Any old woman can love God better than a doctor of theology can. (Saint Bonaventure, +1274)
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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)
Lenten Third Sunday Music: de Lassus and Chants
For this Third Sunday in Lent, given the circumstances of the world, the suggestions of Pater Ignotus include this setting of the seven penitential psalms – 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, 142, 148/150 – by the the late-sixteenth century composer Orlande de Lassus, some of whose hymns are still sung in our attenuated liturgy.[…]
Prophetic Parodies
I’m not sure if that anti-rape dancing video we posted recently was a parody, but the influx of migrants does not seem to be. The Camp of the Saints, which was a parodic novel, which has nearly reached its fifth decade, instead seems prescient, as Erdogan promises to allow ‘millions’ of migrants pour into Europe[…]
Sheen Delayed
As readers may have now read elsewhere, there has been an indefinite postponement of the proposed beatification of Bishop Fulton Sheen which, as prompted Paula Adamick’s recent piece on the great man, was scheduled for this December 21st. From what we know, some American bishops – the number also not provided – requested the delay,[…]
Christ the King’s Providential Passion
THE GOSPELS this year have come from the Gospel of Luke, and we finish on the feast of Christ the King with a section of Saint Luke’s account of the crucifixion. The few verses you have just heard is typical of Luke in that it emphasizes the compassion of Jesus, a trait that runs through[…]
Pagan Idolatry and Catholic Fortitude
A writer must at times take back, or at least re-form, opinions once vaguely and lightly and perhaps too hastily held. Even the great Augustine and Newman wrote their retractions. All part of that humility of Christian growth, one may hope. I finally watched, well, skimmed through, the ‘ritual’ held in the presence of the[…]
People’s Republic of Insanity
Dr. Don DeMarco, a Canadian, conservative, orthodox philosophy professor – a rare bird – has penned an all-too-real description of the state of Canada as an authoritarian, more-or-less communist regime, just primed for the jackboots, metaphorical or otherwise. Already the pressure is on to ‘conform’, subtle for now, but getting more overt with each passing[…]
Alas for Canada
What is one to say? The results speak for themselves, with the east more or less going ‘liberal’, the Prairies and Alberta going ‘conservative’, and BC going who knows where. I think it was Saint Augustine who quipped that we get the bishops we deserve, which may be extended, for the same goes for our[…]
Despair, Hope and the Rosary
In honour of the Blessed Virgin, we might peruse Pope Saint John Paul II’s encyclical on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, which he promulgated on the 25th anniversary of the beginning of his pontificate, October 16th, 2002, about the same time as he re-instituted this memorial of the Holy Name of Mary. Our society needs[…]