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
In Flanders Fields BY JOHN MCCRAE In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were[…]
BENEDICT XVI ANGELUS St Peter’s Square Sunday, 11 November 2007 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today, 11 November, the Church remembers St Martin, Bishop of Tours, one of the most celebrated and venerated Saints of Europe. Born of pagan parents in Pannonia, in what is today Hungary, he was directed by his father to a military[…]
Brothers and sisters, you are God’s building. … For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:9, 17) November 9th, just before commemoration of Pope Leo the Great, we celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Church -the Pope’s primary church – of Rome by Pope Sylvester the First in[…]
The 8th of November is the liturgical memorial of Blessed John Duns Scotus. In his apostolic letter on the occasion of the seventh century of the Death of Blessed John Duns Scotus, given in Rome on October 28, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI described him as a most learned and devout man. He was born in[…]
(On this memorial of Blessed Duns Scotus, here is a poem on his near-contemporary, Saint Thomas, by high school senior, Brendan Brunet. If Mr. Brunet thinks that the works of the ‘Universal Doctor’ are very dense and impenetrable, what might he think of the work of Duns Scotus, called the ‘Doctor Subtilis’, as his works[…]
A friend just sent along this poignant ballad, and as I wrote in reply, in gist, that I enjoy pretty much anything with a finger-picked guitar and a fiddle. The melody and the lyrics speak to the heart, even if we might make them more theologically precise, that we should never despair – for supernatural[…]
On the eve of November 4, 1212, in a remote town in Meaux, France, a monk, in his dying bed, asked that his brothers sing him one last lullaby, the sweet prayer of hope to the Blessed Mother – Salve Regina. It must have reminded him of the time, not too long ago, of the[…]
(On this commemoration of All Souls, beginning this month dedicated to all the faithful departed, here is a meditation on the great Saint Catherine of Genoa, who spread the devotion of praying for and with the Holy Souls in Purgatory, all the while as one of the true reformers of Christ’s Holy Church.) Whilst great[…]
JOHN PAUL II ANGELUS – ALL SOULS DAY Sunday, 2 November 1997 Dear Brothers and Sisters, 1. Yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints and today the liturgy invites us to commemorate the faithful departed. The Church links her contemplation of those who have already attained God’s glory with her remembrance of those who[…]
The feast of Christ the King (in the usus antiquior) was put in place on this last Sunday of October to counteract so-called Reformation Sunday, for the Protestants held that the earthly potentate was head of the ‘church’, and the state in charge in religion. Catholics, of course, hold that the Church transcends all earthly[…]
