Tag: Saints
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How Lows Become Highs: Memorial of Pope St. Martin I, Martyr
2 Timothy 2:8-13; 3:10-12 In C.S. Lewis’s brilliant work The Screwtape Letters, the senior devil (Screwtape) teaches his apprentice what he calls the “Law of Undulation.” In a nutshell, this is the idea that people experience highs and lows in their relationship with God. The “highs” are those peak times when we feel especially close […]
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The Slave of the Slaves: Memorial of St. Peter Claver
Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. 1 Corinthians 9:19 Imagine being dragged aboard a ship, naked and chained in the darkness below deck, lying helpless for several weeks, through rough seas and stifling heat. There are […]
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Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
We who remember Mary on her birthday do well to remember the lessons from Scripture…
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The Leader as Servant: Feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great
Those who are most truly leader most truly serve.
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Out of Blindness: Feast of St. Maria Goretti
1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 12:24-26 The priest, psychologist, and spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once said that there are two types of spiritual loneliness, each a kind of blindness. The first comes from being out of touch with God; this is the blindness of too little light. The second is just the opposite; it is […]
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The Vision of True Faith: Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More
Genesis 12:1-9; Matthew 7:1-5 In the story The Emperor’s New Clothes, author Hans Christian Anderson cleverly lays bare not only the emperor but also the human tendency to go along with the crowd. This becomes most obvious near the end of the story, when a child proclaims the truth that all can see but none […]
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The Sanctity of Suffering: Feast of St. Germaine
2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Luke 10:29-37 Of all of life’s difficult questions, perhaps the most challenging concerns suffering. It can be put very simply: Why do good people suffer? Of all the saints, the one whose life most clearly poses that question is the young girl known as St. Germaine. She was born Germaine Cousin in […]
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Truth Beyond the World: The Feast of St. George
Revelation 21:5-7; Luke 9:23-26 When I was a boy my favorite comic book was The Amazing Spiderman. Every month I haunted the drugstore waiting for the next issue. When it finally arrived I’d read it over and over again. It was great fun imagining myself as the quirky yet powerful superhero. Although comic books date […]
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Passing By the Dragon
Every week I scour the internet and various hard- and soft-bound sources for quotes that I think might make a difference to somebody, somewhere. I know I’m not always successful but I also know for sure that at least once in a while a quote touches someone for the better. Well, today’s quote touched me. […]
Mark 10:45 