How strictly should we interpret Saint Cyprian of Carthage’s dictum extra ecclesiam nulla salus – outside the Church, there is no salvation? After all, it’s quoted in the 1992 Catechism, and is a dogma of that same Church. Boniface VIII included it in his 1302 Apostolic Constitution, Unam Sanctam.
The...
This morning I invite you to reflect on St Eusebius of Vercelli, the first Bishop of Northern Italy of whom we have reliable information. Born in Sardinia at the beginning of the fourth century, he moved to Rome with his family at a tender age. Later, he was instituted...
The feast described by the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading, with its “wine, milk and rich food,” was for the Jews a symbol of the messianic era in which Solomon’s kingdom would be re-established by the long-awaited Messiah. This expectation points to something deeply rooted in the human...
The Church commemorates two pastors today, separated by a millennium and a half: The fourth-century Eusebius of Vercelli (+371), the first bishop we know of in northern Italy, who has gone down in history as one of the great foes of the insidious heresy of Arianism, which taught that...
On 2nd August the universal Church celebrates what is called The Pardon of Assisi. This great feast, which ranks as a solemnity within the Franciscan festivities, is another great sign of the immense good the Lord himself performs to his Church and the world through the Franciscan movement.
But what the...
Hope can be a hard virtue to cultivate. It’s also a virtue we tend to ignore in the good times, only for hope to be drowned by life's sorrows. The virtue of hope, as the Catholic Catechism says, “Responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in...
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
St. Peter's Square
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Saint Alphonsus Liguori
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I would like to present to you the figure of a holy Doctor of the Church to whom we are deeply indebted because he was an outstanding moral theologian and a teacher of spiritual life for...
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri (1696 - 1787) was a renaissance man, whose kind was a rarity in his post-renaissance era, and even more so now in our age of specialization, often in esoteric subjects that would have puzzled anyone before, say, 1960. Alphonsus received a double doctorate in civil and...
The older I get, the more quickly I can recognize exactly what’s happening when I start to feel anxiety bubbling up: I’ve taken my eyes off the Prince of Peace himself.
My senses are so easily drawn to the immediate pleasures of the world, causing me to stray off the...
(Excerpt from an address given April 22, 2006 )
St Ignatius of Loyola was first and foremost a man of God who in his life put God, his greatest glory and his greatest service, first. He was a profoundly prayerful man for whom the daily celebration of the Eucharist was...
When we read the life of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) he at first glance seems to belong more to the early days of the desert Fathers, or, perhaps, to the mediaeval 'fools for Christ', who gave up all to follow Him – begging for alms, sleeping outside, pilgrimaging...
Saint Peter Chrysologous (+450) as the traditional account has it was chosen bishop of Ravenna in 433 after the then-reigning pontiff, Pope, Sixtus III, had a vision of Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint Apollinaris (the latter a former bishop of Ravenna) who pointed out a young man as...
This memorial of Saint Martha, in accord with a decree from the Congregation of Divine Worship, now also includes her brother Lazarus, the one raised from the dead, and her sister Mary, leaving aside the controversy over whether she is the same 'Mary' as the Magdalene we celebrated a...
Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her (Lk. 10: 42).
⧾ In Christian tradition Martha and Mary have been seen as a personification of the active and contemplative life. In truth, both aspects are necessary in the life of every Christian; work and...
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Courtyard of the Papal Residence, Castel Gandolfo
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are now in the heart of summer, at least in the northern hemisphere. This is the period in which schools are closed and the greater part of the holidays are concentrated. Even the pastoral activities...
In a reflection this morning on Saint Joan of Arc – meditating on an evocative impressionist painting of the young Maid of Orleans - Brad Miner (*) says that Mary I, or Mary Tudor, was ‘the last Catholic ruler of England’.
I felt impelled to gently correct Dr. White, for...
We don’t know a whole lot about Pope Saint Victor I (+199), one of the earliest of pontiffs, usually listed as the 14th to hold the seat of Peter. Even his dates of office are not certain, but generally accepted that he had about a ten year reign, beginning...
We live in a time when we are facing a growing crisis of fatherlessness. This is evident not only in society but also in the Church, where some shepherds may struggle to relate to those entrusted to their care as spiritual fathers because of their own woundedness. In psychology,...
Saint Pantaleon (275 – 305) was a martyr under the persecution of Diocletian, who, like the later Saint Augustine, had a pagan father and Christian mother, who instructed him in the faith. At first, the lad followed his dad, away from the Church, studying medicine, and became the personal...
François Couperin (1668 - 1733) was one of the great Baroque composers, perhaps most famous for his keyboard - harpsichord and organ - works, which are indeed marvelous, and played at many a wedding. He also composed for voice, and here is a little-known motet, from 1679-80, in four...
On this day in 2009, at the end of his Angelus message, Pope Benedict had these brief words to say on Saints Joachim and Anne:
A second point for reflection comes from today's liturgical commemoration of Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of Our Lady, and therefore, grandparents of Jesus. This...
