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
Saint Agatha (+251) is counted amongst the most venerated of the ‘virgin martyrs’, one of the seven women whose name appears in the Canon of the Mass. Having made a vow of virginity, Agatha, under the reign of Emperor Decius, was condemned as a Christian by a certain pagan suitor, Quintianus, whom she rebuffed –[…]
Saint Blaise, a bishop of ancient Sebastea (now in Turkey), was also a physician, like Saint Luke, a healer of body and soul. And, we may add, a martyr, tortured to death for the faith in 316 A.D., a scant three years after Constantine declared the faith legally sanctioned in Roman law by the Edict[…]
J.S. Bach was a devout Lutheran, and, unlike some of the Protestant sects, had a great devotion to Our Lady. In 1725, on this February 2nd, the Feast of her Purification, when we also celebrate the Presentation of our Lord, Bach first performed his cantata he had composed for the occasion, Mit Fried und Freud[…]
(A blessed feast to all our readers! In 1997 Pope Saint John Paul II declared this ancient feast of the Presentation – also known as Candlemas – as the World Day for Consecrated Life, with the Christ-child ‘offered’ to God the Father. Whatever our own path and vocation, may we too give ourselves completely to[…]
The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendour, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. (Saint Sophronius, +638)
Over the past few months, I have found myself scrolling through Facebook Reels that surface fragments of 1990s television, shows like Step by Step, Saved by the Bell, and Beverly Hills, 90210, programs that quietly shaped the moral and emotional imagination of a generation. Cody Lambert, played by Sasha Mitchell, the surfer-kickboxer nephew in the[…]
Saint Bridget of Kildare (451 – 525), who lived a century after Saint Patrick (385 – 461), and a century before Saint Columbanus (543 – 615) shares with them the triumvirate patronage of Ireland. A generation younger than Saint Benedict (480 – 547) Bridget flourished during the early days of formal monasticism, the female version[…]
The power of evil men lives on the cowardice of the good. (Saint John Bosco, +1888)
The term ‘charismatic’ has an ambiguous meaning in the Church, invoking images of liturgical guitars, drums, emotional crescendos, and disconcerting glossolalia. In the Church’s theology, however, it has a rather specific meaning, derived from Saint Paul’s letters: A ‘charism’, from the Greek word for ‘grace’, Χάρις is a gratia gratis data, a gift, talent, ministry,[…]
On joy, presence, young love, and the quiet holiness of Catholic education There’s a particular kind of sound you only hear in a school: a quick burst of laughter that tries to hide itself, the shuffle of sneakers between classes, the rhythmic thud of lockers, and the sudden hush when a student realizes you’re closer[…]
