Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: McConnell

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 ›

Share

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 ›

Share

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 ›

Share

The Ascension should stengthen our faith

At one of the last meetings with His disciples after His resurrection Our Lord “upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again (Mark XVI. 14). The reproof which the Master gave the eleven on that occasion was well deserved…. Read More ›

Share

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 ›

Share

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 ›

Share

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 ›

Share

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 ›

Share

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 ›

Share