Do not fear this sickness nor any other sickness, nor any sharp and hurtful thing. Am I not here, I, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?[…]
Month: August 2023
Pope Benedict and Pope Pius X
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Papal Summer Residence, Castel Gandolfo Wednesday, 18 August 2010 Saint Pius the Tenth Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today I would like to reflect on my Predecessor, St Pius X whose liturgical Memorial we shall be celebrating next Saturday and to underline certain features that may be useful to both Pastors and[…]
What We Can Learn from Saint Pius X
On August 21st, the Church joyfully celebrates the liturgical memorial of the great Pope St Pius X. Last year I had the grace of personally visiting the place where he was born and raised up, Riese, Treviso, in Italy. Pius X is universally known for strongly opposing Modernist understandings of the Catholic doctrine as well[…]
Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven. There are others: innocence, but that is for little children; penance, but we are afraid of it; generous endurance of trials of life, but when they come we weep…The surest, easiest, shortest way is the Eucharist. (Pope Saint Pius X, 1903)
St Bernard of Clairvaux: His Life and Words Flowed like the Honey of Christ
On Sunday 20 August 2023 the universal church celebrates the feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux. As Pope Benedict XVI rightly pointed out in his catechesis on the saint, on Wednesday 21 October 2009, The title Doctor Mellifluus, attributed to Bernard by tradition, stems precisely from this; indeed, his praise of Jesus Christ “flowed like honey”. When[…]
O Blessed Mary, whoever loves you honors God; whoever serves you pleases God; whoever invokes your holy name with a pure heart will infallibly receive the object of his petition. (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153)
Twentieth Sunday: Prayer and Tradition
For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples (Is. 56: 7). In any given region or country, a common language is a source of unity. You may be familiar with the term lingua franca or bridge language, a language used to make communication possible between people who do not share[…]
Saints Agapitus and Helena
Saint Agapitus, an early Roman martyr (+274) was from the ancient family of Palestrina, from which, 1300 years later, would derive one of the greatest of the Church’s choral polyphonists, of eponymous name. Agapitus, who did not bear any children, was captured in the persecution of Aurelian, tortured – the statue shows him upside down, which[…]
La Vang and Le Sword
On this day in 1798, in the midst of a brutal persecution, Our Lady, holding her Son and with two angels at either side, appeared to a group of Vietnamese Catholics, who had fled to the rain forest to hide, and where many fell seriously ill. Like the good mother she is, Our Lady instructed[…]
Pope Francis and the Assumption
(Many readers of Catholic Insight likely have some, shall we say, issues with Pope Francis, and his actions of late – his ambiguous if not outright puzzling and confusing statements on fundamental moral issues, his support for dubious if not scandalous clerics and so on. The upcoming synod may provoke outright schism, on which we[…]