St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated on March 17 for fifteen hundred years since it is the day that Patrick, the missionary bishop who evangelized Ireland, passed from this world to eternity. This excerpt from his autobiographical work called the Confession makes clear that...
Saint Joseph always appears in Manger scenes during Advent and Easter time and even has a special Solemnity or Feast in his honor, St. Joseph's Day, March 19. This essay makes a case that St. Joseph teaches us some crucial things about the nature...
Is Lent about fasting or feasting? Maybe the two are related, says this commentary on the story of the barren fig tree from the gospel of Luke chapter 13. Prayer. Fasting. Almsgiving. Three inter-related fertilizers which help barren fig trees bear fruit....
This ancient prayer of protection, in the Celtic style of invocation, is attributed to the great evangelizer of Ireland, St. Patrick. A "lorica" is the Latin name for the breastplate worn by a Roman soldier. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through...
This post examines the relationship between the transfiguration and the passion of Christ, between Mount Tabor and Calvary. It also asks the question of of whether God the Father ever abandoned Jesus on the Cross. Helpful reading either for the Feast of the...
The Passion of Perpetua and Feliciy contains the prison diary of Vibia Perpetua a young woman martyred in Carthage in the third century AD. This is one of the only extant accounts from a Christian martyr shortly before execution and perhaps the earliest surviving Christian...
Why Lent has forty days, the meaning of the number 40 in the Old and New Testaments, and the meaning of the the fasting and three temptations of Jesus Christ in the Desert....
[dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']T[/dropcaps]HE EPISTLE OF POLYCARP TO THE PHILIPPIANS(1) Polycarp, and the presbyters(2) with him, to the Church of God sojourning at Philippi: Mercy to you, and peace from God Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, be multiplied. CHAP. I.--PRAISE OF...
An excerpt from the account of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna on the West Coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). He was apprehended by the Romans in his eighties, on February 23 around the year 155 AD....
40 fresh, practical Lenten Ideas to make the 40 days of Lent a Season of spiritual progress and personal breakthrough! New ideas for a new experience of this season of transformation!