Editor’s note: thirteen years ago today, I received Holy Communion for the first time as a Roman Catholic. My journey from Protestantism to Eastern Orthodoxy to Rome is detailed in my forthcoming book published by St. Paul Center. I offer this article again in thanksgiving for God’s grace and thirteen years a member of the…
This is Part II of a two-part series. Click here for Part I. In the first part of this series, I listed the nine levels of prayer and described the first four, which exist along what is called “the Purgative Way.” In this second part, I will explore the second and third ways of prayer…
This is Part I of a two-part series. Years ago I was involved in a Protestant apologetics online forum. Unlike many online forums, this one included many very bright and respectful people who expertly debated theology without rancor. Just about every viewpoint was represented: Calvinist, evangelical, liberal, conservative, even Mormon and Unitarian. I, however, was…
Resolve to spend 15 minutes each morning in mental prayer.
Today is the feast day of our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas. She holds particular significance to the Catholic Church in America, as her appearance to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac hill in Mexico was the first Marian apparition in the New World. She is dearly beloved by Mexican Catholics, and wherever there is a Mexican…
Editor’s note: in light of today’s news, we must remember this important spiritual reality about Marian devotion. However, this text is not meant to imply that anyone is guilty of the crime of heresy, but merely to assert forcefully the spiritual reality behind this doctrinal question, written by a former Protestant. -TSF Marian devotion is…
The common teaching of the saints and doctors is that the slightest pains endured in the terrible fire of Purgatory will be more painful than all the pains of the present life. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes, “[St.] Augustine (Enarration on Psalm 37, no. 3) speaks of the pain which purgatorial fire causes as more severe…
Let us consider how our fathers felt when they saw the Muhammadan fleets on the horizon at Lepanto in 1571. As all of Christendom fearfully poured forth prayers to the Most Holy Virgin, Almighty God worked victory for our fathers over the Muhammadan hordes once again. Let us renew our trust in our Lady of…
One of the topics most hotly disputed at the synods on marriage and the family, back in those halcyon years of 2014 and 2015, was the possibility of admitting to Holy Communion Catholics who are living in what are euphemistically called “irregular marital situations” — that is, objectively adulterous unions. This dispute took its place…
https://youtu.be/xdbwNMYKhw0 Mass of the Ages, Episode I: Discover the Traditional Latin Mass Directed by Cameron O’Hearn Produced by Jonathan Weiss and Cameron O’Hearn Director of Photography Thomas Shannon Original Score by Mark Nowakowski Click here to support the project If it’s true (and it is) that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the…
Andrea Grillo (born 1961) is a professor of Sacramental Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome (Sant’Anselmo) and of Liturgy in Padua at the Abbey of Santa Giustina. With the promulgation of Pope Francis’s motu proprio of July 16th, 2021, Traditionis Custodes, he has become a more important…
