With Pope Francis in the news on a daily basis, it’s worth recalling another famous reforming pope. Sept. 3 marks the Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604. In his own way he made a similar…
A number of years ago a friend of mine shared with me the Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola. For those of you unfamiliar with the prayer, it goes as follows: Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my…
At Living with Christ, we have a special appreciation for Saint Peter Julian Eymard, often referred to as the Apostle of the Eucharist. Peter, who was born in France in 1811, had an unwavering devotion to the Eucharist, asserting that…
On the feast of St. Agnes there is an interesting blessing celebrated at the church of the saint on Piazza Navona in Rome. Two lambs are blessed, and when they have grown, the wool from these lambs is woven and…
There isn’t a mom I know who can’t relate – at least a little! – to St. Monica, the devoted mother of St. Augustine of Hippo, whose love for her child overcame their clash of wills and values. In what…
“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” The famous poetic assertion of Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins aptly summarizes the heart of Ignatian spirituality, an approach to God, prayer and life built upon the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius…
At the heart of our Christian spirituality is the belief that we are a pilgrim people. From birth to death our lives are marked by rites of passage leading us to the day when we hope to enter into the…
The New Testament accords Mary Magdalene a place of honour, not only locating her by name at the foot of the cross but also identifying her as one of the first witnesses to the resurrection. Saint Augustine called her the…
Adding Saint Joseph to the other three main Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite is part of a new development in devotion to the husband of the Blessed Virgin. I have been wondering what this seemingly random act of the…
As a young university student, I learned a prayer that continues to speak deeply to me to this day: “Grant, O Merciful God, That I may ardently desire, Truthfully acknowledge, And perfectly accomplish, What is pleasing to Thee, For the…