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 usually try to commemorate the saints in the current, public liturgical calendar, but now and again, we will mention those more hidden, even if they have a long and venerable history of being honoured in the Church, or are of particular significance for our era. Such are Saints John and Paul, two martyrs of[…]
IN the wake of the blessed Solemnity of Corpus Christi – whether you celebrated on the proper Thursday, or the following Sunday – with liturgical battles still raging in dioceses across the land, perhaps these few words might help, if not ‘fix’ your liturgical woes, at least to find modicum of peace within your own[…]
(In Canada, the Solemnity is transferred to the next Sunday. In the universal Church, and various traditional rites and communities, it is celebrated on the proper day, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. So here be some thoughts for this Solemnity, whenever you celebrate.) A blessed and grace-filled solemnity of Corpus Christi to one and all, at[…]
On this 21st day of June, we remember Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (+ 1591), a Jesuit scholastic who died at what we might consider the too-young age of 23 (just short of the 24 club, but an honorary member) while solicitously caring for victims of the plague in Rome. But he accomplished much in a short[…]
In one of his first addresses, Pope Leo XIV offers a glimpse into why he chose the name he did: I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great[…]
Saint Romuald (+June 19, 1025/27) was a tenth-century monk, founder of the strict Camaldolese Order, named after their primary benefactor, Maldoli, who, impressed by the saint’s way of life, donated the land on which they built their first monastery (hence, campo-maldoli – the ‘field of Maldoli’). But Romuauld only arrived at the ‘narrow path’ after[…]
The Church has a long history of ‘just war theory’. Over the centuries, deriving from the initial formulation of Saint Augustine, then, building upon that, Saint Thomas and other theologians, our Tradition has developed the criteria for initiating and conducting a war that is just, which may seem paradoxical. After all, does not war necessarily[…]
In light of yesterdays’ Solemnity celebrating the Most Holy Trinity, a few words on this central teaching of our Faith may be in order. The doctrine of the Trinity is unique to the Christian Faith, developed over the first centuries of the Church and clarified by the first ecumenical Councils. The Son reveals the Father,[…]
Saint Anthony of Padua is usually named historically after the city-state in northeastern Italy where he died after his brief but full life at the age of 35 in 1231. But he is also claimed by the Portuguese, who call him Anthony of Lisbon, where he was born in 1195, as Fernando Martins. There has[…]
It is fitting that we celebrate the Apostle Barnabas, the ‘son of consolation’, or the ‘son of encouragement’, in this season of the Holy Spirit. For the Hebraic terminus of his name, the navi (consolation, or even prophet) after the bar (son) is one of the titles of the Third Person of the Trinity, the consoler, advocate and guide.[…]
