Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
For God created man for incorruption, and made him the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it. (Wis 2:23-24) These words from the Book of Wisdom, our first reading, address the problem of suffering—as did our first reading last Sunday,[…]
We follow One who stood and wept at the grave of Lazarus-not surely, because He was grieved that Mary and Martha wept, and sorrowed for their lack of faith (though some thus interpret) but because death, the punishment of sin, is even more horrible in his eyes than in ours. (C.S. Lewis)
The fifth Sunday in Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide. It is customary in churches to veil all statues and images until the celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. In the Traditional Roman Rite, this is also marked by the omission of the doxology in both the Mass and the Divine Office. The suspension of the[…]
How old was Lazarus? Robert Browning, in a poem written in 1855—An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician—suggests that he would have been about ten years old. We learn from the poem that Karshish is touring the Near East in A.D. 70 as a student of medicine, sending back in[…]
We are getting towards the latter days of the great journey of Lent, – and this has been a Lent to end all Lents, at least in our brief lifetimes. The word ‘Lent’ is derived from an olde-Germanico-English word for ‘spring’, as in renewal, rejuvenation, a pruning and winnowing, so that new and vibrant growth[…]
Tomorrow, March 29th, in the year of Our Lord 2020, five centuries after the beginning of what is known as the ‘Protestant Reformation’, England is being re-consecrated to Our Lady, through the intercession of her title as the ‘Lady of Walsingham’ the primary Marian shrine in Britain. We should join in prayer with the English[…]
Aristotle wrote that virtue resides in a mean, a balance between two extremes, finding that sweet spot in the middle whereby one does the right thing, at the right time, in the right way. This is all guided by prudence – for Aristotle, the greatest of the moral virtues – wherein one sees the true[…]
I am in the midst of writing a reflection on our current – well, what shall we call it? – situation? crisis? apocalypse? all of the above? In the meantime, this article from the Spectator on the evidence not being quite as clear as we – and even the experts – might think, helps puts[…]
Back in biology class, we debated whether viruses were ‘alive’. They’re certainly the lowest form of living thing, if living at all. They cannot move themselves, but must be moved around by others – as we have discovered. But they can replicate, but only by using the replicative processes of other organisms. They burrow deep[…]
Men go forth to wonder at the height of mountains, the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the ocean, the course of the stars-and forget to wonder at themselves. Beware of despairing about yourself: you are commanded to put your trust in God, and not in yourself. (Saint Augustine)
