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
There is an eschatological note to this final day of the calendar year, as there was a month ago in the end of the liturgical year with Christ the King, and the beginning of Advent. In the first reading this morning, the Apostle John warns of Antichrist, and that already many antichrists have come, whose[…]
It’s lovely how the simplest tunes often – perhaps most often, maybe even always – make the most beautiful of melodies. So it is with Gustav Holst’s (1874-1934) carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter‘ (1906) a very simple F-major progression, all within the octave – of the scale, that is, but also in reference to Christmas.[…]
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 9 August 2006 John, the theologian Dear Brothers and Sisters, Before the holidays I had begun sketching small portraits of the Twelve Apostles. The Apostles were Jesus’ travelling companions, Jesus’ friends. Their journey with Jesus was not only a physical journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, but[…]
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 23 August 2006 John, the Seer of Patmos Dear Brothers and Sisters, In the last Catechesis we had reached the meditation on the figure of the Apostle John. We had first sought to look at all that can be known of his life. Then, in a[…]
In one of those many ironies of history, it came as news to me that the first recorded use of the greeting ‘Merry Christmas’ was from Bishop John Fisher to Thomas Cromwell. Of course, the irony is that Fisher had been imprisoned by Cromwell, the ruthless bully-boy henchman of Henry VIII, for denying the King’s[…]
A fine compilation of Christmas hymnody, done in wonderful harmony. Enjoy on this day of great joy! Christus natus est, alleluia!
Saint Peter Canisius (1521-1597) was a Dutch Jesuit back in the earliest days of the Order, amongst the first to join Ignatius’ company, after meeting one of the founders, Peter Faber. His life spans the century of what history inaccurately calls the Protestant ‘reformation’, and our saint goes down in history as one of the[…]
There are various antiphons sung in honour of Our Lady at the close of Compline, for each liturgical season – the Salve Regina for ‘Ordinary Time’; the Ave Regina Coelorum for Lent, the Regina Coeli for Easter, and the one for Advent and Christmas is the Alma Redemptoris Mater – a beautiful hymn to Our[…]
Forty years ago today, on December 14, 1985, Catherine de Hueck Doherty‘s vagarious life came to its end in a cabin in the remote town of Combermere, Ontario. Born in Russia, and living through the rigours of the revolution, Catherine fled to Finland, then London, England – where she was received into the Catholic Church[…]
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 16 February 2011 [Video] Saint John of the Cross Dear Brothers and Sisters, Two weeks ago I presented the figure of the great Spanish mystic, Teresa of Jesus. Today I would like talk about another important saint of that country, a spiritual friend of St Teresa,[…]
