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The Stages of Sin from St. Bernard of Clairvaux - Fasten Your Seatbelts! Msgr. Charles Pope • September 12, 2016 • Saint Bernard of ClairvauxThere are times when one reads something from one of the saints and is stunned by the tremendous insight, the piercing analysis, like a surgeon’s scalpel dividing diseased from healthy tissue. Such was my experience recently when reading a passage from St. Bernard of Clairvaux.In this passage, Bernard analyzes the descent into the increasing darkness of sin experienced by those who refuse to hear the call to repent. I would argue that it applies not...

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...

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). ...

Considering the Crusades in the Context of the Current Conflict with Radical Islamists By: Msgr. Charles PopeRecent and persistent attacks by radical Muslims, especially the most recent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians, have many asking what can or should be done to end such atrocities. Military actions by numerous countries, including our own, are already underway. Most feel quite justified in these actions and many are calling for more concerted efforts to eliminate ISIS and related zealots who seem to know no pity, no reason, and no limits. I do not write here to opine on the need for...

BELEN, N.M. (KRQE) – A little dog is being hailed a hero for saving his much larger buddy. One dachshund’s persistence led to a dramatic water rescue of a St. Bernard.[PHOTOS: Hero dachshund helps save St. Bernard]Belen firefighters and police officers raced to the rescue to save Tim Chavez’s St. Bernard named Jazzy. Chavez believes the 180-pound dog was stuck in a cold, muddy ditch for about 18 hours.Chavez’s tiny dachshund named Razor is credited with making the rescue happen.Sunday afternoon, the 9-year-old St. Bernard got loose. By Monday, Chavez had to go to work, and in retrospect, Chavez realizes Razor was...

A settlement has been reached in a long legal fight over St. Bernard Parish housing policies that allegedly restricted black people from renting in the parish as it rebuilt after catastrophic damage caused by flooding from Hurricane Katrina. An advocacy group that investigates complaints of discrimination, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, said Friday that St. Bernard has agreed to settle the case for $1.8 million. The settlement stems from a 2006 lawsuit filed against the parish.

There are just times when a saint speaks and one is stunned by the insight, the piercing analysis, like a surgeon’s scalpel dividing diseased from healthy tissue. Such is the case with a quote I read recently from St. Bernard that Ralph Martin references in his Book “The Fulfillment of all desires.”In this quote Bernard analyzes the descent into the increasing darkness of sin experienced by those who do not turn back, who refuse to hear the call to repent. And not individuals only, but, I would argue, cultures too.St. Bernard’s quote is long enough that I can only make...

Hercules was adopted by a couple in Hillsboro, Ohio, who saw the ailing 135-pound St. Bernard at the animal shelter and feared he would be euthanized. Six hours later, the heroic canine repaid his new owners' kindness when a dark-clothed thug broke into the couple's house. The man had cut the phone and cable lines running to the home of Rubert and Elizabeth Littler and had sneaked into their basement.

A federal judge once again has declared St. Bernard Parish in contempt and subject to monetary damages because it has "doggedly attempted to preserve the pre-Katrina demographics" of its parish by intentionally discriminating against African Americans. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan this week ruled the parish's continuing attempts to prevent the four Provident Realty Advisors apartments in Chalmette violates the federal Fair Housing Act. Berrigan has referred the decision on amount of damages, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs to a magistrate judge. For six years, St. Bernard has remained in the spotlight over housing restrictions that violate federal civil rights...

On Theology of the Heart or the Mind "To Make Truth Triumph in Charity" VATICAN CITY, NOV. 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address today during the general audience held in St. Peter's Square. * * * Dear brothers and sisters, In the last catechesis I presented the main characteristics of 12th century monastic and scholastic theology, which in a certain sense we could call, respectively, "theology of the heart" and "theology of reason." A wide debate, at times fiery, took place between the representatives of each current, represented symbolically by the controversy between St. Bernard...

On St. Bernard of Clairvaux "Faith Is Above All a Personal, Intimate Encounter With Jesus" VATICAN CITY, OCT. 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address today during the general audience in St. Peter's Square. * * * Dear brothers and sisters, Today I would like to speak about St. Bernard of Clairvaux, called "the last father" of the Church, because in the 12th century he renewed once again and rendered present the great theology of the Fathers. We do not know details about the years of his boyhood. We know, nevertheless, that he was born in...

