…and can change you too. One of the things that makes St Francis so popular is that he was so utterly and completely converted. He was rooted and engrafted into Christ through several remarkable events that transformed him from the inside out. It is this profound and radical encounter with Christ that can also transform us. We may not have the same experiences that St Francis had, but the essence of his total conversion is what each one of us... Read more
This week has long been one of my favorites in the church year. Who can resist the sweetness, purity, power and goodness of all these saints and angels celebrated in one week! September ends with the celebration of the great heavenly warrior St Michael, and he is followed a day later by St Therese of Lisieux who everybody loves. Then as if to celebrate her Little Way of spiritual childhood further we pile on the Feast of the Holy Guardian... Read more
Today they came and took our stained glass away. For a couple of years it has been stored in our parish garage. King Richard’s Ecclesiastical Salvage firm took a fantastic set of stained glass windows out of St Mary Morning Star Church in Pittsfield, Massachussets, shipped to Greenville in crates and stored them in our garage. In the meantime, our architects built the new church around them. Now we’re ready for the craftsmen to clean and restore them, fit them... Read more
Here is my article for National Catholic Register on the astounding things that happened in the first world war. She said she would spend her heaven doing good on earth, and her wish to be a warrior was also fulfilled. She once had a prophetic dream: “I went to sleep for a few moments during prayer. I dreamt there were not enough soldiers for a war against the Prussians. You [Mother Agnes] said: ‘We need to send Sister Thérèse of... Read more
I was an Anglican priest the summer I met St Therese of Lisieux. I was living in England and had three months free between jobs, so I decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I was going to hitch hike and stay in monasteries and religious houses on the way. The first leg of my journey took me across the English channel to Normandy. As divine providence would have it, I missed the ferry to the more Eastern port of... Read more
Sometimes a little phrase jumps off the page or into your ear from a passing conversation. The Holy Spirit takes that phrase and it becomes a launching pad for a meditation on the mystery of this world. The phrase I read in passing was “the ugliness of mortal sin”. I thought immediately of that scene in Brideshead Re-Visited in which Julia suddenly gets a glimpse of what her adultery really means. She weeps because she realizes that although there is... Read more
Victor Frankl was an Austrian Jewish psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz where his wife, mother and brother all died. After the war he wrote what is now a classic, Man’s Search for Meaning which was based on his experiences. Out of the great horror of the death camps he wrote: Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however he is also... Read more
I have never written about this before because it is so personal, but I would like to share what happened the first time I prayed the rosary. I was a young Anglican priest and I was just heading off to make a retreat at the Benedictine monastery of Our Lady of Quarr on the Isle of Wight in England. A parishioner had just returned from a pilgrimage to Walsingham. She gave me a rosary and said, “Fr Dwight. I think... Read more
Here’s a dilemma: my parish is in the worst socio economic area of our town. Across the street from our campus is a crappy old motel which was built along I-85 probably forty years ago. It’s a notorious flophouse. What goes on there? Suffice it to say that they offer weekly, daily and hourly rates…It’s not the worst. Next door is another old motel just as bad and across the highway there is the worst one of all with the... Read more
Before this blog went to Patheos, every October I ran a “Stick ‘Em Up!” campaign. This was a plea for readers to donate to my work by hitting the “Donate” button and helping out your poor padre blogger. Now, of course, I get sent checks every month for huge amounts from the people at Patheos (not really). But I do receive an income from blogging and its paid for by the pesky ads we all have to put up with. Therefore I... Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In