"Ite ad Joseph" (Go to Joseph)—a million pilgrims a year visit the Oratory on Queen Mary Road in Montreal where these words are inscribed at the base of a statue of St. Joseph at the main entrance. In the Old Testament story of Joseph and h … [Read more...]
Magazine
The Maltese Bishops on Divorce and Remarriage
The ongoing fallout from the ambiguous norms of Amoris Laetitia (AL) continues, the most recent being a letter to clergy, “Criteria for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia,” issued January 8 by the Archbishop of Malta and the … [Read more...]
Prayer as the Key to Forgiveness
At times, the word "unforgiven" can be terrifying, especially if someone does not forgive us. We do not know what to think or what to do. Evil is all around us, and within us, and can easily magnify when forgiving is not practiced. However, … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
Question: Concerning Eucharistic adoration, some chapels have a small monstrance with a door in front of it and when people are not going to be present the whole time they are instructed to close the door. Is it alright to do this with … [Read more...]
Early Spring Reading
Jennifer Roback Morse & Betsy Kerekes, 101 Tips for Marrying the Right Person (Notre Dame, IN.: Ave Maria Press 2016), 127 pp. $13.95. Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-1-59471-671-3. Reviewed by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. Raïssa M … [Read more...]
Munus Docendi
Fr. Karl Rahner (1904-1984) began as a faith-filled and imaginative theologian, someone who, even now, still provides unmatchable insights into the nature of divinity, and into the searching soul who longs to cleave to God. Rahner worked … [Read more...]
Martyrdom and Us
Writing about the martyrs is a little daunting when I reflect on my own numerous infidelities to the Lord, even under the most trivial of social pressures. To use a phrase in English, I cannot “hold a candle” to giants like St. Thomas More a … [Read more...]
Children of Divorce: Conflicts and Healing
“Children need their parents’ stable union.”[1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican, 2003), n. 2381.] The numerous psychological and spiritual struggles in the child of divorce (henceforth referred to as COD) are documented bo … [Read more...]
Silence and Weakness
The Martyrdom of Alfred Delp and the Apostasy of Sebastian Rodrigues
What ultimately makes a Christian martyr—an individual’s heroism or the grace of God? Martyrdom is a radical call to assume the form of Christ’s self-sacrifice on the Cross for the sake of others, however the martyr’s vocation neither consis … [Read more...]
The Rich Man and Lazarus: a Modern and Patristic Reflection
Lazarus at the Rich Man's Door by James Tissot In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the parable begins with a description of the rich man and his life of luxury and excess. He is portrayed as a member of the elite, … [Read more...]
The Work of a Master Carpenter
I just finished watching, for a third time, the movie: The Passion of the Christ. After this latest viewing, I was deeply moved by the particular scenes involving Christ and the cross: the wooden beams he was made to carry; the wooden beams … [Read more...]
The Plain Duty of Fasting
Is not the neglect of this plain duty (I mean fasting, ranked by our Lord with almsgiving and prayer) one general occasion of deadness among Christians? Can anyone willingly neglect it and be guiltless?[1. John Wesley, The Journal of John … [Read more...]
Homilies for March 2017
Ash Wednesday—March 1, 2017 Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030117.cfm JL 2:12-18; PS 51:3-4, 5-6AB, 12-13, 14 and 17; 2 COR 5:20—6:2; MT 6:1-6, 16-18 “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin….” I used t … [Read more...]
Bl. Columba Marmion on Living in Christ
Fr. Aidan Nichols in his book, Christendom Awake, rightly points out that we have lost the cultural foundation of the spiritual life. In the modern world, God is perceived as absent and there is an intense focus on the individual. … [Read more...]
Lead Us Not Into Temptation
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor 13:11). It is a very good thing to learn one’s faith at a young age. And it is a very good thing … [Read more...]















Recent Comments