We continue what be began in our last number, a three-part study of spiritual childhood by Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877-1964).
St. Teresa of the Child Jesus reminds us that the principal virtues of the child of God are those in which are reproduced in an eminent degree the innate qualities of the child, minus his defects. Consequently the way of spiritual childhood will teach us to be supernaturally ourselves minus our defects.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day
I just read on the New Advent website the Catholic Encyclopedia’s excellent account of the life of Erin’s great apostle. I would highly recommend it if you can spare fifteen minutes today. I can’t think of anything I’ve read elsewhere over the years about the saint that …
That’s the motion that was debated last week in London, at an event hosted by the Spectator and held at the Royal Geographical Society. And guess what — “the 700-strong sell-out audience voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion”!
Excerpt from The Catholic Herald:
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, author Piers Paul Read and Dom Anthony Sutch, former headmaster of Downside, spoke for the motion.
Anime cartoons and their characters are a huge cultic phenomenon, the most popular of all escapist media venues. It is very addictive and very dangerous, to the soul and the mind. I don’t post weird stories, but this blog by Zoe Romanowski from Inside Catholic, along with another, even …
One of the commentators on the relevant CWN article expressed it well: “It’s past time someone said this. Too often ecumenism is taken to mean the weakening of the teachings of the Church and the addition of non-Catholic ritual and beliefs.” A-m-e-n-!
Past time is better than no time — or, “better late than never.” All the scandal that has transpired, and is ongoing, in the name of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue should cease at these words of Cardinal Levada defining its purpose (or “final cause” to you Aristotelians out there): “Union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism.”
Our 2010 conference will be held on October 8 and 9 at Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire.
The information currently available is as follows:
Theme: “The Romance of Wisdom”
Cost: $100 for both days (Friday and Saturday). This includes meals. Single days without meals: $40.
Note: This year, Friday and Saturday will both be full days. There will be eight speakers giving presentations in addition to the master of ceremonies, our Prior, Brother Andre Marie.
Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, apostolic nuncio to Japan, has a very perceptive insight into the subversive effects Buddhist doctrine has on the soul of a suffering devotee confronting hopelessness. From Sandro Magister’s latest column: “Why Life is Worth So Little in Prosperous Japan.”
“The Japanese do not have a personal …
[March 5, 2010 - Rome Reports (with hat tip to Rorate Caeli)]
Benedict XVI has formed a commission to investigate if Our Lady truly appeared in Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia.
The commission is part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Cardinal Camillo Ruini will preside over the commission. Ruini is the pope’s former vicar of Rome’s diocese. Ruini goal will be to explain to the pope what’s happening at the sanctuary which has become the third most visited in Europe.
Allegedly, at least 6 people have witnessed the Virgins apparitions there since 1981.
When the enemies of the Church, the enemies of Christianity in general, and those who want to “hold” the Catholic hierarchy’s “feet to the fire” constantly jabber about Pius XII’s supposed complicity in the Nazi murder of Jews, it becomes necessary to defend the truth as well as the honor of the Holy Father. He was, after all, not only innocent of the crime of which he stands accused by an angry mob, but was also proactive in the protection of innocent Jews. That’s history. Catholics have a particular duty to defend the Church’s honor, but even secular historians of the era ought to vindicate Pius XII, if only to protect the integrity of their science.
In changing the traditional Douay-Rheims rendering of Genesis 3:15 from “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” to the Catholic Revised Standard Version translation (based on the King James Bible), “I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel,” the scriptural foundation for the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is compromised. So, too, is the traditional doctrine concerning Our Lady’s essential role in salvation history, which has been translated into her more modern title of “Co-redemptrix.”
“The United Nations estimated that 683 Christians fled Mosul between February 20 and February 27. Chaldean Catholic Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona of Mosul estimated that ‘about 400 families’ had left the city’s community of 4,000 Christians.”
This disheartening data comes from an article in Catholic World News. The Iraqi Catholic bishops themselves are bemoaning the situation. But that’s not all they are doing; they are also praying, fasting, and organizing their people to protest peacefully. The facts are not to be denied, and they are not the “spin” of liberal news pundits trying to make a Republican effort look bad.
De Maria numquam satis (Concerning Mary never enough). Welcome to the golden pages of Catholicism.org. In the spirit of Saint Bernard’s maxim, this website abounds with over fifty articles in praise of Our Lady, with additional links to the greatest books written about her. Readers will find devotional, theological, apologetical, and liturgical works all contributing to exalt the Mother of God and magnify her name, whose soul so immeasurably magnifies the Lord.
Although the articles appear randomly, one can peruse the titles and find those that fit the need for the moment. Perhaps, the need is to educate a Protestant, or lax Catholic, who has questioned why the Catholic faithful give so much prominence to Mary. Perhaps it is to refute an aggressive heretic who had challenged you on one or more of Our Lady’s unique and singular privileges.
