At Baptism, all of us became like Christ, and were entrusted with a mission like his as priest, prophet, and king. During this Easter season, may we rejoice in the gift of sharing this unique identity and mission with the resurrected Christ. Have you noticed any themes in the prayers at Mass this Easter season? [...]
As spring returns, the blossoms come back to life, mirroring the spiritual fruits of love, hope, and faith that grow from Jesus’ redemption. This is a truly sacred time of the year. And it brings with it a profound tranquility, repose, and promise of renewal such as the world cannot give. “And they stood still, [...]
Everything needed for evil to conquer was overthrown on Easter morning; of that there is no doubt. But every individual must live that conflict in themselves, even now. Matt 28: 8-15 tells us something about the power of a garden. The women emerged amazed from the tomb and started to run to tell the disciples [...]
Jesus retaining his wounds teaches us that the wounds we endure are not condemnations from a shameful past, but are the means by which God brings us to heaven. “Wait… his hand is in him!?” cried the boy. Kids were screaming, markers were flying, little girls were pretending to faint, all at the sight of this [...]
O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The Catechetical Sermon of St. [...]
The sacrifice of Christ was totally effective. It could not be otherwise, given that He Who offered it was God. But it is important to grasp what it effected. Whatever it was meant to effect, it did effect. But what was it? At the moment of His death on Calvary, Christ Our Lord said, “It [...]
Several years ago, when I was in Europe leading a pilgrimage tour to England with Joseph Pearce, I learned that the Shroud of Turin was to be on display for veneration in Turin. After the pilgrimage in England I made my way to Italy where I was joined by a friend. After a few days [...]
God searches for every soul like the Lover searches for his Beloved in the Garden. The soul of the believer is the beautiful daughter, lovely like Jerusalem. As God walked in paradise with Adam, so he now dwells in the believer through grace. Before I entered the Order, I had the privilege of spending an [...]
Guiding the reader through the seven-week Easter season, Laura Bedingfeld's "Arise" offers daily meditations from Sacred Scripture, showing how the theme of resurrection is woven through the great saga of salvation history from the beginning. There are plenty of devotional aids produced for the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent, but not enough for the [...]
Glenn W. Olsen’s "The Turn to Transcendence" is a must-read for us who desire to topple the dictatorship of relativism and culture of death, and replace it with the only alternative: a civilization of love turned to the Face of Transcendence revealed in Jesus Christ. The Turn to Transcendence: The Role of Religion in the [...]
Irenaeus’s doctrine of divine pedagogy has definite application to the intellectual and spiritual life: It sets the tone for a lifestyle of quiet, patient growth in knowledge, through prayer and learning at the feet of the Lord. “Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) St. Irenaeus of Lyons is one of the major Christian [...]
For those doing all right by themselves like Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit, Christ’s Resurrection from the dead throws everything off balance because it introduces something entirely new. To believe the testimony of the Gospels opens avenues to happiness that are entirely discomfiting to the complacency of mere identity. Flannery O’Connor had a way of compressing whole [...]
St Mary Magdalen came very early to the tomb on Easter Morning. There is something crucial in the timing: it was still dark. Mary at this point was still going through a trial that had started with Jesus' arrest. She had very little to sustain her, knowing only the destruction of her Master's body on the [...]
"The Lord of the Rings" is not an allegorical story, nor should it be treated as such, but that does not mean that the story cannot be used to contemplate and plumb the depths of humanity and its relation to the divine. That J.R.R. Tolkien had a great dislike for his works being called “allegories” [...]