Go to Part I “Spiritual formation is directed at nourishing and sustaining communion with God . . . This intimate relationship forms the heart of the seminarian in that sacrificial love that marks the beginning of pastoral charity.”[1. Na … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – May 2022
April 28, 2022 by Book Reviews
The Decline and Fall of Sacred Scripture: How the Bible Became a Secular Book. By Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker. Reviewed by Nathan Farrar. (skip to review) Exegetical Gems from Biblical Hebrew. By H.H. II Hardy. Reviewed by D. Malachi … [Read more...]
Prayer as the Gateway to Mystery
August 30, 2021 by Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS
For a Christian, mystery is reverenced as that hidden dimension in things, people, situations and life which is beyond time, place or physical description. We may understand aspects of this esoteric reality beyond us and we can appreciate … [Read more...]
Navigating a Passive Night of the Senses during the Coronavirus Quarantine
April 27, 2020 by Dr. Tamra Hull-Fromm
For many, the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 virus has meant enforced quarantining in terms of stay-at-home/shelter-in-place directives by federal and state authorities. Despite innovative responses by dioceses and parishes to provide a … [Read more...]
Are Eucharistic Prophecies Being Ignored?
January 18, 2020 by Fr. Stanley Smolenski, SPMA
The startling news of the lack of faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist in about 69% of Catholics today should come as no surprise to those familiar with the messages and missions of St. Faustina Kowalska and Dorothy O’Neill … [Read more...]
What does the Doctor Diagnose? Listening to the Church Doctor
St. Catherine of Siena on Perennial Principles for Our Attitudes towards Priests
March 10, 2019 by Sr. Mary Catherine Blanding, IHM
Introductory Note: The author is restricting this essay to attitudes toward priests in light of the Philadelphia Grand Jury report. She extends wholehearted sympathy for the shattered lives affected by the actions of immoral priests. By … [Read more...]
Real Celibacy Is an Invitation from Divine Beauty
February 12, 2019 by Deacon James Keating
The personal call of Christ to follow him in a life of chaste celibacy brings a seminarian into a suffering that involves his whole person. Seminary formation serves such a man by assisting him to integrate chastity within his body. Such … [Read more...]
On Prayer
October 2, 2018 by Rev. William J. Nessel, OSFS
Let me share some reflections by Baroness Catherine de Hueck Doherty and St. Francis de Sales, including inspirations in prayer, liberty of spirit, prayer and solitude, dryness and prayer, prayer and mystical theology, methods of prayer, … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
October 19, 2017 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Question: There has been a great deal of talk recently about the fact that Christians cannot be rigid, and that rigidity compromises mercy and the Gospel. The Pharisees are used as examples of this. Why is there so much emphasis on this, … [Read more...]
To Repair the Face of the World
February 21, 2017 by Brent Withers
We visibly see the repairing process on a material, natural, and physical level. If a car or house has been damaged following an accident, then we see the repair work undertaken with the aim of restoring the material object to its original … [Read more...]
Feminine Empathy in Two Daughters of Israel
August 29, 2016 by Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, OP
On the feast of St. John of the Cross, 1934, Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein) highlighted the age-old battle between good and evil, sin and death: The sight of the world in which we live, the need and misery, and an … [Read more...]
Mystical and Motherly
May 14, 2016 by Debi Hoppe
Mystical wisdom played a key role in the contributions of the four women honored as Doctors of the Church. They demonstrate on a limited scale the primacy of contemplative prayer in the work of evangelization. None of the women who bear … [Read more...]
To Listen to the Voice of God
January 12, 2015 by Brent Withers
We all have a desire to be listened to and taken seriously. There is nothing more frustrating than not being listened to, when someone does not either look at us when we talk to him, or let us finish our sentences. It leaves us feeling … [Read more...]
Private Revelation and the Revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
October 29, 2014 by Dr. William R. Luckey, PhD
The Nature of Private Revelation When thinking about the idea of private revelation, it occurs to one that there is, and has been, a lot of it going around for centuries; and the reason that it is so successful, both the true and the … [Read more...]
The Latest Book Reviews
August 10, 2013 by David Vincent Meconi
Late Summer Reading For August 2013 Reviews for the following books: A MYSTICISM OF KINDNESS: The Biography of “Marie Christine.” By Astrid M. O’Brien. (Scranton: Scranton University Press, 2010). (Reviewed by Rev. John J. Conley, S. … [Read more...]
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