Weekly Insight
Pope Benedict on Saint Benedict
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
St Peter's Square
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Saint Benedict of Norcia
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, I would like to speak about Benedict, the Founder of Western Monasticism and also the Patron of my Pontificate. I...
Saint Benedict’s Option
On this feast of Saint Benedict (+543), we commemorate the monk credited with saving what we know as 'civilization'. As a student in Rome in its sixth century fin de siècle, Benedict found he...
A Pilgrimage By the Saint Lawrence
The mighty Saint Lawrence River is intertwined with the history of Canada and the United States, and forms a natural border between the two countries. It's how everyone arrived in Canada before the invention...
What Benedictine Spirituality Offers the Modern Christian
As we approach the feast day of Saint Benedict of Nursia on July 11, we look ahead to the jubilee year 2029 that marks the 1500th anniversary of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Saint...
The Marvelous Martyrs of Gorkum and the Abandoned Annulled Anne of Cleves
In one of those many mysteries of providence, this day marking the martyrs of China is also the anniversary of the Martyrs of Gorkum, nineteen Catholic priests, diocesan and religious, hanged on this day...
Pope John Paul II Canonizes 119 Martyrs of China
CAPPELLA PAPALE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF 123 NEW SAINTS
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
Sunday 1 October 2000
1. "Your word is truth; sanctify us in your love" (Gospel Acclamation, Italian Lectionary; cf. Jn 17: 17). This invocation, an echo of Christ's...
Myriads of Martyrs for China
Through the centuries there have been untold thousands of martyrs in China, and July 9th is chosen as the day to commemorate them, for it was on this day in 1900 that the Chinese...
A Brief Meditation on Man’s Magnificence
What piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving,
how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension,
how like a god! (Hamlet, Act...
Reasonable Passions
The Saint Gregory the Great Institute has just released the first of their video series on the 'wisdom of the founders of Western civilization', aptly named 'Reasonable Passions', as opposed to the destructive 'unreasonable'...
Saint Kilian’s Head and the Pattern Dance
Saint Kilian (or Cilian, originally in Gaelic Ceallach, 640-689) was an Irish missionary bishop who brought the Faith to central Europe, Franconia, now part of northern Bavaria, which is still more or less staunchly...
True, North, Strong… and Free? Not Quite…
The headline today declares,
Federal memo considers legal action against social media posting false info
admitting that it is not (yet) clear what action 'federal lawyers' would take. Hmm.
It goes on:
A 35-page memo to Federal Industry...
Message of John Paul II to the Bishop of Albano for the Centenary of the Death of St. Maria Goretti
To my Venerable Brother Bishop Agostino Vallini of Albano
1. A hundred years ago, on 6 July 1902, Maria Goretti died in the hospital at Nettuno, brutally stabbed the day before in the little village...
Maria Goretti, Martyr for Chastity
It was a hot, humid and sweltering July 6th in the year of our Lord 1902, one hundred and twenty four years ago, in a small farming town in the fetid area outside of...
Fourteenth Sunday: Following Christ, Meek and Humble of Heart
‘Come to me all you that are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in...
Saint Anthony Zaccaria
Saint Anthony Zaccaria (+1539), from noble lineage in late-renaissance Italy, was born in Rome in 1502, on the cusp of the Protestant revolt against the Catholic Church. But the mayhem at this point was mostly...
