Author Archives: marklangley

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About marklangley

Most recently the founding Headmaster of Our Lady of Walsingham Academy in Colorado Springs (see www. OLWclassical.org), former headmaster and Academic Dean at The Lyceum (a school he founded in 2003, see theLyceum.org) Mark loves sacred music and Gregorian Chant and singing with his lovely wife, Stephanie, and their children.

Learning in Virus Time

Posted on March 9, 2020 by marklangley

In a sermon delivered in the Fall of 1939 titled Learning in Wartime, C.S. Lewis asserts, every Christian who comes to a university must at all times face a question compared with which the questions raised by the war are … Continue reading →

Posted in catholic education, Christendom, classical education, education, Latin, Liberal Arts, liberal education | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Why I do not want to be the King of Scotland

Posted on February 25, 2020 by marklangley

I’m not so certain that I want to be king of Scotland anymore. After reading The Tragedy of Macbeth with my students, I am having a difficult time shaking off a sense that life is meaningless when worldly ambition is the governing principle. … Continue reading →

Posted in classical education, Literature, Shakespeare, Temptation, truth for its own sake | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sin is first in the will: a brief lesson in morality from Lady Macbeth

Posted on February 20, 2020 by marklangley

Of all the authors we should compel our students to read, surely no one is so foolhardy as to demand a reason for reading Shakespeare. I can forgive the one who asks, Why should students read Aeschylus? Or Why do you force them to … Continue reading →

Posted in aeschylus, Augustine, catholic education, classical education, Literature, Shakespeare, Temptation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Priest: Privileged Witness of the Reality of Grace Present in the World

Posted on January 3, 2020 by marklangley

On this, the eve of the Epiphany, with the Christ Child still lying in the manger, a great many Catholics everywhere are hoping and praying for a year of renewed grace. And, of course, with the turn of the secular … Continue reading →

Posted in Augustine, beauty, Christmas, Feasts | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

As Long as Catholics Continue Feasting, Christendom Still Exists!

Posted on December 27, 2019 by marklangley

What is a perennial truth if nothing other than a truth which springs up every year? We who are strangers and sojourners in the city of man, we who aspire towards citizenship in the city of God, we know that … Continue reading →

Posted in breakfast, Christendom, Christmas, Dinner, Feasts, Virgil | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Why Would Anyone Eat Locusts and Wild Honey?

Posted on December 9, 2019 by marklangley

Wearing a camel-hair garment and a leather belt is one thing but eating locusts and wild honey is another! I don’t suppose John the Baptist was wearing the camel hair garment that I am familiar with – although I think … Continue reading →

Posted in Advent, Aquinas, Catena Aurea | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Still Thankful After All These Years

Posted on November 30, 2019 by marklangley

Grace builds upon nature. Or as we classically educated Latin teachers would construe, Gratia Supponit Naturam or even “Gratia aedificat super naturam”? In any case, whether George Washington was stirred by the Holy Ghost, when he rendered his first Thanksgiving … Continue reading →

Posted in Custom, Feasts, Fine Arts, Saint Paul, The Mass | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

St. John Henry Newman and the Scandal of Catholic Classical Education

Posted on October 16, 2019 by marklangley

Saint John Henry Newman, speaking of the unique status of Western Civilization in the history of the world, emphatically asserts, I think it has a claim to be considered as the representative Society and Civilization of the human race, as … Continue reading →

Posted in education, liberal education, Mozart, Newman, truth for its own sake | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

The True Purpose of Catholic Education

Posted on September 18, 2019 by marklangley

Well, I wish this was an interview with Jordan Peterson about Pope Pius XI’s FANTASTIC encyclical on Christian education Divini Illius Magistri. But alas he was not available, so I was more than happy to fill in for him.

Posted in catholic education, classical education, education | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Socrates and Jesus: On dangerous teaching methods and the lack of published works

Posted on September 17, 2019 by marklangley

Jesus and Socrates are alike in two striking ways. Not that we are the first to compare the two. Actually, I am singularly unversed in what other thinkers like Montaigne and Mill, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche had to say about the … Continue reading →

Posted in discussion, Socrates, socratic dialogue | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments