Avery Cardinal Dulles (1918-2008)
Cardinal Dulles died this morning, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The following lines written in 1946, and already marked by profound humility...
Cleansing of the Mind
Here is today’s Collect in the Missale Romanum and in the Liturgia Horarum. In the 1962 Missale Romanum it is the Collect of the Second...
Our Lady in Advent
This morning at Vigils the Second Reading was from a homily by Abbot Geoffrey of Admont. It was wonderfully suitable, coming after the feasts of...
The Heavenly Physician
I cannot resist offering a little commentary on the Collect of the day, one of Advent’s most beautiful prayers: Omnipotens Deus, qui nos praecipis iter...
The Beauty of God Shining on the Face of Christ
The mystery of the Face of Christ is a constant motif in the writings and teachings of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Again, at...
Ave, liber incomprehensus
At Matins this morning I listened, enchanted, to Saint Epiphanius’ rapturous praises of the All-Holy Mother of God. The witness of Saint Epiphanius is precious:...
Ioannem quaerit, Ioannem desiderat, ad Ioannem vadit
At Matins this morning there were two stupendous readings from Benedictine sources: one from Saint Peter Damian, Bishop (1007-1072), and the other from Saint Bede...
Non transalpinare necesse est
Non te opportet, o homo, maria transfretare, non penetrare nubes, non transalpinare necesse est. Non grandis, inquam, tibi ostenditur via: usque ad temetipsum occurre Deo...
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende
The Divine Office I am eager to address a number of questions that readers have raised about the Divine Office but, given that a good...
Invenisti gratiam apud Deum
Advent and the Annunciation Our Lady, the glorious Virgin of Isaiah’s prophecy (Is 7:14), is everywhere present in the liturgy of Advent, and this from...
Re-enrolling in the Church’s School of Prayer
Today’s Collect Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, hanc tuis fidelibus voluntatem, ut, Christo tuo venienti iustis operibus occurentes, eius dexterae sociati, regnum mereantur possidere caeleste. Almighty...
A Prayer for Priests
O LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who hast commanded that the men whom Thou hast called and set apart for the service of Thy holy altars, should...
Those Noble Hymns
Those noble hymns, which had solaced anchorites on their mountains, monks in their cells, priests in bearing up against the burden and heat of the...
At the service of all those touched by grace
The Suitable and the Unsuitable There is much discussion in ecclesiastical and monastic circles about the discernment of vocations. One gets the impression, at times,...
And Yet That Wounded Side Sheds Grace
The hymn at Vespers of Christ the King evokes both the feast of Corpus Christi and that of the Sacred Heart. This is consonant with...
We Are Thine and Thine We Wish to Be
“We institute the Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be observed yearly throughout the whole world. . . . We further...
Prophetic Words of Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI promulgated this text on December 11, 1925, in the Encyclical Quas Primas, instituting the feast of Christ the King. Read it, if...
My Name is Thomas Aquinas
An Amazing Story Madrid, Nov 12, 2008 / 09:21 pm (CNA).- The Spanish daily “La Razon” has published an article on the pro-life conversion of...
Seeking the Intercession of Father Lukas
I am beginning today a novena to Father Lukas Etlin, O.S.B., a monk of Conception Abbey known for his tender devotion to the Mother of...
Christ in His Mysteries
A Book for Advent and for the Whole Liturgical Year Advent is but a fortnight away. For many years I have had the practice of...