Our Incarnational Faith
In the midst of the scandals and accusations, we should recall the great joys and blessings of our Faith, not least the gift of Mary, the sinless Mother of God, co-redemptrix of the human race, whose birthday we celebrate today. This feast, nine months after the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, has its origins likely in Syria-Palestine in the 6th century, sometime after the definitive decree declaring Mary to be Theotokos, the true ‘Bearer of God’, in His human nature, at the Council of Ephesus in 431. We know that Our Lady has her body, now glorified, transcending our notions of ‘space and time’, but a real body it is, still celebrating in some way her earthly birthday some two millennia ago.
Josef Ratzinger in his liturgical works emphasizes the historical, concrete, incarnational dimension of Catholicism and its liturgy. We celebrate with great joy the works of God, as He brings about our salvation within time and history with the free cooperation of His creatures. Anna and Joachim, the parents of Mary, corresponded patiently with the grace of God, and their child even more so, the vessel ‘full of grace’, whose fiat allowed the Saviour of the World to become incarnate with her womb. Like any gentleman, but here, a gentle God, He waited upon her word, as He does to this day.
Hence, our devotion to the Virgin should be great indeed, as the one chosen to be His mother. Offer her some little present, a decade of the Rosary, a Memorare, some good deed done to someone, especially those who need it most, and who knows what surprise you may get.
Like the fictional hobbits, and Bilbo on his ‘eleventy-first birthday’, I am rather confident that Our Lady will give far greater presents than any we could offer her, recalling her Son’s exhortation that it is better to give than receive, and God loves the cheerful giver most.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→