Tu Rex gloriae, Christe
The Sunday Before All Saints In the traditional calendar of the Roman Rite, the Feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope Pius XI in...
Finding the Cross in Paschaltide
The image shows the mosaic in the apse of Sant’Appollinare in Classe in Ravenna with its glorious Crux Gemmata (bejeweled Cross), having at its centre,...
Yes, Tomorrow Is Septuagesima Sunday
Looking toward Holy Pascha Tomorrow is Septuagesima Sunday. In three weeks our heads will be marked with the ashes of penitence. A special time of...
Days of Grace
I have always experienced the last days of September and the first week of October (September 29 — October 7) as a moment of spiritual...
Sacra Liturgia Releases Official Text
Robert Cardinal Sarah: Towards an Authentic Implementation of Sacrosanctum Concilium SACRA LITURGIA announces: “It is our privilege to publish the official text of the Opening...
Mass of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour
Introit Rejoice we all in the Lord, as we keep festival in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary: whose solemnity makes angels joyful and sets...
I offer on the altar the spotless Lamb
I remember when, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, it was fashionable in some ecclesiastical and academic circles to sniff dismissively at the Lessons...
Correspondence on the Monastic Vocation 20
Disclaimer: The series of letters entitled “Correspondence on the Monastic Vocation”, while based on the real questions of a number of men in various places...
Love, Sorrow, and the Encounter with the Divine
On Monday last, 6 July 2015, at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI was honoured with a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the John Paul II Pontifical University of Krakow...
Restoring Ireland to Christ
In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men...
Dom Guéranger: A Prophet
In his commentary on the lessons for the Ember Saturday in Lent, Dom Guéranger (1805-1875) writes: Does one want to understand the solidity of a...
Only God Can Thank God for God Worthily
Thanksgiving originates in the heart of the Son who, from all eternity is begotten of the Father and who, receiving Himself from the Father, in...
Sicut filii carissimi in dilectione
Letter of Dom Columba Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, to Father Louis Peeters, S.J., Provincial of the Belgian Province of the Company of Jesus I took...
The Mass — You Can’t Live Without It, Part II
Here is Part II of the talk I gave on Saturday: The Liturgy, Summit and Wellspring The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, affirms...
Nowhere else, as in the liturgy
Blessed Columba Marmion’s doctrine concerning the liturgy is luminous and serene. His repetition of the phrase, “nowhere, as in the liturgy” affirms the teaching of...
More on the Benedictine-Jesuit Conundrum
The “Deputation” Argument The whole Benedictine—Jesuit controversy of the beginning of the last century is something that has long captured my attention. My own research...
Until Christ be formed in us
Mediator Dei When, in 1947, Pope Pius XII wrote the encyclical Mediator Dei, he was fully and painfully conscious of two opposing currents of thought...
The liturgy: foremost and indispensable
Blaming the Jesuits Father Blake of Brighton, with his customary candour, writes in a recent post: I blame the Jesuits and the Spirit of the...
750th Anniversary of the Institution of the Feast of Corpus Domini
In preparation for the festival of Corpus Christi, it is fitting to re–read Pope Benedict’s discourse on Saint Juliana and the origins of the feast....
The most convincing of sermons
In a Holy Fear Holy Mass celebrated worthily, reverently, and carefully is itself the most convincing of sermons. The priest who stands before the altar...