«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.
Do you know the difference between a parable and an allegory? The answer is a simple one that deserves further development: A parable is an extended simile; an allegory is an extended metaphor. Similes and metaphors are two different kinds … Continue reading
Address given on April 8, 2024, the (transferred) Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Perpetual Profession of Sister Maria Junipera. TODAY is a sublimely joyful day embellished with ringing promises of glory and just a … Continue reading
On February 3 of this year, the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) came out with Gestis Verbisque (“[With] Actions and Words”), a “Note” concerning the requisites for sacramental validity. To put it colloquially, its subject … Continue reading
Damien Fisher is a New Hampshire-based freelance reporter, who has a long history of maligning and misrepresenting Saint Benedict Center and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Two weeks ago, he contrived yet another opportunity to vilify our … Continue reading
As a neophyte to Catholic tradition in the early 1990’s, I was struck by the beauty of that part of the Traditional Latin Mass called the “Preface.” The chant that accompanies it, sung by the celebrant alone, is not only … Continue reading
On February second and third of this year, two seemingly unrelated events happened, one in a hospital in southwestern Louisiana, the other, at the Vatican. In chronological order, these were the publication, on the Feast of the Purification, of the … Continue reading
This past January 17 was the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For that occasion, the members of our houses here in Richmond, New Hampshire, were in Still River, Massachusetts for a … Continue reading
“Woe to the world because of scandals,” said Our Lord. “For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh” (Matt. 18:7). Later, the Apostle takes up a related theme: “For … Continue reading
Until the beautiful feast of February 2, the Purification, we remain in Christmastide. The stunning good news the angels announced to the shepherds should be still ringing in our ears all this time: “Glory to God in the highest; and … Continue reading
Ordo ab chao — “order out of chaos” — is a motto used in various permutations of Freemasonry. It refers to the “new world order” that the revolutionary Masons will bring out of the chaos they create in their revolutions … Continue reading
The Church’s traditional liturgy sanctifies our time — the day, the week, the month, the season, the year. What is quite literally mundane and temporal is thus transformed into something heavenly and spiritual, an anticipation of our partaking in God’s … Continue reading
There is a principle of Trinitarian theology that tells us all the acts of the Holy Trinity ad extra are acts of all Three Persons. (Ad extra means toward the outside, as distinguished from ad intra, meaning toward the inside. … Continue reading
Before you read this Ad Rem, please stop and pray this Prayer to Our Lady of Palestine. The Gospel for the Feast of Christ the King, celebrated this past Sunday, closes with this verse: Pilate therefore said to him: Art … Continue reading
For this Ad Rem, I am sharing some snippets from the talk I gave at this past weekend’s Saint Benedict Center Conference, whose theme was “Cultivating and Passing on a Catholic Worldview.” The title of my talk was “‘Virtue is … Continue reading
We here at Saint Benedict Center are in between two big fall events — the Pilgrimage for Restoration, which has us limping and aching, and our annual Conference, which has us feverishly preparing. Because of that, my time to write … Continue reading
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