MY oldest friend, mine from the hour When first I drew my breath; My faithful friend, that shall be mine, Unfailing, till my death; Thou hast been ever at my side; My Maker to thy trust Consign'd my soul, what time He framed The infant child of dust. No beating heart in holy prayer, [...]
John Henry Newman referred to the day on which he became a Catholic, 9th October 1845, as simply, “my day”. In his early evangelical days he thought that the Church of Rome had added to the original deposit of faith. “Now I come to two other works, which produced a deep impression on me in the same Autumn of 1816, when [...]
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) is one of the sweetest and toughest of God's Saints. This hyper-sensitive and resilient young woman has a lot to teach us about the value of suffering: that if we willingly accept our suffering and offer it up to God, His grace will turn it into something salvific, both for ourselves and for [...]
The shrine of our Lady of Walsingham is a notable part of the Catholic history of England. In 1061 our Lady appeared there in a vision to a pious Norfolk lady, Richeldis de Faverches, and asked her to build a replica of the house at Nazareth where the Annunciation had taken place. Richeldis did as our Lady asked, and the [...]
Nineteen years ago tomorrow, on the day before the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales, an 87-year-old Albanian woman named Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu passed quietly from this life into the life of eternity. Her death attracted little attention, and although she had gained a certain amount of fame in her later years, her life and achievements were judged less newsworthy [...]
On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14th September) the sombre shadows of Holy Week are absent and throughout the month of September we glory in the triumph of Christ’s Holy Cross as the instrument of our salvation. It saves. It heals. It restores. It transforms. The sin in our lives, the pains we inflict on ourselves and [...]
Several medieval European courts retained a court jester. One of his functions was to be a thorn in the side of the royals, especially the monarch. The jester’s job was to stop the great and the grand from thinking too highly of themselves. Rulers were usually surrounded by sycophants and flatterers. They needed jesters to counterbalance the praise and admiration [...]
ADEAMUS CUM FIDUCIA (Hebrews 4:16) At the end of her earthly life Mary of Nazareth was taken to heaven body and soul. Why? So that her Immaculate Heart could fulfill its eternal destiny and continue the work for which the Almighty had created her. When we speak of someone’s heart, we speak of that person in their truest and deepest nature. [...]
At the end of her earthly life the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken to heaven, body and soul. This dogma proclaims an essential truth of the Christian religion, a religious truth necessary for our salvation. Did our Lady actually die, or did she begin the life of the resurrection without undergoing bodily death? The 1950 papal definition of the dogma [...]
St Laurence’s martyrdom earned him a place in the Roman canon and the ancient basilica built over his tomb in Rome is one of the seven major churches of the city. Laurence was one of Rome’s seven deacons, administering the Church’s goods and giving alms to the poor. He was a confidant of Pope St Sixtus II, who suffered martyrdom [...]