In the end, it was worth it.
Category: Catholic Life

A New Catholic Faith for Children to Abandon
Consider what a young child in our present-day will experience of the Faith. It will not be of community, sacrifice, beauty, and peace.

Martin Luther King and Planned Parenthood
Above: Martin Luther King at a press conference in 1964. By the time Martin Luther King Jr. had taken his seat in 1960 on Planned Parenthood’s committee on the study of contraception, his views on how artificial birth control could …

Octave of the Nativity: Depend on God in a new year of Salvation
Merry Christmas to you all on this Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord. In her wisdom Holy Church knows that we need time to rest within the liturgical celebration of awesome mysteries of our salvation: the Lord’s Birth, His …

4th Sunday of Advent: Saving Fire
Some context for our 4th Sunday of Advent and for our Epistle reading are in order. The 4th Sunday of Advent originally did not have a Roman Station church because of the linkage between Ember Saturday and Sunday. Eventually, to …

2nd Sunday of Advent: Living in the Unity of Faith
For this 2nd Sunday of Advent the Roman Station church is the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem where the wooden beams of the Cross and relics of the Passion brought to Rome by the Empress Helena were deposited …

Two Saints at the Start of Advent: Bibiana and Francis Xavier
In the traditional calendar, December 2 is the feast of St. Bibiana, Virgin and Martyr. Having been imprisoned for her faith, she refused the sexual advances of her jailer, and was beaten to death with lead-loaded thongs. The Collect for …

1st Sunday of Advent: Our Savior expects to find us ready
In 589 Deacon Aigulf trekked home to Tours with relics he had collected in Rome. St. Gregory of Tours relates in his Historia Francorum that Aigulf saw with his own eyes the disasters that struck Rome that year. The Tiber …

The “Magna Carta” of The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music Celebrates 100 Years
One hundred years ago, on November 22, 1922, the new Pope Pius XI († 1939) issued the motu proprio Ad musicæ sacræ restitutionem, with which he set up what is now the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. Although …

A Moment of Christendom: the St. Louis Patronal Procession
Above: Patronal Festivity in Saint Louis, Missouri, 2022 On August 25th, my alarm clock rang at 3:45 a.m. The previous evening, we chant enthusiasts had parted with the words, “Tenebrae et Matutinum” (dark and early). With solemn vespers, we had …