Two Songs to Our Lady of Częstochowa
A hymn to Our Lady of Częstochowa, from the shrine at Jasna Gora: And from World Youth Day in Poland, back in 2016, which may as well be 1016:
Month: August 2024
Saint Bartholomew, aka Nathaniel, In Whom There Was No Guile
A blessed feast of Saint Bartholomew, to one and all! Like many of the Apostles, we don’t know all that much about the life of today’s saint. Our Tradition identifies Bartholomew with the ‘Nathaniel’ – which means ‘God has given’ – the enigmatic figure in the first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel. When the Apostle[…]
If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on[…]
Letter to the Editor: On Evil, Physical and Moral
(To remind readers, letters to the editor are very welcome, and those judged pertinent can be posted, with permission, and with some commentary in the spirit of charitable dialogue and critique in search of the fullness and splendour of truth). So, in that spirit, Richard Yates from England writes: I don’t think Carl Sundell is[…]
Six Reasons Why Mary is Our Queen
On August 22nd, the Church celebrates the feast of the Queenship of Mar, honouring Mary’s unique role as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven. It was the venerable Pope Pius XII who, inspired by the Holy Spirit and the longstanding Marian devotion for the Queenship of Mary, instituted this feast. By instituting this feast[…]
Palestrina’s Regina Coeli
To celebrate this memorial – let’s just call it the feast – of the Queenship of Mary, here is Palestrina’s rendition of the Regina Coeli, first published posthumously in 1601. May Our Lady’s reign extend through heaven and earth:
Therefore, when the Virgin of virgins was led forth by God and her Son, the King of kings, amid the company of exulting angels and rejoicing archangels, with the heavens ringing with praise, the prophecy of the psalmist was fulfilled, in which he said to the Lord: At your right hand stands the queen, clothed in[…]
The Disastrous DNC and Cardinal Cupich
It sounds like a parody in a tragic comedy, like an even more-inverted Monty Python come full circle: Attendees at the recent Demo(n)cratic National Convention were offered ‘free abortions and vasectomies‘: Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates in parts of Missouri and Illinois, will park its mobile health clinic near the DNC on Aug. 19[…]
The Problem of Evil
There is no better way to solve the problem of evil than by starting with a definition of what evil is, or is not. According to the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, the universe itself is fundamentally evil. He said that those who wish to escape this evil are justified in committing suicide. For Schopenhauer evil[…]
Appreciating the Wisdom of the Last of the Fathers, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Recently I felt really blessed going back to the catechesis Pope Benedict XVI gave on St Bernard of Clairvaux on Wednesday 21 October 2009. His first statement of that instructive and inspiring catechesis ran the following: Today I would like to talk about St Bernard of Clairvaux, called “the last of the Fathers” of the Church[…]