The whole point of authentic Christian meditation is not just to come to know and love the most divine and loveable of human beings who once walked on this earth. The truth is far more profound, for the very same Christ whom we are coming to know and love in our meditation on his life [...]
We all know the dangers of too much noise, the dissipating distraction of too much chatter. Yet not all silence is good. There is a painful silence when a conversation has died because no one knows what to say. Even worse is the silence that follows a quarrel. But of course, silence can also be [...]
If we are beginning a journey upon which our whole future depends, it is of paramount importance to understand exactly where we are going. When we begin to pray seriously, St Teresa of Ávila makes it clear that our destination is what she called the Mystical or Spiritual Marriage. If we are beginning a journey [...]
Just as the Catholic Faith has been reduced to little more than an intellectual philosophy of life for the clergy—all head and no heart—the same happened to the laity, who depend on them for their spirituality. In the immediate aftermath of the Council of Trent, Catholic spirituality, in both theory and practice, reached a height never [...]
Before He was born as Christ the King on earth, He was “born” in the “mind” and “heart” of God as Christ the King in Heaven. He was firstly born in eternity before time began, so that the glory that reigned in Heaven could also reign on earth, in Him. However, if God’s Son was [...]
Although there may be a hundred and one things that can be done in a Jubilee Year, there is one thing above all others, without which everything else is pointless. First and foremost, it is a time to turn back and embrace anew the only form of love that can unite us with God. In [...]
God is always there, searching us out, and he is always saying, “Where are you?”, not because he does not know where we are, but because we do not know where we are, nor where we are going when sin and shame make us run from the only One who can heal us. Could have [...]
Many years ago, I had a wonderful plumber who was always there when I needed him. Nothing was too much trouble, both night and day, on weekends, and even on holidays, when he never charged more than the current rate. Sad to say, I never really appreciated him. He was just the man I turned to [...]
The first Christians practised a way of life they simply called ‘The Way’ in which they received God’s love endlessly poured out by their Risen Lord. They called this the spiritual life because the love of the Risen Lord was none other than the Holy Spirit, the One whose love had bonded the Father to [...]
Christianity is primarily concerned with teaching us how to turn and open ourselves to receive the same Holy Spirit who filled Jesus Christ. The more we are filled with His love, the easier it is to return it in kind, as the divine suffuses and then surcharges human love so that it can reach up [...]
Contemplation is the prayer in which our love is directed toward God in Christ, where it is purified and refined until it sufficiently resembles His love for the union for which we yearn to take place. Without the infused virtues and the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that were given in contemplation, [...]
The Church, through the wonderful devotion of the Office of the Dead, allows us to both grieve and hope for the ones we’ve lost. St. Braulio, addressing death itself, says: “But your power is broken. Your heinous yoke has been destroyed by the One who sternly threatened you when Hosea cried out, 'O Death! I [...]
Our God is a God of both justice and mercy. The Psalms remind us that “the Lord is just and loves just deeds” (Ps 11:7) and that he is also “gracious and merciful” (Ps 111:4). These twin divine attributes, mercy and justice, are so closely paired that to ask about God’s mercy and to ask [...]
We pray, O almighty and eternal God, who through Jesus Christ has revealed thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of your name. We pray Thee, who alone are good and holy, to [...]