Pat and I visited Edinburgh the first time on a 36th wedding anniversary trip 14 years ago, celebrating that visit with a photo at Holyrood Palace. So this year we came back, celebrating our 50th year of marriage with a visit to St. Giles Cathedral, Lindisfarne Island, and a few

Something from Lindisfarne to read on the trip home. As I teach my students: go see places you read about; read about the places you have seen.

“My lot has been so blest that I can relate little of myself which is not a story of goodness and generosity in others.” —Dickens, Bleak House

“The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” —Richard J. Foster

“He that would be little in temptation, let him be much in prayer.” — John Owen, 17th-century English Puritan

Dickens understood a fundamental truth about fallen human nature, a truth that has firm biblical grounding. “In the majority of cases, conscience is an elastic and very flexible article, which will bear a deal of stretching and adapt itself to a great variety of circumstances.

“O Lamb without blemish and without spot, who hast redeemed me with Thy precious Blood, in that very Blood pity me and save me; in that Blood, and in that very Name, besides which is none other under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.” —Lancelot Andrewes, Private

Watching the Braves vs. Mets with our son Noah and grandson Roman.

Incredible new photos from the 3 billion-pixel camera of the world’s most powerful telescope. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” —Psalm 19:1 nytimes.com/2025/06/23/sci… via @NYTimes

“No one who can read ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” —Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, produced by the first ecumenical council of the ancient church who gathered at Nicaea in the year 325 to summarize the core biblical doctrines of the faith that Vincent of Lerins would later say “which has been believed

The Senate parliamentarian’s being in the news this week reminded me of my friend and mentor, the late Dr. Floyd Riddick, Parliamentarian of the U.S. Senate 1964-1974, then Parliamentarian Emeritus until his death in 2000. In 1974 Dr. Riddick wrote the first revision of the

“Under every system of economy men who can manage men manage men who can only manage things.” —Will Durant on medieval feudalism, in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,

Today’s the day!