Paul set no store by the things that fill our visible world, any more than a man sets value on the withered grass of the field. As for tyrannical rulers or the people enraged against him, he paid them no more heed than gnats. Death itself and pain and whatever torments might come were but[…]
Year: 2023
From Saul to Paul By Way of Damascus
Who was this Paul that we are celebrating his transformative meeting with the Risen Christ which left its indelible imprint in his life? When talking about the life and mission of St Paul the Apostle one has to establish a very important premise, namely, which chronology are we going to adopt? Shall we adopt Acts’[…]
Francis de Sales: A Saint for Our Times
Today, Tuesday 24 January 2023, is the feast of the French Saint St Francis de Sales. Born in the castle of Sales, on 21 August 1567 and died at Lyon on December 28, 1622, he set an example of holiness that is attainable. For the occasion of the fourth centenary from his death last year,[…]
Rinse and Repeat By Rote
Great is the power of constant repetition So wrote David Foster in his Philosophical Scientists, a slim but powerful treatise dispelling some of the basic mistruths in modern science. Tell a lie often enough to enough people, and it takes on a patina of truth, enough to convince the vincible. This is how Communism works,[…]
Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations,[…]
Pope Benedict and the Week for Christian Unity
From Wednesday 18th till Wednesday 25th of January – the feast of the conversion of Saint Paul – we are celebrating the Week of Prayer For Christian Unity. During this octave of prayer for the purpose of attaining full visible Christian Unity we Christians ardently pray so that the undying words of Jesus to the[…]
To hope that any other will please me does wrong to my Spouse. I will be his who first chose me for himself. Executioner, why do you delay? If eyes that I do not want can desire this body, then let it perish. (Saint Agnes of Rome, +304)
The Shekinah, A Type of Saint Joseph
Perhaps you may be familiar with the Pillar of Cloud — which may be compared to a tornado — or the Pillar of Fire — which is a firenado — in the Old Testament, which accompanied and guided the Israelites as the former by day and as the latter by night,[1] or which accompanied the[…]
Rediscovering the Sacrament of Reconciliation
If we say, “We are without sin,” we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8) One might wonder why we raise the topic of Confession in mid-January, since the period of Advent came to a close some time ago, and the Lenten time of renewal is still a ways off in[…]
Just Do It
On this day in 1977, after a ten year hiatus, capital punishment resumed again in the United States, with the execution by firing squad of convicted killer Gary Gilmore, who had murdered two men he had robbed, even though they acquiesced with his demands, leaving two widows with small children. When asked if he had[…]