We’ve been hearing it a lot: “Should I just quit paying attention to the apparent collapse of the Catholic institution and become Orthodox?” I’d like to start with the unequivocal assertion that this is a temptation to the grave sin of schism. Don’t do it. Also, as we will see below, it’s a bit of…
On September 12, we celebrated the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary. The mysteries and marvels of the sacred name of Maria are so vast an ocean that the field of Mariology will never finish contemplating them, even through all the days of eternity. For the Name of Maria means and denotes, among…
Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24 Gospel: Matthew 6:24-33 Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with perpetual peace; and because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation. – From the Collect for the Fourteenth…
“Red-pilled” Catholic men these days who are thinking seriously about priesthood or religious life are wondering if it makes any sense to enter a Novus Ordo seminary or community. Could God be calling them to be “infiltrators” who usher in a more traditional future? Or should they interpret their growing love for the old Latin…
For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) Years ago, when I was Protestant I had two spiritual experiences — one evil, one holy — that pushed…
Epistle: Galatians 3:16–22 Gospel: Luke 17:11–19 Almighty and everlasting God, grant unto us an increase of faith, hope and charity: and that we may obtain what Thou dost promise, make us love that which Thou dost command. —From the Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost Last Sunday, the readings reflected on the importance of…
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:4-9 Gospel: Luke 10:23-37 O almighty and merciful God, of whose gift it comes that Thy faithful people do unto Thee worthy and laudable service: grant unto us, we beseech Thee, that we may run without stumbling towards the attainment of Thy promises. – From the Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after…
It was the dawn of the 20th century. The hedonism of the Belle Époque whirled through Europe’s capitals; like Poe’s raven, the precursors of civilizational decay tapped at the windows of the West. The ideologies originating in the Age of the Enlightenment were nearing full fruition in what American historian Lawrence Sondhaus would term the…
In 1917, the Blessed Virgin visited three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. Just a year earlier, the children were primed for this event by an angel of the Lord on three separate occasions. We often hear atheists and skeptics ridicule the Christian, as at a first glance we do not seem to see the kind…
Introduction: A Time of Confusion Although it is now frequently claimed that the traditional Latin Mass (TLM) was never abrogated (totally abolished) following the Second Vatican Council, this position is squarely at odds not only with the lived experience of several generations of Catholics, but with the rapid and near total disappearance of the TLM…
There was a time before my own married and family life that a friend of mine slyly described this vocation as “a beautiful bed of roses … only that somebody forgot to de-thorn the roses.” I am told that much like married and family life, clerical life also frequently gives a dose of prickling reality…
