During Advent, we should be reflecting on the essentials of Catholic life. Advent is basically, a time of prayer and penance – a period of four weeks when we remember that our Redeemer became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, became man, lived and died on the cross in order to open the gates of Heaven for us. Prayer and penance are the essentials of Catholic life. What are the other “essentials”? To benefit spiritually from the season of Advent, and to bring us face to face with what it means to live a truly Catholic life, it might help to consider what we can learn from the Advent saints.
Click here to read their stories and then click on ‘comments’ with your thoughts.
You are currently browsing articles tagged saints.
Yesterday, visiting some Carmelite nuns, they posed a very interesting question to me: who, they asked, who would you prefer to spend recreation time with – St Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower) or St Teresa of Avila?
That was quite a conversation starter! I won’t tell you my own thoughts – at least not yet – but it occurred to me that it was time we had a good old fashioned “spirituality” thread where we could really think through what it takes to build up our spiritual lives. Is there a “buy one, get one free option” where we can read this book and acquire that virtue?
Here are some thoughts to get us started. Firstly, a spin off from the Carmelite question above – which saint(s) would you most like to spend time with and/or take advice from and why?
Secondly, what’s your favourite spiritual reading – and why? Here’s a link to the solid fare found in The Imitation of Christ, longtime favourite of both religious and laity.
http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imitation.html
Share your thoughts on what it means to be a “spiritual” person; what, in other words, are the ingredients of holiness?
Tags: holiness, saints, spiritual life
At Lourdes in 1858, the Virgin chose to make Her last apparition on July 16th, feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the day the Church commemorates Her apparition to Saint Simon Stock. And at Fatima on October 13, 1917, it is as Our Lady of Mount Carmel that Mary appeared when She said farewell to the three children. http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/07-16.htm
Click on ‘comments’ to tell us any miracle stories you know associated with the brown scapular. Or tell us about any special devotion you may have, to any of the great Carmelite saints. I took “”Thérèse (of Lisieux) for my Confirmation name – if anyone else took a Carmelite as their Confirmation saint, we’d like to hear why… or maybe you just find Carmelite spirituality helpful. Whatever, click on ‘comments’ to talk to us now!
Tags: brown scapular, carmelites, confirmation names, saints
The feast days of some of the Church’s greatest saints are celebrated during the month of Mary, so it is worth pausing to reflect on what we can learn from them.
1st May marks the Feast of St Joseph The Worker.
http://www.mycatholictradition
.com/joseph-the-worker.html
Today, 2nd May is the Feast of St Athanasius. As a token of gratitude to our lead blogger – ‘Athanasius’ -whose knowledge and insights have helped us all, we might take time to reflect on his chosen “user-patron”! Consider the plight of St Athanasius all those centuries ago and compare his situation to ours in the current Church crisis.
co.uk/ne/tradition/page22.phtml
Finally, St Robert Bellarmine is celebrated in the revised liturgical calendar on 17 September but the 1962 missal continues to mark his feast as 13 May. St Robert Bellarmine wrote a treatise on martyrdom and it is perhaps timeous to spend a little time reflecting on the nature of martyrdom. Often, readers tell me stories about their sufferings in trying to be traditional Catholics, forced to sacrifice good relationships with friends and even family members. Is this a form of martyrdom? Maybe we should pray more to St Robert Bellarmine!http://www.therealpresence.
org/archives/Saints
/Saints_005.htm
So, I picked three men – so? The challenge for all you girls out there is to find a female May saint if your feminist hackles are up!
Tell us what message you think we can take from the lives of the May saints to help us get through this time of crisis in the Church. Over to you!
Tags: martyrdom, month of mary, saints
This thread allows visitors to this blog to ask questions that, perhaps, they cannot ask elsewhere. Be assured that we have a team of very knowledgeable bloggers who will go to all kinds of lengths to find out the answers if we don’t know them off the tops of our collective heads.So if you have a question about Catholicism, you are welcome to click on ‘comments’ to ask for answers here.
