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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,

As you perhaps remember, when the prophet Elijah, fleeing the persecution of Jezabel, had come to Mount Horeb after a long walk through the desert, the word of the Lord came to him and a great revelation was given. While the prophet stood before God on the mountain, a strong wind that shook the whole earth around him shattering stones came up, but God was not in that wind and earthquake. Nor was He in the fire that followed. Then there came a whistling of gentle air, and Elijah covered his face with his mantle, […]

Brethren…Christ our Pasch is sacrificed. Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I Cor. 5.

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

Today is the greatest of days, the most venerable of feasts: it is a day when dark and sad things give way to what is entirely luminous and blessed. All hell was leagued against the Lord in His Most Sorrowful Passion; all of heaven rejoices to see Him rise from the dead as we celebrate the victory of God’s infinite mercy over the powers of evil. It is such a victory that the darkness is nearly forgotten and will evaporate someday like so much smoke or an evil dream, when […]

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

In a real way it was the Lord’s own feet that would have needed attention during the Last Supper, even more than those of the Apostles. Not that Jesus’ feet were somehow impure, but because they were about to be cruelly pierced by nails. They needed no cleaning, but they needed anointing. However, as we know, Mary, the sister of Martha, whom tradition identifies with Mary Madeleine, had thought about this matter earlier. It happened six days before the Pasch in Bethany.

Jesus therefore, six days before the Pasch, came to Bethania, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus raised to life. And they made him a supper there: and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that were at table with him. […]

Behold a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.

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

Christian antiquity, following traditions modern historians can neither confirm nor deny, recognized the 25th of March as the actual day of Our Lord’s death as well as being the day of the Annunciation. It was further argued that the coming of Our Lord at the Annunciation and His death must have coincided with the creation and fall of Adam. And since the world was created in spring, again according to the calculations of the ancients, the Savior was also conceived and died shortly after the equinox of spring. Today’s feast commemorating the springtime of the world and the springtime of Salvation, reminds us of the most sublime dialogue […]

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”

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

In a true manner, the “epiphany” or manifestation of the Messiah, the anointed One, has occupied the entire history of salvation.  It is a great beacon that shines both backward in time and forward, filling all the centuries until the end. Before His coming into the world, as we can read in the Old Testament, the Child, later to be revealed at the Epiphany, was made partially manifest in prophecies and figures, which, though veiled, remained clear enough for those poor enough in spirit, for those like Simeon and […]

At that time: there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled…And Joseph also went up from Galilee…

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

Something very big was at work in the Roman Empire some two thousand years ago—and something very small. One man ruled over all the nations of the earth conquered by the Romans; the other was just trying to make ends meet, while providing for an expectant mother. No mortal ever wielded greater worldly power than the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus; never was any human being less powerful, or less influential, at least in the eyes of the world, than Saint Joseph, the very chaste husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  And yet, nonetheless, the business of the obscure man, of […]