Archive for December 2022
A Child is Born
The message of Christmas is the greatest story ever told: “a Child is born to us, and a son is given to us” (Isaiah 9:6). And that Child is God, born of Mary ever-virgin, a maiden espoused to a man named Joseph, the humble carpenter of Nazareth. The glory of the universe has come unto…
Read MoreMeditating on the Nativity
While our own nativity scene may be more elaborate than that of St. Francis, we ought to meditate on the various figures and elements. Most importantly, we gaze upon the baby Jesus. In the fullness of time, God sent his Son not to condemn the world, but to give everlasting life to those who believe…
Read MoreA Christmas Sermon: Part II
I am going to say something that will please you, my very dear brethren. There are three states of life pursued by the members of the Church of Christ: marriage, widowhood, and virginity. Because those states, those different manifestations of purity, were destined to be found in the holy members of Christ, all three states…
Read MoreA Christmas Sermon: Part I
Today, the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ has dawned in festive splendor for us. It is His birthday, the day on which the Eternal Day was born. And hence it is this day because from this day forward the length of the day increases. Our Lord had two nativities: one divine, the other, human;…
Read MoreThe Nativity through the Eyes of St. Joseph and Our Lady
The following excerpt came from various approved mystics as compiled by Dr. Paul Thigpen. When Mary told Joseph that her time was drawing near and that he should now withdraw to pray, he left her and turned toward his sleeping place to do as she asked. Before entering his little recess, he looked back once…
Read MoreThe Coming of the Divine Infant
Saint Francis de Sales spoke the following words in a Christmas Eve Sermon on December 24, 1613. The below sermon is presented in a shorter form. HOLY Church usually prepares us for great solemnities with vigils to help us appreciate more the great benefits we have received from God in the events celebrated. In the…
Read MoreAdvent Calls Us to Silence: Part II
Pope Benedict XVI continues his previous discourse on silence by focusing on the importance of expectation. Another fundamental element of Advent is expectation, an expectation which is at the same time hope. Advent impels us to understand the meaning of time and of history as a kairós, as a favourable opportunity for our salvation. Jesus…
Read MoreAdvent Calls Us to Silence: Part I
In the biblical Reading we have just heard, taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul invites us to prepare for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23), with God’s grace keeping ourselves blameless. The exact word Paul uses is “coming”, in Latin adventus, from which the term “Advent” derives. Let…
Read MoreMiracles of the Daily Rosary
BLANCHE OF CASTILLE, Queen of France, was deeply grieved because twelve years after her marriage she was still childless. When Saint Dominic went to see her he advised her to say her Rosary every day to ask God for the grace of motherhood, and she faithfully carried out his advice. In 1213 she gave birth…
Read MoreThe Fourth Week of Advent: The Silent Invitation
This story of the Annunciation is related not a one-time occurrence in human history, but repeats many times throughout the ages. Indeed, it happens as often as a new rational soul is conceived. In the life of every man and woman born into the world there is an annunciation of the angel of God. Rather,…
Read MoreThe Humility of St. John the Baptist
As the great St. Ambrose says, truly one must be clothed and armed on all sides with humility if one wishes to enter into the combat and war against vice. Our glorious St. John was indeed armed with this virtue. O God, how wonderfully present it was in this great saint! For he was neither…
Read MoreSt. Teresa of Avila’s Five Steps of Meditation
We have outlined five general steps in St. Teresa’s method of meditation: 1. Preparation: It is difficult to launch into prayer from the midst of a flurry of distracting occupations. Almost all of us are forced to pause momentarily and place ourselves before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, or God as He resides in…
Read MoreDark Night of the Soul: The Imperfection of Beginners
SOULS begin to enter the dark night when God is drawing them out of the state of beginners, which is that of those who meditate on the spiritual road, and is leading them into that of proficients, the state of contemplatives, that, having passed through it, they may arrive at the state of the perfect,…
Read MoreThe Third of Week of Advent: Gaudete!
The first word of the Mass of Gaudete Sunday, read in every Catholic church this morning, sounds the keynote of our faith. It is the Latin word, gaudete, which, being translated, means rejoice. It is a striking paradox that the religion of the cross is at one and the same time the religion of joy.…
Read MoreThe Visions of St. Juan Diego
THE FIRST VISION When Juan Diego, a fifty-five-year-old Indian who lived five miles north of Mexico City, was hurrying on Tepeyac Hill to attend Mass at a Franciscan mission, he heard a great many birds singing. Then, when they stopped, he heard a woman’s voice calling him, not by his name, but by the affectionate…
Read MoreOn Interior Conversation
Meditation: Prepare thy heart for this thy Spouse, that he may…dwell in thee. The kingdom of God is within you – LUKE XVII. 21, saith the Lord. Convert thyself with thy whole heart to the Lord – JOEL II. 12, and quit this miserable world, and thy soul shall find rest. Learn to despise exterior…
Read MoreDiscourse on Mary’s Immaculate Conception
How becoming it was that each of the Three Divine Persons should preserve Mary from Original Sin Great indeed was the injury entailed on Adam and all his posterity by his accursed sin; for at the same time that he thereby, for his own great misfortune, lost grace, he also forfeited all the other precious…
Read MoreEscape from Communism: the Bella Dodd Conversion Story
Meeting Sheen: Recovery and Reconciliation In her June 1953 public testimony, Bella Dodd informed counselor Robert Kunzig and the congressmen on his committee, “I only got out of the Communist Party completely, emotionally, when I found my way back to my own church.” In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bella’s life was in chaos—a…
Read MoreThe Joyous Feast of St. Nicholas
St. Nicholas, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and appointed him abbot of a monastery; and on the death of the archbishop he was elected to the vacant see. Throughout his life he retained the bright…
Read MoreThe Second Week of Advent: Prayer Means Progress
“When John had heard in prison the words of Christ, sending two of his disciples he said to him: Art thou he that is to come, or look we for another? And Jesus answering said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the…
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