Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home (Mt. 1:24). On this fourth and last Sunday of Advent, the Sacred Liturgy invites us to be one with the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, that we might learn from them how to[…]
Saint Peter Canisius (1521-1597) was a Dutch Jesuit back in the earliest days of the Order, amongst the first to join Ignatius’ company, after meeting one of the founders, Peter Faber. His life spans the century of what history inaccurately calls the Protestant ‘reformation’, and our saint goes down in history as one of the[…]
There are various antiphons sung in honour of Our Lady at the close of Compline, for each liturgical season – the Salve Regina for ‘Ordinary Time’; the Ave Regina Coelorum for Lent, the Regina Coeli for Easter, and the one for Advent and Christmas is the Alma Redemptoris Mater – a beautiful hymn to Our[…]
While we’re on the topic of chant with the Alma Redemptoris, this December 20th also marks the commemoration of Saint Dominic of Silos who died on this day in 1073, at the monastery he had founded in the southern part of northern Spain. His early life was spent as a shepherd, which seems a theme[…]
To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him[…]
God: The Science, the Evidence, by Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies, is an intriguing book, not quite what I expected when asked to review the new bestseller. I suppose it would fall into the genre of natural theology, and the burgeoning field of intelligent design. When one first picks it up, it seems like a[…]
On this Second Sunday of Advent, when we read of Saint John the Baptist’s preparing the way, it is fitting to immerse oneself in at least the first part of Handel’s Messiah. First performed on April 13th, 1742 (in Dublin of all places), the oratorio was composed by a German, who had become a naturalised[…]
within her spotless womb Wisdom might build itself a house and the Word become flesh. The divine nature and the nature of a servant were to be united in one person so that the Creator of time might be born in time, and he through whom all things were made might be brought forth in[…]
There is no such things a ‘perfect’ Catechism, a catechism to end all catechisms, such as it were. That’s why there’s no end to them. And the truth, thought ‘definable’ – we are replete in our Church with defined doctrine – it is also ‘indefinite’, in the sense that there’s no end to its pursuit.[…]
On December 17th we begin the seven days of proximate preparation for Christmas, analogous to the more familiar twelve days of Christmas, which follow after the great feast. In the Western tradition of the Catholic Church, one of the liturgical means to elevate and focus our minds and hearts for the great feast are the[…]
