Objections and Justification Oppressive events move through our time and lay a heavy hand on the lives of all of us. Questions regarding our own fate and the destiny of those close to us, and above all, the destiny of humanity, engage our minds and our souls. In religious life the effect is noted in
It was the end of September, during the feast of the Holy Archangels. St. Angela tells us: While I was in the church in Foligno and desired to communicate, I prayed to the Holy Angels, and especially to St. Michael and the Angels of the Seraphim, and said: “O ministering Angels, who have the power
When we speak about Heaven there is a tendency to dismiss our speculation as “just imagining things.” But Our Dear Lord, knowing that we need examples that are a little more concrete, gives us ever-so-tiny hints of Heaven — lights and ideas and experiences that are going to be very similar, only greatly enhanced in
The Ends of Mental Prayer In order to practice well mental prayer, or meditation, and to make it truly profitable to the soul, we must well ascertain the ends for which we attempt it. To Unite Ourselves to God We must meditate in order to unite ourselves more completely to God. It is not so
Obedience and Community versus Individualism and Tribalism In my Sunday-school days, we sang a simple chorus I cannot forget. It went like this: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.” My dad used to sing it as we were getting ready for church, and
We have established the principle that man is made principally for the vision of God. This requires an elevation of our human powers, that man might realize this purpose. It is essential to remember that human nature is not neutral with respect to God. By the very fact of having an intellect, the spiritual being
Angels are messengers between God and men. But sometimes they are also messengers of their protégés. St. Gemma Galgani, a young Italian woman who was born in 1878, began seeing her guardian angel when she was seventeen. The first meeting took place when Gemma was getting ready to go out. She was joyfully thinking about
Marriage as a sacrament belongs to an entirely different order than the mere union of man and woman through a civil contract. It basically regards a husband and wife as symbols of another marriage; namely, the nuptials of Christ and His Church. The analogy of the heavenly nuptials goes back to the Old Testament, where
In our every need, let us simply ask the Father to flood our souls with His precious Gift of the Holy Spirit, the Person of Love.
A Divine Sense of Humor No one can ever understand the sacraments unless he has what might be called a “divine sense of humor.” A person is said to have a sense of humor if he can “see through” things; one lacks a sense of humor if he cannot “see through” things. No one has
