Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection. (Saint Benedict, +543)
Year: 2023
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless (G.K. Chesterton)
Knowing the Father, the Way to Life
Today’s Gospel contains an intriguing statement: “No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”[1] What can we conclude? Simply that there is more than one way of knowing, i.e., there is a path to knowledge different[…]
Fourteenth Sunday: Following Christ, Meek and Humble of Heart
‘Come to me all you that are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Mt. 11:29-30).[…]
Archbishop Tucho Touched for the CDF
The appointment of Victor Manuel ‘Tucho’ Fernández as the new head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith – now, technically, a ‘dicastery’ – is a scandal. That does not necessarily mean that it is a sin, but it is discouraging that someone such as he is now in charge of defending the[…]
Abstaining from Mass and Communion: A Reply to Dr. Kwasniewski
(In light of Saint Anthony Maria Zeccaria, and other saints of the ‘devotio moderna’ who advocated frequent, even daily, reception of the Eucharist, here is a reply to an exhoration by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski published in OnePeterFive). Peter Kwasniewski is right that we must return to Tradition if the Church is to survive, never mind[…]
He loves, He hopes, He waits. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep us waiting an instant. (Saint Maria Goretti, +1902)
Independence Day: Freedom From, and Freedom For
In the United States, we once again celebrate the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on July 4th. Our forebears penned a document to express their dissatisfaction with the governance of the colonies in America by that Kingdom, and announced the formation of a new government, one that was meant to[…]
That’s A Nice Bank Account You Got There…Shame if Something Happened to It.
The headline has it that media commentator Nigel Farange is getting the Trudeau treatment: Not quite, but close: No reason has been given, but Farange thinks is because he’s not ‘toeing the line’ on various issues, he’s had his bank accounts closed, and cannot open any others. Trudeau, on the other hand, ordered the bank[…]
Saints Elizabeth of Portugal and Antoine Daniel
On this day we honour Elizabeth of Portugal (+1336), who lived in the turbulent time at the dawn of the fourteenth century. She was a queen, wife, mother, widow, peacemaker, and a third order Franciscan who, after her irate and troublesome husband’s death (whom she sanctified, as much as his coarser soul could take, it[…]