Free Republic

Out of Pride and Into Humility: A Lenten Meditation on a Teaching by St. Bernard of Clairvaux By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn yesterday’s post, we considered the twelve steps of pride set forth by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In escalating ways, the twelve steps draw us to an increasingly mountainous and enslaving pride.St. Bernard also enumerates the twelve steps to deeper humility (I am using the list from Vultus Dei HERE)  and it is these that we consider in today’s post. As with yesterday’s post, the list by St. Bernard is shown in red, but the commentary on each step is shown in...

Dear Friends in Jesus and Mary, The Foot of the Cross by Father Faber is a Beautiful and Magnificent Catholic Classic. It is all about the "Sorrows of Mary". Mother Mary was the first disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Foot of the Cross. Father Faber explains each sorrow of Mary in great detail in this Book. NOTE TO READERS: The Foot of the Cross by Father Faber is a "MUST READ" Catholic Classic not only during Lent but also during Holy Week, specially on Good Friday. FYI - Pauly Fongemie is the webmaster of "Catholic Tradition:. Here...

HOLY ORDERS St. Pius X on Priestly SanctityThe Ordination into the Priesthood is the Sacrament known as Holy Orders. This sacrament is administered by the 'laying of hands', the candidate Deacons for Priesthood, kneel before the Bishop. In silence the Bishop lays his hands upon the head of each individual candidate. The prayer belonging to the imposition of hands is said by the Bishop; by this, the Holy Spirit then enters the candidate imparting on him all Priestly powers. The Sacrament of Holy Orders confers Sanctifying Grace to the recipient. The Bishop, through his power of ordaining, is enabled...

Lines from the Lord's Prayer, in various languages. From the Eucharist Door at the Glory Facade of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. It's Lent in Rome. That means it's time for one of the great Roman traditions: station churches. Each morning, English-speaking pilgrims walk to a different church for Mass. This morning, on the way to St. Anastasia's, I was once again struck by a line in the Our Father: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That's a hard thing to pray, It doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. Even the Catechism...

Featured Term selected at random:CARDIOGNOSIS Literally "knowledge of the heart." The special charism that God confers on some people as recorded in the lives of the saints, to know the moral and spiritual condition of a person without self-manifestation. As an extraordinary supernatural gift, it must be distinguished from the psychological phenomenon of being able to shrewdly estimate someone's minimal external evidence. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

How Does Pride Accumulate in Our Life? A Reflection on a Teaching by St. Bernard of Clairvaux By: Msgr. Charles PopeSo you think the idea of the “Twelve Steps” is new? Well, if you think you’ve got a new idea, go back and see how the Greeks put it, or in this case how the Medieval Latins put it. St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified twelve steps up the mountain of pride in his work Steps of Humility and Pride.In today’s post, we focus on the Twelve Steps of Pride. Tomorrow, we’ll tackle the Twelve Steps of Humility (from St. Benedict’s rule). ...

Mother Angelica joins Marcus for the 4th Anniversary episode of the Journey Home Program. Mother Angelica was born Rita Antoinette Rizzo, in 1923, in Canton, Ohio. In 1944, she joined the contemplative order of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. After a severe back injury, she told God that if she could walk after the surgery, she would build Him a monastery in the South. True to her word and God's goodness, the surgery was a success. The new Mother Angelica and five founding Sisters made the journey South. Our Lady of the Angels Monastery was solemnly consecrated on May...

Fr. Terry is a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. Raised in the Baptist Church, he was later very active in the Assembly of God church before finding his way home to the Catholic Church at the age of 26. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1986 with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1995 he graduated from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, PA, with a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts. That same year he was ordained a priest for the Arlington Diocese. He is the brother of Catholic apologist Tim Staples.

Author and apologist Tim Staples joins Fr. Mitch to talk about Marian devotion and defends Mary as Mother of God, the immaculate conception, her perpetual virginity and assumption into heaven.

