on June 27, 2019 by Gil Bailie

The brilliant philosopher, Edith Stein, found Catholicism to be – not the alternative to her Judaism, but its fulfillment. It is conceivable that the genesis of that conversion occurred quite by accident (or was it providence) when she happened to … Continue reading →

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The Longing…

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Gil Bailie

C. S. Lewis: The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country … the place where I ought to have … Continue reading →

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Florilegium

Posted on May 12, 2019 by Gil Bailie

“Sooner or later, all nihilism destroys itself from within with the frightening question, ‘What for?’ And sexual nihilism with, ‘And then?’ The insane and the maniacs are multiplying; how distressing it is to accept their vision as the norm because … Continue reading →

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Suffering: A New Situation

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Gil Bailie

I gave a short talk at the Good Friday service at my parish on the question of vicarious suffering. I spoke from notes, but I began with this: In the David Mamet film Heist, the dubious character played by Danny DeVito … Continue reading →

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Maundy Thursday & Richard Wilbur…The Rule

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Gil Bailie

The Rule The oil for extreme unction must be blessed On Maundy Thursday, so the rule has ruled, And by the bishop of the diocese. Does that revolt you? If so, you are free To squat beneath the deadly manchineel, … Continue reading →

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From the archives: Just Before Entering Holy Week

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Gil Bailie

Just before entering into the spirit of Holy Week, however, I am prompted by a piece about the retrofitting of the Lord’s Prayer by a group calling itself the “Non-Theistic Liturgy Resources Working Group” at St. Stephen’s College in Edmonton, … Continue reading →

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