On November 11, 1841, one hundred and seventy-nine years ago, our beloved Foundress, Catherine McAuley, left this earth and returned to the House of her Father. In a eulogy preached by the Reverend Myles Gaffney, Pastor and dear friend, he said, “Few left in this...
The spirituality of Catherine McAuley was formed in part by the difficult times in which she lived. As in our own time, political decisions on matters of religious expression had earlier created a society of intolerance and persecution. At the time, English monarchs...
In these last weeks of our liturgical year when the Church focuses on the Four Last Things, i.e., death, judgment, Heaven and Hell, it is interesting to look at how unafraid Venerable Catherine was and to reflect on her hopeful and peaceful anticipation of the...
The King's Son given to redeem a slave.1 Consideration of the human person may rightly (and surprisingly!) begin with God. Man is a created being, endowed with a spiritual soul. From philosophy we know that the soul is the “form” of the body, but what does this...
In this month in which we commemorate the great feast of All Saints, we are to remember that each of us is called to holiness, regardless of our state of life. We must all desire heaven, ultimate union with God. The Church gives us many agents, not the least of...
What is an indulgence? We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1471: The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance. "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due...
November is a time when we remember those who have gone before us in the celebration of All Saints Day (November 1st) and All Souls Day (November 2nd). This makes November a special time to focus our attention on the reality of the Church as the Church Triumphant...
“He remained what he was; he took up what he was not…to make possible the kind of remedy that fitted our human need.” On the feast day of our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 15), one of the main themes in the second reading of the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the...
Take your son, your only son, whom you love…and offer him as a whole burnt sacrifice. These words, spoken to Abraham by God, must have been unbearable for him to hear. This was the child of promise, the son he loved, the sign that God would fulfill his word to make...
"Jesus came to make a way for us to heaven through the veil of His flesh" This quote comes from a passage from Saint Athanasius that has been with me over these past months. Saint Athanasius, reflecting on the structure of the Jerusalem temple, writes about the...