The kids and I trekked to the March for Life yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure. I came home to find a generous link from newly hatched patristiblogger Felix Culpa. I liked what he had to say about The Way of the Fathers. In fact, I think he understands what I’m doing better than I do myself!

Mr. Aquilina’s site is the closest thing to a patristic news source on the web: he regularly links to posts on other sites that concern the Fathers, as well as regularly announces the publication of new books on Patristic theology which otherwise receive virtually no publicity and the reviews of which won’t appear in specialized journals for at least a year or two after publication.

That’s it in a nutshell (which is where a nut like me belongs). I’m not doing scholarship here. Nor am I doing devotions. But I like the idea of providing a Patristic News Service. (No, no, I certainly won’t trademark and abbreviate that one.) Such a service can be helpful to both scholars and history buffs — and, like all things patristic, it should feed our prayer.

And if I break the story of great books a year or two before the journals can, I know I’m doing something useful with my life.

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us / To see oursels as others see us.

Thanks, Felix.