In this beautiful prayer, read by the Church each year on June 9, the feast of St. Ephrem, we see the sacraments as a reflection of the light of the resurrection, an experience of the divine beauty which brings us delight....
This tribute to the Trinity as deep mystery captures the spirit of St. Catherine of Siena so well that the Roman Catholic Church reads it every year on April 29, St. Catherine's feast day....
This classic Paschal or Easter Sermon is from Saint John Chrysostom, fifth century early church father and one of the greatest preachers of all time. This homily for Holy Pascha exhorts all, even those who have not kept the Lenten fast, to rejoice and enter...
Saint Leo the Great on meditating upon Christ Crucified as a way of showing reverence for our Lord's passion and sharing in the victory of the cross. We must recognize that in taking our human nature to Calvary and then to the Father's right hand,...
The Solemnity or Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord is celebrated on March 25. Here, in his typically lyrical language and powerful imagery, Leo the Great ponders the unfathomable mystery of God becoming man in the womb of a Virgin who had the...
Lenten fasting works best when accompanied by almsgiving and works of mercy, says Leo the Great, writing around AD 450. This powerful combination brings healing, spiritual renewal, and progress in virtue....
Leo the Great on the famous passage from Matthew 16 in which Jesus gives Cephas the new name of Peter, meaning rock, along with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It is read each year on the Feast of the Chair of...
Cyril, speaking to new Christians in Jerusalem around AD 360, explains why the Church is called catholic. The word "catholic" comes from the Greek word meaning "whole," "entire," or "all." After explaining the meaning of catholic, Cyril goes on to explain the meaning...
Gregory the Great here reccounts a famous story of a very special encounter between Scholastica and her brother, the great abbot Benedict. St. Scholastica was born at Norcia (Nursia) Italy about the year 480. She vowed herself to seek God in religious life and...
Francis de Sales, one of the great masters of the spiritual life, here makes clear that devotion, his term for the pursuit of holiness, is not something tied to a specific state of life. All people, in a way appropriate to their own calling...