Tag: Callan
We must be willing to do more than expected
[Neither] the Virgin Mother nor Our Lord was obliged by the laws to which they submitted forty days after the birth of Jesus. But if they exempted themselves, they would give bad example to others who would not understand their reasons, and perhaps their action would be the occasion to others of disobeying laws by… Read More ›
Attention in Prayer
It may be taken for granted as a rule that the chief benefit which we derive from any private prayer will be in proportion to the attention and fervor which we bring to it when saying it. Without attention to what we are saying or doing, our prayers are apt to become a mere mechanical,… Read More ›
Have faith in the final Resurrection
Our Mother’s Assumption brings before us the thought of the final destiny of her children. We are not meant to enjoy the Beatific Vision merely as separated souls. One day we too are to live before God in body as well as soul, in a body spiritualized and glorified by the power which flows to… Read More ›
To be like Christ means above all to love.
To be like Christ means above all to love. It is even a commandment for us to be like Him in this regard. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John XV. 12). After Christ had told the Apostles this, He went on to explain that this love… Read More ›
If Christ has not risen . . .
“If Christ has not risen, then idle is our preaching, and idle is your faith” (1 Cor. XV. 14). This is as true now as it was when St. Paul wrote it for the Corinthians nineteen hundred years ago. The resurrection of the Lord is the foundation of our faith. We do not preach simply… Read More ›
Why such an enormous price for our salvation?
When meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, which culminated in His death on the cross, we can hardly avoid wondering, “Why such an enormous price for our salvation.” We know that one tear of the Savior’s divine eyes, one sigh of His Sacred Heart, would have been enough to ransom the whole world, because… Read More ›
It is what we do that matters
Nazareth was an obscure and despised village; its people were regarded as inferiors. Yet such holiness was found in that small community that it became the place the Incarnation of the Son of God. Obviously, then, it not so much where we live or what we do, but rather what we are that matters; especially… Read More ›
Obey the Spirit not the Letter of the Law
According to Jewish Law every first-born male child of Jewish family belonged to the service of God. . . . To be sure, Our Lord and His Blessed Mother really were not obliged by those laws. Our Lord was God Himself as well as man, and, as such, needed no redemption from service to God…. Read More ›
Reviving Our Faith in Our Own Resurrection
For Mary, much more than for St. Paul, to live was Christ, but to die was gain (Phil. 1:21). When death overtook her, her thoughts were on Christ, as they always were. She owed no debt to death, for she had been conceived without sin. She had been exempted from bearing the guilt of Adam,… Read More ›