The quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) this past week moved from the feats day of Catherine of Siena to the singularity of the demand of God, for our love which is shown in being loved (and showing the same love for his other children). No one saw more clearly the miseries and …
Tag Archives: Catholic Church
Pope Francis on Spirituality, Vulnerability, and Abuse
Although the message seems to have been prepared well in advance, this past week Pope Francis gave an address to the participants of the third Latin American Congress “Vulnerability and Abuse.” There are a few points that I want to draw attention to, for my personal reference as much as to post about it on …
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Masterclass in the School of Prayer
Earlier this week, Vatican News ran a story saying that Pope Francis will, this year and in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee, open up a school of prayer: The Pope himself, during this year, they announced, will set up a “School of Prayer.” “This School,” Archbishop Fisichella explained, “will be a series of moments of …
Contemplation and Shared Influence in Pope Francis’ Preface to a Book on Paul VI
Yesterday, Vatican News announced that Libreria Editrice Vaticana would publish a new book on Pope Saint Paul VI and that Pope Francis has written the preface for it. That preface is available on the Vatican News site in full. And it’s a doozy. The Holy Father begins with some thoughts which don’t directly touch on …
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Completely Enveloped in the Merciful God and Waiting with Him (Quotes Vol. 23)
From social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X) this past week: The Three Divine Persons dwell within you at every moment of the day and night. You do not possess the Sacred Humanity as you do when you receive Holy Communion, but the divinity, the essence which the blessed adore in Heaven, is in your soul; when you …
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Contemplation and the Abuse Crisis: A Manifesto
What is your mission? Ask me this or a similar question, and you’ll get an answer. The answer might make you think I’m crazy. It might make you ask, “And how exactly are you going to do that?” But an answer you’ll get. I won’t leave you hanging. What do I want to do in …
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The Magi and Contemplation, with Pope Francis and John of Avila
I was wondering which of the many ideas I have jotted down to take up and develop for my next post—and lo and behold! A reader wrote to me with the intention that a gem of a homily of Pope Francis not go unnoticed. Here I am putting that very just, very right intention into …
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As Things Get Busy… (Quotes Vol. 20)
From social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X) this past week: It seems to me that Our Lady’s attitude during the months that intervened between the Annunciation and the Nativity is the model for interior souls, for those whom God has chosen to live within, in the depths of the unfathomable abyss. — Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity …
A Little Public Service Announcement on Docility
Some time ago, a reader wrote a comment about Pope Francis below one of my blog posts. The information was false and slanderous. Evidently, she had gotten her daily hysteria from one of the “news” outlets that has made it their task to, as the Holy Father has said, do “the work of the devil.” …
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Here Comes Contemplation in the Mud: From Pope John Paul II to Pope Francis
Contemplation in the mud is, as far as I have always been concerned, a mode of contemplative life that involves focusing our prayer and thought processes on what Saint Charles de Foucauld intuited: Jesus in our neighbours, Jesus in the needy, Jesus in fellow human beings travelling these roads and not yet arrived. This, to …
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Contemplative in the Mud 