There is a Latin rhyme that goes like this: Ora et labora, Deus adest sine mora. In English, we can translate it this way, keeping the rhyme: “Work and pray; God is here without delay.” Ora et labora is well … Continue reading
Category: «Ad Rem» A Fortnightly Email Message from the Prior
«Ad Rem» is our Prior’s fortnightly email message offering news and commentary regarding the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Crusade of St. Benedict Center, and issues affecting the universal Church. Each number offers brief, ad rem (“to the point”) commentary on timely or otherwise important matters. Click here to subscribe to our email list and receive the «Ad Rem» each time it’s published.
Knowledge and Mystery
When I was first studying philosophy, I overheard a conversation between an eccentric old philosophy professor and one of the other seminarians. It fascinated me. This old gent said that Our Lord defended the study of philosophy in the Gospels … Continue reading
The Crusades: Just Wars?
[How and when to listen to my show, ‘Reconquest.’ Also: Listen to past episodes.] A typical catalogue of the supposed historical crimes of the Catholic Church — or of Western men in general — would include the Crusades and the … Continue reading
Anger Issues
Anger is a vice that seems to be on the increase, with the country splitting at the seams of religion, class, race, party, and ideology. Pat Buchanan refers to this as the “balkanization” of America. At the opposite moral extreme … Continue reading
Are the Works of Mercy a Matter of Justice?
Continuing the general subject of the last Ad Rem, I would like to reply to this second question about Mercy. We are, after all, in the “Year of Mercy,” and some things should be gotten straight about this gravely misunderstood … Continue reading
Are the Works of Mercy Ever Obligatory?
Two questions about “mercy” were recently asked of me. Since we are soon to embark on the “Year of Mercy” proclaimed by Pope Francis, and since there is much confusion about the subject in general, I thought it worthy of … Continue reading
Don Pelayo Starts the Reconquest
In the year 711, the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain fell to the invading Umayyad Muslim forces. This was due to the fateful victory of the Berber commander Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad, over Visigothic forces in the Battle of Guadalete. Spain’s monarch, … Continue reading
Act and Potency in the Christian Life
In the Tuesday night Philosophy group that has been meeting since this past summer, we are now more than halfway through the course on Cosmology. We recently covered the subject of act and potency — a couple of simple words … Continue reading
Why Is Total Consecration the Remedy to Our Ills?
The following is an excerpt from my recent conference talk. I am probably not alone — I hope I am not — in considering much of devotional literature a bit tiresome when it presents one or another special devotion as if … Continue reading
Marian Consecration: A Little History
To whet the appetites of our readers for our conference theme, I present here a small chunk of my own talk, which is the “title cut” of the conference, since it has the same name: “Total Consecration to Mary: The … Continue reading
The Faith of Mary
The other day I was speaking to a priest about the challenges of the apostolate today. In the bleak modern landscape, where so much militates against revealed religion (and even common sense), “You have to have the faith of Abraham and the … Continue reading
Noah’s Ark and Peter’s Bark
In this number of the Ad Rem, I wish to consider the interesting and dogmatically significant subject of Ark-Church typology. In order to do so, I am going to excerpt from two other pieces — one written by Brother Thomas … Continue reading
Truth and Its Enemies
Preparing myself for the regular Tuesday night meeting of Mike Church’s philosophy discussion group, I attentively read (and then twice reread) a passage in Brother Francis’ Logic Notes that he called “Truth and its enemies.” It is a wonderful elucidation of … Continue reading
So Much Evil, So Many Opportunities!
The days are evil. We are beset. It reminds me of a quote attributed to that great philosopher, Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, USMC: “All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind … Continue reading
Obergefell v. Hodges: A Moment of Grace
At the end of a short posting on our site, “Rod Dreher on Obergefell and Living as Exiles,” I said about that horrible SCOTUS ruling: “this is a moment of grace for us.” The promise was made to develop that … Continue reading
