Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will be performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do nothing that can give greater glory to God or be more profitable for[…]
Year: 2025
Saints Eusebius of Vercelli and Peter Julian Eymard
The Church commemorates two pastors today, separated by a millennium and a half: The fourth-century Eusebius of Vercelli (+371), the first bishop we know of in northern Italy, who has gone down in history as one of the great foes of the insidious heresy of Arianism, which taught that Christ was not truly God. Eusebius[…]
The Plenary Indulgence of the Portiuncula, or, Our Lady of the Angels
On Monday 2 August the universal Church celebrates what is called The Pardon of Assisi. This great feast, which ranks as a solemnity within the Franciscan festivities, is another great sign of the immense good the Lord himself performs to his Church and the world through the Franciscan movement. But what the Pardon of Assisi is[…]
The Catholic ‘voice’ can help Canadians overcome the housing crisis
My wife and our friends recently read and discussed sections of Pope Leo XIII’s timeless encyclical, Rerum Novarum. Pope Leo XIV’s name inspired us to reflect on the Leonine Catholic intellectual tradition. We took interest in Leo XIII’s assertion that private property is the “most fundamental principle…to alleviate the condition of the masses.” This ‘condition’[…]
Pope Benedict and Saint Alphonsus Ligouri
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE St. Peter’s Square Wednesday, 30 March 2011 [Video] Saint Alphonsus Liguori Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today I would like to present to you the figure of a holy Doctor of the Church to whom we are deeply indebted because he was an outstanding moral theologian and a teacher of spiritual life[…]
Alphonsus of Ligouri, A Moral Teacher for All Ages
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri (1696 – 1787) was a renaissance man, whose kind was a rarity in his post-renaissance era, and even more so now in our age of specialization, often in esoteric subjects that would have puzzled anyone before, say, 1960. Alphonsus received a double doctorate in civil and canon law at the tender age[…]
The (Im)migration Question
The contrast between the disintegrating situation in Britain and Pope Leo IV’s sunny words on migration is a prompt for this brief reflection. We take to heart the Holy Father’s exhortation to welcome and show charity. However, with a possible civil war imminent in England and Ireland, and similar scenarios unfolding across the once-and-sometime civilized[…]
Saint John Henry Newman: Doctor Universalis Ecclesiae
It’s just been announced that the Oratorian, Saint John Henry Newman will be declared a Doctor of the Church, making him the 38th with that illustrious title. This is good news. Newman was, if anything, anti-modernist and against what the growing tendency, even in his day, to deny objective truth in revealed religion: And, I[…]
Apologetics 101, Question 7: A Designed versus Random Universe
In response to Catholic Insight’s post of Carl Sundell’s list of 39 essential questions Catholics should be prepared to answer about our faith, I have been responding to them one-by-one to equip you with clear, concise and (hopefully) well-reasoned answers to help you grow and share your Faith. None of these answers can be conclusive.[…]
Pope Benedict and Saint Ignatius
(Excerpt from an address given April 22, 2006 ) St Ignatius of Loyola was first and foremost a man of God who in his life put God, his greatest glory and his greatest service, first. He was a profoundly prayerful man for whom the daily celebration of the Eucharist was the heart and crowning point[…]