His Secret to Holiness

St. Padre Pio’s Secret to Holiness by Fr. Mike Schmitz:   Want to learn more about St. Padre Pio? St. Padre Pio’s 5 Point Rules of Life Prayer of St. Pio of Pietrelcina after Holy Communion Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You.…

The Incorruptible Saints (Pictures)

A great book on the Incorruptibles – “The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati” by: Joan Carroll Cruz Another interesting read here and here The incorrupt body of Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, wax portraiture over bone, San Crisogono, Rome. (All photos: Elizabeth Harper)   The wax effigy…

Live Among these Books

An excerpt from St. Jerome’s writings: I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else. Does not such a life seem to you a foretaste of heaven here on earth? Let not the simplicity of the scripture or the poorness…

Have your Children Lost the Faith? How St. Anthony Can Help

Originally posted at www.setonmagazine.com Saint Anthony of Padua loved to preach about God, yet on one occasion, no one in a certain town wanted to listen to him. Sad about the fact that the people had rejected the word of God, but undeterred in a way that saints can often be, St. Anthony went to…

Saint Cyril : 9 Points on the Eucharist

The biggest theological difference between Catholics and Protestants/Evangelicals/Other Christian Denominations is the subject of the Eucharist – whether Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity at the moment of consecration. Transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation. Truly present vs. a memorial. Our friend, Joe Heschmeyer, wrote a great piece on his blog www.shamelesspopery.com. What did the…

A Dumb Ox

Today is the feast day of one of my all time favorite saints. A saint who forged the principles of Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. He is honored as a Doctor of the Church, and considered the Church’s greatest theologian and philosopher. He was an Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest. An immensely…

Catholic Church is Canonizing a New Saint!

BLESSED JUNIPERO SERRA  An 18th century Spanish Franciscan who founded a string of missions across Mexico and California will be canonized Pope Francis announced on January 15th. Blessed Serra is credited with directly founding 9 missions in California, one in Baja California in Mexico and with reinvigorating established missions in Mexico. The announcement came when…

Praying to the Saints

The historical Christian practice of asking our departed brothers and sisters in Christ—the saints—for their intercession has come under attack in the last few hundred years. Though the practice dates to the earliest days of Christianity and is shared by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, other Eastern Christians, and even some Anglicans—meaning that all-told it is shared…