On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you in God’s personal love for you, especially during times of desolation or darkness? If you answered less than 10, this book is for YOU Conference 1: Love for Love God loved us first so that we might love Him (cf. 1 Jn 4:10). “That is the explanation of it all: of the Creation, the Incarnation, Calvary, the Resurrection, the Eucharist” (4)… “unfathomable abysses of merciful love” (6). “Jesus bought a twofold right on Calvary at the price of all His Blood: (1) the right, for Him, to love us in spite of, or even because of our sins, our unworthiness; a ..read more

What is this book about? Contemporary spiritual writer Fr. Donald Haggerty provides a profound exploration of the journey of Christian conversion through his insightful observations. In this collection of concise, meditative reflections, Fr. Haggerty examines the crucial steps of a soul’s return to God, addressing the repercussions of sin, the true meaning of mercy, and the need for a radical commitment to God’s will. Fr. Haggerty also emphasizes the transformative fruits of conversion, which elevate a relationship with God from mediocrity to genuine holiness. These special graces include a lo ..read more

From Fr. Haggerty’s book, Conversion: Spiritual Insights Into an Essential Encounter with God Shortly after World War II, in Paris, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy who had survived the German occupation while losing his parents to the concentration camps entered the Cathedral of Notre Dame along with two Catholic friends of the same age. They were in a mischievous mood, and the two Catholic boys dared the Jewish boy to enter the confessional and pretend to make a confession to the priest. They wrote down some necessary words and gave him a quick instruction on the usual procedure. The Jewish bo ..read more

Pierre-Paul Cardinal Philippe (1905-1984) was a Dominican priest who taught at the Pontificium Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome, where he had Karol Wojtyla (future Pope John Paul II) as a student. In 1959, he became secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious, playing a significant role in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). He became Secretary for the Congregation of Doctrine of the Faith in 1967 and was made a cardinal in 1973. Part I: The Maternity of the Virgin Mary and the Priesthood Chapter 1: The Mother of Christ the Priest Mary is the Mother of Christ the High Priest. Through Ma ..read more

“O priest, who are you? You are not yourself because you are God. You are not of yourself because you are the servant and minister of Christ. You are not your own because you are the spouse of the Church. You are not yourself because you are the mediator between God and man. You are not from yourself because you are nothing. What then are you? Nothing and everything. O Priest! Take care lest what was said to Christ on the cross be said to you: ‘He saved others, himself he cannot save!” – St. Norbert ..read more

In his book, A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment, Fr. Paul Murray describes the American Trappist monk Thomas Merton as a modern-day Jonah the prophet. Like all of us, Merton suffered from “the Jonah syndrome.” What is “the Jonah syndrome”? Jonah ran away from God. The Lord said to Jonah, “Arise and go to Nineveh” (1:2), and Jonah paid money to get on a ship setting sail to Tarshish, the furthest known city in the opposite direction. While on board the ship, Jonah “had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep” (1:5). The “understandable but ..read more

Introduction “One clear indication of the importance of the book of Jonah is the fact that Jonah is the only ancient prophet with whom Jesus identifies himself in a dramatic way in the New Testament, and to whom he refers explicitly by name [see Matt. 12:38–42; Matt. 16:1–4; and Luke 11:29–32]. As soon, however, as we turn to read the book itself, with the thought of the book’s importance in our minds, we find ourselves at once somewhat bewildered. For the so-called “book” turns out to be only two pages long [48 verses]; and Jonah, the prophet, a prophet of only one short sentence. Even more s ..read more

** Day 1 starts Friday, May 24 ** 9-days-to-cc-may-3-1Download Endorsements  “Father Conlin’s book will serve as a beautiful aid for fostering Eucharistic devotion and encouraging the reader to strive to become ‘a Eucharistic saint.’ He uses very effectively the writings and examples of the six saints in his book. The effort this busy priest puts into the book will reward all who read it.” – Most Rev. J. Michael Miller, CSB Archbishop of Vancouver “A book of this kind is long overdue. The Eucharist is our greatest treasure and now we have a method of consecrating ourselves to the very ‘so ..read more

Here is my summary of this great book! The Problem: Idolaters or Iconoclasts? Due to sin (the original sin of Adam and Eve + the structures of sin in our culture, the disordering of our passions caused by original sin = concupiscence, and the continued effects of sin), we can often fall into one of two extremes. Idolaters. Just as idolatry is the worship of images, we too can worship the image of the body and attempt to live a “carnal life” divorced from the spirit and an eroticism in which we indulge in sexual feelings and desires. Idolaters mistake the sign of beauty for Beauty Itself (the e ..read more

The following 9 Days of reflections are my own personal summary Fr. Hicks’ book, The Fruit of Her Womb: 33-Day Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary. The main image Fr. Hicks uses is that of the “womb of Mary” (rather than St. Louis de Montfort’s slavery image, which can easily bring up negative connotations) to speak of what true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary looks like. This is not so much a summary as my own reflection. As such, I might turn this into an actual 9 Days to Marian Consecration book (this blog post will be continually updated as I reflect more on my own ..read more