We are shaped by our culture, and our culture is one that inherited a certain Protestant suspicion of relics, especially their veneration and use in worship. On top of that, as time went on, death itself became a more antiseptic affair. Bodies were embalmed or otherwise treated to avoid decomposition. Personally dealing with the body […]
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One of the more common prayer intentions we get at the Shrine is for those looking for employment. So for them on this day of St. Joseph the Worker, patron of laborers and those searching for employment alike, let us ask his help especially for all those who are unemployed or underemployed, that they might […]
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Fr. Vincent, OP, speaks on the vocation of being a mother and father.
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As we continue our Easter Novena, we recall that today, April 25th, is the traditional “Litania Maior”, “The Greater Litany” or Major Rogation Day, which was a traditional day for asking for God’s blessings on His people and their lands. “An Old English Martyrology” describes it thus: “On the twenty-fifth day of the month there […]
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Christ chose to have parents who were poor but perfect in virtue, lest anyone should glory in his noble lineage and the riches of his parents. He lived a life of poverty to teach others to spurn riches. He lived an ordinary life having no high position to recall others from an inordinate greed for […]
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Today is “Laetare Sunday,” which takes its name from the Entrance Antiphon, “Rejoice” (“Laetare”) “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning;” Cf. Is 66: 10-11 Because of that uptick in joy in Lent, the liturgical color is lightened to Rose from Violet. The history of the liturgical color […]
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Today, upon learning of a friend of our friars who was now in hospice care, we offered a “Mass for a Happy Death” for her. It sounds a bit macabre, does it not, a “happy” death? What’s so “happy” about it? Part of it comes from the vagaries and history of the English language, the […]
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Fr. Vincent, OP, speaks on the meaning of Holy Week.
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One of the things we often mention about St. Jude is how he was “oft-forgotten” and thus not invoked much until later. Thus, he would seem to be a “lesser” saint in some respect. But should we ever “bother” with lesser saints? In the Supplement to the Third Part of the Summa, St. Thomas Aquinas […]
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