Category Archives: Spiritual Life
Spiritual Life
This category, of course, can cover many topics. We try to limit it in this section to articles that deal with the inner life of the soul elevated by grace or wounded by sin: virtue and vice, heroic Catholic men and women as seen under the light of the particular virtue they exemplified, the cardinal virtues, spiritual formation, growth, and purgation, and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Homesick For Heaven
In the long history of our Holy Catholic Church, the Carmelite Order is the only group of religious that can trace its beginnings back to Old Testament times. From the age of the prophet Samuel, there existed in the Holy Land a body of men who called themselves Sons of the Prophets, who, though not of the Hebrew priestly class, in some respects resembled religious … More →
La Reconquistadora – The Virgin Mary and the Virtue of Fortitude
For the better part of eight hundred years, Catholic Spain fought to liberate herself from Islamic occupation. The Reconquista, or Reconquest, as this war of liberation was called, began to make great strides in the second half of the eleventh century.
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Meditation on the Immaculate Conception – by Saint Pio
Eternal Love, Spirit of Light and Truth, make a way into my poor mind and allow me to penetrate as far as it is possible to a wretched creature like myself, into that abyss of grace, of purity and of holiness, that I may acquire a love of God that is continually renewed, a love of God Who, from all eternity planned the greatest of … More →
The Holy Name of Mary
And the Virgin’s name, wrote Luke, was Mary. Let us speak of this name for a few moments.
Joining Worship of the Eucharist with Devotion to Mary
In Catholic piety, worship of the Eucharist and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary are usually seen as two separate things. There are religious orders dedicated to promoting each.
Lazarus, Come Forth! — An Easter Meditation
In an earlier issue of From the Housetops (No. 51), Brother Francis wrote an article on the four senses of Holy Scripture. The piece was intended to help readers study Scripture by employing a traditional method used throughout the ages of the Church.
Catholic Sacramentals — Gifts of Grace
In November of 1955 a plane carrying 27 passengers crashed. All died except one young lady.
Beholding His Mother
Editor’s Introduction: The following is excerpted with permission from Emmanuel d’Alzon: Apostle for our Time , by Father Wilfrid J. Dufault, A.A. Just as the great monastic reformers like Dom Guéranger and Dom Columba Marmion had a refined, sublimely theological approach to the monastic vocation, Ven. Emmanuel applied himself to the active apostolate with an unction that can be called cultivated, intelligent, and intense.
The Road to Emmaus
We read Holy Scripture in order to learn God’s ways in His dealings with men, ways which invariably prove to be mysterious and baffling to our thoughts and expectations. Most especially do we find ourselves both challenged and bewildered by those events which took place between the glorious resurrection of Our Lord and His ascension into heaven forty days later.
The Eucharist in Four Simple Mysteries
Introduction By Brother Francis, M.I.C.M. Perhaps the most challenging words Our Blessed Lord uttered on the earth were those by which he proclaimed the reality of the Eucharist: Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you; Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.
To Hell and Back: A Dream of Saint John Bosco
A Dream of Saint John Bosco Editor’s Introduction: At the beginning of Holy Week in 1868, haunting dreams began to trouble Don Bosco, and they “went on for several miserable nights.” “These dreams so exhausted me,” he stated, “that in the morning I felt more done in than if I had been working all night. They also alarmed and upset me very much.”
The Brown Scapular of Carmel
The Mother of God made this astounding promise to a humble Carmelite Monk, Saint Simon Stock, in England more than 700 years ago. Most Catholics have learned the story of Saint Simon and the scapular, and were probably enrolled in the Confraternity of the Scapular of Carmel, at the time of their first Holy Communion.
The Practice of Mental Prayer
Editors Introduction: This is the transcription of a talk that Brother André gave at the 2003 Saint Joseph Forum Conference. The talk is available on CD or MP3.
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Go to Joseph
(From her Autobiography, Chapter VI) Finding myself so crippled and so young too, and earthly doctors having failed to cure me, I looked to heavenly physicians for help… I took for my advocate and comforter the glorious Saint Joseph, and commended myself fervently to him; and I clearly saw that it was he who both cured me of my sickness and delivered me from great … More →