N O T I C E S . . .
Click here to read the previous Miscellaneous thread
Click here to read the original Any Questions thread
********************************************************************
A reader contacted me this morning about the latest lapsed Catholic Matthew Wright attack on the Catholic Faith. His morning ‘discussion’ show, ‘The Wright Stuff’ is nothing more than a gestapo-style enforcement of the latest establishment mores and Wright frequently mocks the Catholic Church. Not any other ‘church’ or (perish the thought) Islam. Today being the Feast of St Agatha, Matthew Wright (who doesn’t normally include a “saint for the day” slot) introduced his show by recounting his (obscene) version of the martyrdom of St Agatha. Click on the link below to read my commentary.
http://www.catholictruthscotland.com/The%20Wright%20Stuff.pdf
Then read my email of protest to the show…
I write to express my concerns about the obscene version of the story of Saint Agatha broadcast by Matthew Wright on his show on Channel 5 this morning.
I was told about the broadcast initially by a reader who was extremely upset by it. I then viewed it on Fiver at 11.a.m. and was appalled.
The irony of it all is that one of the topics for discussion on the same show was the BBC sacking of Carol Thatcher for using the term “gollywog”. Matthew, as ever, was at pains to emphasise how wrong Carol was to use the term. If it’s politically incorrect, it’s wrong as far as Matthew Wright is concerned. Wright is a veteran, it seems, when it comes to fighting nasty prejudice against any and every group of people in society except Catholics – but then we are anything but politically correct.
I have posted my own commentary on Matthew Wright’s obscene version of the martyrdom of St Agatha on our website, which I hope you will draw to his attention. It is probably expecting too much to ask for him to publicly apologise for mocking this great saint, but I would be grateful if you would pass on my email to him, for the record. He may wish to visit our website to read my forthright commentary for himself. End.
Well, what do you think? IS the broadcasting media anti-Catholic? Would Matthew Wright get away with mocking Muhammed or any of the Jewish biblical hero-figures?
Click on ‘comments’ to tell us what you think.
As soon as I saw the headline above this week’s helping of Mgr Basil Loftus in the Catholic Times, I knew we were in for more of the same…
‘When the saints go marching out’ could only mean one thing: Mgr Loftus is having a go at the canonised saints. (Catholic Times, Sunday, November 23rd, 2008)
Sure enough, after reminding us of the protestantising design and impact of Vatican II (“the liturgical year is to be revised…the minds of the faithful should be directed primarily towards the feasts of the Lord…” Sacrosanctum Concilium, 107) he then went in for the kill: “…a lot of the devotion and feasts that we used to have was based on myths” An example – he said – was Saint Philomena who had never existed.
Seems quite a few notable individuals disagree – take a look at the link below.
http://www.philomena.us/?var1=http://www.philomena.us/include_archconfraternity.asp
Tellingly, he selects another female saint to attack (’sexist’, our Basil), the beautiful 20th century Italian child-saint Maria Goretti, whom he describes as a “martyr to chastity”, adding that her canonisation “was criticised even at the time as being out of touch with the true reality of the problems facing young people in the contemporary world, where some physical and sentimental proximity between the sexes is a fact of life, which neither can nor should be totally avoided”.
Given that Maria Goretti was canonised for her heroic virtue, including her prayers under assault and threat of rape and her deathbed expression of forgiveness for her attacker, we can only presume that Mgr Loftus thinks that encouraging the young to emulate Maria’s prayerful spiritual life and her love of purity is not helpful to the young. Presumably he thinks she should have grabbed a contraceptive pill and thought of Italy. Looking at his photo, I’d say it was quite some time since he was young, so he should really stick to talking about things within his own experience. Like where his free bus pass might take him next – England? Wales? Just trying to be helpful.
