Phil Lawler of Catholic Culture website recounts his visit last year to the Carthusian hermits on the 900th anniversary of the death of Saint Bruno the founder of their Order. “If you’ve ever spent autumn in New England, you know … Continue reading
Category: Spiritual Life
Catholic Self-Talk: Using Catholic Language To Combat Worldly Thinking
The importance of words must not be under-rated. Father Leonard Feeney in his book, The Word Was Made Flesh, stated the following: “We are told in the beginning of the holy Gospel, according to Saint John that, ‘The Word was … Continue reading
Admire, But Don’t Imitate
There are certain saints about whom it is said, “admire, but don’t imitate.” One who comes to mind is Saint Peter of Alcantara, the famous Franciscan reformer, whom I am told Franciscan novices have long been specifically warned not to … Continue reading
The Passion of Saint Joseph
It has always been believed that Saint Joseph died some time before Our Lord’s Passion. The Virgin-Father of Our Lord breathed forth his last surrounded by Jesus and Mary, and thus became the patron of a holy death. Whereas the … Continue reading
The Precious Blood: the ‘Mystery of Faith’
July is the month of the Precious Blood. In the traditional rite, the first day of the month is the feast of that name. In the Roman Martyrology, July 1 also commemorates Aaron the High Priest, the brother of Moses. … Continue reading
The Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
If there is one common theme in today’s Mass it is confidence: confidence in God, in the promise of the Holy Ghost which we received at Pentecost, confidence in the Church, and confidence that present difficulties can and will come … Continue reading
Delivering What We Have Received
We are still in what used to be the Octave of Corpus Christi. Even though this octave was done away with in the 1962 rubrics, its ghost still lurks about the liturgy. We will, this Friday, have the feast of … Continue reading
On the Feast of the Holy Trinity
The British author and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dorothy Sayers, once wrote a spoof catechism based upon what most people really know of their Faith. When she came to the doctrine of the Trinity she has this question and … Continue reading
Dear Infant Jesus of Prague
You came down amongst us as a Light shining in the darkness, as a sign for men of good will, that they might become part of Your Flock, guided by Your Vicar on earth, and as a contradiction to those … Continue reading
The Women, The Apostles, and the Tomb: Easter in Review
On Easter Sunday, during its Octave, and on the first Sunday after Easter, the Roman Missal presents us with a different Gospel reading every day. All of these relate what happened on the day of Our Lord’s triumphant Resurrection. The … Continue reading
A Prayer for the Distracted
This prayer may provide some helpful thoughts to the Christian who finds himself in Church, or anywhere, totally distracted and unable to pray. Please note that I have employed the capitalization standards of the Douay Rheims Bible, so as to … Continue reading
Why God Hates Sin
To hear the words, “God hates sin,” may, for certain modern men, invoke images of a deity too demanding to be very comfortable. Such moderns would find the proposition savoring of a dogmatism that borders on the primitive. For them, … Continue reading
Saint Joseph: An Image of the Blessed Trinity
As I write this, it is the Feast of the Holy Family, the first Sunday after the Epiphany. On this day, the Church celebrates Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the human holy trinity that perfectly images the divine Holy Trinity. In … Continue reading
Salvation in the Psalms
Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way, and opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:22.) This is what the two disciples on the way to Emmaus were saying to each other, after hearing the … Continue reading
Sermon on True Penitence
“Be not affrighted: you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen: he is not here” — Mark XVI:6. I hope, my dear Christians, that, as Christ is risen, you have, in this holy paschal time, gone to … Continue reading
