In the midst of all of the solemnities the Church celebrates around the month of June, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart gets overlooked. Why does the Church ascribe so much importance to an internal organ of Our Lord? Isn’t that kind of strange?
Vir Christi delves into mental prayer: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it. He also answers the question of how we know whether our time spent in mental prayer is bearing fruit or not. This is a must-read!
If you’ve never been in the habit of praying the Rosary, it can seem dull or intimidating. Or perhaps you feel in need of a “refresh” regarding your devotion to Mary. Or maybe you want to branch out and connect with her in other ways. Here are several little suggestions.
Pride is the summit of self-love and the greatest of the seven deadly sins. Every sin contains a germ of pride. Besides, sins directly springing from pride come in a multitude of forms. Each of us is inclined to some of them. It is necessary to…
Greed is an excessive love of worldly goods that leads to an unrestricted desire to acquire material things. We tend to associate it with money, but it can also be manifested in a love of clothes, jewelry, frivolous gadgets, etc. Greed is often a subtle vice, one we easily excuse.
The term “wrath” gets used routinely in everyday language. People like to use it to describe unchecked fury. Books and movies have glorified it, in many cases, to the point where wrath is seen as a sort of noble pursuit of justice. Because of this…
Envy is a sin alive and well in our society. Its venom courses through social media and news programs, school and work environments, and even into our churches and homes. Despite this, I’ve heard little mention of this sin. What is it exactly? How does it differ from jealousy? And what makes it so dangerous?
“The sin which causes most souls to go to Hell are sins of the flesh.” That awful sentence was by Our Lady of Fatima. In a world where sensuality and the appeal to sex are omnipresent, that sentence chills us to the bone.
When we think of gluttony, we probably picture somebody stuffing themselves to excess or guzzling down a huge bottle of liquor. But the sin of gluttony encompasses more than overeating or overdrinking. Pope St. Gregory the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas describe four other ways in which we can commit this sin.
Sloth can be a difficult sin to identify. The other capital sins are “active” sins: we consciously choose to do something evil. Sloth is a sin of omission: we fail to do something good. It is easy to dismiss because we’re not actively doing any harm—or so we think.
We humans are heavily influenced by our surroundings. That’s why we’re always encouraged to keep good company and put ourselves in places where we can build good habits. In the winter, a sense of dreariness can overcome us. People are tired of the cold and the snow. They’re ready for….
Recently, I’ve been focusing on the theme of the Presence of God while praying the Joyful Mysteries. Maintaining a sense of God’s Presence is, I think, the key to attaining holiness in ordinary life. What is holiness but allowing God to form Himself in our lives so that all we do is truly His?
Even if I have what I deem a “successful” Advent or Lent, I don’t want to stop there. I want to keep growing in my spiritual life throughout the rest of the year. But how?
I’ve been musing on Joseph and how significant his presence is. It seems as if the whole point of Joseph’s life is just to be present to Jesus and Mary. Miracles, words of wisdom, grand gestures? Nope. Just be present wholeheartedly to God and those around you. That’s enough.
A friend was thanking me for praying for him when he said something most striking. He remarked on how we ask people to pray for us, but forget to thank them later on.
What a profound thought. We say thank you to someone who’s done us some favor, and…