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Altar of the World
The appearances of Our Blessed Lady at Fatima in 1917 are unanimously agreed to be of such importance that Fatima has often been called “the altar of the world”. For anyone who is not familiar with the detail of these appearances, the full story of Our Lady of Fatima is recounted here. Despite this, these – and all similar and approved – appearances fall into the category of ‘private revelation’, which is far beneath that of the ‘public revelation’ of the life and works of Our Lord, recorded by the Evangelists in the Gospels. Private revelation adds nothing to the core of our Catholic faith – rather, it points us…
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Claiming That One Drop
For many years when I was younger, I had a large framed image of the Sacred Heart hanging on the wall. It was the traditional version of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which a great many people will be familiar with, His hands gently reaching out toward the viewer. It was impossible not to gaze on that image and on the Heart which it depicted so captivatingly. For me, it was not simply the sheer beauty of the image nor the gentle invitation it offered; there was one more thing beyond that. And that one thing fascinated me endlessly. Coming from the Wound in that Heart, there was a drop…
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The Simplest Devotions
You could be forgiven for thinking that in order to be Catholic, a degree in theology is necessary and a doctorate is the ideal. I see a lot of people who proudly display their academic and intellectual credentials when describing themselves online, along with various acronyms after their names which attest to their affiliation with religious orders of one sort or another. I’m delighted at their prowess, of course, and very happy they have attained something that means so much to them. But I find that they generally don’t have a great deal to say to me. Perhaps this is mainly because I am entirely non-academic and have not the…
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Death and Mercy
I go to quite a lot of funerals – in the past year, there have been around eighty or so at which I have been present, and most recently, this morning. One of the things I have noticed when the subject is a person who has recently died, is the implicit belief that they are already in Heaven. “She’s with God now”, I hear; or “He’s with Cathy again in Heaven”. Funeral booklets will often includes something along the lines of “Together again” next to a picture of the recently-deceased alongside their less-recently deceased loved one. Now, I have absolutely no way of knowing the eternal fate of any soul…
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For The Sake Of The Ten
Each Sunday afternoon, our parish has a Holy Hour, with the intention of praying for peace, especially between Russia and Ukraine as the terrible war draws on seemingly without an end in sight. The Holy Hour begins one hour before the Sunday evening Mass. And each week without fail, the same five people are present. Just the same five people. Just five. Now, at first glance, this fact might seem very depressing – it is, after all, a reasonably large parish; having just glanced at this year’s Catholic Calendar, the parish has approximately 6,000 members. So, I suppose you could look at the situation in a particular way and consider that…
