[dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']P[/dropcaps]ierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of your love, and with true, calm and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with entire love and...
Bernard here dramatically celebrates Mary's Fiat, or statement of consent in response to the announcement by the archangel Gabriel, behold the handmaiden of the Lord; "let it me done to me according to your word." Appropriate for Advent or for the Solemnity of the Annunciation...
The second Council of Orange was a small synod of only 14 bishops, presided over by St. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, held in what is now south-eastern France. It confronted issues of faith, grace, free-will and predestination in order to solve lingering debates over Pelagianism...
St. Clare is remembered in the liturgy of the Church on August 11. Inspired by her neighbor, Francis of Assisi and under his direction, she founded an order of nuns commonly called the “Poor Clares.” Though she lived a cloistered, contemplative life in the...
Bruno of Segni considers Jesus' visit to the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany (Luke 10) as a lesson on the difference between the contemplative and active life....
Aelred, a medieval abbot, here discusses the nature of true spiritual friendship as modeled by Jonathan's loyalty to his friend David, despite his father Saul's attempt to use jealousy and envy to divide them. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']T[/dropcaps]hat outstanding youth, Jonathan, son of King...
Why must I confess my sins to a priest? Can't I simply go straight to God? These questions about the Catholic Church's sacrament of penance and reconciliation, aka confession, are answered poignantly by Blessed Isaac of Stella, an abbot from the 11th century (Sermo 11:...
Isaac of Stella on Paul's exhortation in Galatians 6:2 to "Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Charity is characterized by compassion, patience, and forbearance. To forebear the weaknesses and faults of others is a hallmark of divine love. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='65'...
Columbanus (Columban) urges us to remember our dignity, created as we are in the image and likeness of God. Since God is love, we must manifest love in our actions and our words, being especially careful lest we deface that image through careless use of...
St. Bruno on Psalm 84. "How lovely is your dwelling place" is taken to refer not so much to the Jerusalem temple as the heavenly dwelling of God in heaven according to the spiritual / anagogical sense of Scripture....