Avoiding Bit and Bridle
Second Sunday in Lent From the most remote Christian antiquity, the second Sunday of Lent has been dedicated to the Transfiguration of Our Lord, an event that occurred in the weeks before the Passion. Its immediate purpose was to fortify the three apostles, Peter, James and John, and to prepare them for the shock of […]
Tried By Fire
First Sunday in Lent At the onset of Lent, Holy Mother Church takes us out to the desert with Our Blessed Lord. The reasons are obvious. First of all, the idea of Lent originates in Our Lord’s fast of forty days and forty nights. It was His immediate preparation for the ministry that he would […]
Prepare Your Soil
Sexagesima Sunday The sower went out to sow his seed. And so He does, every day of human history. The seed is the Word of God which reaches us in any number of ways, but principally through Holy Scripture and the sacred liturgy. Our Blessed Lord’s explanation of the parable puts us on our guard […]
Boarding the Right Plane
Septuagesima Sunday Today, my dear Friends, with the Roman liturgy we enter the Easter cycle, by this Sunday called Septuagesima, being roughly the 70th day before Easter. A number of significant things change today: we leave aside the celebratory green in favour of the penitential violet vestments; we abandon the chant of the paschal alleluia, […]
Get to Work on Your Garden
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany In today’s Gospel, we hear the parable of the wheat and the cockle. Our Blessed Lord sows His good grain, that is to say, His word through the preaching of the Gospel, through the inspirations of His grace, and through any number of providential occurrences in and through which the devout […]
Guard Your Flame
Candlemas Forty days after the birth of Our Lord at Christmas, we celebrate with joy the triple feast of the Purification of Our Lady, the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple and Candlemas. It is the day on which the Divine Child is brought to the Temple and offered by the Immaculate Virgin […]
Remaining in Our Place
Third Sunday after Epiphany Today’s Gospel presents us with our Lord encountering a leper as He comes down from giving the Sermon on the Mount. Leprosy, which in our day is curable, was in former times considered to be a curse of God. It ate away the skin and ultimately led to an atrocious death. […]
Holy Families
First Sunday after Epiphany The feast of the Holy Family is a recent addition to the Church’s liturgy. The reason is obvious. It wasn’t until modern times that the human family, as instituted by God and sanctified by Christ, came under virulent attack. What are the aspects of this attack? In brief: the father has […]
Seek and You Shall Find
Epiphany The three wise men, otherwise known as the Magi, were God-seekers. They had studied the stars, for they had heard of the prophecy of Balaam, that a star would rise out of Jacob (cf. Num 24:17). Their gaze is ever turned towards Heaven. In this, they are our models. Modern man looks down on […]