It is now the dead of night. As we contemplate Christ dead on the Cross, our thoughts turn to the countless injustices and sufferings which prolong his passion in every part of the world. I think of the places where man is insulted and humiliated, downtrodden and exploited. In every person suffering from hatred and[…]
Month: April 2022
Ah, Poor Newfoundland
I received a note this morning from one of my students, participating in our ‘distance ed’ program – and quite a distance, all the way out to the shores of Newfoundland. He asked for prayers, as his parish – and, it seems, every other parish and church in his diocese – is up for sale[…]
There can be no Eucharist without the priesthood, just as there can be no priesthood without the Eucharist…There is a particular interplay between the Eucharist and the priesthood, an interplay which goes back to the Upper Room: these two Sacraments were born together and their destiny is indissolubly linked until the end of the world.[…]
The Mystery of the Mass
‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me….This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He[…]
What a mistake those who do not hope make! Judas made a huge blunder the day in which he sold Christ for 30 denarii, but he made an even bigger one when he thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. No sin is too big: any wretchedness, however great, can always be[…]
Palm Sunday in Isolation
(Here are some words from contributor Father Mario Attard from Malta. We post these for the spiritual value in the advice he offers, not least for those ‘quarantined’ and isolated against their will. Our own opinion is that the enforced isolation of the healthy is itself unhealthy, with widespread deleterious social and spiritual consequences, and[…]
Bach’s Two Passions
A blessed and grace-filled Passion/Palm Sunday to all our readers. Johann Sebastian Bach, according to sources, wrote five ‘Passions’, orchestral chorales based the final days of the life of Christ, but only two have come down to us: Saint John’s and Saint Matthew’s, both profound, musically rich and complex, whose depths can never really be[…]
Let us run to accompany him as he hastens towards his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we[…]
Mater Dolorosa: Our Lady of Sorrows
(In the calendar of the usus antiquior, today, the Friday before Holy Week, is the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. In the revisions of the novus ordo, it is on September 15th, the day after the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, on which day it is also celebrated in the older rite,[…]
Just War, in Theory and Praxis
The Holy Father recently brought into question the notion of a ‘just war’, which brings to mind a comment from a Catholic in a question-and-answer period after a talk years ago, who declared quite vociferously, ‘Just war is an oxymoron!’. There is a kernel of truth there, for as soon as the dogs of war[…]