A Saintly Major-General
It is impressive, fitting for this Solemnity – and a quasi-litany as a bonus:
Year: 2023
Pope John Paul II and the Path to Holiness
Today’s Solemnity of All Saints reminds me of St Pope John Paul II’s reflections on holiness, and I’d like to share with you some of his most powerful and life-changing thoughts about it. In his message to the young people of Sicily as they were preparing to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our[…]
What we know of the virtues of the saints is the least part of them (Saint Philip Neri, +1595)
Palestrina’s Iesu Rex Admirabilis
The feast of Christ the King (in the usus antiquior) was put in place on this last Sunday of October to counteract so-called Reformation Sunday, for the Protestants held that the earthly potentate was head of the ‘church’, and the state in charge in religion. Catholics, of course, hold that the Church transcends all earthly[…]
The Conversion of Eva Vlaandinerbroek
We cradle Catholics all feel a bit of a boost when we hear of converts, especially of the famous sort, even if we also welcome the infamous, the non-famous, the obscure and the hidden – everyone is welcome, and we should beat the bushes to find them and welcome them all into the wedding banquet.[…]
Gerhard Cardinal Müller and the Synod
I going to write a few words on the Synod on Synodality, as it wraps up its first phase (phase II next October) and may yet do so, but I could hardly do better than this just-published reflection by Gerhard Cardinal Müller, former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – and[…]
But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear,[…]
Hamburg, Hiroshima and Hamas: Innocents in War and the Dignity of Human Life
On October 11, 1649, the troops of Oliver Cromwell, who was then ‘Lord Protector of England’, stormed the besieged village of Wexford, Ireland. The soldiers killed indiscriminately, leaving 1600 dead. This was par for the course for Cromwell – not the first nor the last of his massacres, which he justified to ‘quell future resistance’.[…]
Trudeau’s Tinfoil Hat
One of the worst of logical fallacies – which is to say, the weakest – is the ad hominem argument. That is, instead of responding to your opponent’s arguments in a reasoned manner, you simply insult him and, by illogical extension, his argument. This is the primary mode of ‘debate’ – insofar as it may[…]
Hope is patience with the lamp lit (Tertullian)