Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to Heaven. (Saint Camillus de Lellis, +1614)
Year: 2025
A Message to the Camillians in the Jubilee Year
MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER TO THE CAMILLIAN FAMILY ON THE 450TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR FOUNDER’S BIRTH To Fr Angelo Brusco Superior General of the Order of Clerics Regular Servants of the Sick (Camillians) The joy that accompanies the celebration of the Great Jubilee of the Incarnation has a special resonance for the Camillian[…]
Fifteenth Sunday: The Good Samaritan and the Thirst of God
(A blessed Sunday to all our readers. Here’s one from our archives, in a reflection from Father Marco Testa, which bears fruit in reading, and re-reading). Take care of him and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ (Lk. 10:35). The parable of the Good Samaritan ends with a[…]
Saint Henry and Cunegunde’s Heavenly Rule
We could do with more leaders such as Saint Henry (+1024, ‘Emperor of the Romans’ and ‘King of the Italians’, the last of the ‘Ottonian’ line – descended from the Emperor of the recently re-founded Roman Empire, Otto I (+973). Henry was from Bavaria – whence Josef Ratzinger would also hail a millennium on –[…]
If you give people light, they will find their own way. (Dante Alighieri, +1321)
Orange Day and Saint Oliver Plunkett, the Last Martyr of the Protestant ‘Reformation’
July the 12th is ‘Orange’ Day, celebrated still with fervour in Northern Ireland, commemorating the defeat of the rightful Catholic king of the Stuart line, James II of England and Ireland (and VII of Scotland) by the forces of the Dutch and Protestant William of Orange (named after a region in Holland). William’s wife was[…]
In fact, Benedict was convinced that only after overcoming these temptations would he be able to say a useful word to others about their own situations of neediness. Thus, having tranquilized his soul, he could be in full control of the drive of his ego and thus create peace around him. Only then did he[…]
Swtizerland and Frauenthal
Upon arriving in Zurich from Vienna, I had an hour or so before I caught a connecting train down to Knonau and the convent. So thought I would take a stroll through the ‘old town’, divided by the River Limpett, whose cerulean waters flow into the wide expanse of Lake Zurich. Also overlooking the lake[…]
Pope Benedict on Saint Benedict
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE St Peter’s Square Wednesday, 9 April 2008 Saint Benedict of Norcia Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today, I would like to speak about Benedict, the Founder of Western Monasticism and also the Patron of my Pontificate. I begin with words that St Gregory the Great wrote about St Benedict: “The man of[…]
Saint Benedict: Ora et Labora
A blessed feast of Saint Benedict (+543), as we commemorate the monk credited with saving what we know as ‘civilization’. As a student in the decadence of sixth century fin de siècle Rome, Benedict found he could no longer live amongst the enervating and debilitating milieu of his fellow scholars, their carousing and worldliness –[…]