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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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Take It To Mother
So very often in life, we simply don’t know where to go or who to turn to. Sometimes we cannot reveal to those nearest to us what it is that is really troubling us and what lies heavily upon our hearts, for fear of burdening them. Sometimes our shame prevents us. Other times, those very issues leave us feeling quite isolated and without a clear way forward. It can all be very dispiriting and, unless we are very careful, can even lead to us experiencing a despair of sorts. Reading the admonitions of the Saints, their advice in such matters is generally more or less the same – go to…
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The Lady’s Day
Saturday is celebrated within the Church, as a general rule, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the Lady’s Day. There is a particular Office in the Liturgy of the Hours for Saturday’s which praises Her explicitly and asks of Her – “Blessed are You, Mary; for the salvation of the world came from You; now You rejoice in the presence of the Lord; intercede for us with Your Son”. And of course, this is precisely why we are so devoted to Her – She is the Mother of the Lord, the new Ark of the Covenant; and She is our own Mother, given to us by Her…
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Our Lady of Lourdes
The Apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous in the Grotto of Massabieille Original text – © Will Ross Official The Soubirous Family The Soubirous family lived in the far north of the little town of Lourdes, in the Lapaca district. A large stream flowed there, and on this stream there were seven mills; one of them was known as the Boly Mill, and this had been the residence of the Soubirous. Francois Soubirous leased the mill from relatives of his wife, Louise. In many ways, it was the trade of the miller which had brought the couple together. They had married in the parish church on 9th January…
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Quietly Doing A Little
As Catholic Christians, we know – at least intellectually – that our task is as the Lord described it to the Apostles at the moment of His Ascension into Heaven – “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 29:19). But sometimes, this can seem like an unsurmountable task, something of which we feel ourselves to be quite incapable. How on earth can I – me – go out and make disciples for the Lord? I am, after all, really nothing very much at all. There is not much I can do to achieve such a lofty ambition as ‘making disciples of all nations’. Now, if we are intending to…
