Last month, in the second sorrowful mystery, we contemplated Jesus’ lacerated body. Now, in the third sorrowful mystery, our focus shifts to His lacerated heart. Our Saviour is clothed in a purple garment and a crown of thorns is cruelly pressed into His head – a mock king for the jeering pleasure of an obnoxious…
The scourging of Jesus at the pillar is a heartrending scene. The most innocent Lamb of God delivers His body over to one of the cruelest and most barbaric of punishments – a Roman scourging – to show us the depth of His love for us in our human weakness. Ever since the Fall of…
Soon after solid spiritual reading became a part of my daily life, I was struck by the emphasis the saints place upon the Passion of Jesus. The saints are unanimous in telling us to meditate on the Passion, if holiness is the desire of our hearts. In view of their wisdom, I was surprised that…
I remember looking up at the crucifix hanging in little St. Augustine’s church as a ten-year-old, thinking to myself, “I really like looking at Jesus on the Cross… but am I going to wake up one day and get bored of it? Or get bored of the Mass? It’s always the same.” Clearly, I didn’t…
When St. Thomas Aquinas’ sister asked him how to become a saint, he answered her in two words: “Desire it.” To be human is to be a creature of desire – a hunger in the flesh. I think we sometimes underestimate the power of desire in our spiritual lives. It’s easy to overcomplicate holiness, identifying…
The fruit of the third luminous mystery is the spiritual program of our entire lives as Catholic Christians: to repent and be converted, one day at a time. As Fr. Thomas Dubay pointed out in his treasure-of-a-book, Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer, the first recorded words of Christ’s public ministry were a call to conversion: “Be converted,…
As friends of a small shrine dedicated to Our Lady, the second luminous mystery has a special significance for our lives: the first of Jesus’ public miracles was mediated by the intercession of Our Lady. Our Lady simply had to look into her Son’s eyes imploringly as she stated the needs of her soon-to-be children…
In the first Luminous mystery, our Saviour comes before the Father in a spirit of humility, submitting himself to John’s baptism of repentance on behalf of the sinner, in order “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). When He comes up out of the water, “the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God…
There are so many directions one could take in unpacking the Fifth Joyful Mystery, but with Christmas approaching, I’d like to turn our attention to the path of evangelization. Stores are in-gear for shopping sprees, our eyes catch the twinkling of Christmas lights, and holiday jingles reach our ears…but how many of our neighbours are…
Forty days after His birth, Jesus is presented in the Temple, in accord with the law of Moses. As devout Jews, Our Lady and St. Joseph observed to the letter the God-given prescriptions of the Torah. The presentation of a first-born son was an act of consecration to God. Just as the Chosen People offered…