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
A recent reflection in First Things warns against sacralising politics (or politicizing the sacred), and rightly so. As the prophet Jeremiah warns: cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD (17:5). Yet, I may be permitted to offer some further distinction required, when the author writes: Of the many things Christians[…]
Election – from the Latin ‘eligere – to choose’. Choose life, that you and your children may live (Dt 30:19) The core battle of our time is over life and family, as warned Sister Lucia and Pope John Paul II. It is ‘apocalyptic’, not primarily in that the ‘end times’ are upon us even if,[…]
Things are surreal, and getting more so by the minute – or so it goes. In the first minute or so of his interview with Elon Musk, Donald Trump describes the recent attempt to assassinate him as ‘surreal’ multiple times. It’s used to describe wars, and rumours of wars; the state of the Church, and[…]
(A retrospect on the legalization of cannabis in Canada, now six (!) years ago. The stultifying and enervating effects of this drug may in some small part explain why so many Canadians went so sheepishly along with unilateral imposition of totalitarian protocols a few years ago, which our forefathers would not have tolerated, nor even[…]
This Marian commemoration dates back to very early in the Church’s history. In fact, it is the first ‘vision’ of Our Lady. As the story has been handed down, Mary appeared to Saint James the Apostle (the ‘Greater’) in the year 40 or so, as he was discouraged in his evangelizing efforts in Hispania (Spain).[…]
Saint Francis Borgia (1510 – 1572) was a true renaissance man, who lived two lives in one – first, as a married layman, then as a Jesuit priest, who is often described as the second founder of the Order. Francis was from the noble family of the Borgias – ‘noble’ being used here in the[…]
Hermanus of Reinchenau (1013 – 1054) called ‘Contractus’ due to the deformity purportedly caused by spina bifida and a cleft palate (as well as suffering from cystic fibrosis) – was a remarkable figure in the middle ages, a veritable renaissance man well before the renaissance, even if he did not quite look the part. Like[…]
(In light of today’s official ‘feast’ of Our Lady of Walsingham, September 24th, the premier Marian shrine in the British Isles, I am re-posting here my slightly modified and updated reflections on my own pilgrimage there in the summer of 2018…Ah, better days of yore. Also, England was re-consecrated as ‘Our Lady’s Dowry’ on May[…]
While we’re on the topic of signs, the life of today’s saint, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, was filled with them. His long life as a Capuchin friar (he died at 81) ended on this 23rd day of September in 1968, holding his Rosary (rarely ever out of his hands), declaring that he saw ‘two mothers’[…]
The Pope is in trouble again with his off-the-cuff remarks on the airplane back from his trip to Singapore and other locales. Well, trouble in one sense, for I don’t the Pope thinks he’s in trouble, even if his words cause much consternation in the hearts of many faithful Catholics. A caveat, however, for if[…]
