No one is more aware of the passage of time than a convert. There is a clear before and after whose threshold is a life-changing encounter with Christ.
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“It’s hard! — Yes, I know. But, forward! No one will be rewarded — and what a reward! — except those who fight bravely.” ST. JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA The Way, no. 720 “The message of the cross if foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of […]
St Augustine of Hippo, with an insight born from personal experience, attests that it is by one’s personal struggle to be pure in heart and chaste in body that this integration of love takes place both within a man and in his relationships with God and neighbor.
Although St Monica is also known for her many deeds of mercy, it is her continual intercession for her son for which she is chiefly remembered and invoked by Christians throughout the ages.
1. Introduction Devotion to Saint Joseph was deeply rooted in Saint Josemaría’s soul from a very early age. Recalling how in 1934 he had entrusted to the Holy Patriarch his efforts to obtain permission for the tabernacle in the first center of Opus Dei in Madrid, he remarked in 1971: “I already had deep in […]
“The feast of feasts awaits us in Heaven. … I assure you, and I say the same to myself, that our wedding garment has to be woven with our love of God, a love we will have learnt to reap even in the most trivial things we do. It is precisely those who are in love […]
Where does prayer come from? Especially prayer of the deepest kind with “sighs too deep for words” (Rm 8:26)? Is there a bedrock from which prayer rises utterly pure, sincere, and true? What Scripture calls “the depths” we could call the ‘ground zero’ of our prayer life—a place which few have explored and mapped as […]
“Who of us can live with the consuming fire?” asks the prophet Isaiah, a question that should resonate with anyone who not only tries to serve God but to grow very close to Him (Is 33:14). Something about closeness to God makes us feel the heat of a consuming fire. The canonization of Elizabeth of […]
“I will tell you which are man’s treasures on earth so that you will appreciate them: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonor, poverty, loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison…” St. Josemaria Escriva The Way, no. 194 CARRIER OF GOD’S TENDER AND MERCIFUL LOVE “The canonization of Mother Teresa invites us to look to her as a Christian […]
Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8 If God’s love is proved by a sacrificial death for the salvation of people dead […]
Faith, hope, love: these are the supports of Joseph’s life and of all Christian lives. Joseph’s self-giving is an interweaving of faithful love, loving faith and confident hope. His feast is thus a good opportunity for us to renew our commitment to the Christian calling God has given each of us. When you sincerely desire […]
In the sermon The Praise of Men, [1] after indicating that ridicule is a powerful weapon used by the devil, Blessed John Henry Newman describes a case in which it is the cause of much pain: when a person who had shunned religion turns by God’s grace back to the practice of religion and meets […]
The Saints are men and women whom the Church sets as standards for living holy lives as children of God. Today is the memorial or feast day of Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890), a renowned Anglican convert and Catholic priest who stands out for his intellectual accomplishments lived with humility and charity. In “The Praise […]
Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan and founder of nine of the twenty-one California missions in the 18th century, was declared a saint by Pope Francis at a solemn Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C. The canonization of Junipero Serra is a call to personal holiness and evangelization. The saints […]
The whole Church recognizes St Joseph as a patron and guardian. For centuries many different features of his life have caught the attention of believers. He was a man ever faithful to the mission God gave him. That is why, for many years now, I have liked to address him affectionately as “our father and […]
“He who lives by faith may meet with difficulty and struggle, suffering and even bitterness, but never depression or anguish, because he knows that his life is worthwhile, he knows why he has been born.” St. Josemaria Escriva Christ is Passing By, no. 45 Carmelites all over the world begin celebrating the fifth centenary […]
In October 2012, the St. Josemaria Institute interviewed Lisa Schmidt, cofounder of “The Practicing Catholic” blog and social media expert, about a special group of saints that she assembled to pray with and for her this year—she calls them her “Spiritual Board of Directors”. In this interview, Lisa helps us go a little deeper on […]