Since the vast majority of our readers need no convincing of Mary’s greatness, which is so condign with her vocation as God’s Mother, many of these articles aim to foster an increase of devotion to and confidence in her. Anything on the site pertaining to the works of Saint Louis Marie de Montfort will be especially helpful in this regard.
Knowledge, as a gift of the Holy Ghost (one of the seven), begets love. That is why Saint Bernard never tired of reading, speaking, and writing about Mary. Is there a doctor of the Church who did not write about Mary? No. Many, in fact, especially during and after the Middle Ages, wrote entire treatises and books about her. Many wrote hymns in honor of her. But these are only those declared “doctors.” Hundreds of other saints, and holy men and women, have filled volumes in praise of her. Liturgies have been composed around her both in the East and the West. The third ecumenical council (Ephesus in 431) was summoned to defend her Divine Maternity, calling her by her traditional title of Theotokos (Mother of God). And, indirectly, the fourth ecumenical council (451), was held to defend her very Maternity, for the issue being contested by the heretics at that time was whether Jesus had a true human nature. Read about the one you love and you will keep her in your heart, and she more ardently will keep you in hers.
Zenit reports: During 2009, cardinals and bishops from every continent have petitioned Benedict XVI to consider promulgating the dogma of Mary’s spiritual Maternity under its three essential aspects as co-redemptrix, mediatrix of all graces, and advocate. This came after five cardinals wrote to the world’s bishops in request of petitions to the Holy Father for the fifth Marian Dogma. Full article is here.
Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Expectation. This feast has an interesting history that Brother Andre reviewed for us this morning in his morning meditation in our chapel. In Spain, this feast day is Nuestra Senora de la O: Our Lady of the O, the “O” coming from the expression of longing said in the office of the Mozarabic Liturgy. In the Latin Rite, today’s feast comes in the middle of the “O” Antiphons (where we get the words for the hymn Veni, Veni, Emmanuel — in English O Come, O Come Emmanuel). Read More »
Even the Royal Air Club of Zaragoza sent two planes to drop flowers from the heavens. And two F-18s from the military did a fly over. With the socialist government doing all it can to undermine the Catholic Faith in Spain this is a very encouraging response: the humble children of Sant’ Iago still love the Blessed Mother. Read article here.
This year, the “observance” of Columbus Day (always a Monday) falls on the actual Columbus Day, October 12. The day is also the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, but this is not mere coincidence. The great Catholic explorer promised his disgruntled men that if land were not spotted on this feast of Our Lady, they would turn back to Europe. Our Lady, in whose holy name Columbus sailed, came to the rescue. Thus we see that the christening of the New World was a project of the Blessed Virgin from the very start. Read More »
The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone — 36 inches long, 16 inches wide, and 6 inches thick — with a fourteenth-century runic inscription on it. Unearthed in 1898, in a rural area of Northern Minnesota, it was named after the nearest settlement, Kensington. What the runes say, and the significance of the message, I’ll get to presently. Let me begin by saying I am neither an archaeologist, nor a philologist, nor a runologist, nor an ancient Scandinavian linguist. The Kensington Runestone has some controversy surrounding it, and Read More »
The ancient prophesy of Genesis 3:15 (”she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel”), has long been interpreted by Catholics to be a reference to the Virgin Mary. This goes back at least to the time of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373). (For those with an apologetical interest in this subject, Brother Thomas Mary admirably dealt with the controversy surrounding this interpretation.) The Ad Rem I am now preparing has brought to mind this notion of our Lady as the “Head Crusher,” and this, in turn, brings me to one of the great, if not-well-known, trinities of the Bible. Read More »
The United States of America are badly in need of conversion. My readers, I think, will take this as axiomatic, so I shall not attempt to prove it. Instead, I would like to propose, in very simple terms and briefly, that Marian consecration is a most excellent way to bring about the conversion of America (i.e., the great majority of Americans) to the one, true Faith. Read More »
When you identify yourself as a “Slave,” you can get some strange looks. But of all the adverse reactions to our name I have ever known, perhaps the most memorable came from a highly educated man who understood the background and purpose of “holy slavery.” Yet, he delicately pointed out that — here in the United States — the word “slave” has a “particularly acerbic connotation.” Read More »
Never will anyone really be able to understand the marvelous riches of sanctification that are contained in the prayers and mysteries of the Holy Rosary. This meditation on the mysteries of the life and death of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the source of the most wonderful fruits for those who use it. Read More »
In 434 A.D., St. Vincent of Lerins, a priest of the monastery at Lerins, a pair of islands lying off the Bay of Cannes, wrote in defense of Mary’s title, “Mother of God,” which had been attacked through various Christological heresies: Read More »
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