From the Friars: The Sacrament of Mercy G. K. Chesterton was asked by some of his friends why he became a Catholic. His reply was, “to get my sins forgiven.” The first thing Jesus did when He appeared to His apostles on the day of His Resurrection was to give them the power to forgive…
From the Friars: Life is in the Blood The Lord is truly risen. Alleluia! The Easter Vigil is the most solemn and important Liturgy of the year. It is full of striking sensible signs of the invisible works of Almighty God. Darkness and light, fire and water, and the sounds of bells and triumphant alleluias…
From the Friars: Holy Week On Palm Sunday each year, my punning pastor was fond of preaching to the parish, “Remember, what Our Lord Jesus did during Holy Week, because we are all wholly weak.” It was an important reminder that this is the holiest week of the year, and that we are all sinners…
From the Friars: De Profundis In today’s Mass we pray Psalm 130 which is known as the “De Profundis”, the Latin translation of the first line: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” It can be seen as the cry of the human race, cut off from God by sin and doomed…
From the Friars: The Sword of Sarcasm Sarcasm is usually sinful because in reality it is almost always a barely disguised insult and unnecessarily hurtful. However, in the case of the man born blind of today’s Gospel, we can easily understand his use of sarcastic language given the circumstances. Suddenly, unexpectedly, this man was able…
The following is an excerpt from the Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini of St. Paul VI of 1966 True penitence, however, cannot ever prescind from physical asceticism as well. Our whole being in fact, body and soul, (indeed the whole of nature, even animals without reason, as Holy Scripture often points out)(46) must participate actively in this…
Taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2697 Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment. But we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. This is why the Fathers of the spiritual life in the Deuteronomic and prophetic traditions insist that…
From the Friars: Beautiful Liturgy One of the main purposes of a Shrine is to offer a beautiful liturgy. I remember the most beautiful liturgies I ever attended were in Ghana (Africa) during a mission trip with a Catholic organization called LifeTeen. The liturgies were beautiful, not because of the exterior adornments with which the…
You have likely noticed that we have changed the heading design of the Shrine bulletin. It now includes the monogram IHS. This an abbreviation, using the first three letters of the Holy Name of Jesus in Greek, which is written IHΣOYΣ. In Latin the sigma Σ looks like S, hence the IHS Christogram. In the…
From the Friars: Let Us Seek Silence In today’s gospel, Jesus manifests the glory of his divinity to three of his apostles, and in dialogue with Moses and Elijah, reveals that he is the promised and expected Messiah. This passage ends with a declaration and a mandate from the Father: “This is my beloved Son:…