I travel to Newark this week to Immaculate Conception Seminary for my final ordination examination. Prayers please! When I was taking the written exams some weeks ago my brother phoned and said, “I’m praying to the Cure d’Ars for you!” “Thanks. The Cure d’Ars was holy, but he wasn’t real smart. Could you switch over to Thomas Aquinas?” One of our own bright saints at St Joseph’s, Dr Devanny, reminded me that St Joseph Cupertino (who could have taught Sally... Read more

Rod Dreher’s recent defection to the Eastern Orthodox reminds all of us of the need to see the Church upside down in order to see it the way it really is. We converts from Protestantism find it difficult to shake the idea that the church should be what we expect it to be: a congregation of good people just like us. We have religious utopianism running in our Puritan veins. We expect the church to be made up of saints... Read more

Here’s a hilarious take on Catholic heaven from the Simpsons, linked from Brian Miller at Just an Apprentice and it jives with my understanding that Catholics are the natural jesters of the Christian faith. Like blondes, they have more fun… Marge Simpson explores Catholic or Protestant heaven. Read more

Here’s St Francis with the Wolf of Gubbio, but did you know that St John Bosco had a sort of familiar guardian angel type dog named Grigio, who hung about protecting the saint on his forays into the bad part of town in nineteenth century Italy? This huge gray dog appeared out of nowhere, and when the saint was in trouble would attack and chase off the bad guys. Sometimes he would whine and warn the saint not to go... Read more

The Curt Jester has a good post about a non-Catholic healed by a Catholic saint. This seems to me a very good example of the right kind of ecumenical dialogue… My Presbyterian father used to tell us about his Great Aunt Anne…a staunch Mennonite woman who was healed of bone cancer by praying to the bones of St Anne. Great Aunt promptly converted to the Catholic faith and filled her room with rosaries, statues, Catholic images and lots of candles.... Read more

“I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighbouring house, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take and read; take and read.” — St Augustine, The Confessions In the Rule of St Benedict there is an instruction that the Abbot should give the monks a book to read aduring Lent. We’re used to choosing our own books, but it’s much more exciting and challenging to read the books we are given. Like a... Read more

St Denis was martyred in Paris around 272. The legend says after his head was cut off he got up and walked two miles carrying it until he got tired and laid down to die. This led to an old rhyme: St Denis had his head cut off, and after thatHe walked two miles without his hat. Which makes me think that it’s not a bad thing to lose your head from time to time. We’re so staid and cautious... Read more

We think prayer is asking God for something. That’s OK, but there’s more to it than that. Prayer is like a hyperlink to the life of the love of God. The rosary takes us right down deep into the mystery of the incarnation in a way too deep for explanation. My Protestant friends have trouble understanding it, and I have trouble explaining it, and end up using the language of love. Let’s say you’re in love with a beautiful girl... Read more

  Here’s a little Amish girl. This is the sort of sweet child gunned down in a school house in Pennsylvania. This is the sort of little girl who tried to save the lives of her friends by saying to an insane, lust filled beast, “Shoot me first.” There is more religious faith and courage in that little girl than in a million Islamic suicide bombers. G.K.Chesterton said, “Every argument is a theological argument.” The scenes this week make his... Read more

This news item from England shows the Anglican Church shooting itself in the foot again. Anglican leaders have issued a statement warning that calling God “Lord” or “Father” will lead to wife beating. This is nothing new. When I was an Anglican priest twelve years ago it was common practice then for many clergy to avoid the Trinitarian formula “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” by substituting “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.’ Quite apart from the fact that this is heretical in itself,... Read more