The Peace Sign is not a sign of true peace. No one agrees on the exact meaning of this symbol, first used by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958, during a demonstration against Aldermaston (a British research center … Continue reading
Category: Did you know?
Rose Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s daughter became a nun. Rose Hawthorne, the youngest daughter of the famous American author, married George Lathrop, another writer, in 1871. In 1881 their only son died when he was five. Living the life of romantic artists, the … Continue reading
Coventry Patmore
Coventry Patmore (1823-1896), an English poet famous for celebrating the romance of marriage, came into the Church with his whole family in 1864. In 1873, his eldest daughter, Emily Honoria Patmore (1853-1882), a poet in her own right, entered the … Continue reading
Saint Anthony Guide
The writing of “S.A.G.” (Saint Anthony Guide) on envelopes has its roots in a miracle. St. Anthony is well known as the Franciscan Friar who finds lost articles, but this is not the reason for the pious custom of giving … Continue reading
The Pater Noster
The Pater Noster is a prayer and… a bead, a string, a measure of time, an architectural feature, a fishing line, an intransitive verb, and a lake. As readers should know, Pater noster is the beginning of the Our Father … Continue reading
Kneeling and Genuflecting
Two Catholic traditions dealing with knees come to us from two kings, one in the Old Testament, and one in the New. We receive the tradition of praying on our knees from King Solomon: “…he rose from before the altar … Continue reading
The Sudarium
The Sacred Sudarium of our Lord resides in Oviedo, Spain. Most people have heard of the Holy Shroud of Turin, our Lord’s burial cloth. In relation to our Lord’s entombment, the Gospel of St. John mentions also “the napkin that … Continue reading
The Bible can now be read in 1577 Languages!
The Bible can now be read in 1577 Languages!
The Holy Name
The Holy Name of Jesus occurs in the New Testament nine hundred and sixty-eight times and once explicitly in the Old Testament in Habacuc 3:18. That makes a total of nine hundred and sixty nine times that the Savior’s Name … Continue reading
Seventy Two
Our Lady was seventy-two years old when she died. There are seventy-two Books in the Bible. Our Lord chose seventy-two disciples. The Septuagint (that is, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) was the work of seventy-two Jewish scholars. … Continue reading
St. Brendan the Navigator
The first Europeans to set foot on American soil were actually St. Brendan the Navigator and his band of Irish monks. These fearless missionaries arrived here to plant the Cross of Christ for the first time nine hundred years before … Continue reading
Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson was a Catholic. The son of Eric the Red, of Viking fame, he was converted to Christianity around the year 1000 by St. Olaf, the king of Norway. This saintly monarch sent Ericson to spread the Faith among … Continue reading
Christopher Columbus’ Ship
The full name of Christopher Columbus’ ship was Santa Maria de la Inmaculada Concepcion (Holy Mary of the Immaculate Conception). The great Discoverer had a devotion to Our Lady under this title long before the dogma of Our Lady’s Immaculate … Continue reading
George Washington Died a Catholic
[There is more on this subject here: Slaves Held Washington Became a Catholic on His Deathbed.] Our first President, George Washington, died a Catholic. While he lay on his deathbed he sent his slaves across the Potomac to bring back his … Continue reading
Is Faith a Gift?
When Our Lord was asked: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? He replied: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.” The triumphant answer … Continue reading
