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
I returned from Rome late last night, around about midnight – at least, all the way back home, which required an hour’s walk through the city, to catch the bus to the airport (on the coast, near some lovely beaches, seen when airborne); then a nine-hour flight to Toronto; an hour lay-over; a connecting flight[…]
(In light of the today’s feast of Saint Bonaventure, here are some thoughts on the great Franciscan cardinal, scholastic, doctor of the Church and mystic from Pope Benedict XVI, whose doctorate followed the thought of the saint’s historical theology. Bonaventure was a contemporary, collaborator and colleague of the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas, another ‘doctor’, and[…]
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Saint Peter’s Square Wednesday, 17 March 2010 [Video] Saint Bonaventure (3) Dear Brothers and Sisters, This morning, continuing last Wednesday’s reflection, I would like to study with you some other aspects of the doctrine of St Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. He is an eminent theologian who deserves to be set beside another great[…]
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 10 March 2010 Vatican Basilica To participants in the Pilgrimage of the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am glad to receive you in this Basilica and to address my cordial welcome to each one of you. I greet the pilgrimage promoted by the Don[…]
A true saint for our times is the one we celebrate today – Camillus de Lellis (+1614) (we will follow the Canadian calendar, and for those American readers who would like to reflect on Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, please see here). Camillus was born in what is now Abruzzo, in Naples, in 1550. His father was[…]
We could do with more leaders such as Saint Henry (+1024, ‘Emperor of the Romans’ and ‘King of the Italians’, the last of the ‘Ottonian’ line – descended from the Emperor of the recently re-founded Roman Empire, Otto I (+973). Henry was from Bavaria – whence Josef Ratzinger would also hail a millennium on –[…]
Saints Processus and Martinian (+67) were Praetorian Guards – the elite of the Roman legionaries – who were tasked with keeping watch over Saints Peter and Paul in prison. When the Apostles’ prayers caused a miraculous spring to flow, the guards were converted and baptized. Since Christianity was proscribed during the reign of Nero –[…]
In the glow of Canada-Dominion Day, here is the original version of O, Canada, which was written in French, in Quebec – Canada was French before she was also English – for the 1880 Saint Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony, commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor, Théodore Robitaille, with music by Sir Rudolphe-Basile Routhier, and original French lyrics by[…]
A blessed feast of the Precious Blood! This devotion was placed into the calendar, and the feast instituted by Pope Pius IX in 1849. Even if no longer on the public calendar since the revisions of 1969 (but still in the usus antiquior), we can commemorated in our own way. And just as June is[…]
WE ENTRUST, O MARY, AND CONSECRATE THE WHOLE WORLD TO YOUR IMMACULATE HEART! On Thursday, 13 May 1982, after the concelebrated Mass in Fatima, Pope John Paul II made the following act of consecration of the modern world to Our Lady of Fatima. 1. “We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God.” As[…]
