St. Teresa of Avila’s Concept of Meditation
On Why a Crown is Fitting for Our Lady
How the Blessed Will Go Up Into Heaven After the Judgment: (Part II)
Path of Perfection
The Life of St. Benedict: Conquering the Flesh and the Devil
The Imitation of Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is an antidote to the self-referential age of failed fatherhood. Abuses do not negate the truth. Those who have not provided, not protected, and failed to bestow are not the examples we look to for imitation. But imitate we must. We do not enter life creating our own language, designing our own clothing,…
St. Patrick’s Discouragement Amidst His Labors
THROUGH four years, from 427 to 431, Patrick labored to learn what others absorbed without effort. His age impeded the acquisition of knowledge, he knew, but he saw also a more serious defect: “It was my sins that prevented me from fixing in my mind what once I would have learned merely by reading.” His…
Do You Love the Virtue of Humility?
Truly, no one cares to be thought proud, for even according to worldly ideas, the greatest blame that one can give to a man is to say that he is proud. And yet few try to avoid the very thing they would least desire to be accused of by others. If we feel inward satisfaction…
The Betrayal of Christ and His Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
Anselm: Tell me, most beloved Lady, how did the events of the passion of your Son first begin? Mary: When my Son and His disciples had arisen from the table at His last supper, the perfidious traitor Judas Iscariot went forth alone to see the high priests of the temple. He received from them the…
Joseph’s Virginity: A Model for Men in Every State of Life
Because Joseph has the unique status of being both a married man and a virgin, it is reasonable to ask if Saint Joseph can be a model for other men. After all, how can a virgin be a model for a married man? And how can a married man be a model for a priest…
End of Mental Prayer
All mental prayer, active or passive, whatever be its object, form or method, has for its end to glorify God, and in order to this, as we have already seen, it may perform the four functions of prayer, or some of the four, or only one, according to the attraction or need of the soul.…
Witness of Humility: Washing the Apostles’ Feet
During this time, the Apostles spoke among themselves, and began speculating as to which of them would be the greatest, for Our Lord having expressly announced that He was about to leave them and that His kingdom was near at hand, they felt strengthened anew in their idea that He had secret plans, and that…
The Final Judgment
My friend, reflect next upon how much terror and anxiety there will be at the great scene of the Final Judgment! The miraculous trumpets of angels shall then sound a deafening fanfare. Great bolts of blazing lightening will illuminate the earth and the sky with a blinding luminosity. Tumultuous thunder will roar, penetrating into the…