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Men Who Are Able to Help the Sick in Mind
How I love to read the homilies of Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, at the Office of Matins, in the silent hours before daybreak. Today, Pope Benedict XVI is in Milan. This morning he spoke of Saint...
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To Be Led By the Hand of God
“Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down...
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A Light As It Were of Serenity
From The Confessions of Saint Augustine: Take Up and Read So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or...
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All things, even sin
“Job says that “the life of man upon earth is a warfare and his days are like the days of a hireling.” But upon His servants the Lord bestows His grace; although as Saint Paul says, “to them that love...
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After Our Sin, He Ceases Not to Call Us
Experience of the Sins of the Flesh Those who have had experience of the sins of the flesh are to be admonished to observe vigilantly with how great benevolence God opens the bosom of His pity to us,...
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Dulcis Iesu Memoria
Painting of the Child Jesus with a crown of flowers by Carlo Dolci (1616-1686) Over forty years ago, when I was taking my first steps in what would be a life-long monastic pilgrimage, I visited a...
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Frank Duff, Holy Layman
Heroic Fidelity to the Divine Office Shortly before his death on 7 November 1980, layman Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary, addressed a group of deacons preparing for ordination to the...
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Betake thyself to the Church
This morning at Matins, in his homily on Luke 5, Saint Ambrose said: An Example for Our Imitation It was no chance occurence, this healing of the paralytic, nor is its meaning limited to what actually...
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How to Be Both Hot and Holy in Old Age
Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church, in old age, by Lionello Spada (1610) In his commentary on old King Solomon’s need to sleep with a maiden hot enough to keep him warm and holy enough not to arouse...
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Desire for God, unutterable love
Yesterday morning at Matins, we had this magnificent text of the Golden–Mouthed Doctor: From the Book on Prayer by St John Chrysostom, Bishop & Doctor [De Precatione 6] Prayer is the height of our...
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To seek what is human, to give what is divine
The physician who does not suffer infirmities, knows not how to cure infirmities. This was the lesson before the Holy Gospel at Matins this morning. Saint Peter Chrysologus at his best! From a Homily...
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Listening to Saint Clement at Matins
Yesterday at Matins we had this marvelous text. Our patristic lectionary for Matins is the fruit of Dom Benedict’s assiduous labours. There is an immense richness in the texts given us, morning after...
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And his dwelling-place will be peace
This is the magnificent Christ of the Duomo of Cefalù in Sicily. It was artist Adé de Béthune who introduced me to the Christ of Cefalù over forty years ago. When Adé would speak of the Christ of...
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Saint Anselm of Aosta (c. 1033 —1109)
Today is the feast of Saint Anselm, abbot of Bec, and archbishop of Canterbury, whose writings, we read at Matins, ‘seem to be drawn from the reservoirs of heaven’. The hymn at Matins describes the...
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The quiet harbour of the port
From the Letter of saint Bruno to his friend Raoul-le-Verd I am living in the wilderness of Calabria far removed from habitation. There are some brethren with me, some of whom are very well educated...
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Saint Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church
Some years ago, one of our Oblates, a deacon in the diocese of Tulsa to whom I gave the name Ephrem, wrote me asking if I might help him learn more about Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Deacon and Doctor of...
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Saint Chrysostom on Saint Paul
For the Commemoration of Saint Paul, here is an extract from a magnificent sermon of Saint John Chrysostom. The icon depicts Saint John Chrysostom writing on Saint Paul’s Epistles while the Apostle...
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Let us do only what we can
For the feast of Saint John Eudes: It is never detrimental to the spiritual progress of a Community when one does not do what God does not want him to do. Now God does not desire anyone to observe...
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The much- longed-for virgin
You have heard that you are to conceive and bring forth a Son, and that it will not be through the power of man, but by the virtue of the Holy Ghost. The angel awaits your reply, for it is time that...
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Thus one festival prepares us for the next
From a Letter of Saint John of Avila, Doctor the Church, to a Lady, On the Feasts of Pentecost and Corpus Christi Let us now consider how you are to prepare for the feast of Corpus Christi which is so...
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