Weekly Insight
Cultivating Hope in Darkness
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...
Pope Benedict and Saint Alphonsus Ligouri
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...
Alphonsus of Ligouri, A Moral Teacher for All
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...
Obedience: the true remedy to worldly anxiety
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...
Pope Benedict and Saint Ignatius
(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....
Ignatius and the Companions of Jesus
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...
Saint Peter Chrysologous, Homiletic Doctor
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...
The Holy Household of Martha, Mary and Lazarus
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...
Martha and Mary: The Good Part
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...
Pope Benedict and Martha’s Way
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...
Once and Future Catholic Queen
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,...
Victor, Innocent, Easter and Legends
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...
Healing for Priests and the Need for Authentic Spiritual Fatherhood
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...
Saints Pantaleon and Celestine – of Pants and Papal Authority
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,...
Musical Offering: Couperin’s Motet in Praise of Saint Anne
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....
