Though it is not a defined dogma, the future conversion of the Jewish nation to the Faith is a common teaching of the Fathers and Doctors, inferred directly from Holy Scripture. This mass conversion (which need not be absolutely total) … 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.
The Catholic Quest
Certain common tropes appear in much of the world’s literature and drama, old and new. This is so much the case that the same theme of forbidden love due to family rivalry meets us in Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe (ca. … Continue reading →
Let’s Have a Little Hero Worship
A wonderful passage of G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man deals with the false claim that Jesus was a “man of his times.” Usually offered as a dismissal of Our Lord’s morals and doctrines as something time-bound and hence obsolete, the … Continue reading →
The Childslayers
When Brother Francis was teaching me Christology, he would constantly repeat something that Father Leonard Feeney often said to him. Holding an icon of the Mother and Child at the beginning of each class, he would say, “Here is the … Continue reading →
Grow into Spiritual Childhood this Advent
As this year’s short Advent progresses, many of us will perhaps be thinking of our Christmases as children. As one gets older, it is easy to become sentimental about Christmas past, even without the benefit of its eponymous ghost to … Continue reading →
The Four Ends of the Mass as Elements of Christian Society
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is first and most importantly an act of worship of the Divine Trinity. It is the highest act of the virtue of religion, which itself is expressed most excellently in the cult of sacrifice. … Continue reading →
Religious Pluralism is Evil
There is this myth going around that a comprehensive pluralism is a good thing. It is, in fact, a strength according to certain people. What I mean by pluralism here is defined by Merriam-Webster’s (in the fourth sense, a and … Continue reading →
Heaven: A Holy Beatitude, not a Carnal Fantasy
Muslims and Mormons, it is fairly well known, have a very carnal eschatology. The paradise of the Muslims has rivers of wine (a beverage forbidden to them on earth), along with rivers of milk and clarified honey. Each man will … Continue reading →
The Fatima Devotions and Your Happiness
Saint Benedict Center’s twentieth annual conference is now history, and by all accounts it went well. There were many converts and reverts to the Faith present, and there were even some non-Catholics in attendance. (See this picture, worth more than … Continue reading →
Fatima, Sin, and a ‘Filial Correction’
A group of Catholic clergy, theologians, and other scholars publicly issued a “filial correction” of Pope Francis on Saturday, accusing the Supreme Pontiff of “propagating heresy” in the apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. The document, initially signed by forty scholars, was … Continue reading →
This is the End of the Law
Our beloved mentor, Brother Francis, used to remind us often of the importance of purpose. One way he did this was to tell the story, related in various ascetical treatises on the religious life, of the monk who used to … Continue reading →
Catholic Truth, Si; False Dialectic, No!
We live in an age of false dialectics and disinformation of all sorts, at the national and international levels. It is a time when the historical crimes, real or perceived, of Euro-American Christians function as camouflage for an agenda of … Continue reading →
A Worldview in the Light of Fatima
The upcoming Saint Benedict Center Conference will be dedicated to the subject, “A Worldview in the Light of Fatima.” This theme was chosen in honor of the centenary of the Fatima apparitions, which will be coming to a close less … Continue reading →
Evil Silence and Holy Silence
At the recommendation of my friend Gary Potter, I am reading — very slowly — Robert Cardinal Sarah’s The Power of Silence. The book is as Gary describes it in his short piece on our website, and I will say … Continue reading →
Were We Saved by Jesus Christ or by the Holy Trinity?
If the question strikes the reader as strange, it should. But it should do so for only one reason, namely, because it implies that nasty modern habit of opposing things that are in no way opposed. It is a false … Continue reading →