Archive for March 2023
The Arrest of Christ
[Mary continues her reply to Anselm.] After this, my Son returned to His disciples and found that they had succumbed to sleep. He said to them with some disappointment, “Could you not remain awake for just one hour with Me?” And He added, “Behold! The one who will betray Me now draws nigh.” Just at…
Read MoreThe Seven Last Words of Christ: Meditating on the Third Word
“When Jesus therefore had seen His Mother and the disciple whom He loved standing there, He saith to His Mother: ‘Woman, behold thy son.’ After that, He saith to the disciple: ‘Behold thy Mother.’ And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.” —John 19:26–27 The third leaf on the vine of the…
Read MoreReflections on the Passiontide
During the next two weeks, the poignant drama of Calvary will again be enacted in the sublime worship of the Church. Faithful people will flock to the churches, to the amazement of a skeptical and irreligious world, and they will not be mere witnesses of the greatest tragedy in history. They will be actors in…
Read MoreJesus Goes to Jerusalem
In the morning, while the Apostles were engaged at Jerusalem in preparing for the Pasch, Jesus, who had remained at Bethania, took an affecting leave of the holy women, of Lazarus, and of His Blessed Mother, and gave them some final instructions. I saw Our Lord conversing apart with His Mother, and He told her,…
Read MoreSt. Teresa of Avila’s Concept of Meditation
WE HAVE EMPHASIZED, with calculated repetition, St. Teresa’s fundamental theory of meditation: a loving conversation with Christ. St. Teresa, though, was a clever pedagogue; she realized that it is alarmingly difficult to kneel down and inaugurate conversation with Christ immediately. Human nature being what it is, our thoughts quickly wander from prayer. Therefore, she proposed…
Read MoreOn Why a Crown is Fitting for Our Lady
In the longing of my soul, in the joy of the Holy Spirit, in the most genuine love, and in the Word of Truth, I wish to extol you, to praise you, and to bless you, O Virgin Mary! For you are more radiant than the Sun; in appearance, you are more beautiful; in faith…
Read MoreHow the Blessed Will Go Up Into Heaven After the Judgment: (Part II)
Next will come the choir of archangels, and with them those saints who have deserved a place in this second angelic choir. God-fearing married people, devout widows, besides other pious persons who have lived in the world, will, adorned in marvellous beauty, laud and magnify God with the archangels. In the third place will come…
Read MorePath of Perfection
But those who at this time are going on to perfection proceed in a very different way, and in a very different temper of mind: they grow and are built up in humility, not only looking on their own works as nothing, but also dissatisfied with themselves; they look upon all others as much better,…
Read MoreThe Life of St. Benedict: Conquering the Flesh and the Devil
How He Overcame a Temptation of the Flesh The holy man, being on a certain day alone, the tempter was at hand; for a little black bird, commonly called thrush, began to fly about his face, and that so near that the holy man, if he would, might have taken it with his hand; but…
Read MoreThe 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,…
Read MoreSt. 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…
Read MoreDo 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreJoseph’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…
Read MoreEnd 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.…
Read MoreWitness 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreSpiritual Pride
WHEN beginners become aware of their own fervor and diligence in their spiritual works and devotional exercises, this prosperity of theirs gives rise to secret pride—though holy things tend of their own nature to humility—because of their imperfections; and the issue is that they conceive a certain satisfaction in the contemplation of their works and…
Read MorePride, the Mother and Queen of the Vices
Saint Thomas is clear in defining the overarching vice or inspirer of all the seven capital vices. He defines it first as a disordered love for personal excellence in excess of right reason. Then, as a special sin, pride leads to a lack of subjection to God’s rule, or commandments, and the undue estimation of…
Read MoreGrowth in Humility: Which Virtues Do You Lack?
Read the lives of the Saints, and consider whose life your own most resembles: what degree of sanctity do you possess? If you were to die at this moment, to what part of Paradise would you think yourself destined? Perhaps among the innocents? No one is innocent who has committed even one mortal sin; and…
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