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.
Brother Thomas Mary wrote an article many years ago that deserves wider circulation and attention. It’s called, simply, “Doctrinal Summary” — an accurate name, as the piece summarizes Father Feeney’s doctrinal stance, but a too modest name to arouse readers’ attention. Please consider this an invitation to read Brother …
(This is dedicated to Heidi Beirich, director of “research” at the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose intelligent, nuanced writing style I attempt to imitate.)
The radical mercenary leftist fundraisers at the Southern Poverty Law Center are busily spewing out their trademark caterwauling again. Yes, the enemies of free speech and Christian social order are howling about the frenzied maniacs ready to escort Adolf Hitler himself down Main Street, U.S.A.
MERRIMACK, N.H. (TMC Press Release) – The Virginia-based Young America’s Foundation recently recommended the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts as one of the nation’s top conservative colleges in its sixth annual “Top Conservative Colleges” list.
Commenting on the list, Young America’s Foundation President Ron Robinson explained, “Given the liberal bias in higher education today, it is critical that we make these recommendations.
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.
In this area of our web site, readers will find offerings by and about the Fathers of the Church.
Patrology is the study of the lives and writings of the Fathers of the Church. Although the opinion is far from uncontested, most theologians put an end to the patristic period with the death of Saint Anselm (+1109). Some, however, extend it a little further and count Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (+1153), a father. This doctor had his own dissenting view and was fond of calling Saint Augustine (430) the last of the Church Fathers. Others cut the period off with the death of Saint John Damascene in 749, who was an eastern father and doctor. Because we are dealing with the “early Church” it would seem logical, and more consistent with the title “father” not to extend the patristic period into the Age of Scholasticism (mid-eleventh to early fifteenth century). Brother Francis used to call Saint Gregory the Great (+604) the last western father and John Damscene, the last eastern father.
Not all the Fathers of the Church are doctors, or even saints. A Doctor of the Church is a much higher title and it has its own rank in the Roman Missal, along with Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins. To qualify as a Father of the Church one would have had to have written or given homilies in some abundance as a witness to the Faith of the early Church. The greatest collection of the works of the eastern and western Fathers is that of Father Jacques Paul Migne, whose Patrologia Latina and Graeca, are standard texts in studying Patrology. His Latin Patrology ends with the homilies of Pope Innocent III (+1216) and his Greek Patrology continues up to the time of the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.
Editor’s Introduction: The “Golden Stream’s” eloquent defense of sacred images is one result of his total view of the Incarnational nature of the True Faith. Here, we present another: his Mariology. Read More »
Saint Augustine wrote this document to provide a guide for his community of priests. It is remarkably simple, reasonable and evangelical. Read More »
For those who would say that the early Chruch was silent on the question of abortion, the following selections from the Fathers will give ample witness to the contrary:
The Didache circa AD 120 : “Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion.” - 2:2
“The Way of Death is filled with people who are . . . murderers of children and abortionists of God’s creatures.” - 5:1-2 Read More »
I. The Coming of the Holy Ghost with the Gift of Tongues foretells the Unity of the Church throughout all peoples.
This is a solemn day for us, because of the Coming of the Holy Ghost; the fiftieth day from the Lord’s Resurrection, seven days multiplied by seven. But multiplying seven by seven we have forty-nine. One is then added: that we may be reminded of unity. Read More »
Peace Be To You, The Mystical Body
Jesus stood in the midst of them, and saith to them: Peace be to you
I. The Heresy of the Manicheans. Read More »
In Mary we praise that which places her above all others, that is, fruitfulness of offspring together with virginity. For never has it been known in this world that anyone was at the same time mother and virgin. Read More »
Given to the People in the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Holy Day of the Resurrection
1. It has been my custom, beloved brethren, to speak to you on many of the Gospel readings, by means of a sermon I had already dictated for you. But since I have been unable, because of the weakness of my throat, to read to you myself what I had prepared, I notice that some among you listen somewhat indifferently. Read More »
Given to the People in the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the day of the Nativity of Our Lord.
1. Because by the Divine Bounty we are on this day thrice to celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Mass, we cannot therefore speak at length on the Gospel lesson. But the Birth of Our Redeemer Himself demands of us that we say something for the occasion, however briefly. Read More »
Our Saviour, dearly Beloved, was born this day. Let us rejoice. Read More »
Those who have only read the Fathers of the Church in the brief extracts from their works, which are so often cited, can have no idea of the amplitude and magnificence with which they extol the praises of the Mother of God. I propose, therefore, in this chapter, to give more satisfactory examples of the mode in which they speak of her. Read More »
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