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…

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Spiritual 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…

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Spiritual 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.…

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Deferring 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…

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“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,…

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Homeschool 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…

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The 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…

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The 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…

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Let 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,…

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We 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,…

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On 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…

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The 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…

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The 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…

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The 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…

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Go, 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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