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
Labour Day is a rather prosaic name for the last holiday of summer. Why not, ‘blow out day’, or ‘the end of leisure, and back to work day’ (at least for teachers and students), or ‘summer’s almost over’ day…Ah, well, love’s labour – or the love of labour – is not lost. In the end,[…]
Saint Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratorians and the ‘second Apostle’ of Rome, recommended reading books beginning with ‘S’, that is, lives of the saints, so that we may imitate at least some degree of their virtues. He himself wanted all of his own spiritual sons to achieve sanctity, but in as hidden a[…]
The celebration of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist – an expeditious entrance into heaven – is sort of a bookend to the summer; you may recall that June 24th, just after the end of spring, was the solemnity of his birth. Now, as summer draws to its close, we celebrate his death. A[…]
A blessed feast of the great Saint Augustine (354-430), bishop and doctor of the Church, and one of the greatest theologians in her history. His voluminous works – his autobiography, sermons, commentaries, letters, – helped form the mind and soul of Christian civilization. Augustine himself was nearly not the Augustine we know. In the mystery[…]
Monica is the patron saint of mothers – not least, those who pray for the conversion of their children, an integral part of the maternal vocation, as many a mother will admit. Even for those children who stay in the Faith, ‘conversion’ is an ongoing process, never-ending, in that universal call to holiness to which[…]
This feast of the ‘Queen of Poland’ is a national holiday in that great nation, with thousands of pilgrims flocking to her shrine at Jazna Gora, where the precious image of Our Lady of Częstochowa is kept and held most dear. There are untold icons and paintings of the Mother of God, just as there are[…]
It is an unfortunate accident of history – insofar as we may speak of accidents, when all things are guided in their providential design by a good and provident God – that today’s feast is connected with one of the more scandalous events in the history of the Church, the massacre that goes by the[…]
Rose of Lima (+1617), whose birth name was Isabel, was called ‘Rose’ when a servant saw her face mystically transformed into the beautiful flower soon after she was born. Sure enough, Isabel-Rose would go on to become the first native-born canonized saint of the Americas, renowned even during her lifetime for her generosity and charity,[…]
Instaruarae omnia in Christo (motto of Pope Saint Pius X) Saint Pius X (+1914) was the first ‘peasant’ to be elected Pope in centuries, the bishops of Rome all being chosen from the Italian nobility, trained for the task from youth in elite schools, with few exceptions. Born Guiseppe Melchiorre Sarto in 1835, he grew[…]
A contemporary of his fellow Frenchman, Descartes, Saint John Eudes (+1680) was of quite a different mind and spirit. Rather that meditate on whether he existed or not – cogito, ergo sum – Saint John simply accepted the very fact of creation as a gift from the Creator. And far from reducing what we might[…]
