Monthly Archives: August 2023

ClareBorn in 1193 in Assisi of a wealthy family, Clare caught the joy of a new vision of the gospel from Francis’ preaching. Escaping from home, first to the Benedictines and then to a Béguine-style group, she chose a contemplative way of life when she founded her own community, which lived in corporate poverty understood as dependence onContinue reading “Oremus for Friday, August 11, 2023”

LawrenceThe sources for the martyrdom of Laurence are among the earliest, though the details are thin. Laurence was one of the seven deacons at Rome and closely associated with Pope Sixtus II, martyred just a few days before him. His examiners insisted he produce the Church treasures. He promptly did so: assembling all the poor,Continue reading “Oremus for Thursday, August 10, 2023”

John Henry NewmanJohn Henry Newman was born in 1801. His intellectual brilliance saw him appointed to a Fellowship in Oxford at the young age of twenty-one. His Evangelical roots gradually gave way to a more Catholic view of the Church, particularly after liberal trends both in politics and theology appeared to undermine the Church of England’s authority.Continue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, August 9, 2023”

DominicDominic was born in Spain about 1170. He had great sympathy for those critical of the wealth and corruption of the church in Europe at the time. He felt called to preach to those who wanted to aban-don the church for the popular but heretical ascetic sects such as the Albigensians and Waldensians. He formedContinue reading “Oremus for Tuesday, August 8, 2022”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/22vexxaw Like the deer that yearns for running streams,so my soul is yearning for you, my God;my soul is thirsting for God, the living God. Psalm 42 Almighty God,to whom all hearts are open,all desires, known,and from whom no secrets are hid:Cleanse the thoughts of our heartsby the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,that we may perfectlyContinue reading “Oremus for Monday, August 7, 2023”

Anniversary of the Bombing of HiroshimaOn this day in 1945, the United States hastened the end of World War II in the Pacific by dropping the first nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, it bombed the city of Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered shortly thereafter. Given what we now know aboutContinue reading “Oremus for Sunday, August 6, 2023”

John Mason NealeJohn Mason Neale was born in 1818 and, whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge, was influenced by the ideas of the Tractarians. He was a founder of the Cambridge Camden Society, which stimulated interest in ecclesiastical art and which played a part in the revival of Catholic ritual in the Church of England. WhilstContinue reading “Oremus for Saturday, August 5, 2023”

Enrique AngelelliEnrique Ángel Angelelli Carletti was a bishop of the Catholic Church in Argentina who was assassinated during the Dirty War for his involvement with social issues. Angelelli, whose commitment to the “Church of the Poor” offered a model for the future Pope Francis, was murdered two months after U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gaveContinue reading “Oremus for Friday, August 4, 2023”

Flannery O’ConnorFlannery O’Connor is considered one of America’s greatest fiction writers and one of the strongest apologists for Roman Catholicism in the twentieth century. Born of the marriage of two of Georgia’s oldest Catholic families, O’Connor was a devout believer whose small but impressive body of fiction presents the soul’s struggle with what she called the “stinkingContinue reading “Oremus for Thursday, August 3, 2023”

LydiaLydia was Paul’s first European convert. She was a Gentile woman in Philippi who, like many others, was attracted to Judaism. As what the Jewish community called a “God-fearer” she was undoubtedly accorded respect by the Jewish community, but still would have been marginalized. Paul encountered her on a riverbank where she and a groupContinue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, August 2, 2023”