Faith & SpiritualityBlog
Reflections, devotionals, and spiritual insights to nourish your soul and deepen your walk with Christ.
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Pope Leo XIV daily prayer
Pope Leo XIV asks us to start each day with this prayer to our heavenly Father, so we might feel his love surround us and protect us for the day.
Desert Fathers 45
Abba Antony of Egypt one of the most influential of the desert fathers explains leisure: The idea of leisure is deeply rooted in both monastic and secular life. We can enjoy leisure without being idle. To be idle is to avoid what needs to be done, for selfish reasons, to waste time. Leisure, on the other hand, is in itself a high form of attention.
Pope Leo XIV Encyclical
Paste the link below in your browser: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html?
Question of Christians and violence. = Thomas O'Loughlin
To claim that Jesus never taught non-violent resistance is to skip over a fairly large chunk of the New Testament and isn't intellectually honest ... For meditation: If you love me you will keep my commandments. (Jn14:15)
He calls each of his sheep by name - Bishop Erik Varden
You receive the sacrament of confirmation on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. We call it Good Shepherd Sunday, for on this day we always read from the tenth chapter of John, which contains the parable of the Shepherd and the sheep.
John Cardinal O'Connor: Founding the Sisters of Life
The late John Cardinal O'Connor speaks on the founding of the Sisters of Life, a religious order of Sisters based in New York dedicated to upholding the dignity of all human life. www.sistersoflife.org
Catholic University of Central Africa (Yaoundé) - Pope Leo XIV
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE LEO XIV TO ALGERIA, CAMEROON, ANGOLA AND EQUATORIAL GUINEA (13–23 April 2026) MEETING WITH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS Catholic University of Central Africa (Yaoundé) Friday, 17 April 2026
Why Watch Films? - Bishop Erik Varden
18 April 2026 As the home cinema replaces theatres with fold-down seats, a curtain, and popcorn, how is our experience of movies changed? Can sanctity be caught on celluloid? Can films prepare us for contemplative living? What does it do to us, in the long run, to watch violence in films? These were some of the questions addressed in an enjoyable exchange I recently had with Thomas Mirus and James Majewski on the Criteria podcast. Our conversation touched on a number of specific films, ranging from Casablanca to Pulp Fiction, from The Madness of King George to The Mysteries of Lisbon, from the Apu Trilogy to the Bourne series. Below is a transcript of my conversation with Thomas and James, generously provided by a kind Canadian Benedictine.
Easter Vigil - Bishop Erik Varden
The character of death is relentless. Death marks an absolute divide. We’re either alive or dead. There’s no in-between. Anyone who has sat at a death-bed knows what I mean. The dying person may be in a coma; we may struggle to see whether he or she is breathing; but they are there. Then death comes, and we are left utterly alone, just with a lifeless body, conscious of an explicit, piercing absence.
Easter Sunday - Bishop Erik Varden
That is how we become credible witnesses, fit to carry his Gospel to the ends of the earth. Alleluia!
The Death of Jesus
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich's account in the Life of Jesus Christ Volume 4
THE SCOURGING OF JESUS - Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
Then the executioners, striking and pushing Jesus with their short staves, led Him through the raging multitude on the forum to the whipping pillar, which stood in front of one of the halls that surrounded the great square
Facing Fear - Bishop Erik Varden
https://coramfratribus.com/life-illumined/facing-fear/ March 17th: Speech given to open the spring plenary assembly of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference in Stykkishólmur. by +fr Erik Varden OCSO President of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference
On Cracks - Bishop Erik Varden
https://coramfratribus.com/archive/on-cracks/ Bishop Erik Varden's conversation with Ewa Skrabacz published in W drodze. Translated by Daria and Oskar Styczynscy.
St Joseph - Bishop Erik Varden
In the liturgy there is one term that more than any other characterises St Joseph: he is referred to as custos — Custos Redemptoris, Custos Verbi, etc. In today’s collect we thank God for entrusting the beginning of our salvation precisely to Joseph’s custodia.
