People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from[…]
Year: 2021
Saint George Preca, Catechist and Apostle of Malta
(We are a bit late, alas, in posting this reflection on Saint George Preca, a home-grown Maltese saint, whose feast was May 9th. But, in God’s providence, which works through our weakness, the reader might combine this post with Pope Francis’ recent instantiation of the ministry of catechist by a recent Motu Proprio, a ministry[…]
Saint Leopold Mandić, Croatian Hero of the Confessional
On this Tuesday 12 May 2021, we celebrate the feast of St Leopold Mandić OFM Cap. (+1942). Who was this great and humble saint whose relics, together with those of St Pio, Pope Francis wanted in the Vatican Basilica for some days during the Jubilee of God’s Mercy? Leopold was born into a Croatian Catholic[…]
The Dis-Proprotionate Burden of Lockdowns
Human life is much about prudence, the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance, and to choose the right means of achieving it. (CCC, #1806). Prudence should take into account ideals, even strive for perfection, even if we such may never fully be attained in this life, through which[…]
The Courage to Be a Mother
“And when the wine was failing, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her: ‘Woman, what is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (Jn 2:3-5). At the wedding feast in[…]
Ubi Caritas, Deus Ibi Est
Based on today’s Gospel readings on love and friendship, of God, of Christ, and of each other, much needed in our increasingly divided world, we thought we would post a couple of version of Ubi Caritas, Deus ibi est – Where there is love, there God, is an ancient Gregorian chant, which goes back to[…]
A Mother’s Indissoluble Love
A Blessed Sixth Sunday of Easter to all our readers, which also happens to be the secular commemoration of Mothers’ Day, which became widespread when President Woodrow Wilson – for whom I have not much admiration otherwise, and his imprudent and unjust ‘Fourteen Points’ at Versailles in 1919 paved the way for an even worse[…]
The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself. (Saint Augustine)
Beatification of Catherine of Saint Augustine
(What follows is an excerpt from the homily of Pope Saint John Paul II beatifying Mother Catherine of Saint Augustine along with four others on April 23, 1989, in Canada’s ‘other’ official language. The Pope delivered the address, raising four others to the altars, in at least three different languages, fluently. If there is time,[…]
Beauty, Ever Ancient, Ever New…Ever to be Sought
If there such a thing as a ‘science’ to beauty, we derive it from the Greeks, who posited three criteria to this most elusive, yet most evident, concept: Integrity – does a thing have all its parts? – proportion – are these various parts in harmony with one another? – and clarity (or ‘honestas’) –[…]