The Orans Position and holding hands during the Our Father[caption id="attachment_1144" align="alignnone" width="300"] Dominican Orans position at the Unde et Memores[/caption] Most people who attend a Novus Ordo parish or who simply attend Mass in what is known as the Ordinary Form (which most people attend) encounter two specific types of hand gestures that many of the laity engage in. The first type of hand gesture is that which is known as the "Orans Position" (praying with elevated hands). This type of gesture can be seen in several parts of the Mass such as when one of the laity elevates...

CHAPTER 4 The Six Days of Creation Were they days or ages??? There are those who believe that the days in Genesis chapter 1 were normal 24 hour days (just as Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are normal 24 hour days). There are others who believe that the days in Genesis chapter 1 were not 24 hour days, but that each day represented an age (a long period of time). They believe that each "day-age" lasted thousands or perhaps even millions of years. This is called the "day-age" theory. WHAT DOES GOD SAY? EXODUS 20:11—"For in ______    ___________ the LORD _____________...

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)Ryle,I enter on this branch of the subject with sorrowful feelings. I approach it as a sailor would approach some rock on which many gallant ships have made shipwreck. I cannot forget that I have arrived at a point on which millions of so-called Christians have erred greatly, and millions are erring at the present day. But I dare not keep back anything that is Scriptural, for fear of giving offence. The errors of millions must...

Featured Term selected at random:UTOPIA Any imaginary state whose inhabitants live under perfect circumstances; ideal commonwealths described by Plato, Bacon, and St. Thomas More in his book Utopia; in an invidious sense, any visionary reform without consideration of man's human weaknesses and defects. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

 “[Mankind] is under condemnation: ‘As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one’ (Rom. 3:10-12). Man is not on trial; he is a culprit under sentence. No pleading will avail; no excuses will be accepted. The present issue between God and the sinner is, will man bow to God’s righteous verdict?This is where the Gospel meets us. It comes to us as to...

The Anointing of the SickWe Find this sacrament in James 5:14 15 "If one of you is ill, he should send for the elders of the Church (So it is not every single person who is entitled to help spiritually the sick) " And they must anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him; the prayer of faith ( of course, that of the Elders) will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up again. And if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven". We find also in...

Choice and Consequences By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe themes of early Lent are pretty basic. The ashes of Ash Wednesday announce the simple truth that we are going to die and  thereafter face judgment. Hence, we need to repent and come to believe the good news that only Jesus can save us.Another early reading from Thursday after Ash Wednesday featured Moses laying out the basic reality that all of us have a choice to make. He says to us,Today I have set before youlife and prosperity, death and doom …I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:I have set before you life...

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” – 1 Timothy 1:15 Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield (1851-1921) “Christ Jesus came to save sinners.Not, then, merely to prepare salvation for them; to open to them a pathway to salvation; to remove the obstacles in the way of their salvation; to proclaim as a teacher a way of salvation; to introduce as a ruler conditions of life in which clean living becomes for the first time possible; to bring motives to holy action to bear upon us;...

I am often asked how I can believe in God when there have been so many wars caused by religion. The implication is that if only people would leave behind their convictions about the existence of a God the world would be a much better, more peaceful place. Of course very few people ever reflect on the fact that the very reverse of this was demonstrated in the 20th century, which saw the atheistic communist and Nazi ideologies rise. In fact, that century saw more killing than the previous 19 put together.None of this is to say that religion...

O despairing souls, the arms of mercy are open to receive a Manasseh, a monster, a devil incarnate; he caused that gospel prophet Isaiah to be sawed in the midst with a saw, as some rabbis say; he turned aside from the Lord to commit idolatry, and caused his sons to pass through the fire, and dealt with familiar spirits, and made the streets of Jerusalem to overflow with innocent blood, 2 Chron. 33:1-15.The soul of Mary Magdalene was full of devils ; and yet Christ cast them out, and made her heart his house, his presence chamber, Luke 7:47....

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. (2:21–24) As noted in the Introduction, the first phrase of verse 21 was a severe stumbling block to Martin Luther. He...