By Father Gabriel of St Mary Magalene, 1953. O Lord, increase my confidence in Your help and grant that in this confidence, I may always find courage to begin again. What most distresses souls of good will who are seriously trying to live a spiritual life, is to find themselves falling so many times, despite… Read More The Courage To Begin Yet Again
St. Bernard declared forcefully, “[You may say] I have committed a great sin. My conscience will be troubled but I will not despair because I remember the wounds of my Lord. For indeed, He was wounded for our iniquities. What sin is there so deadly that it cannot be remitted through the death of Christ?… Read More Never to despair
Ireland. So, you asked me,“Where’s it going?” Well, it’s pretty dark… Evil, in a strange way, brings us together, forces us to discover strands of commonality and fellowship in our seemingly divergent cultures. When I was growing up, the particularities of my homeland, Ireland seemed to function as a barrier to connections with other places.… Read More Explaining the Cycle of Ireland’s Constant Destruction. John Waters.
… in the face of Tribulations. The great modern Thomist, Josef Pieper, writes, “Fortitude … does not mean mere fearlessness. That man alone is brave who cannot be forced, through fear of transitory and lesser evils, to give up the greater and actual good, and thereby bring upon himself that which is ultimately and absolutely… Read More Christians, Called to Endure
“The Christian concept of witness adds to the popular notion the idea of a religious experience to which a believer testifies by his life, words, and actions, and thus gives inspiration and example to others by his testimony. “Implicit in Christian witness is also the element of courage in giving testimony, either because others are… Read More Fr. James Martin v. Catholic Courage
The Woke Reductionist trashing of ‘Sound of Freedom‘. “This year’s Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom is turning heads due to it becoming a surprise Independence Day hit. Over a million tickets have been sold ahead of its July 4 release, raking in more than $10 million in pre-sales, per Deadline. The PG-13 film is based on the true… Read More Just Another ‘White Man Savior’ Film? Jason Whitlock Analyses This Trope.
I “asked” Bing AI about those who see the traditional family as “a social structure of oppression” and who suggest that the dissolution of the traditional family might or would be a good thing for the world. I asked about those who say boys and girls, men and women, are becoming obsolete categories making room… Read More Catholic “Chat” with Bing AI About the Future, Family and Gender
By Father Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, O.C.D. Even without the presence of other causes, it is possible to pass from a state of sensible spiritual fervor to one of absolute aridity. This happens by the direct work of God which makes it impossible for the soul to pray with the help of the mind… Read More Aridity and Spiritual Progress
When after hundreds of years the LORD finally heard the prayers and cries of his people in Egypt and delivered them from slavery under Pharaoh, he led them into the desert where they suffered for another 40 or so years. And the people were not happy about it: Then they said to Moses, “Was it because there… Read More Real Faith is Not For the Fainthearted
“One of the most famous and most evil techniques of Maoist Marxism is the “struggle session” (dòuzhēng, 鬥爭; or pīpàn dòuzhēng, 批判鬥爭, “critical struggle”; or sometimes just pīdòu, 批鬥; also called “denunciation” sessions). “They were made famous during Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), but they were utilized in the Chinese thought-reform (xǐnǎo, 洗脑, lit. “wash brain”… Read More Surviving A Modern “Struggle Session”. James Lindsay.
“The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same… Read More Saints of Flesh and Blood
Oscar Wilde the would-be saint and Oscar Wilde the woeful sinner were in deadly conflict, one with the other… By Joseph Pearce|Liberal Learning, Literature. Oscar Wilde’s life is more scandalous today than it was during the Decadence of the 1890s. In fact, it is so scandalous that a current exhibition of his life and legacy… Read More Oscar Wilde’s Scandalous Secret
“The Christian may not despair; i.e ., he may not give up hoping that God will forgive his sins, or help him in adversity. Cain despaired when he said: “My sin is too great to be forgiven” ( Gen . iv. 13 ). Saul despaired by throwing himself on his sword when hard pressed in… Read More The Christian may not despair.
Catholic Critique 