Third Sunday in Lent - Bishop Erik Varden
https://coramfratribus.com/words-on-the-word/3-sunday-of-lent-3/ Bishop Erik Varden
Novena of Grace Day 9
Day 9 of the Novena of Grace, 12 March 2026: the final homily of the novena, as Fr. Brian Christopher SJ closes nine days of preaching on St Francis Xavier at Gardiner Street Church.
Novena of Grace Day 8
Day 8 of the Novena of Grace, 11 March 2026: Fr. Brian Christopher SJ's penultimate homily of the novena on St Francis Xavier, transcribed from the recorded Mass at Gardiner Street Church.
Novena of Grace Day 7
Day 7 of the Novena of Grace, 10 March 2026: the seventh homily of the novena, preached by Fr. Brian Christopher SJ on St Francis Xavier at Gardiner Street Church, Dublin.
Novena of Grace Day 6
Day 6 of the Novena of Grace, 9 March 2026: Fr. Brian Christopher SJ's sixth homily of the novena on the mission and friendship of St Francis Xavier, transcribed from the recording.
Novena of Grace Day 5
Day 5 of the Novena of Grace, 8 March 2026: the midpoint of the novena — Fr. Brian Christopher SJ preaches on St Francis Xavier at Gardiner Street Church, Dublin.
Novena of Grace Day 4
Day 4 of the Novena of Grace, 7 March 2026: the fourth homily of the novena, preached by Fr. Brian Christopher SJ on St Francis Xavier at Gardiner Street Church, Dublin.
Novena of Grace Day 3
Day 3 of the Novena of Grace, 6 March 2026: Fr. Brian Christopher SJ continues the nine days of preaching on St Francis Xavier — transcribed from the recorded homily at Gardiner Street Church.
Novena of Grace Day 2
Day 2 of the Novena of Grace, 5 March 2026: a transcript of Fr. Brian Christopher SJ's homily on the life and calling of St Francis Xavier, preached at Gardiner Street Church, Dublin.
Novena of Grace Day 1
Day 1 of the Novena of Grace, 4 March 2026: Fr. Brian Christopher SJ opens the novena at Gardiner Street Church, introducing himself, his 15 years in Belize, and his own late discovery of St Francis Xavier.
Introduction to Novena of Grace 2026
Meet Fr. Brian Christopher, SJ, preacher of the Novena of Grace 2026 at Gardiner Street Church, and read how a seventeenth-century healing became a nine-day devotion prayed worldwide each March.
Ash Wednesday by Bishop Erik Varden
Bishop Erik Varden - https://coramfratribus.com/words-on-the-word/ash-wednesday-6/ Joel 2.12-18: Between vestibule and altar, let the priests weep. Matthew 6.1-18: Do not do what hypocrites do.
God's Angels by Bishop Erik Varden
Here Bishop Erik Varden speaks of love and trust in our guardian angel. Follow the link to the original text on Coram Fratribus https://coramfratribus.com/life-illumined/gods-angels/ Angelic interventions are not always reassuring. The angels are not there to humor us in our caprices. An angel is a guardian of holiness.
St Francis Xavier Novena 4th - 12th March
The Novena of Grace to St Francis Xavier runs from 4 to 12 March, with Mass and preaching three times a day at Gardiner Street Church, Dublin, and live webcam or playback for anyone praying from home.
Coram Fratribus - Second Sunday of Christmas by Bishop Erik Varden
This output was taken from Bishop Erik Varden's weekly posting. You can sign up via the website link above. Erik Varden is a monk and bishop, born in Norway in 1974. In 2002, after ten years at the University of Cambridge, he joined Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Charnwood Forest. Pope Francis named him bishop of Trondheim in 2019.
Desert Fathers
The Desert Fathers offer precious advice, born of experience, to give us.
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"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." — Psalm 119:105