Each year, on the 1st Sunday of Advent, the Church heralds the start of a new year. A new year is often a time of ‘resolutions’, ‘new start’ or even renewal. The Church’s year is no different! As the Lord prepared Israel for the coming of the Messiah over the course of 4,000 years, it […]
21 November – Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary In The Temple A prayer to Our Lady to celebrate the Feast of her Presentation in the Temple, by St Alphonsus Liguori from ‘the Glories of Mary’: Oh holy Lady know that already through thy prayers the Son of God is hastening to come and redeem […]
On the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast in 1925 with the Encyclical Quas Primas so that the Church may honour Christ’s kingship and meditate on what it means to be subject to His ‘sweet’ rule. Indeed, the feast is […]
In the encyclical Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI proclaimed the Solemnity of Christ the King for the Universal Church. To celebrate the Solemnity, the Holy Father requested that mankind be dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus because Christ must reign in the hearts of men so that His Kingdom may come on earth. The […]
November is the month when we remember the Holy Souls in purgatory. The Church calls on us to pray and offer ‘suffrages’ or prayers for the Holy Souls who have died in God’s grace but require final purification before entering Heaven. Over the centuries, countless Saints have called on the faithful to pray for these […]
The Angelus was painted by JF Millet (1814-1875) in 1859. His early life was spent in rural France working on the family farm whilst being instructed in the classics by the priests from the local parish. Millet inherited his father’s artistic talent and as a boy copied prints from the Bible and so his artistic […]
Dear Friends, Today we celebrate the anniversary of the location of the statue of the Virgin of Revelation in the grotto of Tre Fontane, Three Fountains, Rome. On the 5th October 1947, the wooden statue of Our Lady, realised by Domenico Ponzi, was transported from St Peter’s Square to Tre Fontane upon a royal carriage […]
St Albert the Great said that Mary’s name has four meanings: lluminator, star of the sea, bitter sea and lady (Comment on St Luke 1,27) Mary illuminates because she gave birth to the true light of the world. She is like the Star of the Sea because she orientates us during the dark nights of […]
In the Letter to the Hebrews Abraham is praised for his faith: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, […]
The Virgin of Revelation told us the power of invoking her intercession by praying the Hail Mary saying, “The Hail Marys that you say with faith and love are like golden arrows to the heart of Jesus.” At Tre Fontane, as with the other Marian apparitions of the last century, Our Lady emphasised the importance […]