Pope St. Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagan English. When Augustine reported that he had been able to work miracles in the sight of the English, Gregory reminded him that all the glory belongs to God. The better things are going, the more important it is to remember the One who makes them go well. My dear brother, with all the things you accomplish outwardly through the work of God, you need to judge... Read more
We need to forget all about whatever good we’ve done, says St. John Chrysostom. God won’t forget, and he’s looking for any excuse to reward us. But we can overturn all the good we’ve done by pride. Why do you constantly recall what you’ve done, and bring it up to us? Don’t you know that if you praise yourself, God won’t praise you anymore? And in the same way, if you deplore yourself, he will never stop proclaiming you in... Read more
Christopher Carstens is Director of the Office for Sacred Worship in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, instructor at Mundelein’s Liturgical Institute, editor of the Adoremus Bulletin, and a voice on The Liturgy Guys podcast. Have you ever paused to consider what exactly is happening during the Mass? Do you sometimes feel as if you are going through the motions during Mass? Join Christopher Carstens and I as we take a deep dive look at the Mass from the drive there to... Read more
Pride attacks those who have exalted positions, says St. Cyril of Alexandria. What position could be more exalted than that of the Apostles? Only the position of Christ, who was God himself. That was why Christ had to take the lead in teaching them humility. The Savior works to root the vice of pride completely out of our thoughts, as the basest of all human failings, and worthy of universal and utter abomination. The holy disciples therefore especially stood in... Read more
The Syrian abbot Chaeremon tells St. John Cassian that we can’t give ourselves the credit for something even if we worked hard for it. God alone deserves the credit, since without God’s mercy we would not have been able to do anything. The exertions of the worker can do nothing without God’s aid. The farmer, for example, when he has taken great care in cultivating the ground, cannot immediately ascribe the produce of the crops and the rich fruits to... Read more
“Everyone who glories shall be humbled,” says Aphrahat—and then he gives a very persuasive list of famous boasters who were indeed humbled by God. Everyone who glories shall be humbled. Cain gloried over Abel his brother and slew him. And he was cursed and became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. Again the Sodomites gloried over Lot, and there fell upon them fire from heaven and burned them up and their city was overthrown upon them. And Esau... Read more
Mercy, says St. Ambrose, is a virtue that makes us like our Father in heaven. When you give to someone who is poor, you get back far more than you gave. Mercy, also, is a good thing, for it makes us perfect, in that it imitates the perfect Father. Nothing graces the Christian soul so much as mercy—mercy as shown chiefly towards the poor, in which you treat them as sharers in common with you in the produce of nature,... Read more
Karl Keating is undoubtedly one of the leading apologists of our time. The founder of Catholic Answers has been at the forefront of apologetics since he first unexpectedly dipped his toe in the field in the 1980’s. Booked for Life: The Biographical Memoir of an Accidental Apologist is a look at twenty-five of the books that have inspired the career of Karl and it serves as a list of exceptional books that should be in everyone’s library. Each chapter contains... Read more
St. Augustine reminds us that if we are so hard-hearted that we cannot forgive even someone who sincerely repents, we can’t have any expectation that our own sins will be forgiven. If anyone seeks forgiveness from someone he has sinned against— prompted by his sin to ask for it—that one should not be thought of as an enemy anymore, and now it should not be as hard to love him as it was when he was really hostile. Now, anyone... Read more
Even your own father might have given up on you if you had never listened to him, says St. John Chrysostom. But God has given you a conscience that isn’t willing to give up. It will keep after you until you confess your sins. Even if you do not confess, God is not ignorant of the deed, since he knew it before it was committed. Why then do you not speak of it? Does the transgression become heavier by the... Read more
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