Miracle Fair Commonplace miracle: that so many commonplace miracles happen. An ordinary miracle: in the dead of night the barking of invisible dogs. One miracle out of many: a small, airy cloud yet it can block a large and heavy moon. Several miracles in one: an alder tree reflected in the water, and that it’s […]
You may be familiar with the book, 33 Days to Morning Glory which prepares readers for a consecration to Jesus through Mary. In this follow-up, 33 Days to Merciful Love: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Consecration to Divine Mercy, Fr. Michael Gaitley of the Marian Fathers invites us to make a consecration to Divine […]
The Servite Order was founded in 1233 AD, when a group of cloth merchants of Florence, Italy, left their city, families and professions to retire outside the city on a mountain known as Monte Senario. There they pursued a life of poverty and penance. In 1888 they were canonized by Pope Leo XIII. The seven […]
FLAVIAN was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 447. His short episcopate of two years was a time of conflict and persecution from the first. Chrysaphius, the emperor’s favorite, tried to extort a large sum of money from him on the occasion of his consecration. His fidelity in refusing this simoniacal betrayal of his trust brought […]
Requiescat in pace.
Many of you have read about the recent experimental detection of a gravity waves by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), another jewel-in-the-crown of empirical confirmations of Einstein’s General Relativity theory. And it came, appropriately, on the 100th anniversary of the publication of that theory. I’m not going to expound on the science of this fine piece […]
DON PEDRO II. of Portugal, when a child, had among his little pages a modest boy of rich and princely parents. Much had John de Britto—for so was he called—to bear from his careless-living companions, to whom his holy life was a reproach. A terrible illness made him turn for aid to St. Francis Xavier, […]
The minds of women who plan to get pregnant are flooded with concerns about the growing baby. One such concern involves drinking alcohol while pregnant. Today, most if not all OB/GYNs advise against imbibing because of the danger to the baby in utero and the possibility of fetal alcohol syndrome after birth. This avoidable condition […]
Some years ago I proudly came out of the “monogamy closet.” (See comments here.) Now, after over 42-plus years, my monogamy condition is unabated, in all its forms. I don’t “self identify” as a monogamist. I am a monogamist. Major mass media and Hollywood have had no effect on my ailment, and more than […]
VALENTINE was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with […]
Love’s Reach I reach for You With my life, All my life. It is not for naught, That You labored, Bore my sins. I reach for You With my thoughts. In the night, I contemplate Your Dying. Writhing in agony, Alone with hell’s phantoms, Blood called From Your flesh. More than a drop Spoke my […]
ALEXANDRINA of Ricci was the daughter of a noble Florentine. At the age of thirteen she entered the Third Order of St. Dominic in the monastery of Prato, taking in religion the name of Catherine, after her patron and namesake of Siena. Her special attraction was to the Passion of Christ, in which she was […]
Oil prices are important in high-income and developing countries.
BENEDICT was the son of Aigulf, Governor of Languedoc, and was born about 750. In his early youth he served as cup-bearer to King Pepin and his son Charlemagne, enjoying under them great honors and possessions. Grace entered his soul at the age of twenty, and he resolved to seek the kingdom of God with […]
Clinical depression borders on being an epidemic in our world. Consider that about 15 million adults in the United States have been diagnosed with the illness. And the number of people diagnosed with major depressive disorder has been increasing by about 20 percent annually. Although about a third of those people won’t get much relief […]
In 1858 our Lady appeared eighteen times to St. Bernadette at Lourdes France. Many miracles have been verified since the Blessed Virgin Mary’s first apparition on February 11th. Click here for more, including an audio.
ST. SEVERINUS, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic King Sigismund built […]
Lent is our time to be with Jesus in the desert, where He, in His humanity, experienced weakness, hunger and temptation. Jesus entered fully into our humanity and was like us in all things except sin. This is the unique mystery of the Incarnation, where our God suffers as one of us. Jesus can identify […]
In a recent conversation with a friend, she confided in me she had been suffering for an extended period of time from what she suspected was depression. Her family had requested she see a professional, but she was hesitant. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. “At what point do I turn to a doctor and feel […]
Man, drawn from the dust, must return to it. All that he does meanwhile is but corruption and vanity, with the exception of what good he may achieve. The good alone survives. Such are the truths which the Church wishes to engrave in the memory, but still more in the hearts of her children, by […]
Last week a committee of scientists and ethicists have recommended to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they approve three-parent embryo techniques for use in IVF in the United States. The committee calls it mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRT) because the goal is too “replace” defective mitochondria in woman with mitochondrial disease so they do […]
