Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones (Saint Thomas More, +1535)
Year: 2020
Emotions in Prayer
There are so many different approaches to prayer, which may, following Saint Teresa of Avila, be described as ‘conversation with God’. I recently attended a Catholic conference which aimed to facilitate the encounter of young Catholics with the person of Christ through a very emotional and charismatic experience. Like so many others, the organizers of[…]
Corona and the Joke’s on Joaquin
On this world day of the sick, under the patronage of Our Lady of Lourdes, ‘tis perhaps requisite that we ask how bad is the coronavirus. By ‘bad’ we mean, how lethal, and how easily transmitted, which go together. If a virus is too lethal, then it burns itself out, killing its victims before they[…]
Que soy era immaculada concepciou – I am the Immaculate Conception (the ‘Lady’ to Bernadette Soubirous, March 25, 1858)
More on Magisteria and Mohawks
We Catholics are now perforce to ponder more deeply the limits of Magisterial authority – specifically papal pronouncements – in light of the current holder of the office. As we await whatever is in store for us in the Amazonian post-synodal exhortation, the reader may peruse this hard-hitting article from National Review writer Daniel Mahoney.[…]
Emiliani, Magisterium, and Mohawks
Today, with Saint Josephine Bakhita, we also celebrate Saint Jerome Emiliani (+1537), who ran away from his home in Venice at the age of 15 after his father’s death, becoming a soldier in the wars then raging, taken prisoner, and underwent a deep conversion from his youthful indifference to religion, after what he deemed a[…]
If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today… The Lord has loved me so much: we must love everyone… we must be compassionate! (Saint Josephine[…]
Poverty, and People Ain’t the Problem
A rich world and a vibrant economy can and should end poverty said Pope Francis on February 5th in an address at a Vatican conference on ‘New Forms of Solidarity’. We have heard this before, from John Kennedy’s and Lyndon Johnson’s ‘war on poverty’, back to the great leveling impetus of socialism. The problem, of[…]
The Joyful Martyrs of Japan
Today is the feast of the Martyrs, Saint Paul Miki and Companions, put to death by crucifixion on February 5, 1597 at Nagasaki, Japan, whose example offers a healthy antidote to the rather darker and, to be quite honest, more depressing, meanderings and musings of the sad and tragic apostasy in the Shusaku Endo’s 1966[…]
The Mills of God Grind Slowly
We are currently witnessing numerous calamities in the order of nature: earthquakes, droughts, floods, and disasters which cause the unforeseen death of thousands of persons, followed by epidemics and incurable diseases. All mainstream media together with the world leaders are repeating climate-change slogans persistently like a daily mantra in print and on air as the[…]