Finding the Beauty of the Church and the Route Back Home

Finding the Beauty of the Church and the Route Back Home 3

The late-nineteenth-century conversion story, En Route, by J. K. Huysmans is a book that penetrates deeply into the mind of the reader. It is an autobiographical yet fictional account of the return journey to the Church of a famous French art critic and novelist in decadent Paris. The book has weathered well … Read more

The Last Christmas Card

The Last Christmas Card 1

Every year, numerous people who usually sent Prof. Plinio a Christmas card had a hopeful expectation. It was to receive sometime later, a reply with another card containing a Christmas message signed by him, filling their souls with joy and hope. On Christmas 1994, the last one the distinguished Catholic leader celebrated … Read more

Balance and Harmony Between Riches and Poverty

Balance and Harmony Between Riches and Poverty 2

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Pauperist Heresies Heresies requiring material poverty for eternal salvation have sprung up since the dawn of Christianity. Here we refer more particularly to medieval miserabilists. Under the influence of the Cathars or Albigensians, who adopted the Manichean principle that … Read more

Humility, Magnanimity and Magnificence

Humility, Magnanimity and Magnificence 1

True Humility Is Not Contrary to Legitimate Splendor and Honors The virtue of humility, at least in its external aspects, arouses much sympathy even among those who are not particularly religious or otherwise oppose religion. In a world dominated by pride and sensuality, it seems very timely to study this virtue, however … Read more

Humility Is Compatible with the Rich Dress of One’s Office

Humility Is Compatible with the Rich Dress of One’s Office 2

Saint Francis of Sales, the bishop of Geneva, while on a journey during Lent, went to a church that was attached to the monastery of Capuchin friars. He arrived at sermon time; the preacher had taken ostentation in dress as his sermon’s theme and was inveighing vehemently against prelates and ecclesiastical dignitaries … Read more

A Misconception of Compassion

A Misconception of Compassion 4

Not a few Americans have an aversion to social and economic inequalities. This repulsion arises not so much from philosophical convictions as from a temperamental disposition at the heart of which lies a serious misconception about the nature of compassion. Such mentalities believe that inequalities, particularly those of a social or economic … Read more

True Glory Can Only Be Born of Pain

True Glory Can Only Be Born of Pain 1

From every side of the parade grounds, with habitual and quite natural enthusiasm, a huge crowd watches a trooping of the Queen’s Royal Grenadiers in their ceremonial uniforms. New military tactics forced uniforms like these into obsolescence long ago. Nevertheless, these black trousers, red coats with white belts, gloves and ornaments topped … Read more

The Feast of the Assumption

The Feast of the Assumption

The Assumption was a beautiful favor God granted to His mother. It began when Our Lady, very suavely died. Her passing is customarily called Our Lady’s dormition because the grace with which she passed from this life and the short elapse before her resurrection, made her death seem more like a dream.After … Read more

On Pilgrimage Within a Gaze

On Pilgrimage Within a Gaze 1

A commentary on the miraculous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima I do not know a countenance equal to this one. Moved by an inveterate habit of observing everything, I contemplate it so that I may later understand it. As I fix my eyes upon that countenance, I suddenly … Read more