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O God, Whose mercy is without measure and Whose bountiful goodness knows no end; we give thanks to Thy gracious majesty for the gifts conferred upon us, ever beseeching Thy clemency; that even as Thou dost grant the wishes of Thy suppliants, Thou wouldst not abandon them but dispose them to receive still further rewards.Roman Missal, Collect. (after 9th century) Read more

Blessed Giacomo Alberione was an Italian priest and publisher, the founder of the Society of St. Paul and the Daughters of St. Paul, besides other orders and institutes of the Pauline Family. He was born on 4 April 1884 in Italy. He was a seminarian in Bra and Alba and was the spiritual director for youth and altar servers in the Alba seminary. While doing nightly Eucharistic adoration in Alba on 31 December 1900 he suddenly felt that he was... Read more

Born Luca Antonio in Cosenza, Italy, he joined the Franciscans at age 27. From the time of novitiate he was distinguished for his spiritual maturity and for his fervour in the observance ofthe Rule. His charity made him beloved by all. From his youth he had the gift of continuous ecstasy, to such an extent that he was called “the ecstatic Friar”. He was also blessed with extraordinary gifts of reading hearts, prophecy, miracles and, especially, of infused knowledge. Although... Read more

In his time Coventry Patmore was considered one of the major poets of the nineteenth century. Born in England, he was the son of another writer, P.G. Patmore. Coventry Patmore’s early poems were published by the zeal of his father, and gained prophecies of future greatness from Leigh Hunt and others. In 1853 was published his first mature work, “Tamerton Church Tower and other Poems”, and in 1854 appeared the first part of a more deliberate work, “The Angel in... Read more

On this day in 1842, the University of Notre Dame du Lac was founded near South Bend, Indiana, by a band of eight members of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which was founded in France in 1837. Four of the founders were French and four were Irish-born. The leader of the community and the president of the university was Father Edward F. Sorin. For much of the nineteenth century, it was a middle, secondary, and trade school with a... Read more

The action of the Holy Spirit embodied visibly in the authority of the Church, and the action of the Holy Spirit dwelling invisibly in the soul form one inseparable synthesis; and he who has not a clear conception of this two-fold action of the Holy Spirit is in danger of running into one or the other, and sometimes into both, of these extremes, either of which is destructive of the end in the Church. The Holy Spirit, in the external... Read more

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Therefore you hear that as often as sacrifice is offered, the Lord’s death, the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord’s ascension and the remission of sins is signified, and will you not take the Bread of life daily? He who has a wound needs medicine. The wound is that we are under sin; the medicine is the heavenly and venerable Sacrament. St. Ambrose, On the Sacraments Read more

A wounded member of the Papal Zouaves, as seen in the 1860’s. Read more