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Post haec vidi turbam magnam…After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. (Apoc. 7:9)

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

What a marvelous thing it is, this epic story of the Saints! From age to age their saga fills the pages of the Church’s martyrology and captures the imaginations of Christ’s faithful, both young and old. The Apocalypse of Saint John shows us these holy men and women as they shine in the glory of Heaven; the lives of the Saints, on the other hand, present to the eyes of our soul the edifying and often dramatic narrative […]

Benedicite Dominum, omnes Angeli…Bless the Lord, all ye his Angels : you that are mighty in strength, and execute his word, hearkening to the voice of his orders.

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

It is Our Lord Himself, who sets forth the spiritual and very sobering tone for today’s feast of the great Saint Michael and of all the Holy Angels. Here is what He says:

Whosoever…shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven: and he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me; but he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that […]

Assumpta est Maria in caelum…Mary has been taken up into heaven: the Angels rejoice; in hymns of praise they bless the Lord. (First Antiphon of Lauds)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

Sometimes we Christians are forced to stop and ponder, especially upon hearing more scandalous news concerning ecclesiastical matters, how the Church continues to exist at all and make its way amid the ups and downs, the persecutions and various tribulations of its history, including cruel deceptions such as the betrayal by some of its most eminent members. It is all a mystery as is commonly held. There are questions which will never fully be elucidated until the day of eternity. We can only try to understand. One factor to be considered here, however, is that the Church […]

Sancte Pater Benedicte, intercede pro nobis. Holy Father Benedict, intercede for us.

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

According to Dom Delatte, the third abbot of Saint-Pierre of Solesmes in France, “Experience shows that no earthly fatherhood has ever so closely resembled the fatherhood of God as did St. Benedict’s” (Commentary on the Rule, Prologue). Indeed, Saint Benedict is known to us monks as “Our Blessed Father.” He has also been called by Church historians “the Patriarch of the monks of the West.” A patriarch, as we know, is the head of a family or of a family of families, the first of a line of fathers presiding over a whole people, as was the case with the Patriarch Abraham to whom God said,

I […]

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 […]