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Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. (Luke 22:31-32)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very Dear Sons,

There are two ways to consider the great mystery of the Church (at least two ways), two perspectives on this institution that is divine in its constitution and preservation from error, but all too human in its earthly members. We might consider the Church going from the top down, beginning with the eternal Shepherd, Christ, Our Lord, Himself, who is its transcendent head, descending all the way to the most recently appointed altar boy or least conspicuous member of the faithful, passing in review every intermediate […]

Emitte spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae. Send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. (Ps. 103:30)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very Dear Sons,

Today, on the feast of Pentecost or Whitsunday as it is also called, we celebrate a certain beginning. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit of God did not exist before it came upon the Apostles in the Upper Room or that the Church herself had no existence prior to the apparition of tongues of fire and the great wind that shook the whole house where the Apostles were gathered along with the Blessed Virgin Mary. From the dawn of Creation, as we read in the Book of Genesis, the Spirit of […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

On Easter morning, the first day of the week according to the way of counting in Israel, following the terrible drama of the Lord’s most sorrowful Passion, including the abandonment He suffered on the part of His Apostles and Disciples – they had fled the mortal danger that threatened them as well; after those hours, heavy with sadness, during which the Body of Christ remained in the Tomb under armed guard, while Saint Peter and the others cowered in fear within their homes; during all of this the world was in dire need of some good news. Few, indeed, were those who realized that the Savior Himself, the Messiah Promised to the people of God, had really come into the world, being born of […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

The entire Catholic Church gathers today to celebrate a most solemn moment in the liturgical year. The sacred actions and words of the Lord on the occasion of His impending Passion have changed the world forever and will resound throughout the centuries until the end of time, as long as one faithful Christian keeps this mystery in his or her heart, as long as at least one honest man remains alive to remember these tremendous things. Never did the words of a mere mortal, whether philosopher, statesman, or poet, so move the human race to honor and adore God in spirit and in truth as did and still do the words recorded by Saint John in the great discourse of farewell we have in […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

Just awhile ago we were processing with palms in our hands, singing the liturgical Hosanna pium that re-echoes each year those ecstatic praises sung by the children long ago, when the Messiah Himself, the Savior of the world, road upon a humble donkey along the road into Jerusalem. What could be more fitting, more beautiful? But just now we have listened to a far different chant, a song of sorts, but not a joyful song. We heard with no small sorrow the inspired words of Saint Matthew relating the Passion of the Lord. Now it is no longer the Hosanna that rings in our ears, but the dreadful cries of Crucifigatur, Let Him be crucified! (Mt. 27:22)

To be sure, the Passion is the […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My Very Dear Sons,

A great thinker once wrote something to the effect that all Philosophy is really a meditation on death, not in any morbid sense of the word, not as would be some unhealthy obsession with death, but in the sense that the human mind, searching for an understanding of our condition on earth, naturally turns at some point to the ultimate questions about our existence, including that of our final end. Why do we live? Why do we die? Socrates, in his own heroic death, demonstrated the truth of the idea that this is the fundamental interrogation.

As we are now in Passion Week, the liturgical time leading up to Holy Week and the climax of the whole liturgical cycle, our thoughts are centered […]