Active Works and The Interior Life: What They Mean

PART ONE 1. GOD WANTS GOOD WORKS AND, THEREFORE, HE WANTS ZEALOUS ACTION Sovereign liberality is inseparable from the divine Nature.  God is infinite goodness. Goodness seeks nothing except to give itself and to communicate the riches which it enjoys. The mortal life of Our Lord was nothing else but a continual manifestation of this…

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God’s Fatherly Care of the Just

The greatest privilege attached to virtue is the care which God exercises over those who serve Him.  From this, as from a fountainhead, flow all other favors.  Though God’s providence is extended to all His creatures, yet He manifests a special care for His faithful servants.  To appreciate the greatness and goodness of God’s providence…

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Fighting for Your Child’s Eternal Salvation

A Joyous Conclusion This was a wearisome book. Fighting for your child’s eternal salvation is a wearisome task. But there is no greater joy and responsibility in this life than raising your child in the arms of Holy Mother Church. Thus, we have yet another paradox in our holy faith. This should come as no…

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Uniformity with God’s Will

Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: “Charity is the bond of perfection;” (Col. 3:14) and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s: “The principal effect of love is to unite the wills of those who love each other as to make them will the same things.”…

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On Scruples in the Spiritual Life

Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence. (St. Paul, II. Cor., c. III., v. 12.) Fear is not in charity: but perfect charity casteth out fear, because fear hath pain. And he that feareth is not perfect in charity. (St. John, I. Epist., c. IV., v. 18.) There are persons who look upon scrupulosity…

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Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

Looking for Trouble? “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1). What do you have to do to let your heart be troubled? Nothing. Just do nothing and your heart will gravitate downward toward trouble—not upward to joy, but to trouble: the next obstacle, trial, or conflict. The Lord wants us to work against…

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The Peace that Comes from Christ

“Our churches are already being targeted for violence, and our worship services are being disrupted, which motivated me to send you the memo last week asking you to be more attentive to security measures on your property.  These attacks may now likely increase … But for us, as faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ,…

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St. Rita of Cascia: One of the Incorruptibles

She has become one of my favorite saints, and yet I usually don’t think of her until her feast day, which every year is May 22. In fact, you would be reading this article earlier, ahead of her feast day, if I had thought ahead. Her feast day also happens to be the day when…

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Proper Dispositions of the Reception of Holy Communion

As is the case with each of the Sacraments, the fruitful reception of Holy Communion brings about in the recipient an increase of Sanctifying Grace, the Infused Virtues, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  But the degree of growth in each of the recipients will be proportional to one’s disposition. The minimum required disposition…

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Penance and Mortification

Penance and Mortification The modern world has made a mockery of penance and mortification. One of the direct results of the Protestant Reformation was the implicit rejection of an incarnational faith, with notions of “faith alone,” and the explicit rejection of indulgences. The skeptic, or the overly spiritualized Protestant, cannot fathom earthly actions, in the…

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True Peace Found in God Alone

“Peace, because we have hoped in Thee.” -Isaias 26:3 He that seeks peace in creatures will never find it, because no creatures are fitted for giving satisfaction to the heart. God has created man for Himself, who is the Infinite Good; wherefore, God alone can content him. Hence it comes that many persons, though loaded…

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Making Good Use of God’s Graces

The true reason for which God bestows so many graces upon the humble is this, that the humble are faithful to these graces and make good use of them. They receive them from God and use them in a manner pleasing to God, giving all the glory to Him, without reserving any for themselves. This…

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Pregnancy and Fulfilling the Homeschool Mission

Homeschooling while bringing eight infants into this world, suffering through a few miscarriages and recovering from the death of two babies, I think I finally am getting in the swing of things… at least maybe… a little. Inspiring words of comfort from Pope John Paul II highlight the unique experience of motherhood, with its joys…

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May 13th and the Consecration of Russia

THE STORY OF FATIMA On a cool spring day in 1916, Lucy dos Santos, age 9, and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages 8 and 6 respectively, took their parents’ sheep to pasture in a place not far from their homes in the mountain village of Fatima, Portugal, about 90 miles north of Lisbon.…

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The Children of Fatima and Devotion to the Papacy

The Portuguese have always shown special loyalty to the Holy Father. It was the Pope who emancipated them from vassalage to Castile – and it was to him that the new, little country of Portugal was entrusted at its birth. Though in the course of the centuries this traditional devotion was occasionally weakened, the fault…

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On the Providence of God by Alice von Hildebrand

In the wee hours of Tuesday, June 11, 1940, I was awakened by the ringing of the ship’s bells. I tiptoed to open the door of our cabin and to my amazement saw people in pajamas and nightgowns with life-preservers around their waists, rushing toward the deck. I immediately woke my sister, Louloute (pronounced “Loo-lute”).…

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Interior Peace & Sadness

“Always active, always at rest.” -St. Augustine Be on your guard lest your zeal degenerate into anxiety and eagerness. Saint Francis de Sales was a most pronounced enemy of these two defects. They cause us to lose sight of God in our actions and make us very prone to impatience if the slightest obstacle should…

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