Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. (Pope Saint John XXIII, +1963)
Month: October 2024
Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider: A Catholic Conscience and Credo
Born in Kyrgyzstan under Soviet repression, to intensely devout Catholic parents, the future Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider was essentially raised in the Catholic underground. His parents, who had been prisoners in the Gulag, would often travel dozens of kilometers under the cover of darkness to attend Mass. Had they been captured, the consequences would have[…]
Neptune, Voyager and Where No Man Has Gone Before…
On this day in 1846, astronomer William Hessel discovered Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, just 17 days after Johann Galle discovered the gas giant itself. Rather an impressive feat, for home-built telescopes. Technology has come a long way, in more ways than one. I serendipitously came across a series of impressive videos[…]
Saint Francis Borgia – Second Founder of the Jesuits
Saint Francis Borgia (1510 – 1572) was a true renaissance man, who lived two lives in one – first, as a married layman, then as a Jesuit priest, who is often described as the second founder of the Order. Francis was from the noble family of the Borgias – ‘noble’ being used here in the[…]
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. (Saint John Henry Newman, +1890)
Newman and His Fierce, Unchanging Religion
I will not shrink from uttering my firm conviction, that it would be a gain to this country, were it vastly more superstitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion, than at present it shows itself to be.[1] Saint John Henry Newman Newman’s point in this startling statement is that superstition and religion[…]
Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning. (Hilaire Belloc, +1953)
Feckless FEMA and Finding Our Own Way
Feckless: Lacking purpose; without skill, ineffective, incompetent; lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way. As another hurricane hurtles towards Florida – possibly a catastrophic Category-5, and this after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene a couple of weeks ago – we read of the bizarre, irresponsible, if not outright intentional, behaviour of FEMA,[…]
11 Benefits of the Rosary from the 11 Marian Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII
(During this time of crisis, and on this day when we have asked to pray and fast for world peace, we thought we would re-post this piece by Father Scott Murray, on the benefits of the Rosary on this memorial. I did not realize that Leo XIII’s estimated ’88 encyclicals’ are the same number as[…]
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and Praying for Peace
The Holy Father and the Patriarch of Jerusalem have called for a day of prayer and fasting on this upcoming Monday, October 7th, the memorial of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. That is, tragically, is the anniversary of the terrorist attack of Hamas, which began the escalation of the conflict in the Holy[…]