The culture of death is voracious. Once it begins to feed, it is never satiated; the categories of the killable are never finally enough.- Wesley J. Smith
Exactly 109 years ago, the Great War was still raging, while the Anzac troops were looking forward to eventually returning to their homes....
John of Capistrano (+1456), whom we celebrate on this 24th of October, lived a life very much in the âworldâ at first, studying law, and becoming involved with the political machinations of the fractious fifteenth century. He was appointed as ambassador from Perugia to the quarrelsome family of the...
Claude is a hungry beast. No, not someone's croissant-and-cheese devouring boyfriend - well, let us rephrase that, for he might be, given modern people's artificial romantic proclivities. Rather, Claude is the 'personification' of Anthropic AI, which has announced it is building a massive data centre in remote Cape Breton,...
Today marks the memorial of Pope Saint John Paul II, who was beatified on May 1st, 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI, and canonized three years later by Pope Francis on April 27th in 2014. This October 22nd was chosen as his feast, for it was on this day in...
(Here in Canada, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and Saint Hedwig - normally celebrated on the 16th - are moved to October 20th, to make room on the 16th for the first Canadian-born saint, Marguerite d'Youville. So here is a re-post of a few words on the two saints of...
There are two options today for saints - the first are the North American Martyrs, also called the Canadian Martyrs, but who most accurately may be termed the French missionary martyrs to a country that would later be called Canada, in which dominion we celebrate them as a feast...
One star-lit night she gave Him birth,
the son of Mary fair.
God-sent to hammer nails in wood
and build the Master stair.
For men had lost their upward Way
ten thousand years and more,
when Christ was born to build the stairs
that lead to Yahweh's Door.
Now favored mother Mary knew
that Yahweh wills us good.
What...
On a different note for today's musical selection, we offer the voice of Eva Cassidy (1963 - 1996), who lived and performed in her native Washington, DC area in relative obscurity, dying young from cancer, and only became known after her death. Her voice is like few in her...
A blessed would-be feast of Saint Luke (+84) to all our readers, which we may still recall on this Sunday. He was one of the four evangelists, author of the third Gospel - and also, as our Tradition has it, of the Acts of the Apostles. Hence, he was...
The death penalty has been in the news of late. There was the âbotchedâ execution of Christa Pike on September 30th, the memorial of Saint Jerome. Iâm not sure the hermit saint had an opinion on capital punishment â at least, I donât recall him writing about it, with...
Iâve hesitated to write about the Lindsay Clancy case, for the whole tragedy is quite literally âobsceneâ, which is to say, too gruesome to be visualized, put on display or even put into words. One can scarcely imagine what the jurors went through, having sift through the gruesome evidence....
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
St Peter's Square
Wednesday, 14 March 2007
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As we already did last Wednesday, we are speaking about the figures of the early Church. Last week we spoke of Pope Clement I, the third Successor of St Peter. Today, we will be speaking of...
Saint Ignatius of Antioch (+107) joyfully âwent to the lionsâ, as the saying goes, meeting his martyrdom in the arena of the Coliseum in the eternal city, perhaps less than a decade after the death of the last Apostle, John the Evangelist. Ignatius was the epi-scopos â literally the...
There was a time when the thought of hell motivated Catholics to seek God and his mercy. Mortal sin was seen as something to be avoided. Once committed, though, Catholics knew enough to seek Godâs forgiveness in the confessional. There was an understanding that holiness was something to strive...
A priest friend sent along the following archival video of the beatification of today's saint, Marguerite d'Youville, back in 1959, by Pope Saint John XXIII. It's in French, but even if you don't get the words, glancing through the ceremony gives a window into the time just prior to...
h. We celebrate a veritable panoply of saints today: In Canada, we have the memorial of Saint Marguerite DâYouville (+1771), the first Canadian-born saint. She was a lovely Quebecoise, who married young to a dissolute man, Francois d'Youville, a dissipated bootlegger who sold liquor to the easily-addicted Natives, and...
Nada te turbe is a poem, also a prayer, composed by the great mystic and doctor Saint Teresa of Avila. 'Let nothing disturb you' is fitting for our turbulent times. When we pray at Mass after the Our Father, 'and free us from all anxiety', the Latin is 'ab...
A Review of Gribble, Richard, C.S.C. Father Paul of Graymoor: A Life of Courage, Determination, and Faith. Paraclete Press, 2026.
Christian unity belongs in the prayer and life of every Catholic parish. Â Richard Gribbleâs Father Paul of Graymoor: A Life of Courage, Determination, and Faith gives that responsibility a human...
Today is the feast of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a discalced Carmelite nun who reformed the Order, which traced its origins way back to the 12th century in the Holy Land, to that very 'Carmel' spoken of in such exalted terms in Scripture where Elijah met with God. ...
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Saint Teresa of Avila
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the course of the Catecheses that I have chosen to dedicate to the Fathers of the Church and to great theologians and women of the Middle Ages I have also had the opportunity to...
