In a Life that is All Hidden
Tomorrow is the 374th anniversary of the profession of Catherine de Bar under the Rule of Saint Benedict. It was the feast of the Translation...
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...
Mectildian Jubilee Year: 1614—2014
Ten Reasons Why the Mectildian Jubilee Year Is Significant for the Whole Church 1. Catherine Mectilde de Bar, born at Saint–Dié in Lorraine (France) on...
Let their healing redound to the glory of God
People burdened with sufferings of all sorts often come to the monastery to ask for our prayers. I often recommend enrolling the sick, the burdened,...
A priest can do so much for God
Dom Columba Marmion was 31 years old and a monk of Maredsous for three years when, in November 1889, he wrote the following to a...
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...
Corpus Christi 2014
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Come to Me all you who labor and are heavily burdened
Pope Pius XII and Eucharistic Adoration Already, in the years immediately following the Second World War, and mostly in northern Europe, voices were raised in...
I set thee apart for myself
“I claimed thee for my own before ever I fashioned thee in thy mother’s womb; before ever thou camest to birth, I set thee apart...
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....
Betake thyself to the Church
This morning at Matins, in his homily on Luke 5, Saint Ambrose said: An Example for Our Imitation It was no chance occurence, this healing...
Leo XIII on Devotion to the Holy Ghost
Invoke the Holy Ghost We ought to pray to and invoke the Holy Ghost, for each one of us greatly needs His protection and His...
Consecration of Priests to the Holy Spirit
For Pentecost I translated this passage from the Spiritual Journal of Concepción (Conchita) Cabrera de Armida. In it Our Lord speaks to Conchita concerning his...
Veni Sancte Spiritus
This is, I think, my favourite English translation of the “Golden Sequence,” the Veni Sancte Spiritus. I found it in Maurice Zundel’s classic, The Splendour...
Whitsunday
A Pentecost Meditation Alleluia! Today the Breath of the Lord has invaded the cosmos and filled it! Life spills out of the Cenacle and, like...
O Divine Spirit
Fifth Grade It was 1962. I was in 5th grade in Saint Francis School when, under the tutelage of the formidable Sister M. Raymond, we...
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...