THE Church celebrates this day the memory of St. Eusebius, who opposed the Arians, at Rome, with so much zeal. He was imprisoned in his room by order of the Emperor Constantius, and sanctified his captivity by constant prayer. For the Catholic Encyclopedia article on him, click here. An earlier Saint of the same name, […]
Blessed Cardinal Newman once said that “Faith is illuminative, not operative; it does not force obedience, though it increases responsibility; it heightens guilt, but it does not prevent sin. The will is the source of action.” When you take a moment to analyze Blessed Newman’s words, they can easily be directed toward the spiritual relationship […]
ST. RADEGUNDES was the daughter of a king of Thuringia who was assassinated by his brother; a war ensuing, our Saint, at the age of twelve, was made prisoner and carried captive by Clotaire, King of Soissons, who had her instructed in the Christian religion and baptized. The great mysteries of our Faith made such […]
Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus were rivals for the papacy. During Pontian’s pontificate (AD 230-235) the schism led by Hippolytus of Rome came to an end. Both Pontian and Hippolytus were exiled by the emperor Maximinus Thrax to Sardinia. According to Liber Pontificalis he died along with Hippolytus in the Sardinian mines, but not until the […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading Proverbs 9:1-6 2nd Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20 Responsorial: Psalm 34:2-7 Gospel: John 6:51-58 Living a Life Controlled by the Holy Spirit Be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) Today’s second reading is rich in wisdom. So let’s take a short quiz on it to […]
What do you want from God? Wait, are you saying you don’t believe in God? Or you aren’t sure? Are you feeling like you will get to the “God stuff” some time later in life? Or that you’ve tried the whole faith thing before – maybe even felt you gave it a really good shot […]
ON Palm Sunday, March 17, 1212, the Bishop of Assisi left the altar to present a palm to a noble maiden, eighteen years of age, whom bashfulness had detained in her place. This maiden was St. Clare. Already she had learnt from St. Francis to hate the world, and was secretly resolved to live for […]
AGRESTIUS CHROMATIUS was vicar to the prefect of Rome, and had condemned several martyrs in the reign of Carinus. In the first years of Diocletian, St. Tranquillinus, being brought before Chromatius, assured him that, having been afflicted with the gout, he had recovered a perfect state of health by being baptized. Chromatius was troubled with […]
While the Saracen army of Frederick II. was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare’s convent, which stood outside Assisi. The Saint caused the Blessed Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of the monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before it, prayed, “Deliver not […]
In Pilsen Snow, Philip C. Kolin has written a collection of poems that share his stories of growing up as one of many Czeck immigrants in Pilsen: a neighborhood located on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. I have had the privilege of reading Kolin’s poems over the years. His are of a standard that many, including myself, aim to achieve. It […]
Last week when the “presider” at the “meal” at the local protestant-Catholic community preached that a “synod”” is a “council” and that throughout Church history “synod” and “council” have meant the same thing, it should have come as no surprise. But I was stunned. Of course, his words are utterly false. When the shock wore […]
ST. LAURENCE (or Lawrence) was the chief among the seven deacons of the Roman Church. In the year 258 Pope Sixtus was led out to die, and St. Laurence stood by, weeping that he could not share his fate. “I was your minister,” he said, “when you consecrated the blood of Our Lord; why do […]
Depression. A dictionary or thesaurus gives us some striking synonyms: a hollow, a cavity, a sinkhole. It is where something inside has given way causing the surface to fall in. The person experiencing depression has had that experience — the experience of something inside giving way, the loss of some internal structure or support. Elijah […]
Jean-Marie Vianney (8 May 1786 – 4 August 1859), commonly known in English as St John Vianney, was a French parish priest venerated as a saint and as the patron saint of all priests. He is often referred to as the “Curé d’Ars”. He became internationally notable for his priestly and pastoral work in his […]
ST. CYRIACUS was a holy deacon at Rome, under the Popes Marcellinus and Marcellus. In the persecution of Diocletian, in 303, he was crowned with a glorious martyrdom in that city. With him suffered also Largua and Smaragdus, and twenty others. Their bodies were first buried near the place of their execution, on the Salarian […]
ST. DOMINIC was born in Spain, in 1170. As a student, he sold his books to feed the poor in a famine, and offered himself in ransom for a slave. At the age of twenty-five he became superior of the Canons Regular of Osma, and accompanied his Bishop to France. There his heart was well-nigh […]
Regan Brashear has done us all a favor by directing and producing the documentary film Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement. Fixed, a New Day Digital film, was released in 2013, and I’m happy to have heard about it and to have been given a chance to watch it. I confess, on watching the trailer, […]
Et verbum caro factum est. That’s Latin for “And the Word became Flesh.” What is this ‘word’? The word, the word, the bird is the word? Hardly an early sixties one-hit-wonder. The Word of which I speak has more staying power than even rock ‘n’ roll. Even more than the Strolling Bones and they’ve been […]
Thomas Cajetan was born in northern Italy, at Vicenza, in 1480, of pious and noble parents, who dedicated him to our blessed Lady. From childhood he was known as the Saint, and in later years as “the hunter of souls.” A distinguished student, he left his native town to seek obscurity in Rome, but was […]
Recently the investigative journalism conducted by David Daleiden who started the Center for Medical Progress has provided a raw look into the minds of the people involved in the “human capital” abortion industry. As the videos continue to come out and lawsuits are filed threatening to suppress free speech and journalism, perhaps this is a […]
By Daniel Konstantinovic NEW YORK—August 6, 2015 marks the one-year anniversary of the expulsion from their convent of a group of Dominican sisters who had been serving Christians on Iraq’s Nineveh Plane for many years. That day, ISIS forced the women religious into exile in Erbil, capital of Kurdistan. Discovering that Kurdish militia had fled […]
In light of ongoing revelations emerging from the undercover Planned Parenthood videos, Progressives are doubling down, falling back on their tried and true tactic of conflating “women’s health care” with abortion and suggesting that opposition to the latter constitutes an attack on the former. And much to the chagrin of pro-life Americans, this tactic appears […]
OUR divine Redeemer, being in Galilee about a year before His sacred Passion, took with Him St. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, Sts. James and John, and led them to a retired mountain. Tradition assures us that this was Mount Tabor, which is exceedingly high and beautiful, and was anciently covered with green […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading 1 Kings 19:4-8 2nd Reading: Ephesians 4:30–5:2 Responsorial: Psalm 34:2-9 Gospel: John 6:41-51 Winning the Spiritual Battle through the Power of the Holy Spirit Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. (Ephesians 4:30) We all know how easy it is to conjure […]
