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
We should not be surprised that the saints speak to us through the ages. How they responded in their own era with its own troubles and crises offers us an example for how to act in our own. As well, they intercede for us, that we, like them, may fulfill God’s holy and perfect will.[…]
whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14)
‘Give me a drink’ (Jn. 4:7). The conversation of Our Lord and the Samaritan woman revolves around the gift of water. This request is presented to us to contemplate on this third Sunday in Lent; and it is a request that we will hear again during the Commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord when[…]
Saints are by definition ‘extreme’, for they live a liminal life, on the very threshold of eternity, seeing past the veil of this world. Hence, they act as though all that mattered were the next life, which, in the end, is true. Contrary to John Lennon, they more than imagine – they fully believe, and[…]
For our musical offering on this Third Sunday of Lent, here are a few renditions – amongst many – of the perduring Stabat Mater, the 13th century poem on the sorrows of Mary ‘standing by the Cross’, attributed to the Franciscan Jacopone de Todi, or, some say, Saint Bonaventure or Pope Innocent III. Here is[…]
Remember to turn your clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time this evening, March 8th, a 2 am to be precise. Or, at least, since most of us keep time using digital devices, which automatically adjust, one should psychologically prepare for one hour less sleep. One would hope that this measure would have ended a long[…]
Today marks the memorial of the early martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, put to death likely in the year 203, under the reign of Septimius Severus, an emperor who seems on the whole to have been well-disposed to Christians. But the true religion was still one hundred and ten years away from being legally recognized by[…]
Nicole Boellet (1381 – 1447) was a miraculous birth. Her childless, elderly parents, Robert and Marguerite, prayed to Saint Nicholas – yes, ‘Santa Claus’ – that they might conceive, and lo and behold, as he often does, old Saint Nick came through with his gift. Marguerite conceived at the age of 60 (! – and[…]
If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hated. (Bishop Fulton Sheen, +1979)
Fulton Sheen’s beatification continues. And I’d like to draw attention to something he once wrote:, “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host,” and that sentence alone has more theological density than most religious commentary produced in a year. Consequently, if we are going to speak about Sheen, we[…]