Mgr Loftus argues that “in a very real sense, Christ had to be protected from his saints” and that, Liturgically, at least, when the saints go marching out Christ comes marching in.” The saints, then, are clearly an obstacle to following Christ. That’s the Loftus hypothesis. Yep, those same saints who gave their lives for Christ, who got to BE saints because their lives mirrored the life of Christ and because they were demonstrated to have exercised virtue to an heroic degree, these same saints – according to Mgr Loftus – take us away from Christ. Truly, the lunatics are running the asylum.
Anyway, got me thinking, reading this latest article by Mgr Loftus – not to mention the column inches he’s been allowed in the Letters Page. Between his letter and the lead letter from regular contributor, John Haran, which is an outright assault on the Faith, I truly would not like to be standing in the shoes of (or near to) the editor of the Catholic Times, Kevin Flaherty on Judgement Day.
Got me thinking, though, that I have been promising to post a thread on the topic of prayer and it occurs to me that we can kill two birds with one thread here, focusing our minds on prayer through discussing our favourite saints.
What do YOU know about your favourite saint? Why is that particular saint your favourite? Do you pray often to your favourite saint and do you ever pray to other saints? I’ve got friends who have a strong devotion to St Philomena. Do you? Does it bother you that Mgr Loftus has told the nation today that she has never existed?
And what about prayer? The Rosary, of course, is essential but what about contemplative prayer? What is it? Is the Rosary a “contemplative” prayer? I’ve met several Catholics recently who attend Yoga and read about “centering prayer” (a highly suspect mind-control business, to be studiously avoided) but why do they do that? Why turn to eastern pagan practices instead of learning from our own rich Catholic heritage of saints and spirituality?
Here is a link to a Carmelite website which contains links to the great spiritual writers including St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross. Scroll down to access these writers and select the ‘Plain Text’ link to read their writings. http://www.carmelite.org/heart.htm
Then tell us if you think Catholic saints and spirituality help us in our quest for holiness or, as Mgr Loftus believes, are they merely “clutter” that need to be “cleared from the liturgical calendar”? Are the Catholic saints (and their biographies/spiritual writings) a help or a hindrance to prayer?
Click on ‘comments’ to express your view, ask a question or share your thoughts…
Tags: contemplative prayer, mgr basil loftus, rosary, saints, spirituality, st john of the cross, st teresa of avila
It was with horror that we read in this week’s Scottish Catholic Observer about the “extensive programme of work” planned for the beautiful Church of St Alphonsus which is situated in a very run down area of Glasgow, the popular “barras” area, close to Glasgow Cross.
The first phase of the work is near completion. “Success” can be gauged by the joy which the new St Alphonsus will ignite in the hearts of the “liberals” and all those who hate the traditional Mass.
For, in the wake of the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, this beautiful church has had the altar rails ripped out and a marble “altar” permanently fixed in the style of the novus ordo Mass, making it more NO-friendly and hostile to the traditional Mass – cannot kneel for Holy Communion. A marble presidential chair has also been placed on the new marble floor and new stained glass windows have been installed, designed by a ‘local artist’ – from the barras? – which represent the history of the early Church in Glasgow. Not a lot of saints then. I’ll make a point of looking for a mention of Scotland’s only martyr, though, St John Ogilvie, who died not a stone’s throw from St Alphonusus. Let’s see if he made it through the ecumenical red tape.
The total financial cost of this liturgical vandalism is expected to reach a cool £275,000. The spiritual and religious cost, of course, cannot be estimated until the Final Judgement.
Archbishop Conti is already giving enquirers the impression that the Novus Ordo in Latin, which is said on Sundays by Fr Gerard Byrne in St Patrick’s (infamous for the rape and murder which occurred there), is no different from the traditional Mass offered in Sacred Heart, so his contempt for the traditonal Mass is no secret. Still, this latest calculated blow to the traditional Faith is an absolute disgrace.
What I wouldn’t give for five minutes, no ten minutes alone with Archbishop Conti. No tape-recorders.
Tags: archbishop, Mass, motu proprio, Novus Ordo, saints, st alphonsus, summorum pontificum, traditional