“Monastery” at once evokes a ruin, albeit a romantic one, as it does, I suppose, in the minds of most English-speakers. The dissolution of monasteries in Britain was so thorough, that there apparently exists only one monastery in Elgin (Scotland) that is still active in its original Medieval vocation and setting (despite an interruption of 4 centuries).

Our Lord, the Gospel tells us, kept company with sinners, prostitutes, and assorted other dubious characters. But woe on the present-day priest who tries to follow his example, he will be immediately condemned by his flock and reported to his bishop.

Why St. Pancras, you say? Go and look at the panels set before the altar at Fr. Wood's Memorial, and you will find paintings of four youthful saints proposed as models to the boys of St. John's School; they are Saints Lawrence, Edward, George, and Pancras. Pancras is shown holding the Blessed Sacrament.

When did you last hear a female saint (except Our Lady) mentioned at St. John’s, and perhaps Mary Magdalene every 6-7 years when her feast falls on a Sunday? And the 4-5 holy women included in our Litany of the Saints during Easter Vigil?

The vocable “Our Lady of the Snows” refers to the foundation of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome also known as the “Sacrosancta Patriarchalis Basilica Liberiana” from the name of its founder Pope Liberius.

Cannot the Rector be assimilated to the shepherd who must give his life for his sheep (and worse, must put his eternal life on the line) and is not the incumbent more like the hireling for whom the care of the parish is more of a job than anything else?

The blackness of the Madonna and Child has always been the subject of much speculation, but no one explanation is entirely satisfactory. There are too many black virgins for their existence to be explained by the sole whim of the sculptor.

Mary was further present at Calvary and she went to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morn to anoint His body, where she met Him and became the first recorded witness of His resurrection. She is the apostles' apostle, bringing to them the news of the risen Christ.

Next time you drink a fine wine, remember that like so many other great gifts of the Creator, it is a perfect blend of the best and the worse that nature has to offer.

From this transmutation of the animal into the plant world arises the image of the winepress as a figure of the Passion: as the plant (the grapes) are crushed, they exude their sweet-smelling juice, so Christ sheds on the Cross His sweet-smelling Blood.

Maria Goretti had died a martyr, and we were amazed in 1950 when she was canonised during Holy Year in the presence of her mother and while her murderer Alessandro Serenelli was still alive.

The women will have to find a way to make kids without us (and that entails parthenogenesis!)... so the feminist dream will come true after all... a world without sexism, machism, patriarchism, paternalism... and without men. Human society would be, God forbid, like a nunnery!

All these women died to maintain their chastity (or atoned for its loss) and would therefore be "natural" examples for nuns and beguines.

When I depart this world to appear before my beloved Lord to account for my sins which have been scarlet, I shall say to Him: I cannot remember the name of the village; I do not even recollect the name of the girl, but the wine, my God! was Chambertin.

The Canadian Zouaves took on the Sacred-Heart flag as their own. It replaced their earlier banner (white with the tiara and keys on one side, and on the other, their motto "Aime Dieu et va ton chemin! - Love God and go your way" - with a beaver and two crossed maple leaves.)

At the last Liturgy and Music Committee meeting, it was suggested that we mark August 15th in a special way. I commented, somewhat facetiously, "Good, we will celebrate St. Napoleon's Day!", which only drew blank stares.

I would suggest that he would do admirably well as a patron for Deep Ecologists or Ecosophists, you know those greenest of the greens who preach the new religion of Ecology and who equate the life of a cockroach with that of a human.

In Roman use, [the biretta] has taken on a peculiar shape and is reinforced with cardboard (a contrivance which is destroyed the first time the priest sits on it, which is generally early in the life of any biretta).

Did you ever ponder on the liturgical significance of hair? Well, there is more to it than it would seem at first glance. Humans are mammals, and so glory in their "fleece" as birds do in their plumage.

Did you pick up the old theological puzzler in the movie? It goes like this: you are a priest about to say Mass; a man comes to confession and accuses himself of having poisoned the wine you are to use. What do you do? You discard the wine and open a fresh bottle? Right? - Wrong!