The Eucharist: Salvation, Life, and Resurrection
Tuesday of Holy Week Isaiah 49:1–6 Psalm 34:13, 1–2 John 13:21–33, 36–38 Go and Prepare the Passover for Us Sunday’s solemn chant of the Passion...
Open Thy Sacred Heart and Let Me In
Ah, awful Face of Love, bruised by my hand, Turn to me, pierce me with Thine eyes of flame, And give, me deeper knowledge of...
Sacramentum Caritatis: The Friendship of Christ
Reflections on Sacramentum Caritatis With the approach of Maundy Thursday — the solemn commemoration of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist and of the...
Spes Mea
Monday of Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-7 Psalm 26:1, 2, 3, 13-14 (R. v. 1a) John12:1-11 But After I Shall Be Risen The bright eighth mode...
Benedict XVI: The Face of God and the Cross of Christ
Yesterday, in his Palm Sunday homily, Pope Benedict XVI returned to what has become a leitmotif in his preaching: the Face of God. The Holy...
Into the Harbour of the Sacred Passion
A Word Out of Silence The chant of the Passion plunges us into silence. The Word has been silenced. Only a fool would dare to...
In Voluntate Tua
Guercino’s (1591–1666) Crowning With Thorns depicts two attitudes toward the Suffering Christ. On the one hand we see a soldier clad in armour. With a...
Pope Benedict XVI on Reparation
At a February 22, 2007 meeting of the Roman clergy with Pope Benedict XVI, Don Alberto Pacini, Rector of the Basilica of Sant’Anastasia, spoke of...
Ecce Agnus Dei
For Sidney Some time ago, a remarkable young man named Sidney wrote me from Brazil to ask for a blessed Agnus Dei. I promised him...
Liberator Meus
O blessed Passion of Christ! We contemplate Thee bound to the column of Thy cruel scourging and praise Thee with sorrowing love because by the...
Ciao, Paolo!
Paul Zalonksi of New Haven, Connecticut recently finished a month long experience of monastic life at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. While here he helped prepare...
And Healing to the Wounded Grant
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent Numbers 21: 4–9 Psalm 101: 1–2, 5–17, 18–20 (R. 1) John 8: 21–30 The Serpent and the Cross...
Passiontide Prayer
A number of years ago, while visiting the Augustinian Monastery of Malestroit in France, I was introduced to a prayer cherished by the incomparable Mère...
Lazare, veni foras!
Caravaggio’s Resurrection of Lazarus depicts a dead man stunned by his sudden return to life. The head of Christ is the very one Caravaggio painted...
Gazing on Christ’s Open Heart
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Ezechiel 47:1-9, 12 Psalm 45:2-3, 5-6, 8-9 John 5:1-16 All You That Thirst Today’s texts are just waiting...
Stational Mass at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
The Solemn Stational Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Lent will be celebrated in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme this evening, 18 March...
Mothering Sunday and the Golden Rose
Mothering Sunday The Church is our Mother; we were born of her womb in Baptism. She is our Mother because, as the Introit sings, she...
Eruditi et Nutriti
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent Deuteronomy 4:5-9 Psalm 147: 12-13, 15-16, 19-20 (R. 12a) Matthew 5:17-19 The Word Repeated The liturgy is circular,...
A Divine Enclosure Set Round About Our Hearts
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent Introit I cried out and you heard me, O God; bend your ear and hear my words: keep...
Quaerens me, sedisti lassus
Third Sunday of Lent John 4:5–52 A Monk’s Prayer Saint John makes a point of saying that, “Jesus, wearied as He was with His journey,...