Second Day (for the First Day, please see here)
Come, Father of the Poor!
Come, treasures that endure!
Come, Light of all that live!
The Gift of Fear
The gift of Fear fills us with a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread nothing so much as to offend Him by sin....
Saint Isidore, or, in his native Spanish, Isidro de Merlo y Quintana, was named after the other Saint Isidore, the bishop of Seville (whom we celebrated back on April 4th). This saint, known to us as Isidore the Laborer (Labrador) - or the Farmer - was born about the...
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Judas Iscariot and Matthias
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, concluding our walk through the portrait gallery of the Apostles called directly by Jesus during his earthly life, we cannot fail to mention the one who has always been named last in...
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon themÂ
So wrote the Bard in his 1602 play the Twelfth Night, and 'tis fitting as a theme for the one who was chosen as the new twelfth Apostle, who was definitely not born into greatness, but had...
A good choice was made with Saint Matthias, in accordance with God's holy will, and we may rejoice accordingly on this feast of the Apostle.
But the good in this vale of tears always goes along with some evil, the wheat and the tares inextricably linked unto the end of...
In the Church universal, the solemnity of Ascension is on its traditional day, Thursday - so a blessed, if belated, and joyous one to all our readers - commemorating Our Lordâs return to heaven, whence He shall return at the end of time. The ânine daysâ from here to...
I write these few words in LAX, on this feast of Our Lady of Fatima, while awaiting to board my flight back home, after a whirlwind visit to Southern California. I last wrote of finding that cool, clear river of water in the desert, providing life whither it goes....
The revelations, prophecies and secrets of Our Lady of Fatima have loomed large in the minds and heart of Catholics in the twentieth century, and indeed many others across the world. They have taken on greater significance in events of late, with who-knows-what on the horizon.
It was on this...
Today we commemorate the early martyrs Nereus and Achilleus, soldiers, officers of the court, and converts to the Faith, likely put to death under Emperor Domitian in the late 1st century. (Other sources claim they were martyred under Diocletian in the third). Their lives are shrouded in legend, like...
A Blessed Sixth Sunday of Easter to all our readers, which also happens to be the secular commemoration of Mothers' Day, which became widespread when President Woodrow Wilson â leaving aside his imprudent âFourteen Pointsâ at Versailles in 1919 paved the way for an even worse war two decades...
A brief note to wish Pope Leo XIV a very blessed and grace-filled one year anniversary as Pope. As the saying goes, itâs difficult to believe it was only a year ago, as so much has transpired, and how quickly we forget previous eras when a new one dawns,...
If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)
Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the...
We have celebrated a number of 'Catherines' of late in our liturgical calendar, two of them Canadian: Kateri Tekakwitha on April 17th, the native convert who adopted the name of Catherine of Siena, whose feast was on April 29th, the day Kateri was baptized. Now today we commemorate Blessed...
There's the old saying about âgoing westâ that appeals to the soul of the wanderer. Why this should be, I wonder, as I myself wander westâ to California, in part for the wedding of a former student, but also to see the famed Golden state, whose aura has lost...
I read a biography about Beatrix Potter, and I was amazed at how much I learned about virtue from her life. She was an amazing woman. She respected her family heritage, traditions, but she also had a very independent spirit. She had a poor education and lived quite a...
'Tis difficult to believe that Quebec was once a a bastion of the Faith, incarnating in an almost unique way in the historical annals the harmony between Church and State, offering the early pioneers of this nation - New France - the elan vital to conquer a wild and...
There is a trio of Canadian Saints in this week: Saint Marie of the Incarnation on the last day of April; Saint Francois de Laval on the 6th of May; and today, the little-known Blessed Marie-Leonie Paradis. Born on May 12th in 1840, baptized as Alodie-Virginie, in Quebec, she...
Although I have been a lifelong Catholic Christian, grace has always been to me a rather nebulous term. I may have recited its definition verbatim from the Baltimore Catechism for âSister Mary Inquisitionâ as ââŠa supernatural gift of God bestowed on us through the merits of Jesus Christ for...
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, Godâs own people; in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Pt. 2:9).
As we continue our celebration of Easter and reflect on the...
Philip and James, Apostles, have been celebrated together on this third day in May since the revision of the calendar in 1969. They were originally commemorated on May 1st, the anniversary of the church dedicated to them in Rome, but that day was adopted as Saint Joseph the Worker...
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Continuing our revisitation of the great Teachers of the ancient Church, let us focus our attention today on St Athanasius of Alexandria.
Only a few years after his death, this authentic protagonist of the Christian tradition was...
