God and the Church in Godless China
Today is the feast of the Chinese martyrs, Augustine Zhao Rang and his companions, hundreds of Catholics (along with many Orthodox and Protestants) put...
Bonaventure the Beloved
Saint Bonaventure, whom we celebrate today, the day of his death in 1274 - a few months after his contemporary, Saint Thomas Aquinas. Both...
Georgian Bay Pilgrimage
I've been gone for a couple of days, on pilgrimage to Martyrs' Shrine, in Midland, Ontario, of which I have written a number of...
Fifty Years On, the Controversy Continues
I was not sure we should mention the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landings, fraught as they are with so-called conspiracy theories. Whatever one...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Around this time of year in the Office of Readings, or Lauds, we follow the travails of the prophet Elijah from the Book of...
Bridget the Charitable Bibliophile
Saint Bridget of Sweden (+1373) was known for her kindness, her patience, her good works, first, as a wife and mother of six children,...
Saint Charbel and the Catholic ‘Mosque’
The Muslims know how to pick their days. But, then, so does God. As mentioned a few days ago, for the first time in...
Charbel’s Hidden Fruitfulness
Today is the memorial of Saint Charbel Maklouf (+1898), an ascetic, chaste, humble example of monastic sanctity, who spent his life as a priest-hermit...
The Evisceration of John Paul II?
The plot of this Pontificate thickens, as news of the summary and forthwith firing of two pillars of the Pope John Paul II Institute...
Martha, Mary and Ill-Fated Marriage
Our Lady of Fatima purportedly revealed to young Jacinta that many marriages are not willed by God, the truth of which may be borne...