A third St. Bernard Parish man has been arrested in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old Lacombe girl, authorities said. Louis Ceaser Jr., 35, 3405 Golden Drive, Apt. D. Chalmette, was booked Thursday with aggravated rape. He remains in St. Bernard Parish Prison in lieu of $200,000 bond, the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office said. The girl allegedly met a man via a telephone party line and agreed for him to come to Lacombe and pick her up at her home. The teen left home without her mother's knowledge and was driven by two men to Chalmette, where she was...

Katrina & Rita - 1 year later - Appeal for help from a resident near Ground Zero... Let's see what the power of Freep can do to motivate the United States Government and it's legislators and beauracrats for 2 small Parishes (counties) in the United States of America compared what it can do for a hostile country roughly twice the size of Idaho (Iraq)

By BRETT TROXLERbtroxler@wbrz.com2theadvocate.com staffFrom a report by ABC 26's Yungi DeNies Hundreds of St. Bernard residents lined up at the state Capitol on Monday to talk about the future of their parish. Local leaders painted a grim picture of the status of St. Bernard Parish, an area that was perhaps hit harder by Hurricane Katrina than any other location in Louisiana. Every part of the parish has flood damage, with some areas receiving as much as 12 feet of water. One local representative said some neighborhoods will have to be entirely demolished. Parish President Henry Rodriguez said that while...

by Fr. Christopher Nalty Other Articles by Fr. Christopher Nalty Supporting the First Steps to New Orleans’s Recovery 09/10/2005 I returned home from Rome on the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, to spend time with my Dad during his last week of radiation treatment for cancer (I pray that he's going to be fine). My family and I evacuated on Sunday. In This Article...Drowned CommunitiesTurning Attention from the Dead to the LivingA Good First Step: Housing the Workers Drowned Communities I'm currently at my family's property in Brewton, Alabama; we were some of the lucky ones with someplace to...

<p>St. Bernard Parish officials say that 32 of the home's roughly 60 residents died on Aug. 29, more than a week ago.</p>

Emergency response personnel faced grueling tasks across St. Bernard Parish on Wednesday, as the receding waters showed the full impact of Hurricane Katrina. Clean up crews labored to skim off a thick layer of crude oil, spilled from a tank at the Murphy Oil refinery, that soiled east Chalmette homes as far west as Paris Road. All the while, rescue teams tended to dozens of calls from residents seeking a way out — many of them people who turned down rescuers just days ago but are now running out of water and food or just had enough of the stench...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jack A. Stephens Sheriff St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana (504) 271-2504 September 3, 2005; 11:00 AM CST BY ORDERS OF THE SHERIFF: Because of the total breakdown of law and order and the civil insurrection in the City of New Orleans: No one, including residents, will be permitted to return to St. Bernard Parish until further notice. Please watch this web site for further orders. The City of New Orleans appears to be in a state of civil insurrection which WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO MIGRATE IN TO ST. BERNARD PARISH. It is NOT SAFE for residents to...

Canine war hero gets Scottish statueBamse, a Norwegian St. Bernard that symbolized national freedom and resistance during WWII, will be memorialized in a life-sized bronze statue in the Scottish city of Montrose.Bamse, which means teddy bear, sailed to Britain on the Royal Norwegian Navy (KNM) minesweeper Thorodd in 1940, part of the flotilla that carried King Haakon VII into safety, newspaper The Scotsman reports.The dog became a favorite with locals as well as Norwegian troops fighting to liberate Norway from abroad. The mascot of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Bamse regularly sailed at the front gun tower of the ship when...

GREAT ST. BERNARD PASS, Switzerland, Oct. 27 - The only dog right now at the 950-year-old hospice of St. Bernard is a very nice golden retriever named Justy. The issue of those other dogs - the famously huge and heroic ones, who toted brandy barrels in legend, who lived here for centuries and sniffed scores of stranded travelers out of the snow - is not one that the Rev. Frédéric Gaillard is keen to talk about. "Now there are helicopters," Father Gaillard, one of four remaining monks at the St. Bernard's hospice here, said with some irritation. "And we have...