Boniface and Ordinary Time

Saint Boniface, bishop and martyr, was martyred by a pagan band on this  day, June 5, 754. His life was one of tireless struggle to convert the Frisians, early inhabitants of Germania, steeped in paganism and idolatry.  The famous story of his felling of the Donar Oak, which the pagan Frisians held so sacred that […]

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The Joyful Apostle of Rome

Today, May 26th, is the feast of one of my favorite saints, Philip Neri (1515-1595), born and raised in the renaissance city of Florence during the height of that glorious era, one which, for all its artistic and scientific accomplishments, or perhaps because of them, was losing the sense of God. As a charismatic, talented, […]

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The Eternal Perspective of Pope John I

Today is the feast of Pope Saint John I (470-526), the first Pope to visit Constantinople, on an ambassadorial mission T Emperor Justin on behalf of the Arian King Theodoric, now ruler of the Western empire.  The purpose of the mission was to mitigate Justin’s decrees against Arians, a fourth-century heresy which denied the divinity […]

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The Revelation of Fatima

The 100th anniversary of Fatima is a significant one in the minds of many, not least due to the effect of the apparitions on the momentous events of the 20th century, but also in connection with the purported prophecy of Pope Leo XIII, who as the century began, said the Devil would have a ‘100 […]

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Blessed Catherine of Saint Augustine

Blessed Catherine of Saint Augustine is listed as one of the ‘six founders’ of the Church in Canada, and I will offer the other six when I find out who they might be.  Saint Franҫois de Laval, whose feast we celebrated a couple of days ago on May 6th, must surely be one of them, […]

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Philip and James

Today’s feast is that of the Apostles, Saints Philip and James.  Philip, the one who asked Christ that if they could only ‘see the Father’ they ‘would be satisfied’.  Of course, following upon my comments on Athanasius yesterday, Christ was already way ahead of the Arians, replying to Philip patiently: ‘He who has seen Me […]

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For the Sake of One Iota

There are times when one word, even one letter, can make all the difference.  The scene is June of 325, in the basilica of the imperial city of Nicaea (now in northwestern Turkey) where an ecumenical council has been called by the Emperor Constantine to deal with a number of issues in the Church, not […]

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Saint Joseph, A Working Man

Saint Joseph has two ‘feast’ days in the universal Church, neither of which is technically a ‘feast’.  The first, on March 19th, is his principal day, celebrated as a full solemnity, usually in Lent (unless bumped into Easter by its falling during Holy Week).   Then there is today’s ‘optional memorial’ of Saint Joseph the […]

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Of Silence, Saint Death and Saint John

Feel free to peruse an article I just finished on Shuasku Endo’s controversial novel Silence, pusblished in 1966, and now soon to be released as a major Hollywood production.  The book follows a Jesuit missionary, Sebastian Rodrigues, forced to choose between apostasy, and saving a whole group of people being tortured.  The tale analyzes the […]

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