June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion began in France after the apparitions of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial in the 17th century. The Sacred Heart devotion became popular and spread to many countries. Later, Pope Leo XIII established June as the month of the Sacred Heart. I recommend a book published in 1875 entitled “The Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus : Practical Meditations for Each Day of the Month of June” by Abbé Berlioux. There is an entry for each day in June, focusing on an aspect of the Sacred Heart, a story of a sinne ..read more

Supercharge your Lent by using Dom Prosper Gueranger’s Lent (from The Liturgical Year). This book contains a chapter on the history of Lent, the mystery of Lent, morning and evening prayers. For each day in Lent, you read the prayers of the Mass and commentaries by Gueranger, which are perfect for meditation. Download the book in PDF format from Archive.org (either print it or upload it to your iBooks for easy reading ..read more

“et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebræ eam non comprehenderunt” —John 1:5 Today is Septuagesima Sunday. During this two-and-a-half week season called Septuagesimatide, which bridges the Christmas season just ended and Ash Wednesday, the Church through the Divine Liturgy and traditional practices, urges Catholics to prepare for Lent. For centuries, Catholics have observed Septuagesima devoutly until one day in the 1960s, the modernists cancelled tradition and piety, and in its place, introduced . . . nothing, just “ordinary time “. There’s nothing ordinary at all about the period just before Ash ..read more

Ring Out, Wild Bells (from In Memoriam) by Lord Alfred Tennyson)Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,The flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true.Ring out the grief that saps the mindFor those that here we see no more;Ring out the feud of rich and poor,Ring in redress to all mankind.Ring out a slowly dying cause,And ancient forms of party strife;Ring in the nobler modes of life,With sweeter manners ..read more

In the bleak midwinter by Christina RossettiIn the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,In the bleak midwinter, long ago.Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficedThe Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,The ox and ass and camel which adore.Angels and archangels may ..read more

Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden Autumn: falling leaves, cooler weather, shorter days, longer nights, nature entering a period of hibernation. Not surprisingly, we grow pensive. We ponder the end of things, not just plant life, but our own lives. A perfect time to consider the Four Last Things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. The Church has always encouraged her children to meditate on the Four Last Things during the month of November, which begins with All Saints and All Souls, not to scare them, but to focus their minds on the truth that the world does everything it can to forget ..read more

This Empty House by Walter de la Mare See this house, how dark it is Beneath its vast-boughed trees! Not one trembling leaflet cries To that Watcher in the skies— ‘Remove, remove thy searching gaze, Innocent of heaven’s ways, Brood not, Moon, so wildly bright, On secrets hidden from sight.’ ‘Secrets,’ sighs the night-wind, ‘Vacancy is all I find; Every keyhole I have made Wails a summons, faint and sad, No voice ever answers me, Only vacancy.’ ‘Once, once … ’ the cricket shrills, And far and near the quiet fills With its tiny voice, and then Hush falls again. Mute shadows creeping slow Mark h ..read more

I have just finished two short books by F.A. (Frances Alice) Forbes on the lives of two saintly people: Saint Monica, mother of St. Augustine and Pope Pius the Tenth, who at the time of the publication of the book, had not yet been canonized. Both books brought me to tears and made me to stop several times to meditate on the truths of the Catholic faith. “The Life of Saint Monica” was published in 1928 and “Pope Pius X” was published in 1918. You can download the books from the F.A. Forbes page on Gutenberg.org. F.A. Forbes has also written about St. Columba, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Athanasiu ..read more

Summer is for long lazy dinner at the edge of the Mediterranean with a glass of wine and delicious food, enjoying the long dusk (l’heure bleue). But it’s also meant for reading. Here is a list of my summer 2022 books, two of which I have ready finished as of this writing. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (translated by Tiina Nunnally, published 2005): This is a trilogy by the Nobel Prize winning Norwegian writer set in medieval Norway. There is an earlier edition that is copyright free, but I think this translation is much better. Transylvanian Trilogy: They Were Counted; They Were Foun ..read more

This is a review of “The Feasts of Christendom: History, Theology, and Customs of the Principal Feasts of the Catholic Church” by Phillip Campbell published in 2021 by Cruachan Hill Press.  We live in a time of dissolution: of traditions, morals, community, identity. It is a particularly painful and confusing time for Catholics who have seen many important feasts of the Church reduced to a minor commemoration or not commemorated at all after the innovations of Vatican II.  For over a thousand years, Christians celebrated the major liturgical feasts not just with merry-making, but al ..read more