This is about that time Saint Catherine of Siena “constrained” God, by consent of His most Righteous Will, of course (His response follows below). Was this her training for dragging the naughty schoolboy of a Pope out of exile in France back to Rome? What beauty and wonder, women in the Church! I imagine her finger wagging heavenward in her prayer, a la Job ...
Therefore, You, moved by that same fire of love with which You created him, willingly gave man
Pray without ceasing, know what we know of Christ's full revelation, do what we know Christ calls us to do, trust Jesus our sweet Christ with wild abandon and all will be well for us as we look to the dawn of eternal day.
We go where we look. This is true whether we are hiking up a mountain, cycling down a curvy canyon, or canoeing cataracts ... and right now it rather feels like we are doing all three. If I get distracted by an eagle soaring above, I trip on the rocks and tumble off into the great abyss. If I gaze gobsmacked
Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, who has no regard for empty things, and follies that lie. (Psalm 39:5).
Our world is riddled by and moldering from “vanitates et insanias falsas,” “empty things, and follies that lie.” Let us not hope in anything less than the Lord, for all less than Jesus our sweet Christ is dust in the wind. But ... aren't we supposed to love ourselves?
The Golden Chain, or “Catena Aurea” in Latin, in a commentary on the Gospels compiled by Saint Thomas Aquinas. Reading it is like sitting in a pub with Saints and Church fathers as they jaw back and forth about the depth and breadth of their understanding of a given Gospel. Here is a taste:
The Constitution is supposed to protect us from the least moral among us assuming power over us — but only if good people in positions of limited power live up to their oath to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” Too weak to withstand whatever temptations beset them, those who could have defended the Constitution did not and we are now where we are: a world (not just nation) in which a shadow cabal runs things regardless of the will of the people. The least moral people now have power precisely because they are happy to do anything to achieve it. Humanity has not progressed in the last five hundred years, but regressed. Significantly. Insurrection, that most people do not yet know happened.
What do good and faithful people of a democratic republic do when it becomes clear their vote has no meaning, for the preordained outcome will happen regardless of the genuine will of the people?
Voting Clarity from the Vatican: To Catholic eyes, pro-choice candidates remove themselves from the ballot; vote your conscience from the remaining candidates.
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Oh! How this fallen world needs to hear the eternal truth and love of Jesus our Christ told in modern story, parables! The Holy Spirit is on the case, and we see the fruit emerging in a new spring of Catholic writers, including the joyful vibrancy of young Catholic writers.
This new generation of Catholic authors is steeped in our faith, infusing their writing invisibly and visibly with the fabric of Christ's love, calling readers to reflect through modern parable upon their own struggles. The invitation is clear: choose love of virtue and its abundant fruit over sin and its degrading promises of carnal delight. This is all the more refreshing as they explore how to be a Catholic author in an age of shifting technology and publishing landscapes.
Ms. Anastasia Vincent is such an author and her first work, “Adrastea: Annals of Orbis, Book 1,” offers us a glimpse of the greatness of God's breath as she offers her gift, a tender shoot emerging from spring snows and blossoming into flower. This is my email interview with her.
“If every flower wanted to be a rose, nature would lose her springtime beauty.”
Who better than Saint Therese the Little Flower of Lisieux and her “little way” from “The Story of a Soul” to accompany us through the meadows of the Highland Cathedral?
