“In the first book, O The-oph′ilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.”— Acts 1, 1-2 “The fortieth day after Easter Sunday, commemorating the Ascension of Christ… Read More The Glorious Feast of the Ascension
O Jesus. Meek and humble of heart, Hear me.From the desire of being esteemed,Deliver me, Jesus.***From the desire of being loved…From the desire of being extolledFrom the desire of being honored…From the desire of being praisedFrom the desire of being preferred to others…From the desire of being consultedFrom the desire of being approvedFrom the fear… Read More Litany of Humility
St. Joseph the Worker Shrine, Lowell, Massachusetts. Jesus calms the storm. This Week’s Messagefrom Fr. AmesseApril 23, 2023 In a month, we will celebrate the “40 Hours Devotion.” The Holy Eucharist will be exposed on the altar for approximately 40 hours. St. John Neumann made the 40 Hours Devotion popular as Bishop of Philadelphia (1852-1860). … Read More He Is Here. And He is Not Silent.
+ Earliest ‘Jesus is God’ inscription found — deemed ‘greatest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls’. See NYPost, November 2024 Bishop’s Encyclopedia of Religion, Society and Philosophy Jesus Mythicism As Dan Brown in his book The Da Vinci Code writes, “Nothing in Christianity is original.” Much is meant by Brown’s words. It is in recent… Read More Reasons Why Scholars Know Jesus Is Not A Copy Of Pagan Religions
G. K. Chesterton: “In this story of Good Friday it is the best things in the world that are at their worst. That is what really shows us the world at its worst. It was, for instance, the priests of a true monotheism and the soldiers of an international civilisation. Rome, the legend, founded upon… Read More Man could do no more… Pilate “washed his hands of the world”
Patience in Penance. Fourteen Years the Abbot spent on Overcoming One Fault. “Love demands a complete inner transformation – for without this we cannot possibly come to identify ourselves with our brother… And this involves a death of selfishness In the Verba Seniorum [Words of the Elders] we read of Abbot Ammonas, who spent fourteen… Read More Perseverance, Patience, Penance.
Francis X. Maier writes. , “… We live in unsettled times. Elites in the developed world have been shedding Christianity like dead skin for decades. Their grip on our popular entertainment, news content, and emerging technologies has dragged many millions of otherwise good people along with them. Big corporations wield inordinate political power. Unelected government… Read More Not Comfortable but Free
Rom. 8:22 For we know that every creature groans and travails in pain, even till now. 23 And not only it, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saved by hope.… Read More The Whole Creation Groans
“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” — Matt. 2:18 Ireland: Irish journalist John Waters, who started his journalistic career writing about youth and Rock ‘n Roll, sadly notes, “There was a moment close to the beginning… Read More Lamentation For Ireland. John Waters
By Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, O.C.D O my Savior, Word of God, how can I doubt that You are coming upon earth to save and sanctify me? Why do I not go to You with complete, loving confidence, when You have spared nothing to show me Your infinitely merciful love? Your Incarnation, Your… Read More The Greater Interior Silence of Advent
There are many people who will cite the West as something which is under threat and something for which we should be prepared to fight to defend. Depending on which defender of the West is pontificating, the threat comes from Russia, or from Islam, or from China, or from some enemy within the West itself.… Read More Is the West Worth Defending? By Joseph Pearce.
The New Oxford Review. In our October [1987] symposium, Thomas Molnar, an authority on all things French, threw out the intriguing morsel that the New Oxford Review seems to be following in the footsteps of Esprit, the French Catholic review founded in 1932 by Emmanuel Mounier (who lived from 1905 to 1950). Although we would… Read More Are We “Personalists”?
