November lends itself to introspection and meditation. As the days shorten and the weather cools, we retreat into cozy rooms and thick blankets. The month begins with two solemn feast days: All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day. Holy Mother Church dedicates the entire month to meditating on the Four Last Things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. Modern man, the creature produced by the Industrial Revolution and Liberalism, is loathe to reflect on death. Every aspect of modern life deflects our attention from the truth right in front of our eyes every minute of the day — that at any moment, we can ..read more

The green elm with the one great bough of gold Lets leaves into the grass slip, one by one, The short hill grass, the mushrooms small milk-white Harebell and scabious and tormentil, That blackberry and gorse, in dew and sun, Bow down to; and the wind travels too light To shake the fallen birch leaves from the fern; The gossamers wander at their own will. At heavier steps than birds’ the squirrels scold. The rich scene has grown fresh again and new As Spring and to the touch is not more cool Than it is warm to the gaze: and now I might As happy be as earth is beautiful, Were I some other or wi ..read more

Meditations on Death by Thomas à Kempis is not on most people’s beach reading list for summer 2023. Yet if there’s one thing that everyone on earth will experience, it’s death. Meditating on death isn’t only a Catholic practice. Buddhists meditate on death to cultivate detachment. Buddhist monks have meditated for centuries in charnel grounds to impress upon them how fleeting life is. The Catholic Church has always encouraged us to meditate upon death to impress upon us just how temporary our sojourn in this world is and how urgently we need to prepare our souls for the moment when it leaves t ..read more

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