The religious life and spirituality of the Carmel were clear and defining calls in the life of St John of the Cross. At eighteen, after finishing his studies in rhetoric and classical languages with the Jesuits in Medina del Campo, Ávila, Spain, he started his journey into the Carmelite order in 1563. Shortly afterwards, he…
Catechism of the Catholic Church Christ commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline. The Gospel was handed on in two ways: orally – preaching – and in writing. The bishops are…
Fr Alan Hilliard I was speaking to a friend of mine a few weeks ago. She’s been having a difficult time. To put her son through college and to pay off debts she was working two jobs. Eventually she gave up one of the jobs as she had made financial headway. She is a…
Saint of the week The missionary Francis Xavier, born in 1506 in Navarre, Spain, was a man whose life took an extraordinary turn through his encounter with Ignatius of Loyola at the University of Paris in the late 1520s. At the time, Francis was ambitious for worldly success. Yet Ignatius, older and already embracing…
Fr Joshua J. Whitfield Jer 33:14-16 Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14 1 Thes 3:12—4:2 Lk 21:25-28, 34-36 Aside from being one of the fathers of monasticism, St Benedict is also one of the more profound spiritual doctors of Advent. At least I have long considered him thus. I think of him every Advent…
The opening pages of the Bible offer us a series of stories set at the beginning of history which are meant to explain why the world today is as it is. The Adam and Eve story about original sin is one of those stories. There are others. These stories, because they use imagery that might…
Saint of the week St Columbanus, also known as St Columban, was a prominent figure in early Irish monasticism who later became a missionary to continental Europe during the early Middle Ages. Born in 543 in Leinster, Ireland, Columbanus was well-educated from an early age. Being a handsome man, he was troubled by intense…
Some years ago, a friend was facing the birth of her first child. While happy that she was soon to be a mother, she confessed openly her fears about the actual birth-process, the pain, the dangers, the unknown. But she consoled herself with the thought that hundreds of millions of women have experienced giving birth…
Sunday Gospel Dn 7:13-14 Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5 Rv 1:5-8 Jn 18:33b-37 One thing is clear from this Sunday’s gospel: Pontius Pilate is a man looking for answers. All of what he has to say in this passage from John is offered in the form of a question. “Are you the King of…
The religion of Christ is love,” said St Teresa of Calcutta. Lord, we forget sometimes that love of You is the essence of our religion. It is the first and greatest of all commands… ‘To love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul mind and strength.’ This is why we are created,…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser