Archive for January 2022
Inspiration from the Ukrainian Martyrs
The current battle playing out in the public eye between a Russian authoritarian leader and the people of the Ukraine is unfortunately nothing new. This is a rivalry that goes way back. And the worst times was the period when Ukraine was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union and its atheistic and (indeed) genuinely evil…
Read MoreThe Simple Spirituality of the Little Apostle Jacinta of Fatima
“Jacinta did not rest until she brought her own family to a daily recitation of the rosary in common.” -Cardinal Humberto Medeiros The fruits of Jacinta’s generous cooperation with the grace of God are being manifested to us only now. In this chapter we shall attempt to summarize her apostolate following the transformation which took…
Read MoreSpiritual Retreats Need Piety and Modesty
A charitable young man, a former parishioner of mine, heard that I was stuck in quarantine. He texted me, indicating that he had just finished a weekend retreat, was in the neighborhood, and could drop off some victuals for his reclusive ex-pastor. Not only was I moved by his kindness, I wanted to know more…
Read MoreSpiritual Contagions: the Dangers of Modernism
What if you were to learn that your little one had cancer—a parent’s worst nightmare—and it was due to long term exposure to a local power plant’s radiation? How enraged you would be at the authorities for allowing this travesty! How frustrated you may feel with yourself for living so close to a potential risk.…
Read MoreDeferring Conversion Until Death
“We must bear in mind an undeniable principle, concerning which St. Augustine and all the holy Doctors are agreed – namely, that as true repentance is the work of God, so He can inspire it when and where he wills.” -Ven. Louis of Granada The excerpt below is taken from the 16th-century TAN classic known…
Read More“I Wish to Become a Saint”
“The chance to become a Saint is offered me only once. If I do not profit by it, it is gone forever. “ -St. Gerard Majella Below is an excerpt taken from a classic TAN biography entitled St. Gerard Majella by Fr. Edward Saint-Omer, CSSR. This easy-to-read book was based on an Italian work from 1893,…
Read MoreHomeschool Foundation for the Spiritual Life and Liberal Arts
“You have more than the right; you have the obligation to see to it that your children get the kind of education you want.” -Dr. John Senior Our little Andrew came home from his first semester at Thomas Aquinas College for a Christmas visit. I guess he’s not little. He’s been looking down at me…
Read MoreThe Value of Spiritual Reading
“I will consider the wondrous things of Thy law.” -Psalm 118:18 Spiritual reading is a great help to prayer, and it is on this account that St. Paul, writing to Timothy, recommended to him “to attend to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13). St. Athanasius esteems it so necessary for one who would walk in the path…
Read MoreThe Virtue of Humility: Part II
Towards God Your very first duty as a parent is to teach your child to render himself entirely obedient to God. Period. There is no next best thing. There is no consolation prize for the parent who neglected this one divinely given duty. If your child is elected president of the United States or appointed…
Read MoreLet Us Give Ourselves Completely to Mary
In October of 2019, I was blessed to make a private pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal, where Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in 1917 with an urgent message for the world. It was a pilgrimage of many and great graces. I was able to offer Holy Mass at the very place of the apparitions,…
Read MoreSpiritual Guidance and Consolation for Married Couples
“No one, in the married or any other state of life, is completely happy on this earth.” -Fr. Fulgence Meyer, OFM The married couples who read this book are trying their best, I have reason to believe, to become true Christian parents. It will be my object, in this essay, to hearten and help them…
Read MoreSelf-Abandonment as the Quickest Way to Love and Perfection
Your letter, my dear Sister, reminds me of that passage in the Gospel which shows us a young man approaching Our Lord in order to ask Him the way to reach eternal life. The good Master makes the immediate reply that he must keep the commandments, and when the young man answers that he has…
Read MoreThe Grace with which the Holy Spirit Fills Devout Souls
“Grace, finally, qualifies man for all good, smooths the way to Heaven, makes the yoke of Christ sweet and light, cures man of his infirmities and lightens his burdens, so that he is enabled to run in the path of virtue.” -Ven. Louis of Granada God’s fatherly providence, of which we have just been treating,…
Read MoreWe Should Draw Profit from Our Faults
The faults and infidelities of which we are guilty every day should indeed bring us shame and confusion, when we approach Our Lord; and thus we read of great saints, like St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Teresa, that, when they had fallen into any fault, they experienced much confusion. Hence it is very reasonable,…
Read MoreOn the Mercy of God
“Through the tender mercies of our God.” —Luke 1:78 So great is the desire which God has to give us His graces, that, as St. Augustine says, He has more desire to give them to us than we have to receive them from Him. And the reason is that goodness, as the philosophers say, is…
Read MoreThe Virtue of Humility: Part I
“In Paradise there are many Saints who never gave alms on earth: their poverty justified them. There are many Saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting or wearing hair shirts: their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many Saints too who were not virgins: their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise there is no…
Read MoreNew Year’s Resolutions: Adopting a “Theme” for the Year
There seem to be two times each year that we think of the idea of “New Year’s Resolutions.” One is right at the end of December and into the beginning of January, the time for making New Year’s resolutions. The other falls later in the month, already into the New Year, when, if you’re like…
Read MoreThe Epiphany Cake on the Twelfth Day of Christmas
“The kings of Tharsis and of the islands shall offer presents, alleluia. The kings of Arabia and of Saba shall bring gifts, alleluia.” —Roman Ritual, Blessings at Meals on Epiphany and Octave (cf. Psalm 71 (72): 10). On January 6, the annual feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord is celebrated as an extension of…
Read MoreThe Best Resource for Teaching Boys to Serve the Latin Mass
“If boys won’t learn, men won’t know.” -Msgr. R.J. Schuler, PhD One of the most important resources for families that attend the Traditional Latin Mass is How to Serve (published by TAN Books), an excellent book by Dom Matthew Britt, O.S.B. Dom Matthew was a Minnesota-born Benedictine priest ordained in 1901 for St. Martin’s Abbey…
Read MoreGo, and Search Diligently for the Child
Herod the Great, the King of the Jews – was neither a king nor a Jew. His mother was an Arab, the daughter of a sheik, and his father was an Idumean (Edomite) from south of Israel. The name “Herod” isn’t even Jewish, it’s Greek. It’s a name from Greek mythology. How did Herod, who…
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