The true religion is not a book. It is a communion — a mystical body — by which man is united to God and therefore made holy, beginning in this life a relationship that is meant to continue for all eternity in beatitude. Yes, the true faith is a revelation from on high. Yes, a portion of that revelation has been transmitted to us in the inspired canonical scriptures. But what those scriptures and the rest of that revelation declare to us is how to enter into vital communion with the Holy Trinity through the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ.

We aspire to the direct vision of God in eternity, and we achieve that by seeing and hearing Him in time through faith and charity. Read More »

Saturday, December 24. I went to Keene, N.H. to run errands. On the way, I said a chaplet of the Rosary. While carrying out my errands and on the trip back, I clicked on the local NPR affiliate to see if there was any news worth hearing. It would have been better had I prayed more chaplets of the Rosary. Read More »

A group of Lebanese lay Catholics have formed a group called New Creation, with the objective of fostering devotion to Jesus. They took their name from a phrase in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation,” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Read more here.

[Originally authored 13 December 2003, the Feast of Sancta Lucia]

At this time of the Christian Feast of the Nativity, when we are also expectantly considering the coming year of 2012 (as was so in 2003) and the pressures of deepening war and religious conflict, we more openly allow ourselves to consider the foundations of things.

Did the Incarnation happen? Or was it an illusion, or even a deception? Did the Humility of God come into history in such a quiet way in Nazareth unto a pure and lovely woman, and then later also consent to be humbly born in Bethlehem? Read More »

As something of a follow-up to The Real Gospel of Life, I compiled a small collection of supernaturally pro-life statements that have the authority of Holy Scripture or the Church’s Liturgy. These will help us establish our pro-life priorities, and provide us with abundant material for meditation. Read More »

General Audience, Father Z’s site: “I would like to renew my call to everyone to pray the Psalms, to become accustomed to using the Liturgy of the Hours, Lauds, Vespers, and Compline.” Read more from the pope’s address here.

On June 13, 1929, Sister Lucy of Fatima, while yet a Dorothean Sister, was privileged with a vision of the Most Holy Trinity. The vision happened in the convent chapel in Tuy, Spain. The Blessed Trinity appeared, with the Virgin Mary, and revealed Themselves to the Sister Lucy in a special way. In fact, the servant of God later testified that she “received lights about this mystery [of the Trinity] which I am not permitted to reveal.”

It was during this vision that the Blessed Virgin told the visionary, “The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.” Read More »

At the end of the Rule of St. Augustine, the Doctor of Grace — who was also a monk and father of monks — enjoins his disciples to observe its precepts “not like slaves under the law, but like freemen established under grace”¹. The recent feast of St. Nicholas of Tolentino provides but one of the numerous proofs that the Rule of St. Augustine works. Not only did the African Doctor successfully cook his recipe for holiness, so did numerous of his spiritual progeny. Read More »