A Hymn of Grief

By listening to the simple tone and absorbing the tragic sentiment of Tenebrae, we enter more deeply into the wonderful mystery of the Lord’s saving passion and death.

The Wisdom of God

Today is also the day of our conversion. We can still decide today to put our hands to the plow. Plowing and sowing demand self-discipline, focus, timeliness and staying in your lane if you expect any reward.

We believe, and we adore, and we love.

What we heard in the first line of today’s first reading, St. Thomas makes clear, suffices to be good theological definition of the virtue of faith. What do we believe but the First Truth, God Himself, but precisely as something as yet unseen?

Epiphany

The mystery of divine light begun at the Christmas Midnight Mass is here brought to completion, for the message delivered directly to simple Jewish shepherds is today revealed through a star to the educated Magi from the East.

The Light of Divine Favor

Tonight is a night of darkness and silence. If darkness is the utter lack of light, then in that blackness, a lonely beam of light, a single ray of heavenly favor, has no competition. All eyes are fixed on the glory of the Lord.

That We May Imitate What We Worship

Lend Me Your Heart

Bernal Díaz was a conquistador in the company of the great Hernán Cortés, who wrote his eyewitness yet famously objective account of what it was exactly they saw and experienced as the relatively small group of Spaniard soldiers and adventurers made their 1519 trek from Vera Cruz inland to what we now call Mexico City.

Christmas Address 2022

As the year draws to a close, Fr. Prior offers a Christmas reflection on the many blessings our community has received in 2022.

Catholic Feminism

As several of my priest confreres have heard ad nauseam already, I just finished an online theology course tangentially related to my more serious canon law studies.

What Does It Mean for Priests to Retain Sins?

Church and State

The dedication anniversary of the Roman cathedral, the Lateran Basilica, since it is the head and mother of all churches throughout the world, offers us an opportunity to examine the mystery of the Church.

Feast of St. Stephen

Earth is illumined by the sun more than by a distant star. No matter how dark the night, the sun’s rays are inescapable when daylight returns. On the other hand, the reason stars twinkle at night is that their light carried on the waves of our atmosphere actually misses our eyes for a moment, so that our pupil is illumined by them not at all.

Behold the Lamb of God!

The person and mission of St. John the Baptist has been foundational to the Norbertine Order from its inception.