Since God is approaching man, it is not a degradation, but a triumph of His love, that He should come so far down to meet him.Robert Hugh Benson, A City Set On a Hill Read more
Another Thomas Nast cartoon on the Catholic Church. Click on it for a closer look. Read more
Born Albert Etlin in Switzerland, he studied with the Benedictines in his honetown. In 1886 he left for the United States, where he joined the Benedictines in Conception Abbey, Missouri, and took the religious named Lukas. A talented artist, he painted several of the abbey’s murals. From 1892 until his death he was chaplain to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. His great love for the Eucharist was expressed in a magazine he published, Tabernacle and Purgatory.... Read more
This day is set forth a wonderful mystery, a new thing hath been created in the earth— God is made Man. Thet which He was He remaineth, and that which He was not He taketh, suffering therein neither confusion nor division.Roman Breviary, Feast of the Circumcision (Jan. 1), Antiphon at Lauds. (Liber Resp., ca. 6th to 8th cent.) Read more
A Carmelite postulant kneels before a Nativity set at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Monastery, Brooklyn, in 1907. Read more
Mary Frances Schervier was born into a wealthy family in Aachen, Germany. Her father, Johann Heinrich Schervier was a wealthy needle factory owner and the vice-mayor of Aachen. Her mother, Maria Louise Migeon, was the god-daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. After her mother’s and two sisters death from tuberculosis, Mary Frances established a reputation for generosity to the poor. In 1844 she became a Secular Franciscan. The next year she and four companions established a religious community devoted... Read more
Born in Genoa to a noble family, despite her desire to live a cloistered life, she was forced into marriage to Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli, a wealthy noble in 1602. She had two daughters. The marriage did not last long. She became a widow on June 13, 1607, at the age of 20. She refused another arranged marriage brought on by her father and took up a vow of chastity. After her husband’s death she began charitable works and assisted the... Read more
Born in Ireland, Joseph O’Hagan’s family emigrated to Nova Scotia when he was young. He joined the Jesuits in 1847 and studied in Europe, where he was ordained in 1861. During the American Civil War he served as a military chaplain with the 73rd New York Volunteers. Intitally, they didn’t make a very good impression on him as he wrote: “Such a collection of men was never before united in one body since the flood. Most of them were the... Read more
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