St. 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…
On 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…
How 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…
Path 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,…
The 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…
The 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,…
St. 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…
Do 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…
