“Blessed are you when they persecute you, and hate you, for My sake.” We were never promised an easy life by Our Lord. It’s natural enough to want it, to ask for it, and to be unhappy about not having it. But I think we too often forget this warning delivered at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
Advent celebrates the coming of the Lord on December 25, when the first ray of Divine Light penetrated the darkness of Original and Actual Sin. Easter is the day that the Light conquered the darkness forever, but Christmas is the beginning of that promise’s fulfillment. With the late evenings and rapid onset of night, perhaps this article is a timely reminder that keeping the fires lit is not easy – and was never guaranteed to be so.
An Irish Catholic chieftain portrayed as defender of his faith
Lucien de Guise – published on 05/21/21
One of the joys of UK’s museums reopening this week is that some of them have come back better than ever. London’s Tate Britain has done an especially good job with wall labels that explain the oppression that forms such a lively part of British history. At the Victoria and Albert Museum they are admitting that it was wrong to loot Christian treasures from Ethiopian churches in the 19th century, and are thinking about how to return them.
A Song of Joy by Caroline Furlong 