The Eucharist is the bread that gives strength… It is at once the most eloquent proof of His love and the most powerful means of fostering His love in us. He gives Himself every day so that our hearts as burning coals may set afire the hearts of the faithful. (Saint Damien of Molokai, +1889)
Year: 2025
Why is There a Pope?
“I pray that you will be one as I and the Father are one.” John 17:21 A Protestant friend of mine once asked why Catholics need a pope since a pope is not even mentioned in the Gospels. But there are few Catholic doctrines more provable from Scripture than the doctrine of papal succession from[…]
Saint John of Avila, Apostle of Andalusia
Today’s optional memorial as we continue the Easter season (alleluia!) commemorates Saint John of Avila (1499 – 1569), a contemporary of his fellow Spaniards, saints and correspondents, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola and John of God. Like them, he was one of the primary instruments in what is (somewhat inaccurately) termed the Catholic ‘counter-reformation’.[…]
Father Damien’s Sacrificial Life
Saint Damien de Veuster (+1889) is celebrated on this tenth of May, a missionary priest who gave everything, even laying down his life, for the leper outcasts suffering from the disease on the remote island of Molokai, Hawaii. Born and raised in Holland, the youngest of seven children, Damien followed his brother into the missionary[…]
Ignatius was speaking about being devoured by wild beasts in the arena – and so it happened – but his words apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church who exercise a ministry of authority. It is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so[…]
First Sermon of Pope Leo XIV
The new Holy Father offered his first homily this morning, to the College of Cardinals, and it’s very good – Christological, evangelical, with a strong message of where we stand as Catholics, against the secular mindset of the world. The Pope echoed something I have thought for a long time, that the central question, that[…]
Saint Pachomius the Great
The great desert Father, and founder of cenobitic monasticism, Saint Pachomius, died on this 9th day of May in 348 A.D., eight years before his fellow monk, Saint Anthony of Egypt, generally considered the founder of eremitic monasticism (even if his feast in many calendars is on May 15th). That is, Anthony was a hermit[…]
Words from the Cross
The final words of Jesus on the Cross at the last moments of his earthly life offer us demanding instructions for our prayers. Jesus, who asks the Father to forgive those who are crucifying him, invites us to take the difficult step of also praying for those who wrong us and have injured us. Jesus,[…]
Habemus Papam! Gaudeamus in Domino!
I heard of the white smoke while walking with some students and alumni in Ottawa towards Canada’s annual March for Life. We had just attended a morning TLM together, and the election must have taken place at the 11:30 am vote (EST), just as the priest intoned the Regina Coeli at the end of Mass.[…]
2025 March for Life: Protection from Conception
Another March for Life here in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, overshadowed this by the election of the new pope, Leo XIV. A bit more on that in an accompanying post. I’ve been attending the March for Life here in Ottawa, Canada since its inception in 1998, so this would make it the 28th. I’ve missed[…]