"Teach me, like Mary, to sit at Thy feet, and to hear Thy word." 1. MY Lord Jesus, how wonderful were those conversations which Thou didst hold from time to time with Thy disciples after Thy resurrection. When Thou wentest with two of them to Emmaus, Thou didst explain all the prophecies which related to Thyself. And …
"Though hast paid the price, it is done, it is secured." 1. IT is over now, O Lord, as with Thy sufferings, so with our humiliations. We have followed Thee from Thy fasting in the wilderness till Thy death on the Cross. For forty days we have professed to do penance. The time has been long …
Continue reading “It is Consummated” – To Our Lord in the Tomb
"He gave the word and His heart broke." 1. His bodily pains were greater than those of any martyr, because He willed them to be greater. All pain of body depends, as to be felt at all, so to be felt in this or that degree, on the nature of the living mind which dwells in …
"He trod the winepress alone." 1. SYMPATHY may be called an eternal law, for it is signified or rather transcendentally and archetypically fulfilled in the ineffable mutual love of the Divine Trinity. God, though infinitely One, has ever been Three. He ever has rejoiced in His Son and His Spirit, and they in Him—and thus through …
"Every fresh sin, every fresh ingratitude I now commit, was among the blows and stripes which once fell on Thee" 1. AFTER all His discourses were consummated (Matt. xxvi. 1), fully finished and brought to an end, then He said, The Son of Man will be betrayed to crucifixion. As an army puts itself in battle …
We are like an army battalion, trapped behind enemy lines for decades. Our battalion's officers have either died, or defected to the enemy - or at least made their loyalties so doubtful that we cannot have recourse to them. We are not in clear contact with the rest of the army. We are on our …
Continue reading Pope Leo XIII – On the Duties of Laymen to Study and Spread the Faith
"He removed the error of filthy heathenism from our parents." “In the tenth year of [the reign of the emperor Maurice], Gregory, a man eminent in learning and in affairs, was elected pontiff of the Apostolic See of Rome; he ruled for thirteen years, six months, and ten days. In the fourteenth year of this …
Continue reading Portrait of a Pope: St Gregory the Great, Apostle of the English
"Private revelations cannot be used to contradict traditional theology without creating serious problems." Throughout history God has made private revelations to chosen souls, even for the public good. We could consider the revelations made to St Joan of Arc, which led to the victory of France over English rule; or the revelations of the Sacred …
Continue reading Fatima, Theology and the Crisis – What should be their relationship?
"All of us – yes, even you and I – are liable to be deceived." In this essay we will consider: - Miracles as proof of Christ's revelation - The continuation of miracles in the Church - Being too dependent on signs and wonders - Credulity and false miracles - The purpose of miracles, and …
Continue reading Possible Miracles, Possible Deceptions: How credulity can lead us to ruin
Given the fever-pitch excitement (or anxiety) in many quarters over Francis's upcoming consecration of Russia, it seems a good time to republish this 1953 text from Msgr Alfredo Ottaviani. He was later made the prefect of the Holy Office, and was chief signatory of the Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae ("The Ottaviani …
Continue reading An “Ottaviani Intervention” on Signs and Wonders