As a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I regularly get messages from classmates during the football season following a good win or a painful loss. This year’s poor performance against Notre Dame elicited the expected string of angry or bewildered texts, though Navy will still be favored over Army in this year’s edition…
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14 Gospel: Luke 21:25-33 Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come: that from the threatening dangers of our sins, by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued, and be saved by Thy deliverance. – From the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent The First Sunday of Advent…
One of the two soldiers who had to lead him caused him all possible sufferings. He was forced to make long marches, was exposed to the rays of the sun, to the rains and the cold of the nights. His body, already weakened by several severe illnesses, finally broke down[.] … In the morning Chrysostom…
Epistle: Colossians 1:9-14 Gospel: Matthew 24:15-25 Stir up the wills of Thy faithful people, we beseech Thee, O Lord: that more earnestly seeking the fruit of good works, they may receive more abundantly the gifts of Thy loving kindness. – From the Collect for the Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost This Sunday is the…
Epistle: Philippians 3.17-21;4. 1-3 Gospel: Matthew 9.18-26 Absolve, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the sins of Thy people; that we may be delivered by Thy goodness from the bonds of sins, which by our frailty we have committed. – From the Collect for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost Sunday’s readings reflect on the relationship between…
Epistle: Philippians 1:6-11 Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21 O God, our refuge and our strength, give ear to the holy prayers of Thy Church, and grant, that what we ask with faith, we may effectually obtain. – From the Collect for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost Sunday’s Gospel takes place during Holy Week and shows Christ’s enemies…
The foundation of our love and devotion for the poor souls in purgatory is this: “If one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it” (I Cor. 12:26). This is the bond of charity that binds the Church Militant to the Church…
The traditional Catholic lectionary — dating back to the first millennium of Christianity and, since the Middle Ages, included in the contents of the altar missal itself — includes far fewer readings than the revised (postconciliar) lectionary used for the Novus Ordo Mass. However, this is not a strike against the former, since the lectionary,…
“In this month, which the Holy Church consecrates to the dead, we urge you to gather in the Christian suffrage, so that those who, having obtained forgiveness from their sins, had not yet deserved the remission of their punishment, may soon rise from Purgatory to Paradise, welcomed by the Angels, by the Saints, by the…
The month of November is a time to contemplate the reality of death and remember the souls of our deceased brothers and sisters. This is a brief account of the funeral of Sister Wilhelmina of the Holy Rosary, the foundress of an extraordinary community of Benedictine nuns. On the feast of the Ascension this year,…
Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-17 Gospel: Matthew 18:23-35 O Lord, we beseech Thee, to keep Thy household in continual godliness that, through Thy protection, it may be free from all adversities, and devotedly given to serve Thee in good works to the glory of Thy Name. – From the Collect for the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost Today…