History: “In the idyllic pastoral setting of East Anglia, in the county of Norfolk, and located just over one mile from Walsingham, stands the little Slipper Chapel, a shrine dating back to the mid 14th century. Within this tiny shrine is kept the familiar Catholic statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. At this point, pilgrims… Read More Daily Mass at The Slipper Chapel, Walsingham
I admire much that Jordan Peterson has done and said. Very much. But I cannot accept his thought entirely regarding the question of Meaning in our lives and times, which he and others have publicly discussed, and which many admire. To the contrary, it is Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8),… Read More Jordan Peterson on Meaning
John E. Fagan “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come… Read More John Paul II on Faith, Reason and Nihilism
Our Lord Jesus Christ gives up(1) on none. Nobody. God help us from ever holding on to any Pharisee within. Brennan Manning writes of brokenness, “My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same… Read More Vulgar Grace
by Malcolm Muggeridge The coming of Jesus into the world is the most stupendous event in human history. Is our [modern] skepticism one more manifestation of our having–in Bonhoeffer’s unhappy phrase–come of age? It would be difficult to support such a proposition in the light of the almost inconceivable credulity of today’s brain-washed public, who… Read More Jesus the Man Who Lives, And the Credulity of Our Age
Their lives amazingly intersected. And he prayed in her convent’s chapel. Hear the story. —- Divine Mercy and the Lonely
Msgr. Timothy Verdon, the director of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, told CNA “The images of suffering that the Pietà always implies I think will deeply touch people. I think that visitors will be moved to see these works,” he said. The image of the Pietà evokes “the personal suffering of mothers who hold their… Read More How Michelangelo’s 3 Pietàs speak to a suffering world
By Brian Kelly. It is written (Ezechiel 18:22): “I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live.” Saint Thomas in the third part of his Summa Theologica, Q. 86, art. 1 uses this quote from Ezechiel in his Sed Contra to refute the… Read More Forgiveness. “I Will Not Remember Their Sins”
It is not without significance that Divine Mercy Sunday Follows Easter. For Mercy is the fruit of Easter. And Jesus came not to call the righteous but Sinners into his kingdom (Luke 5:32). He came “to seek and to save that which was lost”. Mercy is the revelation of the very heart of God and the Good… Read More Nihilism and the Divine Pity
Whatever our expressed agreements with some of the moral aspects of issues on either side, like Jesus the Lord very many of us Christians refuse political zealots on both the Left and on the Right. We seek no partisan revolution. In the final sense we know we are pilgrims. We know our Kingdom is not… Read More Our Kingdom is Not of This World
Regarding the U.S. bishops upcoming document on the Eucharist, Progressivist Jesuit Thomas Reese proffers some telling theological suggestions: Reese: “… the document should not use the word “transubstantiation,” which is a theological concept based on Aristotelian philosophy, not the Scriptures. I believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, but… Read More Jesuit Former ‘America’ Editor to Bishops: Drop Trans – substantiation and the Worship of Jesus
The Gospel of John. Chapter 1. [The divinity and incarnation of Christ. John bears witness of him. He begins to call his disciples.] [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made… Read More The Revolutionary Mosaic Law
Understanding the Epistemological Foundations of Scientific Totalitarianism by Phillip D. Collins 2009 Scientific totalitarianism is certainly not a new topic in the halls of political science and history. Given its bloody legacy of democide (i.e., state-sanctioned genocide, mass murder, and politicide) and its prolific spread throughout the world, scientific totalitarianism remains a preoccupying sociopolitical phenomenon… Read More The Faustian Face of Modern Science
Catholicism is more than the approximate metaphysical core which Lewis called “mere Christianity,” but it is certainly not less. C.S. Lewis remains an important ally to all Catholic believers in a way that liberal-neomodernist “Catholics” (who are really unbelievers) can never be. Begin with the Gospel of John. 2.) Lewis on The Shocking Alternative 3.)… Read More C.S. Lewis on Cultural Religious Skepticism. The Invasion.
Here is our Hope and Consolation… wherever we are.
Zeffirelli Recalls Paul VI’s Help With Jesus of Nazareth Film. Pope Thanked Director for Work ROME, 5 NOV. 2007 (ZENIT) When the television miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth” was released 30 years ago, Pope Paul VI personally thanked Franco Zeffirelli for his work; but the series was a success only because of the Pontiff’s help, the… Read More Franco Zeffirelli Recalls Paul VI’s Help With Jesus of Nazareth Film
Catholic Critique 