The Mother, the Child, and the Serpent
The New Adam Caravaggio’s Madonna dei Palafrenieri, first exhibited in Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1606, is wonderfully disturbing. While Grandmother Saint Anne looks on, the...
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...
Difficult Pastoral Situations: The Marian Solution
Difficult pastoral situations are nothing new. They are, in fact, as old as Mother Church herself. It has never not been hard to follow Our...
Solace for the Sizzling
On the Gridiron Saint Laurence is the patron saint of those who have sizzled (or may be sizzling) on the gridiron of lust. I have...
Castitatem amare
It is fitting on this feast of Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr, to offer some random thoughts on chastity, the joyful virtue. Chastity leads...
Catherine in My Life
Images Today’s feast of Saint Catherine brings to mind how she has moved about in my life at various times. Having grown up in a...
Never to despair of the mercy of God
Meeting the Saints How and when did Saint Benedict come into my life? He was not among the saints whom I came to know as...
Let thy heart be comforted, and wait for the Lord
1 Feb. 2 June. 2 Oct. The fourth degree of humility is, that if in this very obedience hard and contrary things, nay even injuries,...
Do what you can, and ask for what you cannot
A Pastoral Query Answered There was in the October 22, 2014 Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to a French priest’s...
First Holy Communion: 4 June 1959
This photograph was taken on the day of my First Holy Communion. Left to right: my dear little neighbour friend Brigitte Folz, at that time...
Sitting on the basket
Catholic Schadenfreude I grieve over the prevalence of the culture of Schadenfreude that modern technology facilitates. Schadenfreude is a kind of perverse delight taken in...
Massacre of the Innocents
A Hellish Crime The massacre of innocent children and of others ten days before Christmas, in my own home state of Connecticut, is evidence enough...
Prayer and Fasting
In the Sight of the Nations The impending presidential elections in the United States, and also the plight of Christians affected by the conflict in...
The Grace of Things Unplanned
Control Recently, I was led to think about the significance of surprises or, if you will, the grace of things unplanned and unforeseen. Having persevered...
Accedite ad eum et illuminamini
Morning Musings on the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians 5,16-24 I say then: Walk in the spirit: and you...
Stories Written by the Hand of God
The Grace of the Liturgic Word In offering Holy Mass and in preaching here at the Monastère-Sainte-Anne de Montmahoux, I am profoundly moved at the...
53 Years Ago: My First Holy Communion
This photograph was taken on the day of my First Holy Communion. Left to right: my dear little neighbour friend Brigitte Folz, at that time...
Selected Memories of a Catholic Boyhood
The Real Saint Francis There is no denying it: Saint Francis appeals to all sorts of people. Animal lovers, pacifists, environmentalists, non-Christians, secular humanists, and...
Ego sum vitis, vos palmites
John 15 After Holy Communion We held the blessing of grapes after Holy Mass, using the Latin text given in Father Weller’s Roman Ritual. It...
Thoughts on Chastity, the Joyful Virtue
The liturgy of the feast of Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr, inspired some random thoughts on chastity, the joyful virtue. Chastity leads to hope...