Catholic Life

When Benedict XVI chose precisely the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross for the coming into force of Summorum Pontificum in 2007, he taught that the Cross is central to the Roman Rite.

The onset of Hansen’s Disease, known in antiquity under the broad rubric of “leprosy,” comes with patches of skin that change color, grow numb, and progress toward ulcerations, paralysis, even the absorption of extremities back into the body. Untreated, it may bring blindness, disfiguration, and social ruin. Though today we know that the cause is…

For this 12th Sunday after Pentecost the readings in the Vetus Ordo places before us, from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 3:4–9), a meditation on the surpassing glory of the New Covenant, and from Luke 10:23–37, the parable of the Good Samaritan, provoked by a nomikos who wished to test the Lord.…

Pius Parsch noted that the 11th, 12th, and 13th Sundays after Pentecost form a triad on sacramental grace: baptism, healing, and gratitude for purification. The context of summer, with its harvests, provides the natural analogy. Just as zucchini overflow gardens with comic abundance, so grace superabounds. The cycle of Sundays after Pentecost is like a…

We have come to the 10th Sunday after Pentecost in the Usus Antiquior, the Vetus Ordo. In this Sunday’s Epistle, Paul confronts the Corinthians with the issue of idolatry, reminding them that “when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols” (1 Cor 12:2). To serve idols is to turn from the living…