Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error … Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about[…]
Year: 2021
The Restoration of the Temple
When we hear in today’s first reading that Judas Maccabeus restored the temple worship, the joy of the people is almost palpable.[1] It was as if a loud, persistent noise had been suddenly silenced or a nagging pain cured. Their reasons for rejoicing at the end of a period of oppression by the pagan Greeks[…]
Is The Remedy A Remedy?
Introduction A solution to the Covidian problem was eagerly awaited – and emerged in a legion of vaccines. Development of vaccines to coronaviruses has been difficult due to vaccine-induced enhanced disease responses evident in animal studies. Antibody-dependent enhancement may be involved in the clinical observation of increased severity of symptoms associated with early high levels[…]
No type of cruelty can tear down the religion established by the mystery of Christ’s cross. The Church is not diminished by persecutions, but rather increased. (Pope Saint Leo the Great, +461)
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Patroness of the Poor
On this 17th of November we, as Franciscans, joyfully celebrate the feast of St Elizabeth of Hungary, a tertiary of our Order. Elizabeth was born on 7 July 1207, of Thuringia. Her father was none other than Andrew II, the mighty and mighty King of Hungary and his wife was the German Countess Gertrude of[…]
St Nicholas (Nikola) Tavelić: Croatia’s First Canonized Saint
Today, November 14 2021, is the feast day of the first Croatian canonized saint, the Franciscan St Nicholas Tavelić. Nikola or Nicholas was likely to be born between 1340 and 1350 in Šibenik. His biography does not tell us specifically what his childhood was like and, most importantly, what motivated him to embrace the Franciscan[…]
Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a child prodigy, some say even more so than the incomparable Mozart, developing perfect pitch at the age of three, and near perfect piano performance not long afterwards. He trained in the most prestigious of French conservatories. His great love was composition, but to make[…]
The Moral Aspect of the Apocalypse
The biblical texts used at Mass towards the end of the liturgical year are certainly dramatic—with stars falling from heaven and the like—and, it must be said, confusing. Their obscurity has produced a myriad of interpretations, most notably among those people who like to predict the end of the world (which seems to be always[…]
Thirty Third Sunday, Humility and the End of Time
At that time Michael the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise (Dan. 12:1). As we approach the end of the liturgical year the Sacred Liturgy invites us to contemplate the mystery of the end of time. It is indeed a mystery, and the day as well as the hour remain the secret[…]