Category: Wisdom Traditions

Perfect Joy

ONCE when St. Francis was coming from Perugia to Santa Maria degli Angeli with Friar Leo in the winter, and the very great cold vexed him sore, he called Friar Leo, who was going before,…

From Rules to Virtue

Reimagining the moral life through the prism of the Beatitudes takes us from rules to virtues: from a rule-centered idea of morality to a virtue-centered idea of morality. The basic question changes from “How far…

Celerity of the Saints

St Francis Solano, when under the impetus of love, would move like the wind so that no one could keep pace with him. On Christmas, a friar caught sight of him rushing along carrying some…

Living Examples

The most notable new female community was the Missionaries of Charity, originally founded by an Albanian nun, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (d. 1997), to work especially with the poorest of the poor in India—the abandoned…

Today’s One-Liner (#204)

I felt charity enter into my soul, and the need to forget myself and to please others; since then I’ve been happy!  –Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul: Autobiography

So Long Ago and So Modern

St. Francis anticipated all that is most liberal and sympathetic in the modern mood; the love of nature; the love of animals; the sense of social compassion; the sense of the spiritual dangers of prosperity…

Today’s One-Liner (#203)

…Chesterton was quite sure that one of the great arguments for being a Christian was that it enabled us to understand the real nature and depths of evil in ourselves and in the world. –James…

A Prayer from Saint Teresa of Calcutta

 People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;Forgive them anyway.  If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some…