Holy Thursday: the day of the Eucharist and the Priesthood

Dear Fathers and Pastors – we need you! Today, on a Maundy Thursday that history will recall for the impact of the Coronavirus, we celebrate the fact that the Lord instituted the Eucharist. It is a Holy Thursday in which the  solemn entry to the Pascal Tridium is pious and also sorrowful. This entrance to […]

Saint Joseph, Patron of the Church

The memory of Pope Gregory XV resounds on this great Solemnity as, in 1621, he declared the 19th of March an obligatory Feast for the most powerful and humble Saint of the Church: Saint Joseph. St Matthew’s Gospel speaks of him as a “just man” who was willing to fulfil God’s will. Saint Joseph gave […]

Divine Promises Are Eternal

In France, during the second half of the 16th century, the doctrine of Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), otherwise known as Jansenism, was greatly defused. Jansen’s theology taught that the Lord is a God who gives His grace only to the elect, abandoning the rest for ever because human nature was completely corrupted by original sin. To […]

Good Friday: Our glory is the Cross of Christ

On Good Friday the Church invites us to look at Christ, who was crucified and died for our Salvation. Now more than ever, adoring the wood of the cross calls us to a profound reflection. With the original sin, evil, suffering and death entered the world. Man, wounded by Original Sin, became a victim of […]

The Chair of Peter and the artistic wisdom of Bernini

The ancient Feast of the Chair of Peter has been celebrated in the Church since the third century and was definitively established on the 22nd February by St Pope John XXIII. The Feast celebrates the mission and authority that Jesus entrusted to Simon, the fisherman from Galilee, to lead the people of God towards salvation […]

The Rosary lifts us up to God

The Rosary is the favourite prayer of Popes and saints alike. It is therefore not surprising that we find a very powerful image that symbolises the power of the Rosary in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, which is the Main Chapel of the Popes. Looking closely at the detail we can see two […]

The Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Into Heaven

The truth that Our Lady was assumed into heaven was always believed and celebrated by the Church although it was not considered a dogma of the Faith until the 1st November 1950. From very ancient times, the Church in the east and west solemnly celebrated a liturgical feast in memorial of the “Dormition of Mary” […]

2017 A New Year to Search for Happiness.

“Today, we do not have one more year but one year less before Our Lord’s coming!” St Teresa of Avila These are the days in which we exchange best wishes for “A Happy New Year 2017” hoping for our deepest heart’s desire: serenity and happiness.  However, it is already evident that, along with the fulfilment […]

Christ in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement: An icon of mercy

The extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy ends on the 20th November 2016 which also coincides with the solemnity of Christ the King. At the end of the Liturgical Year the Church contemplates the final coming of the Lord and so the Last Judgment by Michelangelo, from the Sistine Chapel, is a fitting masterpiece with which to […]