Posts
Forget New Years: It’s still Christmas!
I’m always amazed at how effectively our society can put Christmas behind everyone before it’s even really started! Christmas began last week — it is still the octave of Christmas now, today. We live in an upside-down world, though: they thought Christmas started the day after thanksgiving, and ended last week. That was advent. Today is Christmas! It’s an…
Merry Christmas from the Bellarmine Forum!
May the birth of Jesus bring great blessings and grace to you and yours! Sing with the Angels and the shepherds today, “Gloria!” Enjoy this homily of St. John Chrysostom on the Nativity: BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a…
Christmas Novena Begins Today
Today, the feast of St. Andrew, begins the Christmas Novena. Said fifteen times each day until Christmas day, it is held in pious legend to deliver what is asked. Sometimes, it’s called “Prayer to obtain favors” for that reason. This version of the novena prayer received an Imprimatur from Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York on…
The Feast of St. Andrew
While our minds should rightly turn towards the First Sunday of Advent, don’t forget the Feast of St. Andrew (November 30). The brother of St. Peter and one of Our Lord’s Apostles. Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, former Papal Latinist gives us a perspective on one of the great relics of Christendom–Andrew’s head! (I’ve written about an aspect…
What? Moscow helps Paris fund Notre Dame Christmas tree?
Yesterday, Russia Today released a story that is probably lost on Americans, most of whom have only dim faint lines of history. Catholics, however, particularly anyone with a mild knowledge of Fatima, are keenly aware of Russia’s role in the 20th century. Back in the 1700’s, France and Russia got into a knock-down drag out…
Book review: My Battle Against Hitler
My Battle Against Hitler, a posthumously published memoir and collection of essays by “20th century Doctor of the Church” Dietrich von Hildebrand, is a timely cautionary for a world that is again on the cusp of momentous world events. It is sobering to read, for example, a Provincial of the German Dominicans remark, in the…
On Meetings of Bishops (This should be shared and Tweeted far and wide!)
If I should write the truth, I believe that I ought to flee all meetings of bishops, because I have never seen any happy or satisfactory outcome from any council, nor one that has deterred evils more than it has occasioned their acceptance and growth. (St Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter 131 from 382 AD; cf….
Magazine: Choosing Life…or Death? Fall 2014, Vol. IV No. 3
What you don’t know can kill you! ‘Tis a troubling time we live in. Humans are called vegetables and vegetables, trees, and even rocks have rights. A person can get in legal trouble for not watering or otherwise taking care of vegetation on his property, but a human in a medically invented “permanent vegetative state”…
Truth in Advertising: Promoting the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in Chicago
One long-standing complaint about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an annual Catholic “poverty” appeal, is that it has consistently misrepresented its work to the people from whom it solicits donations. CCHD exists to create progressive social change. An analysis of CCHD’s nation-wide 2013-2014 grants – using the most recent information available 1 –…
