1. When you have __, everyone wants your company. When you lose __, men want to avoid you. 2. When you have __, you cannot be mean if you tried. When you lose __, you are mean even to yourself. … Continue reading
Category: Spiritual Life
Pentecost Sunday
Today is the anniversary of the Holy Ghost’s mission on earth. Because that mission is largely neglected, sorely misunderstood, and vitally important for the life of the Church and individuals, we should do our best to understand it so that … Continue reading
Sunday after the Ascension
Today we find ourselves liturgically between two great feasts, the Ascension and Pentecost. The Church has her mind on both of these mysteries. This is well illustrated by the two alleluia verses. The first points us back to Our Lord’s … Continue reading
Fifth Sunday after Easter
“If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.” As I have already pointed out, the Gospels we have been reading during these Sundays between Easter and the Ascension are from Our Lord’s discourse … Continue reading
Florilegium Sancti Ludovici Mariae
In medieval Latin, a florilegium (literally, a “gathering of flowers”) is a systematic collection of writings from larger works. Its literal Greek equivalent gives us the word anthology. In the Ages of Faith, works of the Church Fathers and other … Continue reading
Fourth Sunday after Easter
Today’s propers continue to give us practical instruction on living the “resurrected life” of Christ. The Gospel gives us our second notice that the Holy Ghost will soon come, and His mission will be to complete the work of Christ … Continue reading
Third Sunday after Easter
Today’s Gospel presents us with the first reference in the Easter Cycle to Our Lord’s Ascension. For three weeks now, we have enjoyed the sweetness of our resurrected Lord’s presence, as symbolized by the Paschal Candle in the sanctuary. In … Continue reading
In Praise of Triumphalism
“Triumphalism” is a bad word in some circles. That those circles have been influential in academic, ecclesiastical, and civil society in recent decades helps to explain our sad lot. I’ll not forget the perplexity that overcame me when I read … Continue reading
Second Sunday after Easter
The second Sunday after Easter is called “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The neophytes — those who were baptized on Holy Saturday — are encouraged to look upon upon themselves as sheep of the flock and to look upon Jesus as their … Continue reading
The Agony of the Resurrection
Every year around Holy Week, the publishers of America’s popular reading material let loose a volley of blasphemies against our Lord’s Resurrection. Citing one or another perfidious “noted scholar,” the glossy-covered journals that accost us at the checkout counter vie … Continue reading
What Distinguishes Spiritual Childhood from Natural Childhood
To remain little is to recognize one’s nothingness, to expect everything from God, as a little child expects everything from his father; it is to be disturbed about nothing, not to earn a fortune.
Even among poor people, as long as the child is quite small, they give him what he needs; but as soon as he has grown up, his father no longer wishes to feed him and says to him: “Work now, you can be self-supporting.” Well, so as never to hear that, I have not wished to grow up. Continue reading
The Principal Virtues of the Child of God
We continue what be began in our last number, a three-part study of spiritual childhood by Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877-1964). St. Teresa of the Child Jesus reminds us that the principal virtues of the child of God are those … Continue reading
The Innate Qualities of the Child
Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877-1964) was one of the greatest theologians of modern times. He was a staunch anti-modernist, who engaged and exposed the twerpy upstarts responsible for the neo-modernist Nouvelle Théologie (“New Theology”). Much more than a controversialist, the … Continue reading
Second Sunday of Lent
Today’s Gospel is a startling contrast to last week’s. Last week, we saw Our Lord in the desert hungry from a forty-day fast, being tempted by the devil. The Church took great pains to show us Our Lord doing penance … Continue reading
Quinquagesima Sunday
You will find nothing in the world’s literature that matches St. Paul’s “sublime Canticle of Charity” (Fr. Plassmann) in today’s epistle. This encomium to the divine love that is infused in our souls at baptism is singularly precious. Far from … Continue reading
