What is being much discussed today, as is often the case in mid-to-late October in Catholic circles, is “What to do with Halloween?” I discussed this in an article last week. But there is so much more to say… This year, the Feast of Christ the King, designated by Pope Pius XI to be celebrated…
Editor’s note: below is a selection from the modern spiritual classic Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Year. This is reproduced with permission from Baronius Press. — Presence of God: O Jesus, Prince of Ages, King of Nations, be the sole Ruler of my mind and heart. Meditation The…
The royal families of Europe were falling one by one. Secularist atheistic materialism was on the rise. In the wake of the gory First World War Pope Pius XI looked out over the world and, in 1922, issued an encyclical letter Ubi arcano which directed people to the “Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of…
The Lord has done what he purposed, has carried out his threat; as he ordained long ago, he has demolished without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you, and exalted the might of your foes. Lamentations 2:17 As I talk with friends and listen to Catholic commentary, it seems like most of us…
Beyond Holy Writ, there has been one book which has helped form, edify, and nourish me spiritually. I have read it time and again. It is The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. By no means am I the only Christian soul to find refuge in its pages. Apparently, behind the Bible, it is…
Where I live it’s pretty easy to forget that you do not live in a small town. Given the fact that most suburbs of regional capitals of our neighbour to the South nearly double our size, it can feel like living in Nowheresville, even in the largest urban centre for thousands of miles on the…
Plato was an ultra-realist that stressed, to an extreme degree, objective reality, to the point of believing that concepts were individual entities with their own independent reality, i.e., the world of the “Forms.” The soul actually existed in this intelligible world prior to existing in the body, and will go back to it once the…
The word “liberal” in today’s common parlance does not enjoy a precise definition. For example, if we were to apply the word as a descriptive for persons, we could find ourselves using it as a denotation for everyone from Nancy Pelosi, to Thomas Jefferson, to Robespierre, to GK Chesterton (more on Chesterton later). All of…
It is once again that time of year that the late Ray Bradbury famously dubbed “the October Country.” The waning of the year brings to more temperate regions the closure of harvest, the falling leaves, and the preparation for the succession of holidays that close and open each year in every country. Just as regularly…
If Monsignor Ronald Knox is correct, as I contend he is, then, “there is a recurrent situation in Church history—using the word ‘church’ in the widest sense—where an excess of charity threatens unity.” It’s the classic double-edged sword of otherwise good folks taking an otherwise pious proposition or practice a tad too far. To his…
It is necessary “to snatch the Rosaries from the hands of the old ladies!” How can we forget this declaration from Cardinal Michele Pellegrino (1903-1986), Archbishop of Turin between 1965 and 1977, to his clergy and often heard during the Roman youth of this article’s author? It comes to mind especially in the month of…
