This month, I spent two days leading an academic retreat for the faculty of St. John Bosco School in Rochester, New York. As a bonus, I was able to attend a two-part workshop on the new English translation of the Mass offered by Father Peter Stravinskas of the Catholic Education Foundation. The workshop made me realize how closely the principles behind the new translation resemble ideas that the Institute emphasizes in its retreats and workshops.

 

 

“Restoring the Catholic Historical Imagination” -- my title for this paper -- is itself problematic. Why should anyone want to restore an imagination of history, that record of what J.R.R. Tolkien called “the long defeat”?

 

 

Jessie Van Hecke, a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and a Kindergarten and First Grade teacher at St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, California, credits her liberal education at Thomas Aquinas College with introducing her to classical views of education and the human person, and with giving her the ability to sort quickly through different educational theories.

 

 

What do C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R Tolkien have in common with Albert Einstein (who didn’t use initials for a first name)? Apparently a conviction about the formative power of fairy tales. This month’s featured resource is a site that opens up the world of fairy tales for teachers, students, and parents.