As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon.
One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within...
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 - 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully.
She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when...
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the...
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER
MASS IN ST PETER'S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION
OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA
Sunday, 30 April 2000
1. "Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius"; "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever" (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave...
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)).
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life....
Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray,...
I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette - engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen's representative in Canada - which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created...
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king,...
On this April 11th, in 1903 - the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X - a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number...
Here is a sermon from the good old days by +Rev. Msgr. Vincent Nicholas Foy (August 14, 1915 – March 13, 2017), from 1943. Readers may recall that Pope Saint Pius X, by the decree Quam Singulari in 1910, lowered the customary age of reception of Holy Communion -...
Catholic Action in Poland has issued a formal statement appealing to the President of the Republic of Poland to pardon Weronika Krawczyk—convicted for warning other women against an abortion-performing gynaecologist. Catholic Action (AK) emphasizes that no apology is owed to a doctor who has performed numerous abortions and proposed...
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops' conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English - Novus Ordo - use the 'NRSV', the 'New Revised Standard Version', an 'updated' translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952.
This...
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 - 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God.
Destined for ordination from an early age,...
A very blessed and glorious Easter! Christus surrexit vere, alleluia! As we begin this Easter Octave with the great Solemnity of Easter, music to lift the soul would be one of Bach's Easter cantatas, composed during his time at Leipzig in the early 1700's, for the six Sundays of...
Happy Easter Lord Jesus Christ.
It's Easter day and we smile
In the Lord's in gentle light and
His tomb is bare the stone is rolled
A story new that must be told
And Lord Jesus Christ
We love you it's so true and
Lord Jesus Christ has risen
From his sleep and the
Promises he vowed to...
Today, April 4th, muted this year by Holy Saturday, is the commemoration of Saint Isidore of Seville (560-636) a bishop and doctor of the Church during a tumultuous age, when civilization was crumbling, coming apart at its very seams, which may sound sort of au courant. Then again, the...
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4).
The Resurrection...
The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders - anticipates - what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious...
(As we meditate on this day on Christ's burial, and His descent into hell, it is fitting to ponder here with contributor Peter Marcus how the world seems to be heading there as well. The difference is that, although God cannot 'redeem' hell, nor those therein, He can and...
Incredible, at the beginning of this reflection, that the Venerable Bishop Sheen declares that he has given nearly 58 Good Friday reflections - this, as far as I can gather, was his final one, and he seems in full vigour in mind and body. The good bishop and evangelist...
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
AT THE CONCLUSION OF
THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS AT THE COLOSSEUM
Good Friday, 13 April 1979
When we make the Way of the Cross from one station to the next, in spirit we are always at the spot wherethis journey had its “historical" place:...
