So two different books I've been reading lately seem to be calling me out for something I've been guilty of many times - that of having an impurity of heart at times in striving for a good thing - "the spiritual life" - but doing so to escape from … [Read more...]
Donkey Bells: Advent and Christmas Stories, Traditions and Meditations with Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Compiled and edited by Mary Bazzett, Madonna House Publications, Combermere, Ontario, 2008. Book 1 – Meditations “Advent is a short season, yet … [Read more...]
Teresa of Ávila. The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus. Edited by Benedict Zimmerman. Translated by David Lewis. Fifth Edition. London: Thomas Baker, 1916. Charity "I never spoke ill in the slightest degree whatever of any one" (35). "Let us labour, … [Read more...]
Saints: A Closer Look by Fr. Thomas Dubay, Servant Books, 2007. Introduction "Saints are moral miracles far beyond the capabilities of human nature left to itself... Each of them has had "a spiritual revolution" (Eph 4:23)" (1). PART 1: PRELIMINARY … [Read more...]
In his book, Saints: A Closer Look (SACL) Fr. Thomas Dubay asks two great questions on page 11. Isn't it enough, one might say, just to squeeze into heaven? Is it that important that I strive to be a saint? These questions are similar to … [Read more...]
Talk # 1 Preaching is the first office of the priest and the key to the New Evangelization. If our primary occupation is the institutional church, then people will not hear the Word, they won’t hear about Jesus. “At the beginning of the Church, … [Read more...]
In his book, Saints: A Closer Look, Fr. Thomas Dubay has a great section outlining heroic virtue in action. Heroic virtue, which brings a person to perfection in a superhuman manner far surpassing the goodness of ordinary people, characterizes the … [Read more...]
In the first chapter of his book, Saints: A Closer Look, Fr. Thomas Dubay states that the #1 trait of all saints is that they are "head over heels in love with God... "madly in love" with God" (9). To make this more concrete and practical, he states … [Read more...]
A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart by Josef Pieper, Ignatius Press, 1991 Acedia "Acedia means this: that man denies his effective assent to his true essence, that he closes himself to the demand that arises from his own dignity, that … [Read more...]
Commentaries Used: Wansbrough, Henry. The Sunday Word: A Commentary on the Sunday Readings. London; New York: Burns & Oates, 2012. Balthasar's Light of the Word Pagola, J. A. (2011). Following in the Footsteps of Jesus: Meditations on the … [Read more...]
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