Here Augustine reflects on hishat famous incident, recorded in Luke 10, when the Lord comes to the home of Martha and Mary. Martha busies herself with the details of hospitality, anxious and troubled about many things. Martha represents the battle we all face against the...
St. Bonaventure, known as the Seraphic Doctor, teaches us about mystical or contemplative prayer in the Holy Spirit who enkindles within us a raging fire and carries the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love....
This excerpt from the Rule of St. Benedict is read on St. Benedict's feast day on July 11....
In his homily at the canonization of St. Maria Goretti, a paragon of chastity and purity, Pope Pius XII notes how the example of her life and death is a call to all Christians to a persistent, even relentless pursuit of virtue and perfection....
St. Gregory the Great's commentary on the Apostle Thomas and his struggle with doubt. It makes for especially good reading for the Octave of Easter or the Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle, which since the fourth century has been commemorated on July 3,...
Peter Chrysologus notes the meaning of the incarnation, God becoming man, for human dignity. The humanity of Christ is the original sacrament from which all the others flow....
Mary Magdalene has been universally honored as a saint from the earliest days, as shown by this excerpt from Gregory the Great on Mary's encounter with Christ at the tomb. The feast of this "apostle to the apostles" is July 22....
Leo the Great on Mary, the Royal Virgin of the house of David, mother of the Messiah and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, was associated with the Virgin Mary since Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus would have crossed...
[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...
The twelve apostles of Jesus of Nazareth -- 12 fishermen and tax collectors who were selected from the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ to be official eyewitnesses of his public ministry, death, and resurrection, priests of the new covenant, stewards of the mysteries of...