Pure and spotless
December 7
“Within the sphere of humanity and in the natural world, there had to be a pure and spotless being capable of receiving the divine element, a feminine principle enlightened by grace.”
-Nicholas Berdyaev
Strength in Weakness: Servant of God Father William Atkinson, O.S.A.
by Theresa Cavicchio
“[The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’ … Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:9 – 10).
What Does Santa Have to Do With Saint Nicholas?
Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Several years ago, William J. Bennett wrote a book entitled, The True St. Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas, in which he details the story of this heroic saint and how his story became the foundation for the Santa Claus we know today.
Mary’s surrender
December 6
“God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.”
-St. Louis Grignion de Montfort
Interim Report on FBI Probe of Catholics Raises Alarm
The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in the U.S. House of Representatives released an alarming report of its findings on the FBI’s targeting of certain Catholic Americans they categorized as “potential domestic terrorists.”
The Difference Between Christian and Occult-based fantasy
As all regular readers of this blog know, we get many questions about children’s books in which the characters use sorcery in one way or another. In an effort to help Christian parents learn how to discern whether or not this content is suitable for their children, I would like to post insights from Michael O’Brien’s book, Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture (www.studioobrien.com) which I hope you’ll find useful.
Will you surrender?
December 5
“Surrender to God is the only absolute power with which creature is endowed.”
-Gertrud von le Fort
The attentive Virgin
December 4
“Mary is the attentive Virgin, who receives the word of God with faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to divine motherhood, for, as St. Augustine realized, “Blessed Mary by believing conceived Him [Jesus] whom believing she brought forth.”
-Pope Paul VI
A field for the word
December 3
“To be a field for the word means to be earth which allows itself to be absorbed by the seed, which assimilates itself to the seed, renouncing itself so as to make the seed germinate. With her motherhood Mary transfused into it her very substance, body and soul, so that a new life might come forth…Mary makes herself completely available as the soil, she allows herself to be used and consumed so as to be transformed into him.
-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI)
