The Lively Letter Online Edition,1/20/2026, Observations and Insights on Current Events, History and Theology. Photo above is at Tel Gezer archaeological site looking west toward the port city of Jaffa, Israel. Subscribe HERE . Contact/Comment HERE . DONATE HERE t o KEEP THIS MINISTRY ALIVE Special Mid-Week Issue Why I Stand With Trump and ICE: We Need Temporary Strong Measures to Preserve Hope for a Restored American Republic Like Cultural Chemo, Short-Term Autocracy is the Only Remedy for Late-Stage Marxism The Warning of a Surveillance Society As Leo Hohmann recently warned in his analysis of the Minnesota crisis and broader immigration enforcement trends: “A chilling show-your-papers society is taking shape right before our eyes, and ICE’s partnership with global data-collection firm Palantir is pushing it to the next level.” This observation strikes at the heart of a profound concern. What begins as targeted tools fo...
Certainly. Here is a Father Brown–inspired recasting of the material as a mystery story: quieter, more ironic, more psychological, and built around a priest who solves not merely what happened, but what kind of sin was really at work. The Mercy of Man Mountain
Father Martin was not, at first glance, the sort of man to whom violent people told violent stories. He was small, round-shouldered, and almost absurdly mild in appearance. His black coat never seemed to fit him quite properly, and his hat sat on his head with the air of something that had given up trying to look dignified. His face was ordinary enough to be forgotten at once, until one noticed his eyes, which had the disagreeable habit of seeming to understand a thing before it had been fully explained. He had come to the parish on San Jacinto Street to assist for a week while the pastor recovered from pneumonia, and in the manner of priests, doctors, and bartenders, he was told more than anybody had intended to tell him. By the third evening he had heard, in fragments and enlargements, about a thing the neighborhood still referred to as the miracle on Cardenas Avenue . He heard it first from a widow who crossed herself when she mentioned it, then from a retired mechanic who laug...